BJNL's GENEALOGY

Sometime after 1867, when telegraphic services had first become available in Central Otago, a telegraph line had been connected between Teviot station, a sheep station, and the telegraph office at Roxburgh. This was a great success. However, during 1876-77, there was a nationwide demand for qualified men to operate telegraph lines. As it became harder to staff the service, it became impossible to keep the telegraphic line between the Teviot station and the Roxburgh Post Office working [1] . This is when Thomas Coop's thoughts turned to telephony. Image of early telephone (a later model than that installed by Thomas Coop). Photo: ©Al Thomas (parch-mint.com) CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Thomas Coop (1838 - 1924) had been appointed Postmaster at Roxburgh in the September of 1873. You can read more about Thomas' life in Roxburgh  here . Teviot station, then owned by John Cargill [2] and his son-in-law E. R. Anderson, was situated about 6 miles/10km from the Roxburgh Post Office [3][4] . While

Thomas Coop (1838 - 1924) emigrated from England to Australia with his parents and siblings in 1853, arriving there not long before his 15th birthday. Thomas worked in a variety of jobs in Australia including gold puddling and pit-sawing before coming to New Zealand in 1861. In 1861, Thomas was at Gabriel's Gully; the same year as the outbreak of the Gabriel’s Gully goldrush. From Gabriel's Gully, Thomas went to the Cromwell area where he was engaged in timber cutting (pit-sawing); returning to Australia briefly in June 1862. Thomas Coop (1838-1924) You can read more about Thomas' family background here  and more about Thomas' life in Australia and New Zealand here and here . In 1862, Thomas was engaged to travel back to Victoria to bring back a consignment of horses to New Zealand. The means by which he delivered them is what prompted the family story that Thomas swam to New Zealand. It appears that the story about Thomas swimming to New Zealand was started by Thomas