Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Janet Mason was born on 8 May 1848 in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland – the daughter of David Mason, a ship’s captain, and Mary Ann Erskine Sinclair.
After the death of her parents Janet emigrated to Otago in 1860 on the Gala accompanied by her two brothers Henry and Charles.
She married Adam Meder, a baker, on 13 September 1865 in the Green Island parish near Dunedin and they had 12 children.
Adam was declared bankrupt in 1869 and, by 1880, the family had moved to the Owaka district where they had a bakery on the banks of the Owaka river, near the landing, supplying bread to the sawmills along the river.
Janet signed the suffrage petition in Owaka where, in 1896, the family opened the 'Catlins River Coffee Palace'.
This was a temperance hotel providing a refreshment room and accommodation.
The hotel was sold in 1900 and Adam died in 1909.
A few years later Janet sold her home and moved to Auckland to live near her son.
She died in Dunedin on 7 July 1934 and is buried with Adam in the Owaka Cemetery.
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
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