Elisabetha HAUSER 1832-1912
The last large group of migrants from the village of Nieder-Weisel reached Melbourne on 24th February 1858 aboard the “Queen of the East”, just 101 days out of Liverpool. Among the 24 villagers was Elisabetha Hauser, 25, travelling with Konrad Hildebrand and his two sons. Elisabetha, born 26th May 1832, was the eldest of the three children of Johann Georg Hauser VI, a carter in Nieder-Weisel, and his wife Elisabetha Heinz. Two sons were born in the next five years and their father died six months later. Their mother remarried the next year, and bore three more daughters to her second husband, Philipp Jost; the last two died.
With so many of the eligible young men emigrating to Victoria, Elisabetha failed to find a partner, prompting her to join the group that left in late September 1857 for England. They were joined by a number of young people from other villages; these included Friedrich Krick from Fauerbach. From the rallying point of Ballarat, many of the villagers moved to outlying goldfields. However, Elisabetha remained with Friedrich Krick and through him met his older brother, George, who had been mining in the Ballarat area since his arrival several years earlier. Romance blossomed and led to their marriage in March 1860; this was celebrated by Pastor Niquet in the Lutheran Church in Ballarat.
Elisabetha and George lived in Ballarat for about six years after their marriage, during which time Elisabetha gave birth to two sons and a daughter: George in 1860; John George Frederick in 1861 and Katharina in 1864. The first-born was sickly and died before his first birthday. In August of 1864 George was best man to Jakob Volk. His brother also married that year; he took his bride to live in Rocky Lead, south of Creswick. George and Elisabetha followed them – they were there in 1866 when George witnessed the Philipp Landvogt – Katharina Adami nee Worner marriage. The birth of Anna Margaretha in 1867 completed their family.
In 1870, Frederick took out letters of naturalisation and moved to the Talbot area, where he went into business as a carpenter. Once again, George followed his brother’s example and settled in the same township; he continued to make a living from mining. In 1874, George also decided to remain in Victoria permanently and he became naturalised on 25th February of that year. By this time, education was mandatory and the older children were sent to the little school each weekday, giving Elisabetha more time to make soap and jams and do the things expected of housewives in those days.
Frederick Krick remained in the Talbot district at least until 1880, and it is likely that George did likewise. Their son married in 1893, and Katharina in 1896, but John moved firstly to Castlemaine and then to Melbourne, so Elisabetha saw little of her grandchildren (Katharina had no children) till she and George retired to Melbourne. Her husband died in East Melbourne in 1903, said to be aged 68, and a son of John Krick; his brother had died in 1900.
Elisabetha lived into her 81st year, dying in 1912 in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood.
(There was a Konrad Hauser in Ballarat from 1860 till the early 1900s who may have been Elisabetha’s brother, born 9th December 1834).
View Elisabetha's Family Chart
