LOUISE AMANDA BATZE
Louise Amanda Backhaus, (known as Amanda) was Uncle Adolph’s eldest daughter.
She was 13 when her family emigrated from Leina to North Queensland in 1895.
On 16 January 1897, aged just 14, she married Wilhelm Bernhardt Louis Batze, age 32. 3 months later a son was born.
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Wilhelm was only nine years younger than his father-in-law.
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Adolph, Wilhelm, Amanda, August and Lena Batze
Wilhelm had a farm next to Theo Backhaus in Daradgee. He also established a sawmill on another block in Daradgee. His first application for land was in 1895, the second for 50 acres of land in 1900, 3 years after his marriage to Amanda. As well as his farm, Wilhelm had a timber mill and was a timber merchant.
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The Batze’s were part of the group of German families who moved to German New Guinea in 1906. Adolph Backhaus was established in German New Guinea by this time. The Batze’s left Queensland with 5 children. They remained in New Guinea although they were recorded as selectors at Geraldton in the 1908 Australian census.
More children, including 3 daughters, were born in New Guinea. Wilhelm was owner/manager of the Lilinakaia Estate and New Mobisberg plantations on the North Coast of New Britain. He was interned in Rabaul for a short time during WW1. During WW1 the Germans in New Guinea were “left to get along as best they could on the plantation, isolated, short of supplies and unaware of what was happening.”
In 1918 Wilhelm Batze died suddenly, of pneumonia, aged 53. The family was at a loss as he had been autocratic and “a complete controller of domestic and business affairs.” Amanda was 35 years old, pregnant and mother to 12 children. She remarried a Gustav Adolph Schnackenberg, presumably in New Guinea as no record exists in Queensland.
ANNA CAROLINE HITCHCOCK
(Adolph's daughter, Granny's niece)
Cousins Lena Berryman, Maggie Backhaus, Caroline Hitchcock.
Caroline was 10 when her family migrated from Germany in 1895. In the 1906 Census, aged 21, Caroline was recorded as a housemaid at the Townsville Imperial Hotel, built close to the bustling wharves on Ross Creek in 1882, and ranked alongside Queens Hotel. (Hotels of this standing were places for wealthy visitors.)
Early hotels played an important role in the development of regional towns, but in 1900, the Imperial’s position, close to the wharves, proved a disadvantage when, despite strict quarantine regulations, one of the hotel’s employees contracted bubonic plague, as a result of which it was quarantined, and 35 guests, 16 servants, and 7 members of the licensee’s family were isolated. (This was a few years before Caroline’s recorded employment at the Hotel.)
Victor Hugo Hitchcock and Caroline left, Amanda Batze and unknown man right.
Caroline married Victor Hugo Hitchcock on 16 March 1907. Victor had emigrated from England, aged 8, with his parents. He was the youngest of 5 sons.
Victor's first marriage, on 5 June 1989 in Queensland, was to Daisy Elizabeth Weller. Daisy had also emigrated as a child with her English parents.
Victor and Daisy's child, Lois Adeline, died in 1900. Victor Hugo Jnr was born 12 May 1901, and Joseph Robert on 29 September 1903. Daisy died on 22 August 1906 leaving Victor two small boys, aged 2 and 5 to look after.
Dorothy Hitchcock
On 29 September 1907 a son, Richard Norman, was born to Victor and Caroline. Their daughter, Dorothy was born 6 years later, on 12 April 1913.
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MERX (MAX) SCHILLING
Granny's only son
Merx Schilling (known as Max) was born in Rockhampton on 28 July 1884, 3 days after his parents arrived from Germany.
Max was enrolled at the Calliope River State School on 5 August 1889 aged 5. His cousins, Heinrich Backhaus’ children, also attended the school.
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The family moved to Mundoo and started sugar cane farming. In 1894, when Max was 9, his father died from Dengue fever and pneumonia.
7 months later his mother married their neighbour Fred Tielkemeyer. Fred had been brought up by relatives himself and looked on Max as his son.
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In 1905, when he was 21, Max accompanied the rest of the family to New Guinea, returning with them in 1906.
Frederick, Mabel, Max Jnr, Walter and Max Schilling
4 years after his younger sister Louise married, Max travelled to Brisbane and arranged a marriage to a woman from a German family in Aspley.
On 1 June 1920 Max married Annie Mabel Steffen, known as Mabel. At 16 years old, his new wife was 20 years his junior. Mabel was the youngest in a family of 10 children
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Max used to like dancing and took Mabel to dances on Saturday nights. In 1929 she met another man, Philip Sadler, and Max became jealous.
Unhappy in the marriage, Mabel ran away with Sadler a number of times but came back to Max.
On 28 July 1931 - Max’s birthday - a party was organized and relatives invited. Max organized for his cousin to mind the children. The following day he went to the hotel and bought a bottle of whiskey, then drowned himself in the South Johnstone River which adjoined his property.
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6 weeks after Max died, Mabel married Philip Alfred Sadler, a motor mechanic of Nundah. They took her sons to Newcastle but Sadler didn't care for the boys and they were brought up by a friend of Mabel’s.