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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Mr. Denis Heenan
Mr. Denis Heenan was a settler of the fifties, and came with his family in the ship “Mariner.” He bought land in the North East Valley, where he lived in a fern hut, thatched with manuka bark, and carried on farming on a small scale. He began clearing the bush, and using the logs for pig-proof fences, within which he planted potatoes. Whilst waiting for this crop to mature, Mr. Heenan and his family experienced a scarcity of food. During this period, they frequently received barracouta and native potatoes from the Maoris, and at other times, they subsisted on trapped pigeons, wild pork and snared wood-hens. Some years afterwards a Dunedin merchant offered Mr. Heenan 4000 for his land, but he refused the offer. As the family grew up they dispersed in various directions, and when her husband died, Mrs Heenan, senior, removed to George Street, Dunedin, where she herself passed away in a few years. Mr Heenan was a native of Burr, King's County, Ireland.