Maker: Catherine McDonald

Panel number: 177

Petition Sheet Number: 214

Person honouring: Mary Early (Signed as Minnie Early)

Relationship to makers: Lived in my area otherwise no connection

Mary ‘Minnie’ Morrison was born in 1854 and arrived in New Zealand in 1886. She married Samuel Early, a farmer from Broadfield, Canterbury. 

The Early’s farm was on land adjoining the Broadfield School and they often allowed the use of their paddocks by the school for sports days or fairs. They later sold a plot of land adjacent to the school for a chapel to be built. The couple had two children, a boy Samuel and a girl, Minnie. Samuel died when he was four years old in 1894. Four years later his mother also died, aged 44. They are buried together at Linwood Cemetery.

Panel materials: Hand dyed damask that was given to me. I also used parts of a hanky that had belonged to my late mother as reference to pride in women in this country being able to vote