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  [California Study Center]

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PITCAIRN ISLANDS STUDY CENTER, Pacific Union College, Angwin, California USA.

Herbert Ford, 559-592-0980, 559-732-0313.

EARLY PITCAINER'S HOME DEMOLISHED

                        ANGWIN (Napa County) Calif., March 3, 2004—The home of Thursday October Christian, the first child to be born on Pitcairn Island, has fallen to the wrecking crew.

The home was demolished on March 1, 2004, according to a report received at the Pitcairn Islands Study Center from island sources. It was built in 1826.

Chirstian’s home was demolished because of its termite-ridden and generally unsightly condition, said an island spokesperson. He also said there was a consensus in the Island Council that it should be removed.

Much of the original construction material of the house had been replaced some years ago. That being so, the structure which was demolished represented something less than half of the original construction.

Thursday October Christian was Fletcher Christian’s and Mauatua’s first son and the first child born on Pitcairn. He was born in October 1790. When he was three years old his father was murdered. At age sixteen he married Teraura, who was past 30 then, and had been Edward Young’s original consort.

When the disastrous attempt by the Pitcairners to migrate to Tahiti took place in 1831, Thursday October was the first of the Pitcairners to succumb to the diseases on the island to which he and the others had no immunity. He died on Tahiti April 21, 1831.

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