Elizabeth Smith

Signed family name

Smith

Signed given name

Elizabeth

Given address

Orepuki

Sheet number

346

Town/Suburb

Orepuki

City/Region

Southland

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Elizabeth Ann Cook was born about 1853.

She married William Gow Smith, a miner, in 1876 - they lived in Orepuki in Southland and they had six sons.

William was declared bankrupt in 1879 and his assets were sold. These included one-third share in the Turnbull and Party’s water race and mining claim, four head of cattle and the 'Residence Area, on which is erected Two-Roomed House; good Garden'.

In 1886 their two-year-old son Charles died when he fell in a water race nearby while Elizabeth was 'busily engaged in the house'.

When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition the family were still in Orepuki where William died in December 1893 at the age of 67, leaving Elizabeth with five young children.

Elizabeth re-married on 21 June 1900 to Joseph Alderson, a farmer.

The wedding was held in Orepuki, 'the breakfast was a splendid one, there being an abundance of toothsome viands with suitable liquids – wine and cordials for the ladies and something stronger for the sterner sex. In the evening a very jolly time was spent with songs, dances, etc., and the happy gathering did not disperse until the wee sma oors ayont the twal'.

Elizabeth died on 10 October 1902, she is buried in the Orepuki Cemetery with William and their young son.

Joseph died in Invercargill in 1937, his burial place in unknown.