I. L. Owen

Ida Stuart Owen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1864. Her parents, James Hannay and Lucy McEwen, later married in Sydney in 1892 but parted after only 10 days, Hannay saying that Lucy’s temper was still foul after 20 years.

In 1866 her father arrived in New Zealand with her older sister, Mary Lilias, and settled in Takaka. Ida’s mother now calling herself Mrs Stuart, a widow, became matron of an Indian reservation school in Idaho, until they were forced to flee “to escape massacre at the hands of Chief Joseph and his warriors, who took the war path” and return to San Francisco in 1877.

In 1875, Ida’s sister married D. H. Macarthur and moved to Feilding where Macarthur became Mayor and later M.H.R.

Ida and her mother arrived in NZ in 1880. Macarthur wrote: "Ida is much improved more thoughtful for others than when she was here before. She plays well and has taken up the role of Auntie as if to the manner born. I am glad to find that there is not the least chance of her thinking any more of Frank Owen than of an ordinary acquaintance."

In 1883, Ida married Frank Owen, a surveyor in Feilding. He died in 1907. Ida and Frank had no children and she died in 1948, leaving her property to the SPCA.

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