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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
McGaw, George Washington
McGaw, George Washington , Farmer, “Woodside,” Waimatuku. Mr McGaw was born in 1831, in Wigtonshire, Scotland, where he worked on his father's farm for seventeen years, and afterwards learned the trade of a carpenter. He subsequently emigrated to America and joined his uncle, who was manager of a tobacco factory in Louisville, Kentucky, but soon returned to Scotland, and a year later Came out to Australia with three cousins. Mr McGaw resided in Australia for five years, when he returned to Scotland, married, and embarked for Auckland by the ship “Mermaid,” in 1859. For a short time he served as a volunteer during the Maori disturbances. In 1860 he went to Sydney, but soon returned to New Zealand, and worked at his trade at the Lake diggings. A year later he removed to Riverton, and shortly afterwards to Invercargill, where he resided for four years, during part of which time he was employed on the old Post Office building. Mr McGaw then turned his attention to farming, and bought a property at Thornbury, which he worked for four years. In 1872, he removed to flint's Bush where he resided for seixteen years, and in 1888 he purchased the property known as “Woodside,” Waimatuku. This property consists of 207 acres, seventy-three of which are leasehold, and the balance freehold. Mr McGaw was one of the first directors of the Waimatuku Dairy Company. He was married, in 1879, to a daughter of the late Mr Stephen Hunter, Stranraer, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and has, surviving, a family of five sons and five daughters.