Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Eliza Jane Geer was born in 1866 in New Zealand – the daughter of Jesse Geer, a baker, and Ann Simpson.
On 11 April 1882 at Cromwell, at the age of 15, she married John Isaac Whetter, a 25-year-old bootmaker.
They lived in Cromwell and had three children.
When Eliza signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Pembroke, now Wanaka.
They later moved to Fortrose in Southland where John died in 1897, he is buried in the Fortrose Cemetery.
Eliza re-married on 30 May 1900 at Waikouaiti, north of Dunedin, to Archibald Young Templeton, a railway ganger and they had a further two children.
In 1902 Eliza’s eldest son died in Klerksdorp, South Africa while fighting in the South African (Boer) War and, in 1909, Archibald died at Ranfurly, 'after a lingering illness'.
Tragedy continued to strike the family when Eliza’s daughter Ethel died in the Pleasant Valley Sanatorium in 1911, she is buried with Archibald in the Waikouaiti Cemetery.
At this time Eliza was living in Dunedin - she married Carl Nordgren, an electrical lineman, at South Dunedin on 27 September 1913.
Eliza died in Dunedin on 4 July1954 and Carl died in 1965, they are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Southland District Council https://www.southlanddc.govt.nz/
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
