Joseph Needham was a gold miner and the Macetown schoolmaster from 1879 to 1889. He married a widow, Mrs Heads, who had one daughter, Mary, and a son, John Thomas. Mr and Mrs Needham had a daughter, Nellie, and their son was named Locksley. Mary Heads married Mr Thomas McSoriley and they were for many years the proprietors of the nine-bedroom Beach House (later O'Connell's Hotel) in Queenstown. One of their sons, Pat, became the captain of the "tss Earnslaw" on Lake Wakatipu.