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Joint Project with Alan REDDY, Lothar BRASSE & Author Johanna Luise LUBASCH / Johann Gottlieb WIETH  The history, heritage surveys, ownership & stories about their home 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf part section 3812 Hd Kuitpo

 

Summary

Luise LUBASCH's father purchased the entire section 3812 in 1844 & when this couple arrived in 1855 shortly before his own death he allowed them to live on 2 acres & 3 perches of land that fronted what is now Auricht Rd, but in the past was known as 'Faehrmann Road' or 'Paech Road'.

In his will Gottlieb LIEBELT insisted that this daughter, Johanna Luise LUBASCH was to receive 'the two acres of land and the house standing thereon'.   The initial building was built by his son in law Gottlieb WIETH with his assistance in 1855  'The father in law assisted to build his house. It was only a one room slab hut' & it was added onto by the WIETH's over the next 26 years until Gottlieb WIETH's death in 1881.

By following all the details of the 1857 court case  'JAENSCH v LUBASCH' regarding his will & the land titles involved in this transaction  it is clear that this couple were the first to establish their home on land which is now 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf.  The original buildings at 59 Auricht Rd, were never the home of Gottlieb LUBASCH, see 'How do we know'.

This article follows the available descriptions, heritage surveys, family drawn sketches & anecdotal information regarding 59 Auricht Rd.

 

Family names mentioned in this article:

BOOTH, BRASSE, FAEHRMANN, GREISER, HIGNETT, IDE, JAENSCH, LUBASCH, MINKWITZ,  McKENZIE, MULDER, POPE, REDDY, THIELE, WIETH,  WILSON. 

 

Table of Contents

1.    Authors summary of 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf

2.    'Hahndorf Sketchbook Drawings', 1976 A. LUUR FOX  &  L. WADE

3.    Mount Barker District Heritage Survey 1983, HIGNETT & Co

4.    DC Mount Barker Heritage Survey 2004, POPE & BOOTH

5.    Extract 'My Life Story' by Jean REDDY nee FAEHRMANN.

6.   Auricht Road was Paechtown Road was Faehrmann Road.

 

59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf

 

1.   Authors summary of 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf. 

• 1844 Section 3812 Hd Kuitpo purchased by Gottlieb LUBASCH.
• 1844-1855 Section 3812 farmed by LUBASCH & he & his family lived on this property.
• LUBASCH may have encouraged his daughter to come out from Prussia & live with him on his property.
• 1855 His eldest daughter & her family arrive from Prussia and he provides them land to build a house on in Section 3812, which becomes 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf.   
• 1855 a small house was constructed by Gottlieb WEITH & his father in law Gottlieb LUBASCH at 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf.
• 1856 LUBASCH dies while living on Section 3812. 
• 1860 LUBASCH provides in his will for 2 acres & 3 perches to be left to his eldest daughter to continue living on her property,  59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf, within Section 3812.
• The Heritage Surveys of 2004 & 2007 describing the ownership of 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf, are incorrect.  
• This house was never the home of Gottfried LUBASCH.
• Johanna Louise LUBASCH & Gottlieb WIETH established this home from 1855  'The father-in-law assisted to build his house.  It was only a one room slab hut.'  
• While 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf very basic to begin with, LUBASCH & husband WIETH had 26 years living there before Gottfried died in 1881.  
• They only had one son [Oswald Gottlieb Edmund WIETH] & he lived at 59 Auricht Rd, Hahndorf at least until he married in 1883.
• LUBASCH Land allocation, 1839, Hahndorf, reference:  Reg BUTLER Database
  • 1869   the house property at 80 Main St Hahndorf was sold to Thomas IDE
  • 1869   14 Church Street was sold to Thomas IDE
  • 1869  35 Church Street was sold to Thomas IDE
  • 1869   16 Schubert Drive was sold to Thomas IDE
  • 1869   14 Strempel Avenue was sold to Thomas IDE
  • 1885  22 Bernhardt Crescent was sold to Gottfried MINKWITZ

 

2.    'Hahndorf Sketchbook Drawings' by A. LUUR FOX & L WADE, 1976

'Old Bill FAEHRMANN's Home'

'There are several small buildings that make up this old home.  The snug one-room pioneer cottage is still in use.  The kitchen and dining-room are across a paved yard from the main house, and behind the kitchen is the brick baker's oven with the smoke-house near by. 

All are held together by the green umbrella of wisteria [parasol would be a better word for the seasonal display of mauve blossom].  This wisteria creeper is about 125 years old, and is thought to be the oldest in South Australia.  It has a butt that measures more than thirty inches across.

​Bill FAEHRMANN died in 1974, aged eighty-nine.  He had vivid memories of the old days when they all worked so hard, especially his mother.  She rose at 4.30 a.m. to milk the cows and then baked bread and cooked for her large family and for the men - some of them runaway sailors - who worked in her husband's quarry or at road making, for which he had a contract.  One year she took one ton of honey from her hives.  She used to make so much jam that it had to be stored in four-gallon tins.  She also sold vegetables from her big garden.  Yet she took the time to teach two Englishwomen, Mrs Wilson and Mrs McKenzie, to speak German so that they could make themselves understood in the shops.

Bill's grandmother worked even harder.  She was a very tough old lady who worked as hard as a man until she was eighty-six, when she was gored by a bull.  the foundations of her two-roomed cottage can still be seen behind number 106 at the southern end of the town .  On one occasion she had just closed the front door of this cottage behind her when an Aboriginal's spear thudded into it - the only instance of Aboriginal violence against the settlers that has been recorded.'

 

Authors Note:  Bill FAEHRMANN refers to Johann Friedrich Wilhelm FAEHRMANN 1884-1974, named after his father, born & lived all of his life at 59 Auricht Road, Hahndorf. never married.  The wisteria described above in 1976 as being 125 years old infers it was planted in 1851. Unfortunately the 'oldest wisteria plant in South Australia' was removed some years ago.  

Bill's hard working mother was Auguste Martha WIETH, whose parents were Johanne Luise LUBASCH & Johann Gottlieb WIETH who arrived in South Australia in 1855 and who this article is named after.

Martha was born in South Australia but the first 3 of her siblings were born in Prussia.  Martha was married at 21 years of age then had 19 years of childbearing to 8 children between 1883 & 1902.  See here for more information on Bill's grandmother, Johanne Eleonore FAEHRMANN, who was 5 years of age on the ship 'Zebra'

 

3.   Mount Barker District Heritage Survey [stage 1] HIGNETT & Co, 1983, Item No 163, page 149

 

'Bill FAEHRMANN's House at the end of Auricht Rd, Hahndorf.  Originally built by Sgt. LUBASCH after purchase of section 3812 on 17 June 1844.  Later extended by Johann FAEHRMANN.  Small brick bedroom building in bad condition demolished in 1982.  

3 buildings, all stone, the wistaria [sic] connecting two of the buildings is said to be the oldest in the state.  A smoke-house and corralled bake oven are attached to the kitchen building.  In 1975 two of the buildings were renovated by hand MULDER, the tenant. Constructed of rubble stone with gable end roof and rectangular openings.  Painted walls.'

 

 

 

 

4.   DC Mount Barker Heritage Survey [2004] Part 3b

Local Heritage Recommendations: Biggs Flat to Hahndorf, by Heritage Online Anna POPE & Claire BOOTH. 

'fr LUBASCH House, Kitchen, Bakeoven & Wisteria'  Place no 304, page 26p,  Auricht Rd, Hahndorf, Lot 11, Section 3812, Hd Kuitpo, CT 5139/921.  . 'Recommended for inclusion in the local heritage register'.

 '​3 associated buildings constructed of local rubble stone [part rendered] with corrugated iron gable roofs [front building hipped at one end], timber framed openings with timber doors & timber-framed casement windows, corrbelled bake-oven with smokehouse, and red-brick chimneys. It is associated with a notable local personality...namely Sergent [sic] LUBASCH, Hahndorf's earliest policeman.  Also early wisteria plant....being reputedly the oldest wisteria plant in South Australia. 

Page 270 'One of the oldest surviving buildings in the town is actually located outside of the original subdivision, on section 3812.  This land was purchased by Sergent LUBASCH on 17 June 1844, and soon afterwards he constructed a house with separate kitchen and smoke house with bake-oven.

 The property was later owned by Bill FAEHRMANN, prominent local builder who constructed the Anglican Church in 1886.  FAEHRMANN made some additions to the house on Auricht Rd, including a brick bedroom building [now demolished].  Adjacent to the former kitchen, there is a wisteria plant which is believed to be the oldest in the State [Hignett]'.  

Authors Note:  I have found no references to Gottlieb LUBASCH being a Hahndorf policeman.  The land was purchased by him in 1844 as part of a 'special purchase' but the two acres of land in this area was built on originally by his son in law Gottlieb WIETH in 1855.  There is no evidence that it was the home of Gottlieb LUBASCH.  See the summary above for links to the  court case in 1857 & links to the land titles.  Bill FAEHRMANN must be referring to Johann Friedrich Wilhelm FAEHRMANN Snr b1857 and not his son by the same name, & the name used above in 'Old Bill FAEHRMANN's cottage' who was born in 1884. 

 

5.   An extract of 'My Life Story' by Jean Eleonore REDDY nee FAEHRMANN, 1990

permission to reproduce here kindly given by her son Alan REDDY, January 2024.

'My grandparents, Martha & William [Bill] FAEHRMANN of Hahndorf were very hard working people.  Grandmother as we had to call her, did a lot of outside chores.  She would cut grass for the cows by hand using a scythe, then carry it on her back.  She eventually did it once too often.  She haemorrhaged and died at the age of 67 years.  Grandfather, he was a tough man.  He finished up with asthma, eventually his heart gave out.  He was 78 years old.  Their home still stands and is in good repair in Auricht Road.  The doors are of cedar.  

The house was in three sections. 2 bedrooms and parlour [sitting room] in one section.  The other section a kitchen with a decent sized dining room, also Uncle Bill's room and a store room with an outside laundry. At the side of the kitchen was a smokehouse where Grandmother made bacon, metwurst and black and white pudding.  Grandfather owned a lot of property in and around Hahndorf.  Uncle Ossie was given property out near Paechtown, Uncle Bill the old home plus the quarry property.  'Pup' got what adjoined the Main Street, a frontage of eight houses and extended to the freeway.  

A cousin through marriage got all Uncle Bill's as he was a bachelor.  The quarry was a big concern.  A huge crusher that crushed the rock for road making at the end of Johns Lane.  The freeway goes over the quarry now.  Grandfather owned a lot of horses.  He would transport timber for buildings.  The Old Mill, a five story building in my days, a fodder business which crushed bones for fertiliser and stored chaff for cattle and hay - all the timber in it was carted by him.  He also carted the electricity and telephone poles for Hahndorf.

​Great Grandmother FAEHRMANN [Eleonora] lived in a cottage behind our home in the Main Street, Hahndorf.  As she was shutting the door of the cottage an aboriginal threw a spear.  It just missed her and stuck in the door.  She lost her life being gored by a bull she fed from her apron.  A neighbour found her body out in the paddock.  She is buried at Hahndorf Cemetery.'

Authors Note:  Jean Eleanore FAEHRMANN was born 1913 at Yantaringa, Hahndorf & died in 2000.  Jean's grandparents, 'Martha & William FAEHRMANN' refers to Auguste Martha WIETH & Johann Friedrich Wilhelm FAEHRMANN,  'Uncle Ossie' refers to Oswald Friedrich FAEHRMANN, Jean's father's older brother.  'Pup' is Jean's father, Carl Albrecht FAEHRMANN who married Margaret Alice FLEMING.  Jean grew up at 106 Main Street Hahndorf where her father had a blacksmith business on the original LIEBELT / KUCHEL land of 1839.  The 'frontage of eight houses' refers to numbers..... Main Street, Hahndorf. 'Great grandmother FAHERMANN' is Johann Eleonora LIEBELT.

 

6.   Auricht Road was Paechtown Road was Faehrmann Road.

Reg BUTLER  'Byways and Highways' page 30, 1992.

 'Paechtown Road [1926 - Faehrmann's Rd.] Paechtown Road leads to one of Hahndorf's best-known farming communities near the town. Settled in early 1950's by the 'Kaysher Paechs', the small group of fachwerk farm houses attracted much attention until a disastrous bushfire destroyed all but one in the early 1980's.  

The newly built Freeway of 1974 cut right through Paechtown Road, which used to come out on the Hahndorf's ain street where Auricht Road does now.  Paechtown Road had to be rerouted through several of South Hahndorf's building allotments similarly cut off from the town, to emerge on to Pine Avenue.  Often, people nicknamed Paechtown Road the 'Red Road', because of the district red granite through which part of the road runs out in the countryside.  

Never the less, the Echunga Council chose the name of the Wilhelm Faehrmann family with which to call the street in 1926. Carriers and gardeners, three generation os the Faehrmanns lived in a farm house built abasing the street on the left, soon after the main road turn off.  Wilhelm's father, carpenter Carl Faehrmann, had emigrated from Tangermünde, in Prussian Saxony, during 1849; he married Eleanore LIEBELT, one of Hahndorf's foundation settlers.  The name 'Paechtown Road' first appeared in the Mount Barker Council 1964 Assessment Book.'

 

​Janis look up State Heritage branch file 3673 & National Trust of SA file 2438