CENTENARIAN'S DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21037, 23 November 1931, Page 10

CENTENARIAN'S DEATH.

MRS. ELIZABETH CROSSE. AGE OF 10! REACHED. NINETY YEARS IN DOMINION. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] PALMERSTON NORTH, Sunday. With the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Crosse there has passed away a centenarian who was in her 102 nd year. The deceased lady was the widow of Mr. Charles Grant Crosse, of Hawke's Bay, and was born in England in 1830. I'or S oino time before her death, her health had boon gradually failing. Just before Mrs. Crosse attained her 100 th year, she suffered a painful injury, a broken arm proving a serious disability on account of her advanced age. Illness had not troubled her much during her long life arid except for the physical infirmities which are always associated with old age, Mrs. Crosse retained her full faculties practically until the last. Mrs. Crosse was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. Thol.y, of Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, and with her* parents arrived in Now Zealand in 1841, by the Lady Nugent. Mrs. Crosse was married in 1853, and she and her husband moved to Hawke's Bay. She was one of the first four women to go up the Tukituki River from Napier to Waipukurau, there being no other means of transport. The journey was accomplished in six days in a flat-bottomed boat. Mr. Crosse was killed when he was thrown off his horse in 1871. Mrs. Crosse later moved to Napier, but her two sons kept the farm going at Waipukurau. This farm was the first in Waipukurau, Sir George Hunter's estate being the second. Mrs. Crosse came to Palmerston North in 1891, later going to Wanganui, and then fo Dannevirke. In 1919 she again came to Palmerston Nouh and bad lived here ever since. There are seven 'children surviving. They are Messrs. T. Crosse (Hastings), C. and G. Crosse (Weber), Mrs. E. A. Palmer (Weber), Mrs. D. E. Davis (Hastings), Mrs. K. McKenzie (Kimbolton) and Miss Crosse (Palmerston North). There are 34 grandchildren and 48 greatgrandchildren.