CARL MAYERHOFF'S VINEYARD
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CARL MAYERHOFF'S VINEYARD
(Some family history)
I had a good Methodist upbringing, and my parents confined their alcoholic consumption to the occasional glass of beer or shandy on special occasions. Wine was something consumed by undesirables who lived under bridges, although there was a bottle of sherry in the kitchen cupboard to be used in the custard trifle. My family did not have a wine background. My mother's family, the Illmans, had been farmers at Dowlingville on Yorke Peninsula, before moving to Balaklava. My father's father, a plumber by trade, was born in Scotland, and came to Tasmania at the age of six months, 'in a pirate ship' he told us. We knew little of my father's mother and her family, although it was a source of some humour that they had built an airship that didn't get off the ground.
The purchase of our plot of land in 1974, that was to become The Wilson Vineyard, and the planting of vines, and the subsequent winemaking venture was radically out of step with the family tradition.
The first commercial wine was made in 1980. The equipment for that 4 tonne vintage was crude, but it it was backed up by a wealth of theory gleaned from the books and journals. Viewed with the retrospectoscope, it is amazing that the first wine or two were as good as they were.
On 19 January 1983, we, like all new wine ventures, got our spread of press with an article by Paul Lloyd in the Adelaide 'Advertiser'. When Lloyd asked about my winemaking experience, I confessed that I was flying by the seat of my pants.
Shortly afterwards, I received the letter that follows. I have reproduced it without alteration.
John Wilson
New Lambton, NSW
29th January 1983
Dear John
First I must introduce myself and explain why I take the liberty of addressing you as 'John'. To do this I think the best way would be to take the vine and trace it from the top bud down to the roots.
You are the son of Donald
Donald was the son of Alma
Alma was the daughter of Marie Dorothea
Marie Dorothea was the daughter of Carl Mayerhoff, Vigneron of Beechworth, Victoria
Marie Dorothea was born in 1848 in Berlin, and died in Melbourne in 1889
Carl Mayerhoff was born in 1820 in Berlin, and died at Beechworth 1896
The children of Marie Dorothea were:
Clara, b1872 d1878
Gertrude b1872 d1941. I am the daughter of Gertrude
Arthur and Max b1874 Arthur d?1957 Max d1880
Bertha b1876 d1889 of typhoid
Charles b1878 missing, fate unknown
Lucie b1880 d1952
August b1883 killed in action 1916
Alma b1886
Olga b1888 d197?
From Betty Smith of Flinders Park I received a copy of an article that bore the headlines 'It's just what the doctor ordered' The story of 'John Wilson, maker of some lovely reds goes back' not just to his undergraduate days but much further. How far? Who knows?
You are reported as saying 'nobody taught me. It was flying by the seat of one's pants'. Not wholly true, John. as the bee builds a cluster of hexagonal cells to store its honey, and the swallow uses mud to form the nest, so the penchant of John Wilson for perfection in winemaking flows from an innate, though latent streak in his make-up.
There is in my make-up a streak that will not let me rest until I have made clear to you that you are the new shoot on a very old vine. I shall try to keep my story down to hard facts.
Carl Mayerhoff landed in Australia 1n 1851, fully equipped with tools and rifle, ready to join in the gold rush. He went first to Ballarat and found trouble just beginning, so he promptly left for Beechworth. He and his companion dug here, and dug there, but no gold came their way. His companion gave up and left the fields. Carl liked the country, compared it with his homeland, and decided that as miners had to be fed, there would be more gold for him if he provided food and drink stronger than water.
He took up a block of land, sent to Germany for vine cuttings and fruit trees and set to work. By 1860 he had a home built and his vines growing in readiness for the arrival of his wife and three children (12 to 9 years).
Beechworth was already expanding. His children went to Beechworth Grammar School (about 5 years before Sir Isaac Isaacs). Marie Dorothea, the eldest was a gifted child, for I have a copy of Longfellow's Poems (leather bound) on the fly-leaf of which there is the stamp of Beechworth Grammar School with the words First Class Prize to Mary Mayerhoff Christmas 1863. In 1869 she married Oscar Zimmermann whose father Johann had come to Australia about 1849.
Oscar and family left Beechworth for Melbourne about 1884. In 1888 Carl Mayerhoff's wife died in Beechworth the same month as Olga arrived in Melbourne. Thus began the series of tragedies that broke up the family. Typhoid broke out in Melbourne and raged fiercely through the town. Alma, aged 2, was the first victim in the family. Bertha died of the fever and then a couple of months later Marie Dorothea died, not from typhoid itself but, as my mother always said, from the sheer burden of the sorrow that she had suffered. She left Olga a tiny babe and Alma a child as weak and helpless as a babe. To quote my mother again "Busy-bodies became active. Claiming that my mother was too young to look after her brothers and sisters, they prevailed on Oscar to marry again." My mother packed up and went back to Beechworth to live with her grandfather.
It is from my mother that I know of the success of the vineyards and the wine. Early in the 1890s big companies began to take over, reaping where others had sown. Grandfather Mayerhoff refused to join with them and to adopt methods that made the vine mature more quickly. Then just before his death in 1896 a blight, that destroyed the fruit, began to spread among the vines. After his death there was no one to carry on the work that had occupied him for forty years. (His other daughter, Bertha, had married Harry Meyer, bootmaker, and his son Adolph had died as a youth about 1866-7)
Thus ends my story. Make what you like of it!!!
I am
Yours sincerely
Dorothea Donnelly (according to the electoral roll and officially)
Dorothy to friends
Dorrie to family and close relatives.
Dorrie sent three photographs
*Oscar Zimmermann
*Johann August Zimmermann b. 17th January 1802 Prussia Germany
Came to Australia from Silesia about 1849 d. Beechworth Victoria 14 May 1868.
*Carl Mayerhoff b. 12 August 1820 Berlin
Came to Australia 1851 d. Beechworth Vic. 18th January 1896
Marie Dorothea Frederika Mayerhoff b. 22 March 1822, Berlin Arrived Australia 1860 d. Beechworth 28th August, 1888.
I had thereafter corresponded with Dorrie for a while, but it was not long before word came that she had gone to join the others. I had also taken the opportunity to study the Parish maps of Beechworth whilst in Melbourne.
It occurred to me that Carl Mayerhoff had been one of the pioneers of the wine industry in Victoria, but a matter even closer to my heart was riesling, the noble grape of Germany, that has taken so kindly to the soils of the Clare Valley. Historical research on the origins of riesling is confounded because of other grapes being incorrectly given the name in earlier times. A question that has continued to haunt me is whether great-great-grandfather Mayerhoff may have been had a pioneering role with this variety.
I suspected that the family records and memorabilia may have been scattered widely, but at that time the prospect of a 'descendant-hunt'was not an option.
A number of things have changed. Beechworth is now an emergent wine region, and there is increasing historical interest amongst the revitalised wine industry. The riesling grape, that has long languished as being unfashionable, has re-asserted its position, yet its origins in Australia remain obscure. Thirdly, and most relevant to our times, the internet and advanced search engines make a 'descendant search' worth a go.
I submit, a lineage, as far as is known, of the descendants of the Mayerhoff and Zimmermann families of Beechworth, Victoria. It is intended to revise and expand this, however for the interim I have not followed it through to the present generation, as I believe that it would be discourteous to include details of existing family without their consent.
John Wilson
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Carl Mayerhoff
b. 12th August 1820 d. 17th January,1896, Beechworth, Victoria.
Carl's parents were Fredericke and Sophie Mayerhoff. Frederick (also spelt Fredericke in one version) was a farmer.
m
Marie Dorothea Frederike Kohler (The family records are in conflict over Marie's maiden name; in two different family histories it also appears as Waldemar, and Niemeyer). The source quoting Kohler, also gives her father as Andrew Kohler, and his occupation as timber merchant. There is other documentary evidence contained herein quoting Kohler.
b. 22nd March 1822 d. (according to Dorrie Donnelly) before August 1888, Beechworth, Victoria. Beechworth cemetery records show that Marie Mayerhoff, late of Spring Creek, was buried 29th August 1889 in grave number 250.
Carl came to Australia to join the gold rush and arrived in Victoria on 12th August 1854. This date is provided by Carl's naturalisation record (1st March 1892) and states that he arrived on board the "Vautrim" from Hamburgh (sic), Germany. Marie came to Australia with their three children to join Carl in 1860. It is believed that in Germany, the Mayerhoffs lived in the country close to Berlin, but not in the city.
Dorrie Donnelly writes that she visited Beechworth in 1923, at which time there was no evidence of vines. The property was at Silver Creek, and the home was still in use at that time. Dorrie saw the cellars and some of the large vats. Dorrie has no doubt that Carl Mayerhoff made wine on the property. "The wine was not bottled..., it was sold by cask and to a constant flow of "visitors" to the vineyard. ... The big vats that I saw at the mouth of the cellar, and the series of smaller casks gone back into the cellar were not merely for domestic use." On the matter of vineyard and winemaking practices, Dorrie relates how vine prunings were stacked at the end of rows and burnt when frosts were threatening. Mention is made that the grapes were not trodden, which begs the question of whether Carl Mayerhoff pressed whole grapes. Dorrie recalls a comment by her mother (Gertrude) during the 1900s, at which time the wine industry was expanding in Griffith, and Gertrude spoke disapprovingly of Òpeople who made wine from grapes grown by others".
The children were:
Marie Dorothea Elizabeth
b. 17th November 1848, Berlin
Carl Heinrich Adolph
b. 12th April 1850. Prussia. Marriage noted of Adolph Carl Heinrich Mayerhoff to Margaret Larkin (born Dublin) in 1873 (Index No, 2488). A son, Adolph Carl Henry,, was born Beechworth, 1874 (index No. 737) and died 1875 (Index No. 611). Victorian Death Index lists death of Adolph Mayerhoff in 1874 (No 366), at the age of 23, and parents were shown as Charles/Mary Kohler. A transcription of the Beechworth cemetery records show that Adolph Mayerhoff, late of Spring Creek, was buried on 18th January 1884 (? transcription error in year). In 1875, Margaret Mayerhoff married Christopher Tidymann (Index No. 2500).
Bertha Anna Louise Marie (There are variations on this name in various documents, and the version used has been taken from Carl Mayerhoff''s 1891 will.)
b. 23rd December 1851, Berlin
m. Henry (Harry) Meyer
One source tells us that both Marie (mother) and Marie (Daughter) were school teachers.
The 1892 Report of the Secretary of Agriculture shows only four vineyards at Spring Creek. The vineyard of Carl Mayerhoff is shown as 2 acres, the other three are Frederick Morley with two and a half acres, Christine Myer with 2 acres, and Mary Thompson with 7 and a half acres. In 1899 there were only two vineyards listed at Spring Creek, being Mary Thompson's of 16 acres, and the other operated by William Brewer, but owned by Henry Meyer. This information leans in the direction that Carl Mayerhoff's vineyard probably passed to Henry and Bertha Meyer after his death.
The "Ovens and Murray Advertiser" of Saturday 18th January, 1896, makes brief mention of Carl Mayerhoff''s death: "...Carl Mayerhoff who expired at his residence on the Stanley road in the course of yesterday. He had been residing in the district for about 45 years, having originally been engaged in mining at Reid's Creek, subsequently at Stanley, and for the last 13 years was occupied as a vigneron."
The Probate documents of 17th February 1896 give a description of Carl Mayerhoff's vineyard and cellar:
All that piece of land containing 2 acres and 28 perches or thereabouts, being allotment nineteen Section J two, Parish of Beechworth, County of Bogong on which is erected a weatherboard house of 5 rooms and cellar - shingle roof and outhouses - nearly all the land is under grape vines and it is fenced with a paling fence - the land was occupied by the above-named deceased and is worth together with the improvements thereon, 200 pounds. About 10 hogsheads of wine, 1 year old, worth including the casks containing same - nine pence per gallon - 23 pounds, 12 shillings and 6 pence. Empty casks etc., 5 pounds.
We can conclude that Carl Mayerhoff's 1895 vintage yielded about 650 gallons. To make this quantity the crop would have been about five tons, which is a respectable yield for a vine area of two acres, and begs the question of what was the nature of the "blight" that Dorrie Donnelly mentions in her letter. We suspect that it was powdery mildew that was responsible for damage to the fruit. Marjorie Waters is a grand-daughter of Bertha and Henry Meyer, and recalls, as a child, being shown the property where Grandma Meyer's parents had lived. She described the vineyard as looking "ordinary and neglected". That would have been about the early 1920s.
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THE FAMILY OF JOHANN AUGUST ZIMMERMANN
Johann August Zimmermann (one version spells his name Johanne)
b. 17th January 1812, Prussia d. 14th May 1868, Beechworth, Victoria.
(There is a reference in one version of the family lineage that Zimmermann family records existed in Silesia, Poland.) His parents are not stated on the death certificate.
m. (Prussia)
Natalie Rosalie Alexandrine Granlich (the family records are in conflict over Natalie's maiden name; in one file it is shown as Niemeyer, however the death certificate provides the Granlich version. The death certificate also spells her name Nathalie) Her parents were Carl Granlich whose occupation was a government officer, and her mother was Anne Wefft.
b. 21st April 1819 Prussia, d. 12th July 1875, Beechworth, Victoria.
Johann and Natalie had one surviving child
Oscar August Waldemar Zimmermann
b. 22nd January 1844, Liegnitz, Silesia (in present times Liegnitz is known as Legnica, and is in western Poland.)
Johann arrived at Port Phillip in 1855. According to Dorrie Donnelly, Johann's coming to Australia was something of a mystery, and in the wake of political strife between Prussia and Poland. Gertrude (Dorrie's mother) said that Johann had lived in a big home in Liegnitz and had been connected with a quarry (marble or slate). His naturalisation document (9th September 1861) showed that he arrived aboard the "British Trident", and in 1861 his occupation was shown as vigneron. (The naturalisation document was signed by Supreme Court Judge, Sir Redmond Barry, who is best remembered by history for sending Ned Kelly to the gallows.) Shipping records show that the "British Trident" left Liverpool in April 1855, and arrived at Port Phillip on 19th July, with 355 passengers, mostly English, Irish, and Scots, and 17 from "other parts". The only reference to a Zimmernann is an M. Zimmermann, aged 30, occupation given was "mason".
Natalie came to Australia with Oscar in 1860. Natalie Zimmermann, age shown as 40, was listed as passenger with son Oscar, arriving in Melbourne aboard the "William Carvill" on 25th January 1860. Oscar's age was shown as 11, when, according to other information he would have been about 16. The "William Carvill" had left Liverpool on 15th October 1859. Of the 21 passengers, all but Natalie and Oscar were English or Irish.
Gertrude spoke of Natalie as a "lady who was used to being waited on and obeyed". Dorrie recalls that Tante Borshmann* used to impress upon her that Natalie Zimmermann was "eine echt genadige Frau" (truly a lady of noble birth). Dorrie Donnelly's mother (Gertrude) was only three at the time of Grandmother Zimmermann's death, but Grandmother had already taught Gertrude to knit and crochet.
(*Bertha Mayerhoff married Henry Meyer who had two sisters, Alvina and Hermine. Dorrie knew Alvina in Sydney as Tante Borschmann. Official records show spelling as Alvine, with Elvina and Albinia as variants)
Natalie Zimmermann apparently considered herself above the dirt floors then commonplace in houses. The story is that she had a method of using cow pats, which resulted in a floor of lino-like shine.
One reference (Beechworth Historical Reconstruction) has "Auguste Zimmerman" vigneron with a shop at 12 Ford St, Beechworth, 1866. Dorrie Donnelly claims that Johann Zimmermann did not grow vines. On that point my research in Melbourne is in conflict and points in the direction of Johann Zimmermann having a vineyard near the racecourse. (However further research on this matter needs the cautionary warning that there is evidence, from burial records, that there was another Zimmermann family in the Beechworth area.) However, as will be seen, not only did Johann have a vineyard, but a very successful wine enterprise, and was probably the first to make wine in Beechworth.
Balliere's Victoria Postal Directory, for the years 1868 to 1872 lists J.A. & O. Zimmerman, Vignerons, Beechworth.
After Johann's death, Natalie lived with Oscar and Marie in the town.
Oscar was 16, and had just finished school in Berlin when he landed in Beechworth. To continue Dorrie's story: "There were no technical institutes except where mining was concerned and his education was halted but not so his one great ambition: to build an airship on the principles acquired in Berlin; the principles that led to the Zeppelin airship. In Beechworth, after his marriage, he worked in the mines, not as a miner, but mother told a story concerning him on guard at the mouth of the mine during the time of the Kelly gang. Oscar and family went to live in Melbourne about 1884'5, and it was there that he actually constructed an airship but it did not get off the ground because of lack of skilled helpers caused a failure in the gas used to inflate the balloon. He was responsible for the invention of many smaller items but had to sell the plans. In 1920, or thereabouts, my mother bought a hand-worked washing machine simply because it was made on the same principle that her father had planned." In 1901 his occupation was shown as a painter, and his address was Burke Avenue, Auburn.
After the failure of the airship, the family wore (quite literally) the fabric for many years. The incident was apparently associated with some spark damage to the silk, and the best clothes worn by the family were decorated with small spark-holes.
It was a matter of some lament to Gertrude, that music did not rate highly in Oscar's priorities, however he was quite a gadget man in the matter of new innovations, and was one of the first to purchase a barrel organ - that Gertrude hated!
I place considerable credibility on Dorrie Donnelly's version of the family. The other resource that I have contains some inconsistencies. This latter source tells us that one of the Zimmermann line was winemaker to Kaiser Wilhelm.
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Note that the name here is spelt with only one 'N'. Zimmermann family records are clear about the double 'N' spelling, however some contemporary reports use the shortened version.
Most of the information relating to the 'Alexandra' vineyard is derived from contemporary reports that have been researched by Mark Walpole of Vineyard Aquila Audax, of Beechworth, and included in a 1998 Geographic Indication Submission by the Beechworth Vignerons in support of the Beechworth Region.
Having noted that variation of spelling, my commentary will use the double 'N' spelling unless making a direct quote which will be indicated by quotation marks.
(For the sake of consistency, and given the variations of spelling, I shall henceforth refer to my forebear as J. A. Zimmermann.)
The 'Ovens and Murray Advertiser' of 2nd January 1857 reported that 'an enterprising German named Zimmerman has purchased a suburban allotment on the hills to the eastward of the township, and is now laying it out for a vineyard. There is no reason to our knowledge why such an enterprise should not succeed in this locality as well as Albury. The soil is good, the temperature but very little lower than on the banks of the Murray: the hill on which this allotment lies has a fine northerly aspect, and is well sheltered to the south.... There is a possibility also of our obtaining in a few years further, wines of our own growth, colonial wines have been too much neglected, but we imagine them once this precious drink can be made of good quality within a stone's throw of our own dwellings, that an article of local growth will at least receive local attention....'
There are further reports in the 'Ovens and Murray Advertiser' on J. A. Zimmermann's Alexandra Vineyards in June and December 1857.
The Vineyard was known as the Alexandra Vineyard. At the same time he took out a colonial wine licence. The rates records show 'Auguste Zimmerman' in 1860/61 holding land and buildings listed at Racecourse Road. The following year's rates records show Crown Allotment 3, section A. In 1865/66 he is listed as having 10 acres of vineyard and premises at Balaclava Road.
In 1862 the Beechworth Agricultural and Horticultural Show awarded 2nd place for the best example of the '61 vintage to Zimmermann's Riesling. A dinner followed which saw 55 men seated with the editor counting 119 black bottles ('Ovens and Murray Advertiser' 25. 2.1862). On 1.1. 1866 there is a description by variety of J. A. Zimmermann's vineyard.
In 1863-4 'John August Zimmerman' owned 10 acres and a cultivated vinery. By 1865 he had increased this to 20 acres. (Rate Notices 1862 to 1875).
In 1864 J. A. Zimmermann had advertised for sale nine different wines, 'either by glass or bottle including Tokay, Riesling, Brown Muscat, Aucarot, Shiraz, Malbec, White Muscat etc'.
'The Ovens and Murray Advertise' of 3rd June 1865 (Quoting from the Argus) states that 'That wine making is making rapid progress in this colony we daily have evidence. The latest proofs submitted to us of what can be done in the colony we owe to Mr. Zimmerman of the Alexandra Vineyard, near Beechworth, who from six acres of vines (four of them only in bearing), is now able to bring to market some reasonably good wines. The samples we have tasted are Tokay, Brown Muscatel, White Muscatel and Metaro. They are of last season's vintage and must commend themselves to the attention of the lovers of good wines. The Metaro especially is admirable, body and bouquet alike being fine. The Riesling from the same vineyard took the first prize at the annual competition under the management of the Vinegrowers Association this year.' Zimmermann was a committee member of the Murray, Ovens, and Goulburn Vinegrowers Association in 1865 ('Ovens and Murray Advertiser' 28.2.65).
In 1866, J. A. Zimmermann opened a wine shop in Ford Street, Beechworth. From the description by 'The Ovens and Murray Advertiser' (31st March) we conclude that this was similar to the modern wine bar, where wine was sold by the glass, and operated in competition to the hotels. 'Mr Zimmerman having opened a wine shop in Beechworth, it became our duty - not an unpleasant one - to taste the wines he was offering to the public..... Mr. Zimmerman's shop is situated in a good position, above Fishers, and on the same side in Ford Street. The premises are not in themselves very imposing or commodious, but Mr. Zimmerman has made the most of them, having newly fitted up the shop in front, which acts as a bar, and a more private apartment behind.... he no doubt reckons on the more refined taste of his own countrymen to give him a good start. Mr Zimmerman, we think, offers four different wines, but probably he can, and will add a greater variety, especially as the best wines to our mind, ever made by Mr. Zimmerman - Tokay - is not amongst the number. The wines are all new, one only being as much as two years old, but as this two year old wine is superior to the others, we may take it for granted, its additional age has added to its excellence. It will be some time before English educated taste will fully appreciate the wines now principally made in this colony... Mr Zimmerman's two year old Brown Muscatel is a very fair wine indeed and will no doubt continue to improve with age. The other three wines are White Muscatel, Malbec, and Riesling, and although only a year old, they are evidently depending on their nature strength, and the Riesling, especially, is full flavoured.... As to the system generally of wine shops, we look upon it as a wholesome revolution, likely only not to suit the palates of the coming generation, but to modify and refine the taste of those who have been accustomed to more fiery liquids. There can be no doubt of the moral effect that will be produced by the wine shops as it will compel the publicans to sell them at such a rate that it will tempt men to buy them instead of brandy and knowing the extraordinary change that has taken place in the public place with regard to colonial beer now very generally drank in preference to English, it may safely be predicted that still greater revolution will be brought about by the general introduction of colonial wine at a reasonable price. Nothing has so much hurt the character of colonial wines as the system of low public houses... poisoning their customers at a shilling a glass with the most detestable compound it is possible to conceive. Some publicans do really keep very superior colonial wines to be produced only on extraordinary occasions for fastidious customers, but the sale of pure wine by the vigneron themselves will compel them to produce those hoarded treasures and to sell them at reasonable prices.... as for Mr. Zimmerman's wine, we can safely say that it is pure, pleasant and wholesome, and the new wine shop is well worthy of patronage.'
THE FAMILY OF OSCAR ZIMMERMANN AND MARIE (nee MAYERHOFF)
Oscar August Waldemar Zimmermann
b. 22nd January 1844 d. 6th May 1912, Melbourne
m. Beechworth, 1869
Marie Dorothea Elizabeth Mayerhoff (the marriage certificate shows her as Marie Elizabeth Dorothea)
b. 17th November 1848, Berlin. d. 5th June 1889, Brunswick, Victoria.
Dorrie Donnelly's version is that Marie was the only person in Beechworth deemed (by Natalie Zimmermann we assume) good enough to marry Oscar - "hand-picked and marriage arranged".
Clara Ceceilia Bertha
b. 13th May 1870 died age 8 (Beechworth cemetery records show that Clara was buried in grave number 650 on 31 July 1878).
Gertrude Mary Natalie
b. 8th March 1872
married Walter Allen Donnelly
d. Manly 21 September 1941
Children: Dorothea (Dorrie), Joe, Walter, Eric, Tess.
Max Oscar Karl
b. 4th December 1874. d. (according to Dorrie Donnelly) about 1882, Beechworth Victoria. (Beechworth cemetery records show burial 31 August 1880, grave 650).
Arthur Hermann August
b. 4th December 1874 During the First World War, Arthur changed his name to Arthur BRINKLEY, taking the maiden name of his wife. He died in Adelaide 1957. There was a son (there were evidently other children), Charles Maxwell Zimmermann, who died aged 17 at Horsham, Victoria, in 1926 (Index No. 5806). The interest here being that Charles retained the Zimmermann name.
Bertha Eleise Martha
b. 30 July 1876. died of typhoid in Melbourne 1889.
Carl August (Charles)
b. 30 July 1878. About 1893 wrote to Gertrude in Beechworth, from New South Wales, asking for financial help to go share-farming. Grandfather, Carl Mayerhoff refused cash, but offered help on his vineyard. There was never an answer, and no further knowledge of Carl. There was a belief amongst some of the family that Carl may have been murdered although Dorrie Donnelly denied any knowledge of that. There is a story that Carl was the beneficiary of a relatively small inheritance, and that to this day the amount, with accumulated interest, awaits claim by his descendants! (All of Marie and Oscar Zimmermann's children were beneficiaries of Carl Mayerhoff's estate which was divided equally between the Zimmermann children on the one part, and Bertha Meyer or her children on the other part.)
Lucie Clara
b. 22nd August 1880.
married George Brinkley (George Brinkley's sister married Arthur).
d. Feb 1968.
August Oscar Waldemar (also known as George)
b. 5th January 1883. August changed his name to WILSON in First World War. He enlisted and was killed at the front in 1916. August married, and was present in 1913 in Perth for the marriage of his sister Alma to James Wilson. In the photograph of the wedding group, it is believed that August is standing next to Alma, and the lad seated is believed to be August's son, name unknown. August's presence in Perth, and the taking of the Wilson name would suggest a close connection with Alma.
Alma Louise (birth index entry shown as Alma Louisa).
b. 29th July 1886. d. 18th September 1970. This was my paternal grandmother. Alma left school at the age of 13, to go out to work. At 18 she moved to South Australia because her two sisters Olga and Lucie were there. She worked as a governess for a family called Taylor, and when they moved to Perth, they offered to take her. It was in Perth that she met and married James Wilson. We have already seen how the family changed their names with the onset of World War One. Within our family it was always believed that her maiden name was THOMAS, and it was only Dorrie Donnelly's 1983 letter that revealed the truth. Obviously great lengths had been resorted to, in order to conceal the German ancestry.
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Olga Matilda
b. 6th August 1888
married name Berryman
THE SECOND MARRIAGE OF OSCAR ZIMMERMANN
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Percy
b. 1890, South Melbourne. Killed 9th January 1901, result of fall from a baker's cart.
Emma Louise
b. 1893, Lily (?Lilydale). Emma (also known as Emily) married John McEwan 1917. Emma died as a result of a motor vehicle accident, 8th August, 1964
Some versions of the family records cause confusion by suggesting that this daughter was Emily (otherwise known as Millie). Millie (Millicent) Zimmermann was the daughter of Lucie, from a relationship prior to her marriage to George Brinkley. No doubt such confusion served to make things appear a little more respectable to Millie's family, however as Millie died in 1980, and her descendants are now fully comfortable with the real version of events, we can attempt to revert to the real facts of history.
Contact has been made with Emily's family, and her surviving descendants describe her as a refined and gentle lady, who spoke little about her past. They have been sincerely thankful for the details of their Zimmermann heritage that have been the subject of this research, and of which they had previously known very little. No photographs nor memorabilia were passed on to them. They too, had known of Oscar's failed balloon venture. Emily was described as being a lady who was straight and tall (which description equally applied to my Grandmother, Alma), and the story was told of Oscar requiring Emily to walk around with books balanced on her head to develop balance and poise! Emily's death certificate lists Oscar's occupation as a carpenter.
THE FAMILY OF HARRY MEYER AND BERTHA ANNE MARIE (nee MAYERHOFF)
My interest in this family is that they were in Beechworth at the time of Carl Mayerhoff's death, and would have been the logical recipients of anything that was to be passed down.
Henry Meyer, Bootmaker (the Meyer family came from Hanover) b. 21.5.1844, d. 31.10.1925.
m. (1873)
Bertha Anna Louisa Marie Mayerhoff
b. 23 December 1851, Berlin. d. 18.2.1927, Melbourne
Andrew Charles, b 1874 d. 1892 painter's colic (lead poisoning) - Andrew was an apprentice coach builder and livery painter.
Adolph Henry Charles b. 1876 m. Mary Ann King 1902. d. 1951 Sydney.
Henry Charles b. 1878 m. Minnie Louisa Farley 1903. d. 1958 Sydney
Carl Frederich (Charlie) b 1880 m. Ella Kinchington 1912 d. 1963. Charlie's wife died in childbirth, and Charlie did not re-marry.
Marie Augusta b. 1882 m. Wm Charles Baird 1912. d. 1967 New Zealand.
Albert Francis b. 1884 m. Ada Margaret Kyme 1909 d. 1967
Bertha Henrietta b. 1887 m. William Kier Grady 1910. d. 1940
Sophie Evelyn b. 1889 d 1907 of typhoid
Frederick Herman George b.1891. Private Frederick Herman George Meyer, died of wounds, 14th October 1916. Son of Henry and Bertha Louisa Meyer of Hodge Street, Beechworth. Age 26
Gertrude Louisa b. 1892, d. 1913 of typhoid.
I have made contact with the grand-daughter of Albert who laments that her grandfather spoke little of his family. She relates that Charlie (Carl Frederich) became unsettled after the death of his wife, and eventually lived with Albert and family. There was a strong horticultural ethic within the Meyer family that appears to have been strongest with Bertha (Carl Mayerhoff's youngest daughter). Bertha was apparently always occupied in her garden, or otherwise involved in the kitchen and apparently delighted in producing meals of Germanic proportions. Bertha had a particular penchant for raspberries, and the story is that what surplus there was after making jam was sold to the local cordial factory in Beechworth. Henry and Bertha would keep a pig for disposal of scraps, and the story was that when the time came to dispose of the pig, that nothing would be wasted, even the bristles were scavenged for use as paint brushes. Albert was the last of the Meyer family to leave Beechworth but apparently had little reverence for family records or memorabilia. Jam-making, pickles and preserves were Albert's forte, whilst Charlie is said to have grown enough vegetables in the yard of the property at Kew, to feed the neighbourhood.