More Info →Emma Belk, signatory to 1893 suffrage petition

Emma Belk was one of the working class signatories to the 1893 women's suffrage petition. Aged 73 at the time,  she was living in Main Street Palmerston North. She and her husband James Duncan Belk were among the first group of settlers in Feilding. They were the senior members of a 3 generation family of 16 who migrated and arrived in Feilding in 1874. The photo was possibly taken in the 1890s, when Emma was widowed and assisting in her son Matthew's small grocery shop. Her grim countenance is understandable - she had given birth to 14 children, lost at least five of them, and had had a hard life in New Zealand.