The name Jack was applied to many New Zealand swaggers. Our roads were walked by Jack the Bear, Canterbury Jack, Spring-heeled Jack, Dublin Jack, Fistie Jack and Hellfire Jack - and more than one Russian Jack. 'Russian' was regularly applied to any swagger with a thick Eastern European accent. "Our Russian Jack died on the roadside at Ponatahi," said one informant. And there was a Russian Jack who worked the gumfields of Northland.
But the 'Russian Jack' known throughout the lower North Island was Barrett Crumen. He was born in Latvia, in 1878 and by the 1900s he was working as a seaman on small coasting ships in New Zealand. He then took to labouring on the back country stations of Wairarapa. He was an immensely strong man who worked as a scrubcutter and shedhand at Awhea Station for many years in the period around World War I. As the years moved on, so did Russian Jack, mostly through the roads of Manawatu and Wairarapa, but in the years after World War 2 also exploring much of the North Island.
He was originally very tall and strong, but as he aged, he seemed to be shrinking and his feet were giving him more and more trouble. In mid-1965, he was admitted to Pahiatua Hospital suffering from frostbitten feet. He was transferred to a geriatric ward, where he was asked why he had roamed the roads for so many years.
"Man oh man, I vos FREE! Free to have a beer, have a smoke, - happy what you can call all the time, you know. They was free days."
He died on September 19, 1968
