Ralph Edwin Fitness
Ralph Edwin Fitness was the youngest son of Ebenezer and Ellen Fitness, born in Opunake, Taranaki on 2nd June 1890.
After schooling in the Taranaki region, Ralph began work in a solicitor's office in Eltham but was not happy, and left to assist his brother Theo on his farm. After Theo Fitness married Violet Scrivener, Ralph became engaged to her sister, Alice May Scrivener. Family tradition holds that when the Scrivener family moved up to the Waikato, their intention was to lease their farm in Eltham to Ralph. However when May and Ralph travelled north to assist her parents with their move, May was terribly ill. She then declared to Ralph that if he wanted to marry her, he would have to go to Eltham, sell the lease of the farm, and return to her, as she was not going to make that journey again! Ralph and May were married in the Salvation Army Citadel in Hamilton on 12 October 1912. Their first home was a dairy farm at Te Rapa, and here the first of their four daughters, Shelagh, was born. A few years later they moved to another farm at Rotorangi, near Cambridge, where second daughter Ina was born. In 1917 the family moved to Lichfield, where Ralph assisted his brother Charles with the ploughing and breaking in of the Salvation Army training farm at Hodderville. By 1918 Ralph and May had purchased their own 200 acre dairy farm on the Overdale Taumangi Road near Putaruru. Here daughters Joyce and Dorothea were born. The family continued farming at Overdale for many years, and were heavily involved in the life of the local community, assisting with the construction of the first Protestant church in Putaruru in 1919. However, in 1949 Ralph and May sold their Overdale property and moved to a new farm in Whangaruru, where the extended family greatly enjoyed the holidays. Finally the couple moved to Whangarei and Kamo in retirement, retaining their interest in the life of the church, as well as gardening and bowls. Ralph and May celebrated their Diamond Wedding in 1972. Ralph died on 11th September 1974. |