Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Also signed as 34 M. M. McEachern
Martha Logan McDougall was born about 1839 in Killarrow, Argyll, Scotland – the daughter of James McDougall, a baker, and Catherine McIntyre.
She married William McEachern on 3 May 1862 in Glasgow and soon after their marriage they emigrated to Otago.
They settled, at first, at Blueskin north of Dunedin before moving to Mosgiel then later to Dunedin in the early 1880s.
They had 11 children, two died in infancy and one in early childhood, they are buried in the Waitati Cemetery.
While they lived in Blueskin William worked as a railway inspector.
In 1883 when the family were living in South Dunedin Martha appeared in court as a witness in a child abuse case.
Three years later their 22-year-old daughter Janie died and the next year 19-year-old James also died.
In 1890, in Christchurch, William was charged with 'being helplessly drunk', he was remanded for seven days. The following week he was remanded for medical treatment and he disappears from the records after this.
In 1892, 20-year-old John died at the family home in Reid Road and when Martha signed the suffrage petition she was still in Reid Rd with her family.
In 1899, Martha was living in Philip St, Kensington when her 24-year-old daughter Katie died.
Martha died on 26 September 1922 at her daughter Vida’s home in Dunedin, she is buried with her older children in the Southern 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