Many of the first settlers in Masterton were Methodists, and the denomination was to have a profound effect on the shape of Masterton’s progress. A small street off Colombo Road is named after the man who was once called “the father of Masterton Methodism,” Henry Jones. Jones was born in 1811, in England. He and his wife Mary immigrated to New Zealand in 1842, on the same ship as Charles Dixon and his family. The Jones family had a hard struggle to establish themselves in Wellington, and were among the first to come up to Masterton in 1855.
The family farmed a block in what is now Johnstone Street for about 15 years, then shifted further south to the end of Kuripuni Street, where a substantial farming operation was carried out. For nearly 100 years Jones family members supplied the residents of Masterton with milk.
Pic: Henry Jones and Murdock McKenzie using the first plough in Masterton.