[JKS]  -  Partner of  Samuel Daveport at Bugle Ranges.  He was a fairly well off Anglo-Irishman who also had property at Beaumont, and was a well known bushman.  He was killed in 1854 when thrown from his horse at Rivoli Bay.  He is believed to have endowed a scholarship at St Peters College, Adelaide, for young country boys to study there.

[RB]  -  Bill von Doussa had two wives.  His first wife died young – children Charlie and Gay.  Second wife – John the Judge was her child.  Rumoured to have a mistress by whom he had another son.  Used to hold weekend afternoon tennis parties behind their home in Ki-Ora St Mt Barker.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[JKS]  -  Married to Dorothea Ann Schach in 1847 - 1st marriage in Blakiston Church, father of Louis (lawyer and politician).

VON DOUSSA, Louis

[RB]  - Solicitor Mt Barker

[JKS]  -  Son of Eric - solicitor.  Married Agnes Bowman of Finniss.  Prominent townsman and lawyer, elected to parliament in 1889, and was at one time Attorney General and also Minister for Education.

[RB]  - Solicitor Mt Barker.  Trustee, Mt Barker Institute.

WADDELL, James

[JKS]  - The Waddell family who called their homestead between Blakiston and Nairne, "Spring Bank", is still remembered by the older people of Mount Barker, or those who "heard mother speak about them".  There is an obituary record in the local Court house of the death of Margaret Waddell, aged 27, wife of -- Wadell (spelt with one 'l'), mariner, Port Adelaide, who died February 18 1858.  There is a further record of the death of Isabella Waddell, who died on Febrary 7 1869 aged 62, wife of -- Waddell.  The inscription on the monument in the Blakiston cemetery makes it certain that this was the wife of John Waddell, of "Spring Bank".  Mrs McKenzie, who knew the family well, says that there were two brothers and three sisters that came out with their father and mother in 1839.  The late J.J. Bonnar lived with the family for a time.  One daughter, Jessie, who came to the colony as a widow (Mrs Craigie) married James Brown of Avenue Range, South-East.  He died at Glen Osmond February 7 1890 at the age of 72.  Mrs Brown died at the City of Niagara Falls, U.S.A. on November 13 1892 at the age of 67.  On the monument at West Terrace she is described as a colonist of 53 years.  This places the arrival of the family in the year 1839.  Mrs Brown erected a handsome monument over the grave of her mother and father in the Blakiston cemetery.  John Waddell, the father died June 19 1871 at the age of 70.  His wife's full name was Isabella Brydon.  Mrs Brown was one of the chief benefactors of Minda Institution.  The sister, Carry, married someone in Victoria.  Mary, according to Mrs McKenzie's recollection, married a Mr Anderson in Adelaide.  My impression is that she married one of the Gordons, a neighboring family.  The brother James went lately to Broken Hill and the other brother went to Broughton when that district was opened for settlement by farmers.  Henry Bonnar was tutor to the Waddell family and later Maud Jean Franc (Miss Congreve) was governess."
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

WADDY,

[JKS]  -  Teacher and wife of Dr. Walker.

[RB]  -  Hugo Waltrowitz was a painter and decorator.  His great books of wallpaper patterns used to fascinate children.  He had a wonderful garden, also the enclosed back verandah filled with ferns.  Each of the oak trees in Windsor Ave had a ring of different daffodils around the trunk.

Mrs Hugo Waltrowitz’s mother went to her daughter in her last illness – wore a huge white night dress.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Early land records in SAs General Registry Office show that W Wailes was a clerk when he bought Lot 89 in the township of Hindmarsh during 1847.  Considering Wailes’s apparent consuming interest in grain, it is likely that he worked at John Ridley’s flour mill, founded in December 1840 and probably the oldest in SA.  Early in 1854, William bought a strategic two acres of land with links to both the Old and New Mt Barker Roads, near Cox Creek.  Within a few months, he had built a substantial stone mill and installed steam-driven equipment.  Sadly, by the end of that year, Wailes had to declare bankruptcy at the hands of Nathaniel Oldham the money-lender.  Not to be daunted, W Wailes moved to Gawler, where he borrowed money from Willaston cornfactor Thomas Scown to purchase allotment 58 in the newly-established estate of Bassett Town; fate again proved merciless and Wailes resumed his bankrupt state in July 1859.  With this blow, mention of William Wailes disappears from SA records.

[JKS]  - The Walkers are rather hard to turn up.  Dr. John Walker, J.P. married a sister of the late William Rankine of Strathalbyn.  He resided for a time in Mount Barker and built what afterwards became the Presbyterian Manse, but never lived in it.  In 1861 he was appointed Protector of Aborigines.  He must have then been practising at Strathalbyn.  Andrew Melville Walker was a brother.  He died on October 13 1856, at the age of 34.  He is described as 'stockholder, Hampden, Strathalbyn'.  The death certificate was signed by Dr. John Walker.  James Walker was a brother who was a stockholder at Strathalbyn.  William Walker was, I think, another brother.  He practised as a solicitor at Mount Barker and died May 21 1869 at the age of 51.  Dr. Walker's father was a Presbyterian minister in Scotland.  His only son, named Jeffrey, died young.  This happened about the time that the late William Rankine's second son was born.  An unused cot was given to the William Rankine family and the new-born son (now resideing at Woodville) was given the name of Jeffrey Walker Rankine.  Dr. Walker died at Adelaide, September 26 1868.
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

WALKER, James Thomas

[RB]  -  Labourer on Windmill Hill.  Raymond Warner had a dance band.

(Max's Hahndorf)

WARREN, Mary

[RB]  - Publican Gray’s Inn 1880-1881.  Married the next publican William Ritson.

[RB]  -  Mrs Hulda Webb and her daughter Clara used to foster state boys – Freddie Brooks and Freddy Cameron.

(Max's Hahndorf)

WEDD, W

[RB]  - A member of the 1st committee of the Mt Barker Cricket Club, formed in 1866.

[JKS]  -  Fencing contractor with Cleggett brothers.

WEIDEMANN, Wilhelm

[RB]  - Publican Mt Barker Hotel 1877-1894.  At Callington during the 1860s.

[JKS]  -  Lived at Nairne for a while then moved to Mt Barker, lived in the old Crown Hotel (RSL rooms).  Weld Park is named after him.  His daughter Eleanor was one of the first female doctors in SA.  Dr. Weld died on 28th  October 1901 at Mt Barker at the age of 68.  He was a justice of the peace for the town, and a genuine man of the people.  He left money to be set aside for a public park for children - hence Weld Park was built in his memory.  Dr. Weld was married to Anne Johnston in 1861 at St James' Church, Blakiston, and had four children with her - Theodosia in 1862, Annie in 1866, Mary Eleanor in 1870, and Elizabeth Eleanor in 1873.  He was the son of Joseph Weld and ....  He is buried at the St James' church yard, where an old fashioned pink tea rose which bears his name is planted on his grave.

[RB]  -  Born Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, England.  To SA 1852 Standard, with wife, Ann, and adult family.  1st lived at Alberton and Norwood.  c1859, the Welfares arrived in Cox Creek, where they lived in the comfortable slab home which William Radford had recently vacated when he re-established his post office at Bridgewater.  John Welfare became a successful market gardener in the damp gully, a tributary of Cox Creek.  He also established a small library in the former post office building (boasting a new door, as the original green one with the letter box slit accompanied the Radfords to Bridgewater), as a branch of the Carey Gully Institute Library.  Book borrowers could admire the riot of flowers which flourished beneath the spreading oaks nearby.  Fruit trees in season increased the floral display.

Following John’s death in 1867, Ann continued to live alone, although blind and forced to move to the post office room when a bushfire destroyed her pioneer home.  Daughter Ann, who married gardener Noah Nichols, lived further up the rise; her daugher, Eliza Gates, sold the Welfares’ property to Tulli Wollaston in 1911.  He knocked down the former post office building when establishing the Ray Nursery in 1925.

Died 25/3/1867.  Ann died 8/2/1887.

WERNER Family

[RB]  -  Hermann Werner married Maria Jaensch, a daughter of Traugott Jaensch of Hartley.  Hermann Werners used to have a farm next to the railway line on the back road between Mt Barker and Callington.  Soil rather thin and stony.  The farm became worn out because Hermann never put super on the soil.  The family sold up, and moved to a farm across the river from Mannum – Hermann lost that when he had to save his son, Jonathan Werner, from police action concerning his race horse Black Rogue in the mid 1930s.  Jon Werner moved to Mundulla and his parents went with Hermann’s love child Lila to live with their eldest daughter Ida Nitschke on her farm near Hahndorf.  After Hermann died, Mrs Werner moved to a small cottage at the back of Wittwer’s mill in Hahndorf, but she went back to her daughter after she began to lose her memory and could not look after herself properly.  Mrs Werner loved to visit her Jaensch relatives in Hahndorf.

(Max's Hahndorf)

WHITE, Joseph Junr (1850-19/6/1913)

[RB]  -  A young Sydney businessman with a wife and son, who lived on a property called Karkoo, on Foxhill Rd, Bridgewater, near where it joins the Deanery Road.  Mr Whitty went to Adelaide each day to work, while his son roamed far and free across the countryside, counting only on a great St Bernard dog for protection.  The Whittys remained in Bridgewater for only a few years.  Before the Whittys, the Ramsay family conducted the Karkoo Nursery on the property.  The Ramsays were famous for their fruit trees and odourless onions.  In the early 1960s, Karkoo homestead was demolished to make way for the Freeway.  Still to be identified.  Date of deaths.

[RB]  -  Hans Joachim Wigge b 5/11/1891 Sundern, Kreis Lübbecke, Germany d 23/4/1972 Hahndorf A Ziegelmacher.

Hans used to go to Carlton to shoot hares.

(Max's Hahndorf)

WOOD, William Alfred

WOODCOCK, Sergeant

[RB]  -  Born Tunstall, Suffolk, England.  To SA 1849 William Hyde.  He became Adelaide’s well-known bookseller and stationer in Rundle and Hindley Sts.  In retirement after his wife Jane’s death, ES Wigg removed permanently to Alderwood, the family’s weekend home in Shannon Parade, above the Bridgewater railway station.  His two unmarried daughters, Nellie and Florence, cared for him.  Books and paintings filled the gracious home, through which lavender picked from the rambling garden lent a delightful perfume.  Gardening remained an important priority, together with encouraging wildlife to feel at home in the extensive grounds. The family’s town home in Lefevre Tce, North Adelaide, served as a pied-a-terre for occasional trips to the city.  Edgar revelled in acting as a JP for Bridgewater citizens who required his services, and lent a generous community hand wherever he could.

Following ES Wigg’s death, the Misses Wigg remained at Bridgewater for some years, active in Institute, Red Cross and World War I fund-raising efforts.  HH Shannon, the district’s long-serving state MP, lived at Alderwood from the 1930s until his death in 1976.

[RB]  -  Landed with his wife and children in SA aboard the Shah in 1837.  He almost immediately became Stipendiary Magistrate for the District of Adelaide and held several other important legal appointments.  Henry also had the luck to be one of the syndicate which applied to found Glenelg.  However, H Wigley died in obscurity at Grünthal (now Verdun), near Hahndorf.  JW Bull and many others confused the father with the much more prominent son, WR Wigley, who became a Member of Parliament and Mayor of Glenelg.  WR Wigley was only ten years old when the family arrived in SA.

[RB]  -  At 1st lived in Jamaica, with his wife Hannah, and a family of step-children.  Through his contact as a first cousin of Mrs John Dunn , Thomas’s three eldest stepsons emigrated to SA in the early 1850s, where they all obtained work at Dunn’s Mt Barker flour mill - James Taylor, who had been Deputy Postmaster-General for Jamaica, became Dunn’s Mt Barker accountant; later, half- brother, Charles McConnell, secured a similar position at the firm’s Cox Creek mill for a period, while brother Henry found his life’s work there as a labourer.  Encouraged, no doubt, by reports of favourable living conditions, Thomas and Hannah followed to SA, settling first at Langhorne Bridge, where the main Strathalbyn-Wellington road crossed the Bremer River.  However, the climate proved too hot and dry, especially for using a grand 4-room tent home the Willes brought out from England.  (Name of the emigration boats for the Willis and Taylors).  In early 1857, T Wills decided to buy a small cottage with 35 acres of scrub land (portion of Section 1135 Hundred of Onkaparinga) for £350, immediately north of the Deanery, at Cox Creek, from farmer Simon Boase.  Unfortunately, Thomas died several months after the move; Cox Creek leeches bled him during his last illness and the family buried him under a pear tree in the front garden, close to the Old Mount Barker Road.  The Wills’s maid, Mary-Ann Jacobs (sister of Mrs Michael Kain), slept in a small detached room nearby, whose calico-covered window overlooked the grave.  Tragedy struck again in 1864, when Hannah’s son, James Taylor, died of consumption.  For a time, the widow remained on the Cox Creek property, in which she had a life interest.  Toughened from dealings with Jamaican slaves, she developed a reputation amongst local labourers for being a hard task-mistress.  However, in 1867, Hannah Wills retired, and the farm passed to Beaumont farmer Joseph Steer.  Hannah d 8/12/1880.  Charles Richard McConnell d 30/6/1881.  He lived Norwood Parade, aged 49.  Did the Wills family live in The Chestnuts?

[RB]  -  Frederick Ernest Wilson & Mary nee TRELOAR – of Hahndorf & Grunthal; shifted away to Monteith and Murray Bridge by the late 1920s

John Ernest Wilson b 18/5/1914 Hahndorf

Emma Mary Janet Wilson b 30/9/1915 Grunthal

Bertha Hilda Wilson b 22/7/1917 Hahndorf

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Born in Carstan, Stromness, Orkneys, Scotland.  To SA 1865, from Vic, where he had married. Builder, contractor, civil engineer, mostly for the Governments of SA, the Commonwealth and Fiji.  Built the Granite Island causeway.  One of the contractors for the Mt Lofty-Nairne Railway line £150,000.  The firm Built Hackney Bridge, Morphett St Bridge, Largs Bay pier and railway, Grange railway.  Lived North Adelaide.  Died Suva, Fiji, where he had been constructing wharfs, bridges etc since the death of his wife.  Poor health from many accidents on his construction sites.  Wife, Caroline Walter, nee Webster d 24/7/1901.

[RB]  -  Red Edy Wittwer ran a bran and pollard and chaff business in the former flour mill until his death.  Herb Wittwer, who had worked for Dr Auricht, took over the business.  The brothers used to cut chaff in the top storey of the former mill.  When the mill operated, this was the place to store bags of flour and wheat.  Herb also pulled the boiler chimney down and sold off the bricks at the beginning of World War 2.  Also smashed up the steam engine boiler with gelignite and sold the pieces as scrap iron.

Herb operated a weighbridge for his customers and his own purposes.  Public weighbridge at Balhannah, which the Balhannah Hotel publican operated from his business on the other side of the street.  Clarrie Ledgard, a very tall man, was publican in the 1920s, and charged 1/- a load to weigh.

Bill Wittwer used to do some vet work at which he was quite good and then gave his brother Herb a hand at the bran and pollard and chaff business.  Ted always worked for the Echunga and then the Mt Barker DC – where he was foreman until he retired and Gordon Bernhardt took over.

Mrs August Wittwer used to shell peas on a bench under the verandah.  Bill Faehrmann offered to help, and she told him to whistle all the time so that he did not have a chance to eat any.

Their aunt Mrs Harry Wittwer and cousin Verena Wood nee Wittwer next door to the mill had the care of the Holland state children.  Elsie and her brothers, Ken Big Peter and Clem Little Peter wore no boots and had short trousers.  Very quiet children and never got into trouble.  Clem Holland was skilled at tree climbing and used to go bird egg collecting.  Verena kept cows to sell milk and butter.  Eldie Thiele used to take milk cans around on the handlebars of her push bike to make deliveries.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  A water miller from the tiny village of Guhren, some 5km north-west of Züllichau, the .Kreisstadt for Kreis Züllichau-Schwiebus, Brandenburg.  Guhren is on a tributary of the Oder, which enters the major stream a little to the west of Tischerzig, where the Wittwers set off by river barge on the 1st stage of their journey for SA.  Wilhelm also brought out his milling assistant, 28-year old Gottlob Schirmer.  The Cox Creek water mill, established in early 1842, must have been one of the most active businesses of Grünthal, a settlement formed by some 10 families c1841 as an outpost of Hahndorf.  After the Wittwer mill on Cox Creek was washed away later 1840s, the family moved to the Windmill on the Hill, between Hahndorf and Mt Barker.  The Cox Creek grinding stones are now in St Michael’s churchyard, Hahndorf.

Newspaper article May 1842 ---

Some Germans have bought land near the junction of Cock’s Creek and the Onkaparinga River and have commenced the erection of a water-power mill and are far advanced in the undertaking.  As this is the only creek so far as we are aware within a reasonable distance of Adelaide and which runs all the year through and with a rapid descent, we have no doubt in a few years it will be occupied with mills through its whole course.

September 1843 ---

The Germans ... have erected a good water mill which is abundantly supplied from Cox’s Creek during 6 or 7 months of the year and it is expected that even in the summer months the supply of water will be sufficient to keep at least one pair of stones a-going.

[BR]  -  Born at Lake Hamilton Station, near Pt Lincoln, the son of pastoralist George Wollaston, who in turn was a son of the first WA Anglican priest, the Rev’d JR Wollaston.  Tullie married Emma Manthorpe, daughter of the Rev’d Charles Manthorpe, a pioneer SA Congregational minister.  Suddenly, despite the responsibilities of a growing family, TC Wollaston gave up his secure position in the SA Survey Office and pursued a wildly successful career in opal and emerald dealing.  In 1904, Tullie began buying land at Bridgewater to establish a grand estate he named Raywood.  He had an intense interest in native Australian trees and shrubs (experimentation with Bridgewater nurseryman ER Beckett produced the popular claret ash sport, Fraxinus Raywoodii) and wrote extensively about these and his other great love - opals.  During 1924, Wollaston became known world-wide - for his glistening opal display assembled for the Wembley Empire Trade Exhibition near London.  Sadly, the Great Depression devestated the Wollaston fortune.  Undermined in health, Tullie died in 1931, and his family sold the Raywood estate to promising young politician, AR Downer.

WRAIGHT, Moses

[RB]  -  Born Lambeth, to SA 1837.  John Renwick married Sarah Wade 1836, Kennington.  He accompanied fellow explorers Finlayson and Barton in their discovery of Cox Creek during 1837 on a trip over the Adelaide Hills to the Murray River.  Brazier, smith, storekeeper, landlord.  Died Semaphore, buried Hindmarsh.  Anglican.  Family of 2 boys and 4 girls. Death of Sarah Wyatt.

[JKS]  -  Bullock team owner/driver.  Edward Yates was the publican at the Morning Star hotel, Wistow for a number of years.  His descendants still live in the town.