Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Maria Ashworth was born in 1867 in New Zealand – the daughter of John Ashworth, a miner, and Margaret Hair.
The family lived in the Kawarau Gorge near Queenstown before they made a trip 'Home' for a short time.
On their return they settled at Upper Shotover before moving to Malaghans in the early 1880s where Maria’s father took up farming.
She married James Davies, a miner, on 19 October 1887 in the Queenstown Parish.
'For some years after their marriage the couple lived at Skippers. They were also at the Head of the Lake for a time and at Arthurs Point'.
In the early 1890s they moved to Queenstown where Maria signed the suffrage petition and where she opened a small boarding house in Adelaide St.
From this small beginning there evolved in the course of time the large and splendidly conducted boarding establishment, 'Golden Terrace House', which has for many years enjoyed a Dominion wide popularity with the travelling public'. Maria also had a partnership in the 'Laurel Bank' boarding house and she built or acquired about 13 houses on the Eastern Terrace of Queentown.
Maria and James had no children of their own but in later life they adopted four children, 'upon them she lavished all the love and affection of a natural mother and brought them up to be thoroughly good citizens'.
Maria was president of the St Andrew’s branch of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union, a member of the Mother’s Union and was also associated with the Mothers’ League.
She died at her home on 20 October 1934 and James died two years later, they are buried together in the Queenstown Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/