ID Number106756
NameSIMEON Agnes Flora McAlpine (a.k.a. Akanihi HIMIONA)
Family NameSIMEON
Plot167.P
CemeteryPublic
StatusReinstated Monument after Disinterment for Motorway
Location on the Modern Grid MapN10 13
Inscription on TombstoneDear Mother Agnes SIMEON Kuraketoro Aroha
Description of GraveMarble plaque with lead lettering
Date of Death or Burial*27 Aug, 1909
Public Cemetery Register Number3442
Type of Record Burial
Age65
SexFemale
BiographyAgnes Flora, daughter of Rawinia Te Rangikawawe and James McALPINE, was born in 1844 near Te Awamutu in the Waikato, and educated at the Rev. John Morgan's school for 'half-caste' Maori children at Te Awamutu. From 1860-1865 she lived with her people in Taranaki learning her family traditions, and was for a time clerk of the stores at Hangaatahua (Stoney River) near present day Okato. Among her people she was known by her tribal ancestral name, Kurakitoro. In 1866 she married Frederick SIMEON, a young army volunteer from Australia, in Wanganui, and in 1872 they came to live at Te Aro pa in Wellington, where Agnes was related to many of the Te Aro elders such as Mohi Ngaponga, Te Teira Whatakore, Hori Ngapaka, Te Munu Ohiro and probably Hemi Parai. Agnes and family spent some years in the 1880s and again in the 1890s living on ancestral lands back in Taranaki, near Warea and Opunake, and from 1893 to 1895 they owned and ran the Rahotu hotel and store. Agnes and Frederick became prominent at the time of the appalling treatment of Parihaka resistors, and Agnes also gave evidence in several Maori Land Court cases either representing herself or the interests of others. About 1896 the Simeons came back to Wellington for good, living at Johnsonville where Agnes had an interest in Section 8 of Block 11 of the Wiremutaone Maori Reserve. When Agnes died, on 25 August 1909, her land holdings included parts of Ohiro Rural Section no. 19 subdivision no.8, Ohiro Rural Section no.21 in the Wellington area and about 1000 acres of land in Taranaki near Oakura, Warea, Rahotu and Opunake. She gifted each of her 10 children shares in the Johnsonville properties.