Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helen Thomson Marshall was born on 26 September 1844 in Edinburgh, Scotland — the daughter of Allan Marshall, a dairyman, and Catherine Robb.
Helen emigrated to Otago with her parents, brother and sister in 1859 on the Alpine.
On 2 May 1862 at the family farm, Almondale, she married Thomas Thornton, a farmer.
They had two sons and farmed in the Moneymore district near Milton in South Otago.
Helen was well known as a prize-winning exhibitor at agricultural shows and at the 1889 Exhibition, especially for butter and cheese, her services were also used as a judge.
She gave up exhibiting in 1909 as 'with only one or two cows in the winter it is difficult to make good butter, as the cream has to be kept too long to get a sufficiency for a churning.'
Helen and Thomas celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in May 1912.
Thomas died in August 1912 and Helen died on 27 November 1913, they are both buried in the Milton/Fairfax Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
NZ Yesteryears http://www.yesteryears.co.nz
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz