Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth/Eliza Walker was born about 1860. She married Neils Anderson Nass, a Norwegian miner, on 6 May 1880 in the Balclutha parish.
They lived in Waitahuna Gully, south of Lawrence and had no children.
In 1887 Neils was 'crushed under a fall of earth' while working on the nearby Norwegian claim.
Eliza remarried the following year to Arthur Edwin Wilde, a farmer and miner, and they had seven children.
They also lived at Waitahuna Gully where Eliza signed the suffrage petition.
She died at her home on 8 October 1931 and Arthur died in Dunedin in 1945, they are buried with Neils in the Waitahuna Cemetery.
Eliza’s obituary said she was 'of a kind and hospitable nature and one who exercised an uplifting influence in the community...an ardent supporter and exhibitor at the Waitahuna Horticultural and A and P Shows, Mrs Wilde secured many honours, and gave more than average support in this direction.'
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
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions