Mrs Hilgendorf

Biographical information provided by Linda McGregor for the He Tohu exhibition:

Elizabeth Susannah Benstead arrived from England on the Sarah S in January 1863. She married Charles Augustus Gustavus Hilgendorf in 1863. She worked as a governess before marriage. Elizabeth and Charles had four children, Frances in 1865, Henrietta Frances in 1867, Mary Elizabeth in 1871 and Frederick William in 1874. They lived in Dunedin in 1896, but by 1900 they had moved to Waihola where Charles worked as a mine manager. Of her children: Francis was a teacher; Henrietta married a Methodist minister, Benjamin Rothwell; Mary Elizabeth never married and Frederick William lectured in science at Lincoln College.

Elizabeth Susanna Hilgendorf died on 19 June 1906 at the age of 71 and is buried in the Waihola cemetery.