Biography and image contributed by Jan Green (nee Bower), great granddaughter, Whangarei, 2018
Jessie Alexander was born on 26 June 1850 at Holborn, Middlesex, the youngest child of Isaac Alexander, baker, and second wife Elizabeth Vincent. Jessie had 13 older siblings. ;
On 26 December 1872, at Hampstead, Jessie married John Bower, a 5th generation wheelwright from Lincolnshire. With two siblings already in Canterbury, New Zealand, John, Jessie and three month old Alice boarded the Cathcart bound for Lyttleton on 10 June 1874. A mutiny took place on board two weeks out of England with the culprits being put in irons until docking in New Zealand. Baby Alice died on board from Cerebitis two weeks before the ships arrival in Lyttleton.
As assisted immigrants, John had work as a carpenter for the Canterbury Provincial Railway, Addington. They lived in Christchurch until 1886, then moved to Napier. They went on to have 12 more children, all of whom lived to adulthood. They rented a house in Enfield Road, where Jessie signed the 1893 petition. Later that year they purchased a home at 3 Havelock Road.
John suffered a stroke on 8 October 1926 while visiting family in Greytown, he is buried at Martinborough. Jessie continued to live in Napier until 3 February 1931 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, destroying the Havelock Road home. Jessie was evacuated to her daughter’s home in Wellington where she died 13 days later, cause of death was cardiac failure from shock, she was 80 years old. Jessie is buried at Karori Cemetery.
Jessie was a much loved mother and grandmother whose life’s story left her many descendants proud of her indomitable spirit, work ethic and ability to move forward in the face of adversity. Jessie and John Bower were like many 19th Century immigrants looking for a better life, whose ordinariness made them exceptional.
John and Jessie Bower, 1923