Biographical information provided by Cherie Jacobson.
Rhoda Ruth Jacobson (née Feist) was born on the 4th of August 1868 in Wellington. She married Johan Petter Jacobson (who became known as John), a Swedish immigrant who boarded with her family after befriending Rhoda's father at the Taranaki Street Methodist Church.
Rhoda's parents Jane (née Brownsea) and William Feist had nine children, including two sets of twins. Rhoda was one of the second set of twins and after her birth her father wrote to his mother-in-law that 'on Tuesday last the 4th of the present month my dear wife was safely delivered of two fine little daughters, making five in all, the eldest being only three years and nine months.'
Rhoda's father had a grocery shop on the corner of Ingestre Street (the present day Vivian Street) and Willis Street, and it was here that that the family lived and that Rhoda and John were married on the 9th of August 1891.
After their marriage Rhoda and John moved to Eketahuna where John had acquired a 103 acre block of land at Nireaha (now Mangatainoka Valley Road) as well as a five acre suburban section and a one acre town section at Newman. John worked as a log carrier and then contracted to the Council for road maintenance work. John was a popular preacher for the Methodist Church and conducted many weddings as he was able to be understood in five languages. The family story is that he taught himself English by comparing the Swedish and English prayer books. Together John and Rhoda started a Sunday School in Mauriceville, which soon had eighty children on its roll.
It was during Rhoda's time in Eketahuna that she signed the suffrage petition and had six of her nine children. After 1903 the family shifted to Petone and remained in the Wellington area with Rhoda dying in Petone on the 23rd of July 1922, just short of her 54th birthday.
Sources:
Jacobson family records
Letter from William Feist recounting birth of twins held in Alexander Turnbull Library - MS-Papers-10035
