This image of a headstone was taken at Terrace End Cemetery. Both Max Bufe and August Dammler were suffocated while down a well in Roberts Line in 1886.
Max Bufe came to New Zealand from Breslau, and August Dammler from Schleswig, both in 1875 and had purchased land in the 'Scandinavian Block.' Bufe was on his way home from town and say his neighbour digging his well and stopped to speak to him. Dammler had detected a gas seepage earlier in the day and Bufe insisted on going down to check this out. Soon after being lowered into the 35 foot deep well his pipe was seen to go out and he did not answer when called. Realising the danger Bufe was in Dammler got his wife and son to lower him into the well on a swing like seat connected to the windlass. At the bottom, Dammler realsied that he too was in danger and called to be pulled up. However, he had not tied himself to the seat in his haste to help Bufe and fell off as he was being hauled up.
The German inscription on the headstone reads 'Max Bufe, born 27 July, 1845. August Dammler, born 24 November, 1934. Found together in the well. Died through stuffy air on 4 February, 1886. Deeply mourned by their surviving widows and orphans. Softly rest your ashes. Donated by your German comrades.
Many widows with young children found themselves in difficult circumstances and both Mrs Bufe and Mrs Dammler did remarry within a year of the accident that killed their husbands.