Maker: Amanda Verey

Panel number: 70

Petition Sheet Number: 67

Person honouring: Eliza Growden

Relationship to makers: None

Eliza Growden (nee Howe) was a beekeeper. She was born around 1822. She emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1848 with her husband Henry and her sister Isabella on the Osprey. They lived in Melbourne for 13 years and had five children, one of whom died in infancy. 

In 1861, they came to Otago on board the ‘Prince Alfred’. They went on to have another two children. In 1869, a newspaper published an account in which Eliza accused a man, Mr Sutton, of threatening language. When intoxicated, he had threatened to set fire to her beehives. Elizabeth’s husband Henry was a builder and was declared a bankrupt in 1874. He died in 1895. Eliza died on 7 November 1915, aged 93 years.

Panel materials: Purchased old pillowcase and old satin cushion-cases at the local hospice shop. Photo printed onto the panel. Wool and wool/felt, silk and embroidery cotton, bee buttons.