Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Hellen Crawford Henderson was born on 29 June 1845 in Alva, Stirlingshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Henderson, a weaver, and Elizabeth Horne Rennie.
Her mother died in the 1850s and in the 1860s Hellen emigrated to Otago with her father and two sisters.
She married James Clow, a storeman, at her father’s home, Ochill Cottage, Heriot Row, Dunedin on 6 August 1869.
They had no children but had an adopted son, Willie McDougall who died in 1888.
When Hellen signed the suffrage petition they were living in Cumberland St.
James retired in 1896 and farmed at Tahatika in the Owaka Valley in the Catlins.
James died at Tahatika in 1911 and two years later Hellen married Reuben Richardson, a widower and machinist.
Hellen died at her home in South Dunedin on 29 January 1928, she is buried with James in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.
Reuben died in 1937, he is buried with his first wife in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions