Movements

In one of his Chronicles Don Hein writes the following on various movements of the Hein family towards the end of the 19th century.

Various movements

As described in the last Chronicle, the shipping records of the Heins going to Germany are pretty certain - Ida 54, August 24, and daughter Ida 18 leaving Adelaide on 27 May 1889 aboard the Salier by way of Colombo, Genoa, Southhampton, Antwerp and Bremen, then Julius 51, Martha 16, Albert 14, and Marie Meyer 33 on 14 June 1889 aboard the Hollenzollern.

One year later, 1890, August and his father returned to Australia on the Elberfeld. A month later Ida returned with the three younger children and the young woman Marie Meier (labelled ‘maid’). Second son, “Lou”, stayed in the Mt Gambier area and did not make the return journey to Germany.

Albert stated in his 1940 statutory declaration that the trip to Germany had taken (a total of) ‘about 9 months’. That means they should have arrived back in Australia about March of 1890 (in the last Chronicle I said that nine months seemed like a return to Germany rather than a visit but I had failed to appreciate the total travel time of about six months, leaving what was a fairly short visit).

While the question of August remains uncertain we can now at least place Julius (the father) in Mount Gambier on the 12 July 1890 as on that day he (Julius Hein of Mount Gambier, laborer) signed for and took possession of 161 acres of Crown Land (Vol 108 Folio 35) at Mingbool (about 20 km NE of Mount Gambier – whereas OB Flat is south) on a 21 year lease at ‘two pounds, thirteen shillings and eight pence’ annual rental with right of renewal and right of purchase (at one pound per acre) after six years.

Oddly, there is no notation of purchase, lease renewal, or lease surrender (although the record is filed in the Crown Lease Relinquishment files). So the Heins did return to Mount Gambier in the first half of 1890 - if not through Adelaide then perhaps Melbourne (Mount Gambier being equidistant from Melbourne and Adelaide).

My wild romance of them returning from Germany to Queensland is obviously wrong. In the Sands and McDougall’s South Australian Directory for 1893 (p.367) lists ‘Hein, Julius A. L., baker, Mount Gambier’, and ditto to 1899. From 1901 to 1914 he is listed as ‘Hein, J. bkr, Commercial Street, Mt. Gambier’. Those dates imply that after two or three years he gave up farming to again take up his German profession as a baker, with perhaps the boys (the girls?) and even Ida (mother) staying on the farm.

‘Ida Friedericka Eleonora Hein wife of Julius Louis August Hein of Mount Gambier, baker’, in 1897 (after the family had returned from August and Annie’s wedding in Queensland in 1894) bought a large block ‘one acre, three roods, and twenty one perches or thereabouts’ on what was Private Road renamed on the title to Stilton Road. It is not known what the property was used for but Ida sold it in 1911 – perhaps to fund her separation from Julius to live alone in Adelaide. Although it is certain she lived in Adelaide well before 1917 (when Julius died), the S.A. Directory for 1923 to 1926 lists ‘Mrs. Hein, Cliff Street, East Glenelg’ (Ida died in 1925).

Julius bought a town block in Wehl Street in 1899 that on his death in 1917 was bequeathed to August George Heinrich Hein. I will do a further search of the shipping records, land taxation files, and various occupational directories, in the search for evidence of the family’s return to Australia; where they went, lived, and what they did.

Through friends in Germany, Barbara Duckworth has obtained the departure lists of the Hein family from Germany. Similar to their journey to Germany, they came back in two separate lots, but in a different composition:

Going out: 27 May 1889 on the Salier, Ida 54, August 24, and Ida 18 left for Bremen (about 75km SW of Hamburg). A month later on 24 June Julius 51, Marie Meyer (note change of spelling from ‘Meier’) 33, Martha 16 and Albert 14 followed aboard the Hohenzollern.

Coming back: 28 May 1890 on the Elberfeld, Julius 52 and August 25, destination Adelaide. A month later on the Barmen, Ida 55, Ida 20, Martha 17, Albert 15, destination Adelaide. Mary [Marie?] Meyer is listed with the family.

QUEENSLAND CAPERS

Les Hilberg reports from Brisbane that he has found land title information that in the mid 1890’s, August, Julius and Albert took out 80 acre lots of Crown Lease land, but that only August continued the lease to ownership.

The other news of interest is that Marie Mayer (Meier) was with them at the time (see above that Marie came back from Germany with them). Putting all information together we thought that Marie was probably the daughter of either Julius or Ida, and given facial characteristics, most likely of Ida. However, research by Les Hillberg has disproved that theory – although she may have been some kind of relative.

Marie Meier was listed as “maid” but many family members guessed that she may be Ida’s daughter prior to her marriage to Julius. A wedding certificate for Mary Emma Catherine Meier, in Roma Queensland, where Marie Meier had a selection of land adjacent to August and Julius Hein (sons of Julius and Ida), suggests otherwise. Birthplace is listed as Hamburg Germany and her age at the time of marriage (1895) is listed as 38 – which ties in with her age at the time of arrival in Australia.

Marie died in 1939 and is buried in Toowoomba with her husband Samuel REES. They had four children - Stan, Harold, Myrtle, and Eileen.

On her wedding certificate her father is listed as Henry Conrad Meier and mother as Margaret Breeffer (Pruffer in other documents). Perhaps Margaret was some kind of relation to Ida Karow, but it’s unlikely we will ever find that link.

In the early 1890s the Heins went to Queensland for some reason not yet known. There is the family oral story of an overland trek but no documentation. The question remains on whether it was the whole family who went or only the boys (which I think most likely given that the parents were then in their mid 60's). An overland journey by wagon driving a few livestock would have taken many months and been very arduous. Also, just after the family's return from Germany in 1890 Julius (the father) took up government land (161 acres) near Mount Gambier, which casts some doubt on the proposition that he (along with Ida and the two girls) would have moved to Queensland with the boys a year or two later.

Although it is probably irrelevant to the question of them being in Queensland around 1894 (when August married Annie Graf), in 1897 Ida purchased a large block of more than an acre (mortgaged to Carl Blume [Carl Boehm?]), and two years later in 1899 Julius bought a house block in the town.