Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Emily Smith was born in 1865 in Gloucestershire, England – the eldest daughter of Charles William Smith and Elizabeth Yeates. (See 149 Mrs C W Smith)
Elizabeth sailed for Otago with her parents in September 1873 on the Surat. On 1 January 1874 the ship hit a rock off the Otago coast and was eventually beached in a bay south of the Catlins River, now called Surat Bay, all the passengers were landed safely but their belongings were left on the ship and ruined by the water. An emergency fund was raised by the residents of Dunedin to help the new emigrants.
The family settled in Pine Hill, near Dunedin where her father worked as a dairyman.
Elizabeth was a member of the choir at the Tabernacle in King Street & taught the infants at the Mornington Church of Christ Sunday School.
When she left school she worked as a dressmaker later securing 'a position as forewoman in the workroom of Brown, Ewing, one of the oldest firms at Dunedin'.
Elizabeth married Andrew Beverley Gilder, a farmer from Charlton, near Gore, in February 1889 in Dunedin.
They had 10 children, their three youngest all died in infancy, and when Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Charlton.
Around 1910 they leased their farm and moved into Gore where Elizabeth was 'an ardent supporter of the Gore Methodist Church'.
They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1939 with a 'breakfast, which was held in a large marquee at the rear of the residence'.
Elizabeth died the following year on 18 October and Andrew died in 1944 – they are buried together in the Gore Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/