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Headstone - Mary Alice and John Stubbs

Description: This image of a headstone was taken at Terrace End Cemetery. The marriage of Mary Alice and John Stubbs also became a business partnership after they emigrated from England and settled in Kairanga in 1880. Mary Alice began manufacturing socks using a specially imported machine which she mounted on a fence post. By 1889 the couple had moved to Main Street, Palmerston North where they began to manufacture and sell a variety of garments from a small wooden building that they used as both a home and workplace. In 1905 they were selected as the manufacturers of the team rugby jerseys for the All Black Tour of Great Britain.

When John Stubbs died in 1912, Mary Alice carried on running the mill as joint owner with son Percy until 1919 when the business was sold to Macky, Logan and Caldwell Limited to operate as Manawatū Hosiery Factory. A further change of ownership in 1934 saw the name altered to the Manawatū Knitting Mills. Mary Alice Stubbs died in 1935.