The earliest Boge family ancestors lived in the small village of Fuhlendorf in Holstein, northern Germany in the mid-1500's.
The name Holstein comes from Holcetae, who were a Saxon tribe living on the north bank of the Elbe, and the name means "dwellers in the wood". Sandwiched between Danish and German lands it was disputed and fought over for centuries. It was originally part of the Germanic Saxon tribal lands, then the northernmost territory of the Holy Roman Empire, later the German Confederation (1815-1864) and finally the unified Germany. However, for much of it’s history (1460-1864) it maintained what is called a ‘personal union’ with Denmark – so while Holstein’s laws, culture, language, etc. was German and were completely different to Denmark’s, the Kings of Denmark were also the Dukes of Schleswig and Holstein. This may sound a bit confusing though it’s a similar arrangement to what we have in Australia with the Queen as Head of State of the UK and Australia, though the two countries having separate laws, culture, etc.
Early records are scarce so little is known of the lives of the early Boge’s, though villagers at the time would have been generally focussed on subsistence farming, producing just enough to live off. Although the land belonged to the manor lords, farmers took a role in determining which work had to be done, especially as the Geest was less fertile they had to coordinate sowing and harvesting, cattle driving and grazing.
Meals would have been basic and bland by modern standards. Staples of the area of Holstein were buckwheat, rye bread, oats and cabbage (fresh or preserved in vinegar as saurkraut), and later potatoes. Meat was a luxury, and what little could be provided usually went to working men who needed it most. Until the beginning of the 20th century the normal evening meal on a farm of the middle of Holstein was buckwheat groats with milk. And this was pretty much life from the 1400s to 1850s – the organisation of labour, tools, various activities did not change too much. You went to church. The manor lord was at the top of the pile and families, households and community were run by the patriarchal order (women, children and servants had no legal rights). All hierarchal structures had to be strictly adhered to and social climbing and professional advancements were unheard of. If you wanted to escape such restrictions had to do just that, flee, preferably oversees to avoid punishment or prison.
An 1855 description of Fuhlendorf describes the village as:
"Fuhlendorf (vorm. Vulentorp, Wlentorp), village 1/2 m. north of Bramstedt, A. Segeberg, Kspv. and Ksp. Bramstedt. This village was given to the Reinfeld monastery by 1189 when it was founded and and after the secularization to the district of Segeberg. It contains 10 full farms, 1 village with land and 11 offices, (10 plants) - a School (30 K.) - population: 127. ar.: 1138 Ton. à 260 Q. R., including arable land 475 tones, meadows 116 tones and common lands, heath and timber lands 547 ton. (668 tax.). The soil is sandy, but through a quite fertile due to a moderate mixture of loam. Here are still considerable sheep pastures; since the 1779 survey, however, significant land has already been reclaimed. East of the village are some burial mounds, called Bockberge, in which burial urns have been found.
In Fuhlendorf, according to the oldest tradition in the 16th century, there were four families Orth (Ordt), three families Verst (Fehrs) and one family each Boye, Muggesfeldt and Titken on the original ten ancestral lands. Their names have long since died out in Fuhlendorf. But this fact should not hide the fact that especially the families Boye, Fehrs and Orth have spread from Fuhlendorf since the 16th century far beyond the nearer and wider surroundings. Two of the ten ancestral farmsteads have been lost, the remaining eight have remained in continuous family ownership.
- Riediger 1988
The earliest traceable Boge ancestor is Hans Boye who was probably born around the 1530s and kicked off nearly 500 years of family history.
Very fortunately, the historian Hans Riediger focussed research on the farms and families of the Bramstedt parish and specifically Fuhlendorf in the 1980s. His research using tax registers, job directories and contract records was published in 1988 as Farms and families in the old Holsatian settlement area of the parish of Bramstedt: Fuhlendorf, Föhrden-Barl, Wiemersdorf, Vol. I. This provides rich biographical details for families of the area.
We know from Riediger that Hans Boye lived at Hufe No. 7 (Hof No. 1) in Fuhlendorf and was apparently a wealthy farmer. He purchased his 'settled' son Tim a farm around 1590 (Hufe No. 1, Hof No. 6) and left his farm to his heir Peter around a year later. He probably did not live to see the village plundered by Wallenstein's murderers.
Luck followed Tim to the new farm: Tim became a wealthy farmer and apparently reached old age, because according to tradition he was called an 'old man'. But when the time became too colorful and bad for him, he retired.
Tim's son Marx, probably took over the business around 1621. He was remarkably short and was called 'Mars Lütt' ('little Marx' in Low German). This nickname has even followed him into official records.
In the Thirty Years War (Danish-Lower Saxon War), Christian IV, King of Denmark and Duke of Holstein, takes the lead of the Protestants as head of the Lower Saxon district. His main opponent, Wallenstein, leads his own mercenary army into the field as the imperial commander-in-chief. After the battle of Lutter am Barenberge (Aug. 17-24. 1626), in which Tilly was victorious over Christian IV, Tilly and Wallenstein conquered Holstein in 1627.
Easter 1628 the imperial troops reached Bramstedt and made it their base. Thus the disaster of war with all its consequences also fell upon the parish of Bramstedt. Fuhlendorf was particularly affected. The reports about that time of horror date back to the year 1629. Although they are almost limited to statistical data, they speak a clear language. Nevertheless, six farmsteads (1,3,5,7,8,9) remained family property. The remaining four farmsteads lay desolate and ownerless. There is almost no information about the former owners and their relatives. The scanty reports are silent about loss of life and also about the extent of destruction.
In 1629, the Danish government appointed Marx Boye ('Mars Lütt'), as bailiff, who was able to make the farmsteads habitable again and then occupy them with capable farmers, mostly only after five years of community work.
Marx was married twice and died in 1656. His widow Abel was in her mid-thirties and was left with five underage children. A settee was necessary for the court. Abel's choice fell on Klaus Ehlers from Hennstedt, who was also widowed, S. d. monastery Hufners and Dingvogts Hans Ehlers. This heir to the marriage was a respected, if not wealthy, man. So he was not able to raise the entry fee as a typewriter. At that time, old Uncle Tim was still living on the old part of Hufe No. 1. He had had a lot of success in his life, now he helped out with 700 Mk and made the marriage possible.
In 1677 the heir Hartig Boye (I) took over the farm and brought it to new heights. It seems that he was a Königl. Dingvogt or Royal Bailiff. His marriage to Abell Dicken from Armstedt produced eleven children.
In 1713, Abel, sold and left the farm to her son Hartig Boye (II), Hans' elder brother. The contract of sale, or indenture, is an interesting document in just how much detail it goes to and what was valued and thought worth mentioning:
Indenture 1713
The surviving widow of the late Hartig Boyen, Abel Emerentz, sells and surrenders her Hufe of farmland situated in Fuhlendorf including all associated woods, meadows, and estates as well as ploughs, harrows, carts, and their associated breast harnesses and bridles; likewise all living cattle – whatever it may be named; all grain on the field; manure and peat muck; and no less than all house and brewery appliances whatever their name... to her beloved son Hartig Boye, for the purchase money of nine hundred Lübische Marks...
moreover, the buyer wants and is intended to give fifty Lübische Marks to his youngest brother Tim before the handover, and if the remaining four children Hanß, Tim, Catrina, and Margretha are honourable, the buyer wants and is intended to give each son 2 Tonnen [228L] of good beer for their wedding, one and a half Tonnen of rye, an ox or six Reichsthaler, a pig or two Reichsthaler, and to each daughter, if she is honourable, a horse or ten Reichsthaler, a cow or 7 Reichsthaler, an ox or 6 Reichsthaler, a pig or 2 Reichsthaler, 2 Tonnen of beer, one and a half Tonnen of rye, a side of bacon or 2 Reichsthaler;
furthermore, the mother will keep the small house as long as she lives...
furthermore, the mother will take all appliances from the house apart from a jug, a bedstead, and a butter churn; all pots and pipkins apart from 4 pots and 1 pipkin; all boxes and crates apart from his box; and 2 benches and a cabinet, all bedding apart from two complete beds with sheets and pillows that the buyer will keep in the house; but should the mother need one household utensil or another which she could use in the small house she shall be free to take it [and] a cow, 5 sheep, 1 lamb, a pig, 2 piglets;
in addition, the buyer shall give the mother every year one Tonne of rye for sowing and the mother keeps the so-called Bleck Wischen and Eck Hoff that are situated in front of the Wiemersdorfscher Feld; the money for the latter shall be kept by the son Hartig Boye for himself or by his heirs after the death of the mother, to the sum with which his late father has bought it, but the Bleeckwischen shall remain for all the heirs.
Furthermore, the buyer shall give the mother two oak trees from which he shall have boards sawn – one is to be one of the best, the other is already sawn. Moreover, he shall give the mother 2 small piglets... Upon multiple assurances and for the record, both parties to the contract have personally signed.
Hartig (II) married Wibke Delfs from Brokstedt, and when she passed away, Gesche Humfeldt from Stellau. Hartig, the young farmer and bailiff, died in 1725 at the age of just 37. The young widow remarried in 1726 to Peter Hein from Volksdorf and the farm remained in the possession of the Hein family until 1877. It appears that by that time it had fallen into disrepair and was then demolished.
Hans Boye did not inherit the family farm in Fulendorf, and appears to have moved to the village of Lentföhrden, about 8km south.
Hans married Abel Runge in 1726 and possibly took over the running of her father's farm (which may have been why he moved to Lentföhrden in the first place). According to an entry in the church books in 1740, Lentföhrden had 14 settled families, of which Hans is listed as a Vollhufner.
Lentföhrden was and still is a small village (190 inhabitants in 1828, 2,300 in 2005) and was first recorded in 1479. It sits on geest, a sandy/gravelly raised landform in Northern Germany that was dry and less fertile though provided protected against storm floods. Despite this though the land provided everything the townsfolk required:
“In the moorland and heathland stretching from the south to the west, people could make peat and gather heath as feed for cattle. Following the broad meadow valley, an extensive forest stretched to the east, providing construction and fuel material. From the centre of the actual area of life to the west and north, finally, lay the most beautiful subsoil that people could think of.”
Hans and Abel had 3 children together Hartig, Metta and Abel before Abel passed away in 1734. Hans remarried to Elsabe Kroger and they had 5 children together. Hans died in 1762.
In 1727 Hans and Abel gave birth to a son that they called Hartwig. Hartwig probably received little, if any, education (school wasn’t mandatory until 1814 in Schleswig-Holstein, and even then it wasn’t really observed until 1867) and would have helped work the farm from a young age. As he got older however it seems that he made a bit of trouble with the villagers:
“Around 1730 [more likely 1750] Hartwig Boy, a quarrelsome individual, was expelled from the village of Lentföhrden and was offered some land on Lentföhrden's boundary with Schmalfeld, in the small settlement of Wierenkamp. However the people at Wierenkamp did not want him either, as he did not have an official building permit. So he rode off on his horse and after several hours returned with a foaming horse and a piece of paper, claiming that it was the permit. The Wierenkampers were flabbergasted - as well as illiterate.”
This was a time when strict hierarchies and social conformity operated. One had to maintain the honour of standing in the community and any insult was looked at as prosecutable. Those who did not want to comply, such as Hartwig, had to expect punishment, and expulsion was a serious punishment as it could lead to poverty.
Fortunately though, Hartig didn’t fall into (too much) poverty and his expulsion to Wierenkamp began a 100 year association with the hamlet. In 1629 Hans Hartmann founded Wierenkamp when he moved his family out in the "bush" to the border between Schmalfeld and Lentföhrden. The name translates as wet, marshy (Wieren) enclosed field (Kamp) – hardly prime real estate but being 6km from town, must have been a suitable distance away for keeping the disagreeable Hartwig at arm’s length. It was (and still is today) a tiny hamlet of only a scattering of farm houses and so was historically associated with the larger municipality of Schmalfeld to the east.
Social Divisions
The majority of the inhabitants, the non-nobles, were divided into five groups:
Baürngevogt - The village's Farm-Administrator, sometimes translated as "Mayor", he was given a Farm and served as the liaison between the village's Farmers and the manor lord.
Hufner - The Farmer, he owned a farm of approximately 125 acres which was inherited by his youngest son. Besides Full-Farmers there were Half-Farmers and Quarter-Farmers depending on the size of the farm owned.
Kätner - The Cottager, he was given a cottage to live in and approximately 10 acres of a Farmer's land to use as his own plus a few cows and/or sheep. Frequently an older son of the Farmer was in this class. Often the Cottagers were the craftworkers on the Farm and later with the development of town life early in the nineteenth century became independent craftsmen.
Einwohner - The Resident, he was given a cottage to live in and a little land on the Farm to use as his own plus possibly an animal or two to use. If a Farmer had many sons who lived to maturity several of them would be in this class.
Inste or Tagelöhner - The Day Laborer, he lived in rented lodgings and worked for strangers for a daily wage. Frequently he would seek work outside of the Probstei for the summer months and return home for the winter.
At the age of 27, and now living in Wiernekamp, Hartig married Anna Margaretha Behrends in Sülfeld (a couple of villages over) in 1753. Hartwig was most likely a Kätner or Cottager (as later his son is listed as). A Cottager was a small farmer who had a cottage to live in and a small amount of land to use as his own plus a few cows and/or sheep. Around 1795 Hartwig Böy is listed on a land survey as having 4 Tonnen (approx. 5 acres) of land in Wierenkamp and this is most likely what he was given when he was expelled. Maps from the time show that it’s probable the family cottage was along a secluded lane at what is today 12 Wierenkamper Weg, Schmalfeld (this address would also seem to be on the old border between Lentföhrden and Schmalfeld).
Quite often the farm did not provide enough sustenance for which the Kätner needed to support his family and he supplemented his income by other means. Timber was a good source of income for the Wierenkampers; wood was needed as fuel, to build houses, for furniture and for the endowment of children. However, the Danish king claimed ownership of all the hardwood on the land and appointed Foresters to prevent the theft of this valuable resource. This claim was disputed by the locals however and they risked heavy fines and punishment to fell trees and effectively nick them from the king. However, the Wierenkampers often outwitted the king’s men:
“The Royal Forrester, who oversaw the Lentföhrdener Wohld (forest), was very afraid of the wood thieves and poachers in Wierenkamp. When riding along the road from Kaltenkirchen he would fire warning shots into the air to scare them away. That was the signal to the Wierenkampers to quickly hide their axes and hatchets. They then sat in the house of Hartwig Böge, which at that time also had a bar selling Honigschnaps (honey schnapps), and played cards.
The Forrester entered and asked "Have you seen the poachers?". The answer was always "No, we haven't!". "Strange," the Forester would say "the moth must smell that I am looking for it". The Wierenkampers grinned to eachother and went on playing. When the Forrester left the men went back to their work.”
The Wierenkampers were helped by the fact that the forestry officials themselves were often the farmers' own sons and consequently the poachers were rarely turned in. This story shows that Hartig was an enterprising fellow and supplemented his income by cutting timber and distilling honey schnapps.
In 1759 Hartig and Anna had a son, Dierk. As Hartig and Anna grew older their son would have taken over the running of the small farm and it seems he built a small cottage for them to live in:
“Hartwig Böge's son Dierck built an Altenteilerkate (a cottage where older members in the family would live in retirement, separate from the main farm house) exactly on the boundary between Schmalfeld and Lentföhrden. When the enclosure movement [i.e. division of common land] got under way, the Lentföhrden people wanted him to tear down the cottage, since half of it stood on their side and they did not want to include him in the division of the common land.”
In 1788, at the age of 28, Dierk married Wiebke Lamack at Kaltenkirchen. At the time of his marriage, he is described as a Käthner (cottager) in Wierenkamp, son of the Abschieds-Manns (retired) Hartig Böhe and Anna Margarethe Behrends. In the same year Wiebke gave birth to the couple’s first child, Margarethe. Following Margarethe two more girls, Anna and Wiebke, would be born.
Sometime between 1791 and 1795 Hartwig died and the small farm passed to Dierk. Through succession some farms remained in the same family for centuries. As in many other parts of Germany, the inheritance customs meant that the youngest son (not the eldest) took over the farm from his father, and if there was no male heir, the youngest daughter got possession. Division of the land was not possible (without permission from the lord) as the land was common property and many farms were simply a garden and a house paddock anyway. When the youngest son inherited the farm, the rest of the children were given their value share of the inventory (the possessions of the farmer) and became Einwohner (resident). Fortunately for Dierk, it seems he was an only child and so inherited everything his father owned.
Close to Christmas 1797, Dierk and Wiebke had their fourth child, a boy they called Johann Hinrich. 1800 would prove to be a black year for the family. Towards the end of the year Dierk died, aged 40 years, and sadly, two of his daughters Wiebke and Margarethe, died within days of him. They were buried at Kaltenkirchen. It is not known what caused the deaths, though the quick succession would suggest a possible outbreak of disease. This left only Wiebke, as the matriarch, and young Johann and Anna in the family.
The family continued on and Johann was married to Anna Holtorf in 1823. They soon started a family of their own with three children; Wiebke, Claus and Catharina Margareta, and two more Johann and Anna, who both died in infancy. In 1834, Johann’s wife, Anna passed away, and Johann remarried the same year to Magdalena Hartmann, who also lived at Wierenkamp.
In 1835 the family lived in a Kathengebäude (Cottage Building) together with two servants. By this time they must have come into a bit of money. As a Cottager, Johann didn’t have enough land to constitute a full farm though could nevertheless afford to keep two servants. It’s possible that Magdalena bought some money into the family or that Johann was supplementing his income somehow. Cryptically there was also a tailor by the name of Johann Kröger living in the household, perhaps the men where business partners or Kröger paid rent?
Johann and Magdalena went on to have five sons together; Johann Hinrich, Diederich, Hans Hinrich, Hartwig and Marx, to add to the three kids from Johann’s previous marriage with Anna. By 1845 the family had expanded into a Hufengebäude, or farm house, usually a half-timbered structure that was longer and wider, had more Fächer (sections) than an ordinary cottage. While the house had been enlarged Johann remained a Cottager suggesting their land holding hadn’t increased.
The 18 years between 1848 and 1866 were a time of conflict for Holstein. 1848 brought the three year First Schleswig War, an uprising against Denmark by the people of Schleswig-Holstein who demanded independence and a closer association with the German Confederation. They were supported by many volunteers from Germany, and a very strong Prussian contingent, however the rebellion was eventually put down and Denmark came out victorious.Men of Holstein at the time would have been enrolled in Danish militia lists at their birth and been liable to be called up for service in the army from the age of 21 to 36.
“The term of a militiaman's engagement is eight years, and before the expiration of that period, he cannot quit his district without leave from the constituted authorities... They are occasionally exercised in small bodies on Sundays and holidays, and are embodied once every year, at which time they join their respective regiments...A militiaman has five rix dollars yearly, besides two skillings per Danish mile when marching to the station of his regiment, and the pay of a soldier (6 skillings per day for a private)."
- The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 1832
The young Johann Hinrich Böge (junior) was called up sometime around 1859 at the age of 23. He served as a Menig (private) in the 15th Infantry battalion of the Danish army, and was barracked at Kronborg Castle at Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark. Kronborg is best known as the set of Shakespeare's play Hamlet, and is located on a strategically important site commanding the Sound (Øresund), a narrow stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. As a Menig, Johann would have been kitted out in a striking blue uniform such as the one shown.Beyond that Johann was barracked at Kronborg we know no more. However the Second Schleswig War ignited in 1864 with Austrian and Prussian troops moving first into Holstein and then into Schelswig. They drove the Danish army out of Schleswig-Holstein, and with the Treaty of Peace of Vienna, the Danish Kingdom renounced all claims to the duchies. Austria took over administration of Holstein and Prussia Schleswig. Johann would still have been eligible to be called up being 28 age, he therefore may have played some role in the conflict.In 1859, while Johann was away in the army in Denmark he had a child out of wedlock called Anna Magdalena. The following year he married Anna’s mother, Catharina Margaretha Puls, who seems to have been working for Johann (senior) on the family farm at Wierenkamp. The couple had Catharina (1862) and Johann Hinrich (1865).
In 1866 war was yet again looming. Prussia and Austria argued over the administration of Schleswig and Holstein and tensions ran high. It was in this atmosphere that Johann and Catharina made the decision to emigrate. They sold their cottage and family home to a Thies Hartmann and made the journey down to the main port of Hamburg. Whether they had seen the advertising campaigns of the Queensland government, which targeted non-British (mainly Germans and Scandinavians) labourers and farmers, promised financial assistance for those who couldn’t afford the fare and a wonderful new life in the colonies, or simply selected a convenient ship, they departed on 19th May for Australia.
It is not known conclusively why they chose to leave, however the timing of their departure is telling with war breaking out between Austria and Prussia on the 14th June – less than a month after they had left. It seems most likely that with Johann having already served in the army (possibly having fought in the Second Schleswig War) and still of an age eligible for conscription, wasn’t too keen to take part in another war. This is also supported by Johann using his middle name on the ship’s passenger list (perhaps fearing he would be found out and prevented from leaving if he used his full name) and the fact that the couple were attempting what was a very arduous sea voyage with a child of only 10 months old. This combination suggests the family was fleeing rather than making a conscious decision to emigrate for a better life.
Queensland was the only colony to make any serious attempt to glean the migrant market in continental Europe at the time, and was pro-active in drawing northern European migrants through assisted migration programs. Johann and Catharine took advantage of a Queensland Government sponsored migration scheme, known as ‘assisted passage’. To be eligible they had to be unable to pay the full passage, they could not have resided previously in any Australian colony, and they must intend to reside permanently in Queensland. At this time Queensland was a fledgling colony and desperately needed hardy people to work the vast amount of land and to build the colony. The scheme brought, among other nationalities, over 17,000 German speaking immigrants settle in Queensland between 1860 and 1870.
On May 19, 1866 the 54m long, three masted sailing ship ‘Beausite’ slipped out of the Elbe River in the charge of Captain Bruhn. It was the ship’s third voyage from the port of Hamburg to the far flung colonies of Australia and she counted among her 389 passengers Johann and Catherine together with their young son Johann (Catharina and Anna are not listed on the passenger list so it is likely that they had died or were left with relatives).
As Danish carpenter taking a similar voyage from Hamburg to Queensland described his first impressions aboard the ship:
“What a motley crew we were: Germans, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, a Russian Finn, and an Icelander. There were many nationalities, but in the majority of cases extreme poverty was evident in their dress and stamped upon their faces, and it was easy to see that the same spirit of recklessness which filled me had somehow also been instilled into them. Nearly everybody had guns, revolvers, and knives, which were promptly taken from us as we stepped on board … None of us knew anything about Queensland, and many were the surmises and guesses at what the country was like and what we were going to do there.”
The voyage began well with fair winds and good time being made as the ‘Beausite’ navigated the English channel and headed south. She had just crossed the equator near the coast of Brazil in mid-June when tragedy struck the family and young Johann died at sea just before his first birthday. The ship continued on and passed the Cape of Good Hope in mid-July leaving the Atlantic and entering the unpredictable seas of the Indian Ocean. Halfway between Africa and Australia she encountered a heavy cyclone:
“…commencing at north-east-by-north, and veering to west north-west, and from this last-named point the gale blew with the greatest violence. During its continuance the barometer ranged from 29-42 down to 28-94. The tempest was accompanied by exceedingly vivid lightning, and lasted for about ten hours. The ship was scudding under close-roofed top- sails and foresail, when, at 2.30 a.m. on the 28th, in a sudden shift of wind to south-west, she broached to, and the whole of the canvas set blew away. Immediately the main trysail and fore-topmast staysail were set, and these were also blown away by the violence of the gale. As it was impossible to set canvas during so furious a tempest, Captain Bruhn hove the ship to under bare poles, and she remained in this plight for ten hours. The weather then moderated, a spare suit of sails were bent, and the ship stood on her course.”
- The Queenslander, 15 September 1866
This must have been terrifying ordeal with so many people crowded onto such a small vessel and it is lkely that there were injuries caused, however the sturdy ‘Beausite’ weathered the storm. Favourable winds where had for the rest of the journey. She rounded Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in August, headed up the eastern seaboard to Cape Moreton and finally anchored at Yellow Patch on the sheltered western side of Moreton Island on the afternoon of August 20. This was not the end though as the passengers had to wait another month in quarantine to ensure that they weren’t bringing any infectious diseases into the colony before they were able to be put ashore at South Brisbane.
The voyage had taken 93 days to cover 25,164km travelling at an agonising average speed of just 11km/h. In the three months at sea, eighteen passengers had died (thirteen of which were, like Johann, children). Johann and Catherine had made the journey though had lost their young son.
The Australia of 1866 was a harsh and underdeveloped collection of far-flung British colonies that had only ceased being called New Holland in the mid-1850s. Explorers such as Burke and Wills where just beginning to provide an idea about what was in the interior of the island and convicts were still being transported to Western Australia. Queensland had recently separated from New South Wales to become an independent colony and had plunged into an economic crisis pretty soon afterwards leading to severe unemployment. The entire colony had a population of only 96,000 (approx. the current population of Rockhampton).
The German arrivals were quite popular in the new colony and had a reputation as hardy and industrious workers. As labourers especially, they were sought after for their rural experience, limited knowledge of English (making it difficult for anyone wanting to stir up trouble with their employers), their similarity in appearance as their neighbours of British origin and their shared Christian faith. Sir Thomas McIlwraith (Premier of Queensland, commented that:
"Having disembarked from the ships and spent one or two days in the Immigration Depot, the German immigrants disappear. One hears or sees nothing of them for 18 months or a couple of years, when some fine day they return from the bush in their own attractive turn out, wife and children seated high, and all well-dressed and happy-looking."
Johann and Catharine were discharged at the immigration depot at South Brisbane (on Hope Street). The depot provided temporary food and accommodation for immigrants until they were able to find work - which they were expected to take at the first opportunity. The conditions at the depot were aweful and often worse than had been on the ships, a newspaper article from 3 years earlier describes the accommodation:
“There are three wooden sheds - some people are rude enough to call them dilapidated barns - at South Brisbane, for the reception of those immigrants who, on their arrival in Queensland, find themselves unfortunate enough to be married. The largest of these sheds, the dimensions of which are something like 70ft [21m] by 35ft [10m] ... at present accommodate no less than 200 men women and children. That the atmosphere of the place polluted as it must be with so much effluvia of a baneful character, is fearfully injurious to the health of sickly women, and very young children cannot be denied, not to speak of the effect it is likely to produce in the constitutions of strong men… Some distance further on, at the top of the ridge on which is erected the German Lutheran Chapel, there are a number of tents provided by the government, occupied by some eighty or ninety Germans recently arrived per Beausite [an earlier voyage]. They have, however supplemented the number of tents... by the errection of sundry gunyahs [bark huts], which give a somewhat picturesque effect to the scene.”
- The Courier (Thu 1 Oct 1863 Page 2)
Very little is known of the couple’s early years in Queensland. It seems that Johann found employment as a labourer and the couple lived at One Mile Swamp (later renamed Woolloongabba, Brisbane) not far from where they had first landed. At the time Brisbane had a thriving German immigrant population which maintained a Lutheran church, Deutschen Kranken-verein (German Club), Deutscher Liederkraz (German Glee Club), Deutscher Turn Verein (German Gymnastic Club) and German Rifle Club. It’s likely Johann and Catharine would have fallen in quickly with the German expat community.
One Mile Swamp
In 1855 building lots at One Mile Swamp, then beyond Brisbane's official southern boundary (Vulture Street), were put up for sale. The swamp was a declared water reserve, and in the late 1850s there was only one cottage there. The area was used to rest livestock brought up the Logan Road, and a wayfarers' hotel, the Clarence, was licensed in 1864. By the end of the 1850s, all the allotments along Stanley Street had been sold, and the first shops appeared there in 1865. The area was still known as One Mile Swamp, and directories recorded it by that name into the late 1870s. The Woolloongabba Hotel was licensed in 1868. The post office (1869) was known as One Mile Swamp for a few months before its name was changed to Woolloongabba.
In 1868, at the age of 26, Catherine gave birth to the couple’s second son, and named him Henry. However, she became ill soon after Henry’s birth and died 18 months later in 1870 when Henry was just 2 years old. Johann never remarried and Henry remained an only child living with his dad. Queensland was the first state to bring in free education in 1875 so Henry may have benefited from this and learnt English, though probably continued speaking German at home.Unclaimed letters, whose addressees were published in the Government Gazette in an attempt to find them, indicate that Johann at least (of not the family) spent some time at Hay's Inlet (near Redcliffe) sometime before June 1867 and possibly Albert River around 1875 and maybe even later, Rockhampton (around 1879).
At some point, Johann and Henry moved to the locality of German Bridge (present day Holland Park) thus named for the many German immigrants in the area. They lived behind the German Bridge Hotel on Logan Road and Johann worked as a labourer/farmer probably at Highfield Dairy or Mount Gravatt Dairy, well-known businesses in the area run by the prominent Glindemann families. At this time Aboriginal groups that hadn’t been displaced (with ‘King Jacky', ‘Queen Mary' and ‘Lumpy Billy' as their leaders) also lived along the creek near the Holland Reserve, now Mott Park, and Nursery Road areas, and corroborees were still held at the junction of Raff and Logan Roads.
German Bridge
To overcome difficulties with the creek crossing, some of the early German pioneers in the Mt. Gravatt area built a wooden bridge over Glindemann Creek where it crossed Logan Road, prior to entering Norman Creek. This bridge became known as the German Bridge and gave its name to the surrounding locality.
German Bridge was settled in the early 1860s by a group of German immigrants, among them were the Glindemanns, Dilger, Geisman, Eickendoff, Lutz and Eberhardt, all of whom took up areas of about 25 acres and devoted them to general and dairy farming. Conrad Glindemann, who established one of the first dairies, daily carried his pails of milk to town with a yoke across his shoulders. Later he extended his property to some 100 acres. The old two-story German Bridge Hotel was built by Andreas Glindemann in 1880, and although it changed hands a score of times with the passage of the years, it remained licensed premises until around 1927. The large old wooden house on the eastern side of Logan Road opposite Waratah Avenue, Holland Park was one of the houses used as GLINDEMANN'S MT.GRAVATT DAIRY. The area of land behind the dairy, on the eastern side of Logan Road, was "acquired" by the government in 1943 and used as a large, 1,000 bed, American Army Hospital during World War II. It was the largest hospital in the Pacific theatre of operations during the war.
After possibly receiving a basic education, Henry may have been apprenticed as a blacksmith at around 14 or 15 years of age, as was the norm at the time. The apprenticeship would have run for about 4 years where he would have learnt the metal working trade from his master. The blacksmith at this time was a vital occupation and would shoe horses, mend farm tools, manufacture nails and many other useful implements. Henry may have had to move away from his father for this. When he was around 17 (1885) he appears to have been living in a 'humpy' (a bark hut) at Slack's Creek near Beenleigh, an area with a high population of Germans. It was here he had £5 4s 6d stolen by an older American lad.Johann and Henry lived on a 39 acre property known as 'Greenwald' owned by Andreas and Johanna Glindemann, themselves German immigrants who had arrived in 1863 aboard the ‘Caesar Godeffroy’. Andreas built and ran the German Bridge Hotel, a well-known establishment in the area and later operated a small dairy that Johann may have worked on. Johanna was originally from Grünewald, Prussia (now Mieszałki in Poland) so probably named Greenwald (an Anglicisation of ‘Green Forrest’) after her hometown.
In 1890 John (as he was then known by then) died of liver and heart disease at the age of 51 and was buried at South Brisbane Cemetery. At the age of only 21, and as his only family member, Henry’s father’s death would have come as quite a blow. He inherited his fathers’ possessions which amounted to £116 value and no property.
Following the death of John, Henry (also known as Harry) lived in a boarding house run by the widower Joanna Glindemann (who had by now lost her husband) and ran a shop known as Boge's Forge at the back of the German Bridge Hotel. In 1892 he became the first Boge eligible to vote and enrolled on 4 October of that year. Following the death of her husband, a relationship appears to have blossomed between Joanna and her young border (who was 16 years her junior) and in 1893 (Joanna 40, Harry 24) Joanna gave birth to the couple’s first child, Mary Sophie. Joannna had four children from her previous marriage to Andreas and there was inevitably some trouble joining the two families. One such incident lead to Harry taking Charles Tritton (licensee of the German Bridge Hotel) to South Brisbane Police Court. Harry accused Mr. Tritton of forcibly detaining his 8 year old step daughter Joanna. Kate Glindemann (Joanna's 20 year old sister) however defended him testifying that Joanna stayed at the hotel for a week at her request and the reason for her detention was "the treatment which the child had been submitted to at home". Harry’s case was dismissed.
Determined to make the joined family work, in 1895 their second child John Henry was born and the couple were finally married at their home six days after the birth. As the husband of Joanna, it seems that Harry gave up blacksmithing for a time and took over the running of the dairy on the land Joanna had inherited from her former husband Andreas. It’s possible that Harry changed the name from the Mount Gravatt Dairy to the Eclipse Dairy at this time. It was also around this time that he dropped the umlauts from his surname and Böge became consistently Boge.
1897 saw the birth of their third child, and second son, Ernest William. After giving it a few years it seems that dairying wasn’t Harry’s forte. In 1900 (around 7 years after taking over) he put up for sale the inventory of the farm, which consisted of:“26 head of very choice young cows, some of which are in full milk, balance to calve during August and September; 1 Black Brittany Bull, 2 Stanch Light Harness Horses, 2 Stanch Plough Horses, and 1 first-class Saddle Horse, Milkcart and Harness, Plough Harness, Farm Implements, Dairy Utensils, also small Milk Round.”
And put up for lease the land and house:
“…containing 39 acres, 6 acres of which are under cultivation, securely fenced, permanent water, together with 10-roomed house, milk sheds, and necessary outhouses, &c.”
The advertisement in The Telegraph newspaper says that the inventory was being sold unreserved at auction due to the owner’s “immediate departure for Cairns”. Whether family troubles or just a good opportunity had prompted the idea to move, for one reason or another, it appears the family didn’t follow through with their plan to migrate north and remained in Mount Gravatt.Harry went back to blacksmithing and had a succession of shops behind German Bridge Hotel, opposite the Mount Gravatt Hotel and behind the shops at Greenslopes. Jack remembers that he used to shoe police horses and claimed to have shoed a horse that Kate Kelly (Ned Kelly’s sister) rode when she came to Queensland.Sometime in the early 1920s the family moved to Henry Street at Greenslopes. This was likely financed by the sale of the ‘Greenwald’ farm, as Harry and Joanna were able to purchase one large house, and two smaller ones at Greenslopes which they rented out (these appear to survive today as Nos. 13 and 15 Henry Street, Greenslopes). In 1929 ‘Greenwald’ was marketed as ‘Glindemann’s Estate No. 1, Holland Park’ preserving the name of the original owners.
At the end of 1928 Joanna placed an ad in the Brisbane Courier newspaper for help with “light domestic duties”. Johanna had taken a day trip to Bribie Island or Redcliff aboard the ‘Koopa’ (maybe without Harry as he did not always go with her) and had fallen on the stairs and broken her hip. The ad may have been a result of this accident. This trauma was too much for the 76 year old Joanna and she passed away early the next year. Jack remembers Joanna as a stern lady: “When we visited she would give us a job to do as soon as we walked through the door - like polishing the silverware - and then, when we were finished, she would give us a billy to take down to Irvine’s shop on Logan Road to get ice cream.”
Harry remarried at the age of 64 to Dora Emily Woodley, who was 10 years his junior. The marriage was not a happy one though and three years in Harry was the subject of a court case brought by Dora attempting to compel him to pay her maintenance. An article covering the case describes Harry as “an elderly, bald-headed man with a pinkish complexion and white moustache…”. The case was dismissed though it was the subject of a lengthy article in a publication called Truth, under the headline ‘Elderly Couple Failed to Find Happiness’. In 1941, after 7 years, the couple were divorced on the grounds of desertion - it seems Dora had shot through. Not one to be deterred, Harry, now 75, remarried yet again to Elizabeth Jones and resided at Geelong Avenue, Holland Park. However this marriage was also short-lived with Henry passing away a year later.
He left to his two sons real estate (two Henry Street properties) to the value of £972 and personal effects to the value of £416.
John Henry
John was born in 1895 and was known as Sonny. He attended school and followed his father into the Blacksmith trade specialising as a Coachsmith. While he was 19 at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 it seems he didn't volunteer for military service. In 1918 he married Scottish girl Alison Jack at her family home of 'Ochtertyre' on Logan Road, Mt Gravatt. Alison had been born in Crieff, Scotland and emigrated to Australia on the 'Perthshire' in 1909 (aged 11) with her parents, John and Jane, and 6 siblings. Alison was known as Alice and it seems that she was pregnant when the couple where married, as 5 months later she gave birth to the couple's first child, Jean Claris.
The young family lived at Temple Street, Coorparoo for a time, later moving to Plimsoll Street at Greenslopes in the early 1920s. About this period Greenslopes was lit by electricity for the first time. In 1923 their second child, Jack Henry, was born. Sonny worked at Sargeants (a blacksmith company) and for 35 years as a Generalsmith at South Brisbane Gas and Light Company - where he was reputedly mentioned in a gas journal. The gas works were located at West End and the gas stripping tower, a cutting edge piece of kit at the time, today stands in Davies Park as an iconic souvenir.Sonny must have had an interest in birds as family photos show him with show cockerels and an advertisement in a 1939 newspaper has him putting up for sale no less than 80 homing pigeons!In 1959 Sonny apparently had a stroke pulling out a post and he died of a heart attack about one year later, aged 65. Alice was much longer lived, passing away in 1990 at the age of 91. At this time she was living at Cinderella Drive, Springwood.
Ernest William
Ernest was born in 1897 and was known in the family as Ernie. When he was a teenager Ernie was involved in a shooting accident. The story goes that he was out parrot shooting one day with his brother John and a few mates when a shotgun one of the boys was holding went off. Ernie received the charge of shot to the left side of his face and was extremely lucky not to have been killed. He would live with the scars from the accident for the rest of his life and the few photos there are of him always show him with his left side facing away from the camera.
In his youth Ernie was an excellent cyclist and appears frequently in cycling results in newspapers of the time, especially 1914-1915, racing for the Scout Amateur Cycling Club in Brisbane. One photo shows him as winner of the 10 mile road championship and 5 mile club championship. Sometime later Ernie moved to Ingham, just north of Townsville, a small town of around 1,000 people. Ingham was a centre for the sugar growing and milling at the time and it’s probable Ernie worked in the industry. In 1917, he married a Scot (like his brother) by the name of Isabella Rose Angus who came over to Australia from Turriff, Scotland. The couple had four children in Ingham; Thelma Rose (1919), Ernest William (1920), Henry Alexander (1923) and Patricia Dorothy (1926).
During the Second World War Ernie enlisted as a Private in the 16 Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps in 1942, despite his advanced age of 44. The Volunteer Defence Corps was a part-time volunteer military force of the Second World War modelled on the British Home Guard. He remained in the VDC until the end of 1945, two months after the Japanese surrender. At some stage Ernie and Isabella moved back to Brisbane. Isabella passed away there in 1971, with Ernie dying at his residence on Newmarket Road, Windsor in 1974.
Mary Sophie
Mary Sophie was born in 1893 and, true to keeping with family nicknames, was known as Sophie or just Soph. Very little is known about Sophie as she moved to New South Wales for a time and married Englishman Henry Handley, a labourer and cane cutter, in Manly in 1927. The couple had no children and eventually moved back up to Queensland, Henry passing away in 1963 at the age of 67. Sophie died sometime later on the Gold Coast.
Jack Henry
Jack was born in 1923 and attended Holland Park and later Buranda State Schools. He was a keen soccer player in his early days and also enjoyed keeping greyhounds.During the Second World War Jack had been keen to join up though being under age, his parents refused to sign the permission form so he had to wait until he was 21 when he enlisted as a Sapper (military engineer) with 8th Australian Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers (RAE). Jack was shipped to Papua New Guinea aboard the HMAS Vendetta. The terrain, climate and general lack of communications facilities in New Guinea created great difficulties for the Australian army to effectively fight the Japanese, and so roads, airfields, ports and bases had to be constructed almost everywhere and, as a consequence, the greater part of sapper effort was spent on construction. Jack was involved in building bridges over the Meiro, Sio and Sowi Rivers, and near Sio Mission and Kiligia - a 60ft timber trestle bridge that took 11 days to erect. He worked on the construction of the Madang to Alexishafen road, Madang airfield as well as hospitals at Madang and Lae. Like many soldiers Jack spoke very little of his time in New Guinea only to say that he didn't like it much and was glad "to come back from the bloody place". Jack returned to Australia on the British aircraft carrier HMS Implacable and was discharged from the army in early 1946. On his return he met Lorna Holdsworth at a dance and the couple were quickly married in Brisbane the same year. Lorna had been born in Port Douglas and lived at Mossman. Her mother Norah died when Lorna was just six and her father was not around, so Lorna lived with her sister Doreen and later with her mother's sister Pretoria (known as Tory).
Jack and Lorna initially made their home at Canopus Street, Coorparoo. In 1952 their first son Rodney was born, followed five years later by Ian. The family then moved to Pannikin St, Springwood in the 1960s which at that time backed on to a large horse paddock. The family would take annual holidays to Coolum Beach where they could swim and indulge in the family passion of fishing. At this time Jack was a self-employed plasterer and was a keen Free Mason, rising to the top rank in his lodge of Thrice Illustrious Master before giving it away. He also coached Ian's AFL team at the Morningside Panthers AFL club.It their later years Jack worked as a security guard at an abattoir for Wormald before retiring. He and Lorna kept fish and enjoyed gardening, especially the challenge of growing orchids. Jack maintained a passion for fishing, regularly taking his boat (named 'Nikki') out to try his luck in the Logan River or Moreton Bay. Lorna passed away in 2000 and Jack in 2013.
Jean Claris
Jean was born in Brisbane in 1918. When she was 19 she married Wilfred Harold Fiffer (known as Harry or Harold). Harold worked as a plasterer while Jean took care of the house at Wills Street, Coorparoo. Jean and Harold had four children; Ken, Raymond, Caroline and Joan. Jean passed away in Brisbane in 1982 and Harold in 2007 at the age of 91.
Of Ernie and Isabella’s children, only Ernest (Jr.) remained in Townsville, the others moving to Brisbane or Victoria. Very little is known of the family but it is worth mentioning what is.
Thelma Rose
Thelma was born in 1919 and married George Henry Bower in Queensland in 1939. The couple had four children: Carol, Douglas, Gail and Peter. The family moved to Sale in Victoria at some stage and Thelma died there in 1975.
Ernest William (Jr.)
Ernest was born in 1920 and married Jeanne Merle Bray in Ingham in 1942 while Ernest was serving as a private in the army at a supply depot. Ernest and Jeanne has three children; Allan John, Stephen William and Linda Jean. Ernest died in Townsville in 2002 at the age of 82.
Henry Alexander
Henry was born in 1923 and served as a Leading Aircraftman in the RAAF during the war. At some stage Henry moved down to Melbourne and married Merle Ethel Evans there. Jack remembers that Harry (as Henry was known) was a roof tiler but didn't see much of this cousin. The couple may have lived at Maribyrnong in Melbourne and had two daughters Margaret Rose and Pamela.
Patricia Dorothy
Patricia was born in 1926 and later married a gentleman with the surname Trevarthen. The couple had two daughters Gail and Lorraine, and may have moved to live at Herston in Brisbane.