Helen Hood

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Helen Hood was born about 1814 at Woodhall Farm at  Innerwick, Haddingtonshire, Scotland – the daughter of William Hood and Ann Simpson.

Helen emigrated to New Zealand accompanied by her two brothers about 1852 and they lived on a block of land on the outskirts of Dunedin which they named Woodhall and where Ferntree Cottage was located.

In 1866 Helen gifted an acre of land to the Presbyterian Church as a site for a church and manse. The Kaikorai Church was built later that year.

Helensburgh Road which lies to the north of Ferntree Cottage is apparently named after Helen.

Helen signed the suffrage petition at Woodhall where she died on 3 May 1894 – she is buried with her brothers in the Southern Cemetery.

Her obituary said 'she was that rara avis in these fast, loud-speaking days – a gentlewoman of the old school, dignified, courteous, and reserved; a true woman always full of unselfish kindness and thoughtful consideration for others; a stedfast, consistent Christian, always ready, without ostentation, to help with purse, or influence, or personal effort, every religious or benevolent object within her reach or her power, whether local or general. Even after she was disabled and rendered helpless by a dreadful accident many months ago, her wheel chair always seemed a sort of household centre of help and counsel and sympathy; while her patient endurance and excruciating pain and her self-forgetting cheerfulness were very touching and very wonderful.'

In 1908 the Kaikorai Presbyterian Church dedicated memorial windows to Helen and her brother David.

Sources 

DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search

Family Search https://www.familysearch.org

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/