Biographical information provided by Natalie Marshall for the He Tohu exhibition:
Rhoda Mitchell was born in Brighton, England, on 14 July 1851. She came to New Zealand at least seven years before she married Joseph Sowry (1837-1904) in Ormondville in November 1891 at the age of 40 years. Sowry had been instrumental in the settlement and development of Woodville and was made the township’s first mayor in 1887. After their wedding, they lived at Rose Farm, Woodville. In about 1897 they moved to a new house in Grey Street, Woodville. The couple had no children together but Rhoda was stepmother to Joseph’s children from his previous two marriages (the eldest, Arthur, married Sarah Ann Sowry who signed sheet 500 of the suffrage petition). Joseph died in 1904 and Rhoda married Thomas Treliving Joll (1845-1919) of Hastings in 1913. Rhoda was widowed for a second time in 1919, when Joll died aged 74 years in Hastings. Rhoda died on 21 September 1933, aged 82, in Porirua
