Christina Bizzett

Signed family name

Bizzett

Signed given name

Christina

Given address

Queenstown

Sheet number

107

Town/Suburb

Queenstown

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Originally transcribed as Christina Biggett

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Christina Towers was born about 1856 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of John Towers, a carpenter, and Agnes Lyall.

Her mother died in 1859 and, in 1861, she was living with her widowed grandmother in South Leith, Midlothian.

She came to New Zealand with her father in the 1860s – he married in New Zealand in 1867.

In 1870 Christina was writing from Skippers to the paper for news of John Towers from Wellington.

She married Alexander/Alick Olsen, a Swedish gold miner and founder of the famous Scandinavian Reef in 1875.

They had seven children and lived, at first, at Bullendale where Christina 'bore the privations attendant upon isolation in the true pioneer spirit and with Christian fortitude'.

In the early 1880s Christina and the children went to live in Queenstown where the children attended school and where Christina signed the suffrage petition.

Alick died in 1888 of pneumonia leaving his family 'in not the best of circumstances', he is buried in the Queenstown Cemetery.

The following year Christina married George Cochran Bizzett/Bissett, a rabbiter and carpenter.

They remained in Queenstown where George died in 1937 and Christina died on 2 April 1938, they are buried together in the Queenstown Cemetery.

Her obituary said 'of a kind and cheery disposition, deceased, although not taking any active part in public affairs was beloved by all who knew her, and a wide circle of relatives and friends will mourn her passing'.