Louisa Ellen CLIMO was 15 years old when she left the Sounds for Wellington to work and live with friends of her family. On 31 December 1875 she and John ARCHER were married. John was a railway construction worker from Wellington working on the new Wairarapa railway line, then under construction from Wellington to Masterton. Masterton was where the Archer family settled at first and 7 children were born to Louisa Ellen and John: Annie was born in 1878; Harry in 1881; James in 1884, Alfred in 1887, Louisa Jane in 1890, Charles Roy in 1893 and Minnie in 1895.

The family moved on to Clareville where they permanently settled. They lived in a Railway Department house almost opposite the station. Laughter and fun were the chief memories though Louisa Ellen had to resort to drastic measures to ensure a sufficient supply of firewood and kindling. One evening, when John came home from work, he found her stoking the fire with his hand-whittled dolly pegs. ?Well, I have to use something to cook the dinner with,? she told him. Life was hard but uncomplicated in those days, sons and daughters fitting willingly into the local scene and taking up their chosen careers. Louisa Ellen and John?s sons Harry and Alfred both became butchers while James went on to become a farmer. Sadly their youngest son Charles was killed during World War I.

Meanwhile, Louisa Ellen equipped herself with a certificate in Midwifery and attended the occasional birth in her patients? homes. Even eldest daughter Annie?s first child was born at Louisa Ellen?s nursing home in Carterton. Annie had married at the age of 22 years in 1901 to William Alfred MILLER, a well-established farmer at Kaiparoro, near Eketahuna and the marriage produced 2 daughters. William became a County councillor and showed a great sense of public responsibility when he donated a remnant of the famous eighty mile bush which had once covered that part of the Wairarapa and which was part of his property. It is now known as the W.A. Miller Scenic Reserve.

John ARCHER died in 1910 at the early age of 54 years. Louisa Ellen continued to do nursing for a time at Carterton Private Hospital and occasionally in people?s homes where she was expected to be housekeeper for the family as well as nurse her patients. Finally, she went to Kaiparoro to live with her daughter Annie and her husband and it was here that Louisa Ellen died in 1925 at the age of 66 years. Both she and John are buried in Clareville Cemetery.