Jane Margaret Grant-Ussher

MRS GRANT-USSHER. On Thursday last the death occurred in the Riverton Hospital of Jane Margaret, wife of Mr Wm. Neville Grant-Ussher, Otautau. The body was conveyed to the Anglican Church, where it remained until the interment, which took place on Saturday. A short service was held in the Church, after which the body was conveyed to the new cemetery, where the Rev. G. A. Dawson conducted the funeral rites. The Vicar made mention of the fact that deceased had been actively concerned in Church work prior to her marriage, particularly as a Sunday-School teacher. Of late years, however, ill-health had prevented her taking an active interest in her Church, and it was only very infrequently that she was enabled to attend Divine Service. Deceased was born on the 1st of January, 1864, at Hogburn Valley, Naseby, where she could claim the honour of being the first child to see the light of day. Her father emigrated to Australia from the north of Ireland, where he opened the first quartz reef, "Shelebag," in California Gully, Bendigo. Having met and married his wife in New South Wales, the two set out for New Zealand to seek their fortune in tbe rush to Gabriel's Gully (Lawrence), and followed different rushes, eventually settling in Naseby. Here they were the. prime movers in founding the Anglican Church. The late Mrs Ussher accompanied her husband to Dunedin, where they resided about ten years before coming to Southland. The family has been resident in Otautau for the last twelve years. Two sons and one daughter remain to mourn her loss, while one met a soldier's death on Gallipoli. This sad incident contributed to the failing health of an already enfeebled body, and after several years of very indifferent health, the end came rather suddenly. Source: Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, 10 June 1924, p. 2.