Frederick WALDECK

WALDECK, FREDERICK (b. Germany, 1807; d. Greenough, WA, 14 Sept 1895). Missionary to Aborigines.

Little precisely is known about the ancestry of Frederick Waldeck except that he came from the German nobility. He served his apprenticeship to tailoring in Bremen and later, in May 1833 migrated to London where he set up a tailoring business. In Sept 1835 the Western Australian Missionary Society was chartered in London to evangelise the Aborigines. The Society was both interdenominational and international. Irish, Scottish and English churches pledged support through local branches and a group of Christians from Stuttgart in Germany also contributed. The society was set up along the lines of the world famous Moravian Missions. The Rev Louis Giustiniani DD an Italian, accompanied by his German wife and two German catechists, Frederick Waldeck and Fredericka Kniest were sent to the Swan River Colony to begin work among the Aborigines. They arrived at Fremantle 26 June 1836 on Addingham. They set up their mission in Guildford almost at once and began work among the Aborigines. A few weeks after arriving in the colony Frederick married Miss Kniest. The mission did not progress as well as expected. Within a year Frederick Waldeck and his wife left Guildford and set up a tailoring business in Perth.

Frederick was naturalised in 1841, and he immediately acquired a lot in Hay Street where he built his home and shop. In Sept 1840 the Wesleyan Methodists opened a Native School in Perth, later transferred to Wannaroo in 1844 where a 60 acre parcel of land known as Alder Lake Farm had been secured. The land proved unsuitable for serious farming. In Oct 1848 Waldeck was appointed superintendent. At this time the Waldecks had six children, a seventh and possibly eighth were born while they were at the Wannaroo farm. Despite his flourishing business and family, Frederick Waldeck took on the position because he saw that the need for a superintendent was great. The Wesleyan Society paid Waldeck a salary of £90 for the first year and free farm milk and vegetables. John Smithies (q.v.) described the Waldeck couple as 'deeply pious ... with a tender and increasing love for the natives' cause ... He has a good knowledge of farming and general usefulness'. Later he was to write to London that Waldeck was 'not all the help he wanted for school operations but he consciously does his duty and in a spiritual sense is a blessing'.

With the Waldecks in charge of the farm the native children's schooling recommenced. They also held regular morning and evening Bible readings as well as conducting singing and prayers. Twenty natives were then living on the farm. The farm was still not supporting itself as had been hoped. At the end of their third year the Waldecks left the farm and returned to Perth. For over 20 years Frederick Waldeck and his family were actively associated with the Wesleyans in Perth. He was a trustee of Wesley Church, a member of the choir and for many years was the superintendent of the Sunday School.

Frederick took up 30 acres in Greenough (480 km N of Perth) in 1857. He built a solid homestead which he named Mt Pleasant and by the turn of the century the Mt Pleasant holding consisted of 900 acres. The Waldecks were one of the pioneering families in the district and he was sometimes referred to as 'the father of us all'. The Waldecks quickly arranged for Methodist services to begin and soon a church was built. By 1863 of the 650 white settlers in the Greenough Northhampton districts 468 of them claimed to be Methodists. Mt Pleasant homestead was a church, doctor's surgery, courthouse, post office and tailor's shop. Most of the children were married from Mt Pleasant.

Frederick and Fredericka Waldeck survived 5 of their 6 sons. An obituary in the West Australianon 16 Sept 1895 included the following: 'By his death Greenough loses one of the most respected of its settlers, and one whose name was a household word for a life of benevolence ... many owe their lives to the active Christianity of this good, old man. He possessed no small skill in medicine and surgery ... and when Greenough was not supplied with a medical practitioner, without fee or reward, (he attended many and was often called) "good old Doctor Waldeck".'

Ronald Turner, Foundations Not Made With Hands (Perth, 1984); Norman King, The Waldeck Story (Fremantle, 1980); Thomas Farmer, Extract from the Journal of Thomas Farmer (Wesley Church Archives)

JAMES H CAIN