Rosewood History

Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld.), Saturday 13 November 1926, page 7

MR. A. F. SCHMIDT.
WEST MORETON PIONEER.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

Mr. August Frederick Schmidt, of Coleyville, has seen in his 76 years the beginning of several settlements in the West Moreton district, and their rapid development from virgin forest to populous towns and prosperous farming areas. He was born in the village of Melchov, County of Brandenburg, Germany, and sailed for Australia in the Susanna Godefroy when he was 14 years old. Rev. Carl Krueger, of Kalbar, was on the same ship, and the two youngsters became intimate pals. When they landed at Moreton Bay in 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Johanne Schmidt and their son went to the immigration depot in Brisbane to wait for employment. The boy got work first. An itinerant storekeeper named Sloper wanted a lad to travel with him on his hawking tours, and to work in his shop at Spring Hill, between journeys. Young Schmidt was enterprising. Although his English vocabulary carried him no further than “Yes” and “No,” he applied for the job, was accepted, and started work immediately. He went out with the travelling “store” to many of the new settlements in the Moreton district, and as they travelled the storekeeper taught him the language.

A LONG SEPARATION.
The first of these trips lasted six days, and when he returned he found that his parents had gone to Ipswich. He did not see them again for six months. Boyhood soon finds compensation for a little loneliness, and in the new land with its completely new life August Schmidt soon had absorbing interests that fully occupied his young mind. To earn one’s own living, a munificent 3/ a week was in itself something to be proud of and to occupy most of the time of his fifteenth year. In his travelling he had learned most of the roads around Brisbane fairly well, and when he had been six months with the storekeeper he was a fair horseman. One day he set out to see his parents, and on the way met his father walking in from Ipswich to see him. Then 25 miles was the equivalent of four or five miles of these less energetic days. After this his parents went to Possum Creek, near Redbank Plains, where they were working for a farmer named Josey. For cotton planting, cultivating, and picking they received £30 a year. Some time after wards young August went to see them. He had been so long away from them that at first his mother did not know him. He had grown so accustomed to working with horses that he became a little too venturesome.” When he was gallantly catching a horse for the daughter of one of the storekeeper’s customers he was kicked, and his leg was broken. He was taken to the Brisbane Hospital. then a small building near Brisbane’s first bridge, a rough wooden structure on the site of the present bridge.

SETTLED AT MT. WALKER.
Soon after his return to work the storekeeper became insolvent, and Mr. Schmidt went to his parents, who had rented a farm at Possum Creek. They went to Booval soon afterwards, and his father worked for a time on the construction of the main Brisbane-Ipswich road, in 1868, for 15/ a week. Mr. Schmidt, sen., and the father of Mr. Krueger walked to Mount Walker from Ipswich to inspect a farm owned by Mr. Rice. As a result of the walk they started farming there. Mr Schmidt had 16/ and a little flour when he took the family to the selection. He engaged a neighbour to plough five acres of land for £10. To pay off this debt he had to walk from Mount Walker to Flinders to work for another man. With the assistance of Messrs. Cribb and Foote and by the aid of fencing work for Normanby Station and other places, the farm was paid for. Later the father took up a farm at Minden.

THE 1877 DROUGHT.
In 1871 Mr. Schmidt bought 120 acres at Coleyville under the Homestead Selection Act. He then married Miss Juliana Schulz, and settled on the farm. For six years he worked hard, clearing and improving the property. All the time that he did not have to spend on his own property growing crops and reaping them, he spent in working for other farmers. Laboriously he got together a good team of bullocks, and a fair herd of dairy cattle, but in the 1877 drought he lost nearly all his cows and all but two of the bullocks. He then had to go to Minden to work on the cutting of the scrub in the virgin bush there, and rented the farm to the late Mr. Fred. Lobegeiger. He stayed at Minden until 1900, and while there took a prominent place in the development of the district. He was a member of the first school committee there, and helped in the working bees by which the school building was erected. For 12 years he was honorary pastor to the Minden German Baptist Church, and through most of that time paid periodical visits to the churches at Ma Ma Creek, Redland Bay, and Hatton Vale.

In 1900 Mr. Schmidt went back to Mount Walker, and bought a farm from the father of Mr. Marcus Fischer. He stayed on this farm until last year, when he retired, and went to live with his daughter, Mrs. A. Mandelkow, at Coleyville. He has two sons in the United States, Mr. Daniel Schmidt, M.A., a High School master at Rotterdam Junction, and Mr. Ludwig Schmidt, a chemist at Detroit. Last year he went to America, and spent a few months with them. ‘His other sons are Messrs. L. F. Schmidt (Fernvale). William Schmidt (Caboolture). and John Schmidt (Redcliffe), and his daughters Mesdames C. Lobegeiger (Harrisville) and G. Muller (Wondai), Other children were the late Adolph, Edie, and Martha Schmidt.