5 JAL Hein

JAL HEIN

Julius August Louis HEIN (pictured above in 1868), born 1838, Hamburg, christened St Jacobi Hauptkirche, married 1861 Ida Friederike Eleonore Karow (born 1835, Hamburg, christened St. Nicolai, died 1925 Glenelg SA (90), buried Brighton Cemetery), pictured below, also in 1868, in St Georg, Hamburg, died 1917 (80), OB Flat, buried Lake Cemetery, Mount Gambier.

During the years after Christine left Hamburg in 1855, her brother, JULIUS AUGUST LOUIS HEIN stayed in Hamburg and, as their parents became older and more dependent, he and his family looked after them; he eventually moved them into his home at Barmbek, near Wandsbek (now central Hamburg), before they passed away in 1866 and 1873.

This studio photo taken in Hamburg in about 1874 shows the family before youngest son Albert was born. From left is Ida, Ida (mother), Martha (in arms), Maria Meier (standing), Julius (Lou), Julius (father), August.

After his parents died Julius and his family decided to migrate to Australia, possibly with the help/sponsorship of Christine, and they settled in the same town – Mt Gambier, South Australia – in 1877 (22 years after Christine). Christine’s husband, Emil, died 7 years after their arrival but Julius and Christine were reunited for 24 years before her death in 1901.

JULIUS AUGUST LOUIS HEIN and his wife IDA FRIEDERIKE ELEONORE HEIN (nee KAROW) left Germany in 1876 and arrived in Port Adelaide on 12 Jan 1877 with their five children (listed below) and maid MARIE MEIER (b.1857). On arrival in Australia they were listed as “group 23” on the passenger list - 8 persons of the 305 'souls' (218 adults) on board the ship Herschel.

Julius and Ida were sponsored by Julius's sister Christine Boehm (nee Hein) for assisted passage migration to Australia as farm labourers. Julius was, however, by profession, like his father, a `Konditor', i.e. master baker.

The 1876 Hamburg Passenger List, made on boarding in Hamburg, has the following listing:

Note the spelling discrepancy of Albert(ine) who is erroneously listed as female, and of Meier. The Hamburg Passenger List in the SA Library was probably made from a German original. (apparently now lost due to the WWII bombing of Hamburg).

The official hand-written disembarkation passenger list made at Port Adelaide, in January 1877, of the 8 persons listed as ‘group 23’ (* added detail by the writer):

Julius came with his wife and five children as a sponsored laborer in 1877. For the first few years it seems the family lived and worked on Barrows farm at ‘Pine Hill’ on Penola Road, during which time the two eldest children went to Attamurra School. Documentation indicates that by 1886 the children were going to Glenburnie School and indicates that the family had moved on.

For reasons unknown, the family went back to Germany in mid-1889 and they returned by June 1890. In the following year, J. A. L. Hein placed an advertisement in The Border Watch beginning on 9 September 1891 and continuing over five weeks announcing he had opened the `Federal Coffee Palace' in the premises previously occupied by Messrs. Freckleton, McCullum, & Co. two doors east of Jas. Whan & Co’s store’ (see copy below from September 9th 1891, Border Watch newspaper). Whan’s was a haberdashery shop on Commercial Street opposite Jen’s Hotel.

Stories of their five children – August, Julius (“Lou”), and Martha, who had ongoing descendants are in the following chapters, while we feature Ida and Albert here.

Ida

Ida was born in Hamburg on 29 July 1870. In 1894 Ida married Henry Grant Wheeler (b. 1871) in the Lutheran Church at Mount Gambier. They had three children, all daughters.

• • Hazel Della, b. 1894, Mount Gambier.

  • Sadie Muriel, b. 1898, Mount Gambier.

  • Effie Elaine, b. 1904, Mount Gambier.

Hazel died in 1968, aged 75. She was not married.

Sadie died in died in 1976, aged 78, also not married.

Effie died as an infant in 1905.

There are no descendants of the Wheeler line.

Henry was a horse trainer and whereas Mount Gambier was a town with a strong horse racing tradition, and horse stories involving such people as poet Adam Lindsay Gordon, they moved to live in Wayville, as there were more opportunities in Adelaide. Ida died in Wayville in 1950 aged 80 while Henry died in 1962 aged 91. They are buried together in Centennial Park Cemetery, Adelaide. Centennial Park is a cemetery with limited lease time and the family has grappled with issues of extending the lease on the grave site.

Albert

Albert was born on 26 December 1874 in Altstädter Straße in the parish of St. Jakobi and near Springeltwiete. Although unmarried, Albert (the youngest of the emigrant children) led an interesting life. In 1893, at age 19, he accompanied his family on the overland trek from the South East to Roma, in Queensland, where he took up lease land, as did his older brothers, August and Lou, and the family maid, Maria Meier. In 1934 he won the Coutie Gold Medal for rifle shooting. He had left Germany at age 2 and was brought up as an Australian, so he was stunned to be classified as an enemy alien in 1939. However his loyal life, and his Light Horse service in SA and WA eventually won his naturalisation and the old age pension he sought. Albert is forever celebrated by the name "Heins Bay" at Cape Douglas where he lived on his 249 acre Section 347 (on Google maps it is mistakenly called Hines Bay).

Albert died as a bachelor in 1960, aged 85, and is buried in the Lake Cemetery in Mount Gambier. The grave had been unmarked but money raised at the 2010 family reunion has enabled the plaque below to be added. Note that his mother is normally known as Ida, not Ada.

A detailed essay by Don Hein on Albert can be found under the Individual Essays part of this site.

This is a photo of JAL Hein with his two sons Lou (left) and August (right).