Mrs William Hiett (née Jessie Ann McKenzie)

This photograph depicts Jessie Ann McKenzie with her mother Jane McKenzie. Jessie was born in Otago in 1878. Her parents, Murdoch and Jane McKenzie, were both early settlers who arrived in the region in the 1860s. Jessie had five siblings and the family lived in Taieri Beach where Jessie’s father worked as a farmer and storekeeper. Her father also acquired land in Akatore where Jessie managed the homestead for some time.

Following the death of Murdoch in 1894 the family moved to Dunedin. Six years later Jessie married William Henry Hiett and the couple came to live in Oamaru for a little more than a decade. William worked as an umbrella maker in Oamaru. They moved back to Dunedin to live in Duke Street in 1913. The couple had no children. During her lifetime, Jessie involved herself in various social and religious committees. Firstly, she served as the Deaconess of the Baptist Church in Oamaru, a role in which she led services for girls’ Bible classes.

Jessie also became involved in social work and, consequently, she became aware of the problems that alcohol was causing in households and amongst young people. Witnessing such problems reinforced her opposition to alcohol in the colony and she became the president of the Otago Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  As president she advocated for the complete abolishment of alcohol in New Zealand and became known as the ‘heart and soul in the fight for a “Dry Dominion”’. After decades of campaigning in the temperance movement, Jessie died in 1962. She is buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery.