suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Hansen
Given names: 
Mrs. J. E.
Given address: 
Grey St, Thames
Sheet No: 376
Town/Suburb: 
Thames
City/Region: 
Coromandel
Notes: 

Biographical information provided by Jared Davidson, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Louisa Lorenzen was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1845 or 1846, the daughter of Elise and Charles W. Lorenzen. The family emigrated to New Zealand around 1860 and lived on the Bendigo goldfield in Otago, before moving to Moray Place in Dunedin.

It was at Bendigo that Louisa met her husband Johan Ernst Hansen, a Danish gold miner who had fled conscription to make his fortune in New Zealand. Johan never struck it rich, but Louisa’s wedding ring, inscribed with her initials, was made of a gold nugget he had found in Gabriel’s Gully. In the latter part of 1868 the couple moved to Paeroa, and then to Thames, where they lived in an impressive wooden home with a distinctive tower and veranda.

Louisa’s home was a magnet for family and visiting Danes, and guests remember her as a lively, colourful character. She was closely involved in her community, and took a leading role in the family business, the Hansen Brothers’ store. ‘Of a genial and kindly disposition, she was ever ready to help those in need, and for many years was an active member of the Hauraki Ladies’ Benevolent Society’, her obituary noted.

Louisa’s social awareness was passed on to her seven surviving children. Her eldest daughter, also named Louisa, signed the Petition with her, and her son Waldemar was a lifelong vegetarian and freethinker. His sons, Louisa’s grandchildren, founded the intentional community known as Beeville. Its members were pacifists, vegetarians, nudists and freethinkers years before such ideas were popularised by hippy culture.

Louisa Hansen died on 25 July 1931 and was buried in Shortland Cemetery.

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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