Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Annie Menzies Stevenson was born in 1861 in Victoria, Australia – the eldest child of Robert Stevenson and Janet Jaap.
She came to New Zealand with her parents as an infant and after a few years in Dunedin they settled in Stafford on the West Coast.
Annie’s father died in a mining accident in 1879 and she married Robert Stewart at her home on 9 January 1885.
Robert trained for the ministry in Canterbury and was ordained as a minister in 1888 while the family were living in Woodville.
They stayed in Woodville for four years before Robert was appointed to St John’s Church in Greymouth where Annie signed the suffrage petition.
Just six days after the birth of her seventh child, on 2 November 1903, Annie died suddenly.
Her obituary said 'Rev Stewart had in his late wife a worthy helpmeet, and one who in herself was a model of Christian virtue, a pattern wife and a devoted mother. In the social life of Greymouth she was a power for good, and long will her memory live in the hearts of her contemporaries and the younger generation of Greymouth.'
Robert died in 1912, shortly before the family were to move to Kaiapoi – they are buried in the Karoro Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au