However, the association’s Portrait Project leaves a lasting legacy for the Waitaki District.
Over 180 portraits of the district’s early pioneers are now on display at Whitestone City thanks to association members’ efforts over the past decade.
Association president Helen Stead said the collection was an important part of "our history and heritage and telling our story".
"The original photographs are held in the Waitaki Museum and Archive and are available across the digital world online to view and download.
"Enhanced copies of all the portraits are also available for a reasonable cost, thus providing an income for the Museum and Archive and Whitestone City as well as attracting folk to visit the town and district where ancestors once lived," Mrs Stead said.
The inauguration of the North Otago Early Settlers’ Association was on January 24, 1939, although it did not hold its first meeting until February 1941, in what is known as the Early Settlers’ Hall.
The hall was built as part of the North Otago Centennial building which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
A special meeting held last Thursday at Whitestone City commemorated the organisation. It was attended by some descendants of the early settlers, including the Clark, Taylor and Duff families.
Mrs Stead said items used at association meetings were accepted by Waitaki District councillor Jim Hopkins, including their New Zealand flag, and passed on to the Waitaki Archive and Museum curator Elly Dunckley.
"The people who told their stories may no longer be here, but thanks to the efforts of hundreds of North
Otago Early Settlers Association members, today, 85 years later, we can put a name to many faces in the portraits originally held in the Early Settlers Hall," Mrs Stead said.
