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Dunedin Public Libraries and the Dunedin Lebanese Community Present:
HE PURAPURA MARARA SCATTERED SEEDS
HE PURAPURA MARARA SCATTERED SEEDS
Marie Theomin
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MARIE THEOMIN
Born on 12 October, 1855, Mrs Theomin was the second child born to Moritz Michaelis and his wife, Rahel, [nee Gotthelf]. A daughter born earlier than Marie did not survive so she became the oldest child in a big family of eleven others younger than herself. Mr Michaelis was a prominent Melbourne businessman who later joined with his nephew, Isaac Hallenstein in a tannery business at Footscray. The Michaelis family home called Linden still survives in St Kilda as a community arts centre, and a fine photograph of the house in its hey-day is on display in the reception area at Olveston. It is of particular interest to visitors from Melbourne.
Marie Michaelis married David Benjamin at Linden on 31 January, 1879 and later in that year, the couple moved to Dunedin. Marie was not without family in the town for two of her six sisters, - the twins Helene and Florence were already there, married respectively to Jack Isaacs and Hyam Hart. Both men were partners in Hallenstein Bros. Company of Dunedin.
For more than twenty years, Marie and David lived in a house which was on part of the present Olveston site and there, she reared their two children. That house seems also to have been known as Olveston. The grand new house began to rise in 1904, the year when the couple, by then known as Mr and Mrs Theomin, celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
Throughout the last two decades of her life, Marie Theomin was fully occupied in a voluntary capacity with public and charitable works. She is particularly remembered for her involvement in the Plunket Society. Very soon after Olveston was completed, she was hostess at a small dinner party and the guests around the table were all influential in the formation of the Society which came into being about a month later on14 May, 1907. She remained actively involved in the Plunket Society which became internationally famous for its work in support of mothers and young children. In Olveston, we sometimes set the main table to commemorate that dinner party which took place during the first year of life in the new house.
Mrs Theomin was a founder member of the Victoria League, active on its committee and a vice-president at the time of her death. The work of the League during the Great War of 1914-1918 made more demands on her time. From 1915 onwards, she also shared with her husband an involvement with the Otago Patriotic and General Welfare Association. It was the Victoria League, paying tribute to Mrs Theomin in August 1926, which caught something of the essence of her strong character:
" It was the privilege of members of the Victoria League to work side by side with Mrs Theomin in all those activities suddenly called into being during the war and we who saw her day by day with burning devotion, expending her powers for every patriotic purpose, felt the inspiration of her example and gladly followed her lead."
Back in the first years when Olveston was open to the public, an elderly lady who had been a parlourmaid in the house during part of its first decade, recalled the role of Olveston as it related to Mrs Theomin's community work. The mistress, in the style of the times, was "at home" once every month and those occasions called for the servants to dispense afternoon tea to as many as fifty visitors. Today's visitors to Olveston do not always understand how fully ladies of leisure in that age could occupy their time. This glimpse of Marie Theomin's life might help you to enlighten them.
Mrs Theomin died on 24 July, 1926 aged 71.
External LinkBiography of Marie from Olveston Historic Home's website
MARIE THEOMIN
Born on 12 October, 1855, Mrs Theomin was the second child born to Moritz Michaelis and his wife, Rahel, [nee Gotthelf]. A daughter born earlier than Marie did not survive so she became the oldest child in a big family of eleven others younger than herself. Mr Michaelis was a prominent Melbourne businessman who later joined with his nephew, Isaac Hallenstein in a tannery business at Footscray. The Michaelis family home called Linden still survives in St Kilda as a community arts centre, and a fine photograph of the house in its hey-day is on display in the reception area at Olveston. It is of particular interest to visitors from Melbourne.
Marie Michaelis married David Benjamin at Linden on 31 January, 1879 and later in that year, the couple moved to Dunedin. Marie was not without family in the town for two of her six sisters, - the twins Helene and Florence were already there, married respectively to Jack Isaacs and Hyam Hart. Both men were partners in Hallenstein Bros. Company of Dunedin.
For more than twenty years, Marie and David lived in a house which was on part of the present Olveston site and there, she reared their two children. That house seems also to have been known as Olveston. The grand new house began to rise in 1904, the year when the couple, by then known as Mr and Mrs Theomin, celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
Throughout the last two decades of her life, Marie Theomin was fully occupied in a voluntary capacity with public and charitable works. She is particularly remembered for her involvement in the Plunket Society. Very soon after Olveston was completed, she was hostess at a small dinner party and the guests around the table were all influential in the formation of the Society which came into being about a month later on14 May, 1907. She remained actively involved in the Plunket Society which became internationally famous for its work in support of mothers and young children. In Olveston, we sometimes set the main table to commemorate that dinner party which took place during the first year of life in the new house.
Mrs Theomin was a founder member of the Victoria League, active on its committee and a vice-president at the time of her death. The work of the League during the Great War of 1914-1918 made more demands on her time. From 1915 onwards, she also shared with her husband an involvement with the Otago Patriotic and General Welfare Association. It was the Victoria League, paying tribute to Mrs Theomin in August 1926, which caught something of the essence of her strong character:
" It was the privilege of members of the Victoria League to work side by side with Mrs Theomin in all those activities suddenly called into being during the war and we who saw her day by day with burning devotion, expending her powers for every patriotic purpose, felt the inspiration of her example and gladly followed her lead."
Back in the first years when Olveston was open to the public, an elderly lady who had been a parlourmaid in the house during part of its first decade, recalled the role of Olveston as it related to Mrs Theomin's community work. The mistress, in the style of the times, was "at home" once every month and those occasions called for the servants to dispense afternoon tea to as many as fifty visitors. Today's visitors to Olveston do not always understand how fully ladies of leisure in that age could occupy their time. This glimpse of Marie Theomin's life might help you to enlighten them.
Mrs Theomin died on 24 July, 1926 aged 71.
External LinkBiography of Marie from Olveston Historic Home's website
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Dunedin Public Libraries (30th Jun 2017). Marie Theomin. In Website Dunedin Public Libraries. Retrieved 19th Mar 2026 16:30, from https://dunedin.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/200163