Post by hi224 on Dec 6, 2019 0:28:00 GMT
The Lonely Graves sit beside the Clutha River at Horseshoe Bend near Millers Flat in Central Otago.
In 1901, the Tuapeka Times published an article about the graves stating that William Rigney, an Irish miner at the Horseshoe bend gold diggings, had happened across the dead body of a young and strikingly handsome man in February, 1865. Despite police enquiries, the identity of the body remained a mystery and he was later given a funeral and buried at Horseshoe Bend, with William Rigney paying for a pine slab headstone with the words: 'Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here.' Although William Rigney wrote to the paper stating that he had not been the one who had actually found the body but that he did erect a fence around the grave site and also pay for the headstone; when he died in 1912, according to his instructions, he was laid to rest beside the unknown man. His headstone reads: 'Here lies the body of William Rigney, the man who buried Somebody's Darling.'
NB: Although the mystery man was never formally identified, at the inquest it was put forward that the body of the mystery man was probably that of Charles Alms, a butcher from the Nevis Valley who was swept away when herding cattle across the Clutha River in January, 1865.
A link to a photo of the graves: www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjEhZbSqp_mAhV06XMBHS_YA38QMwhHKAgwCA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritage.org.nz%2Fthe-list%2Fdetails%2F5626&psig=AOvVaw0kyFaqUFF3OiXpTrKMxG6Q&ust=1575663649938560&ictx=3&uact=3
In 1901, the Tuapeka Times published an article about the graves stating that William Rigney, an Irish miner at the Horseshoe bend gold diggings, had happened across the dead body of a young and strikingly handsome man in February, 1865. Despite police enquiries, the identity of the body remained a mystery and he was later given a funeral and buried at Horseshoe Bend, with William Rigney paying for a pine slab headstone with the words: 'Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here.' Although William Rigney wrote to the paper stating that he had not been the one who had actually found the body but that he did erect a fence around the grave site and also pay for the headstone; when he died in 1912, according to his instructions, he was laid to rest beside the unknown man. His headstone reads: 'Here lies the body of William Rigney, the man who buried Somebody's Darling.'
NB: Although the mystery man was never formally identified, at the inquest it was put forward that the body of the mystery man was probably that of Charles Alms, a butcher from the Nevis Valley who was swept away when herding cattle across the Clutha River in January, 1865.
A link to a photo of the graves: www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjEhZbSqp_mAhV06XMBHS_YA38QMwhHKAgwCA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritage.org.nz%2Fthe-list%2Fdetails%2F5626&psig=AOvVaw0kyFaqUFF3OiXpTrKMxG6Q&ust=1575663649938560&ictx=3&uact=3