Hannah Fowler

Occupation added next to her signature: 'Household duties'.

Biography and image contributed by Petina Fowler Danenberg

Hannah Fowler (nee Young) was born on 29 December 1853 at Stonefold Brae, Berwick, Scotland.  Her parents were Hannah (nee Mossman) and James Skeddon Young.  In the 1851 census James was described as a farmer of 120 acres.

Hannah arrived at Port Chalmers aboard The Lord Worsley on 4 October 1858 with her parents and seven siblings.  The family settled in North Otago around the Palmerston area with James at one stage keeping the Hotel at Pleasant Valley.   Hannah is on the list of first day pupils who were enrolled at the Palmerston District High School in January 1866.

Hannah married William Fowler at the age of 19 in Knox Church Dunedin on 5 July 1873.  She lived for most of her married life In Ronaldsay Street in Palmerston, Otago.  She and William had three sons and five daughters: John (1874 – 1958), Norman Alexander (1883 – 1929), William Booth (1887 – 1962), Mary Anne (1873 – 1895), Jessie Sparks (1876 – 1897), Lilian Jane (1878 – 1895), Rosea Mary (1880 – 1902) and Jane (1889 – 1932).  Hannah and her family were very involved with the Salvation Army in Palmerston. 

The family moved to Dunedin in November 1895.   Shortly after Hannah died at the age of 42 on 11 April 1896 at their house in Cumberland Street.  Hannah died of TB which also took the lives of four of her daughters – two in 1895, another in 1897 and one in 1902.  It is said that they became infected by milk from the family’s cow.  She is buried at the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin with her husband and three of her daughters. 

Hannah appears on the Waihemo Electrol Roll for the 1893 year.

Sources

National Records of Scotland – Old Parish Records
Presbyterian Archives – Knox Church marriages
Family Bible
Births, Deaths & Marriages – Historical Records
Unpublished Family Research