Chester Pike -- Our Familiy Life

"The family lived in Office Road, Merivale [Christchurch, New Zealand]. Maria Pike faced bringing up a large family before the days of the widow's pension, children's allowances and no health benefits. Hospitals and doctors also had to be paid if the services were needed.

"She was probably the first person in Christchurch to practise massage. Long before the days when massage was an established recognised profession. It was later in the 1920s when the profession was recognised and a School of Physiotherapy established in Dunedin.

"Maria Pike was sent patients by the doctors in Christchurch.

"She was an intelligent and resourceful woman. Her treatments were partly founded on Professor Kirk, a Scottish intellectual who wrote volumes on his treatment called 'Papers on Health'.

"Briefly, they advocated treatment for a wide range of health problems and their remedies.

"Many treatments appear to be naive today and their origins and treatments were founded on treatments such as hot and cold packs, massage, diet, exercise, hot and cold douches and herbal remedies.

"Both of my grandparents died before I was born and I have no first-hand knowledge of them or the children. My older brothers may have but did not comment. From my brother, Halwyn, I learnt that Maria was a rather stern and strong willed person.

"Maria and William Henry were members of a religous sect called the Plymouth Brethren, a Non-Conformist sect founded by a Mr Darby (sic) in 1830. A society not at variance with other Protestant religions. It recognised no order of ministers, and received into communion all who acknowledged Christ."

Links to my pages on Ada Wells

• Suffragist • Wells family • Ada's education • Chester Wells • Chronology