Marion Graham

Biography contributed by Helen Edwards.

Marion Matheson married Murdoch Graham on 28 January 1890 at Knox Church, Dunedin. The bride and groom were both born on the Isle of Skye, and both were 28. Marion was born about 1862, the daughter of Janet Susan née McEwen and John Matheson, a farmer. Marion described herself as a 24 year-old general servant when she booked her passage on the Bombay , arriving at Port Chalmers in January 1884. Murdoch, a shepherd, was the son of Alexander Graham, a farmer, and Flora Ann née McQueen. He travelled alone on the Ionic in 1888. They had two children, a daughter in 1890 and a son in 1893. They lived in Anderston Road for about five years, then moved to Hindon in the late 1890s, where Murdoch was a sheep farmer. Marion Matheson Graham died in Hindon on 24 December 1899, after what her death notice described as ‘a long and painful illness’, at the age of 37. In 1901 Murdoch married Elizabeth Rollinson, and had two children with her. He died in 1926. Marion and Murdoch are buried in separate graves in the Hindon Cemetery. Their marriage was celebrated at Alexander Matheson’s house on the south end of Highgate, Roslyn, and it is likely Marion was related to him. Alexander Matheson later became mayor of Roslyn. His wife, Margaret Colina Matheson, signed Sheet 156.

Main sources

Ancestry.com
Cemeteries search. Dunedin City Council
Electoral rolls on microfiche and ancestry.com
Knox Church, Dunedin. Presbyterian church marriage registers : Knox Church, Dunedin, 1860-1920 [prepared by] Eleanor Leckie, 1988.
Otago and Southland assisted passengers (OSAP) 1872-1882. Toitu Otago Settlers Museum/Dunedin Family History Group.
Papers Past. National Library of New Zealand
Stone’s Otago and Southland commercial, municipal and general directory … Dunedin: Stone & Co., 1884-