Bernhard HAUSER 1839-1898
Bernhard was born on 10th March 1839, the third son of four boys and four girls born to Susanna nee Maas, wife of Jakob Hauser II of Nieder-Weisel. One girl was still-born and the second son did not survive infancy; the others received a basic education in the two-room village school. According to custom, Bernhard was confirmed in his 14th year; his group included Katharina, daughter of a different Hauser family in the village.
The eldest four surviving children migrated to the colony of Victoria during mid-1850s. The eldest of the four, Peter, left in 1854. He was followed by two of his sisters, Anna Elisabetha born 1835 and another Anna Elisabetha born 1841. It is not known when Bernhard emigrated but he was in Ballarat and Smythes Creek in the late 1850s, when he contacted Katharina Hauser. She had gone to the northern goldfields around Stanley and had married Konrad Klippel from Nieder-Weisel.
After about ten years of prospecting Bernhard went back to Nieder-Weisel. Here he married Katharina’s half-sister Katharina Muller, who had recently got back from California. After their marriage in 1872 they went to California and operated a small-goods business for about eleven years. They were back in Nieder-Weisel by 1883 where Bernhard went farming.
Bernhard and Katharina had a family of eight, of whom three did not survive. Bernhard maintained contact by mail with his sister-in-law, who was now living in Berringama. After her husband died in a drowning accident Bernhard acted as trustee for her affairs in Nieder-Weisel. It was he who let Katharina know of the death of her mother in 1885.
Bernhard Hauser IV died in Nieder-Weisel on 4th November 1898 and was buried in the village cemetery the following day; he was in his 60th year.
View Bernhard's Family Chart
