Johann Georg HAUB 1836-1929
Johann Georg was the second of the three sons of Nieder-Weisel farmer Johann Jakob Haub and his wife Katharina, who was from the Adami family of Hausen. There were also five girls born to the marriage, but three of them died in the first days of life.
When he was barely a teenager, and in his last year of school, Johann Georg lost his father, who died in 1849 aged 49. Left with a four year old son to support, Katharina encouraged the older children to look elsewhere for their future. There is no clear evidence as to when Johann Georg migrated but as he was liable for military duty in 1856 he may have followed the examples of many of his friends and left the village before being drafted, remembering perhaps that his uncle Philipp had died at the age of 20 as a conscript to the Imperial army. There is reason to believe that Johann Georg travelled to Australia with other members of his family using an alias – refer Katharina Adami.
From the usual rallying point at Ballarat some of these latest arrivals went to the goldfields at Beechworth and Stanley. By 1861, Johann Georg was in New South Wales, where he spent nine years prospecting before rejoining other members of the family at Rushworth, south of Echuca.
In 1875, he applied for an allotment of land, which gave him a licence to work 55ha near his brother Jakob’s farm at Tongala. Three years of hard work saw a log-and-bark hut erected, a dam excavated and 20ha of land under wheat. By 1885 the Government loan was paid off and the title cleared. Johann Georg’s mother Katharina kept house for him until her death in 1878. He kept in touch with Jakob and their sister Juliana, who lived nearby at Moora. He formed a liaison with Mary Ann Geisler, Juliana’s eldest daughter, soon after his mother died. A son was born in 1879; they named him Frederick George, starting the odd custom that each child carried at least one given name of the parent. Mary Jane was born in 1883.
Johann Georg and Mary Ann were married on 22nd June 1886 in the Wesleyan Church at Deniliquin, New South Wales. None of their Haub or Geisler relatives attended. Soon after this, his loans having been paid off, Johann Georg went back to the Beechworth district. A second daughter, Margaret Mary, was born there in 1888. The family then settled at Hillston on the Lachlan River in New South Wales. Their four other children were born on the property they named Moora Farm after Juliana’s birthplace:- In 1890, George Hillston; 1892, John George; 1895, Conrad George; 1898, Ann Mary.
Johann Georg was naturalised on 20th December 1894 when he was 58; he lived as a British and Australian citizen for 35 years, dying on 4th September 1929 at the age of 93. He was buried in the Hillston Cemetery. Short in build, Johann Georg is remembered as a man with a pleasant personality but inclined to be impatient about getting things done. His son Conrad George died at the age of 20; the other sons survived to carry on the farm after Johann Georg retired. Mary Ann lived until 20th December 1936. Many of their descendants still live in central New South Wales.
View Johann Georg's Family Chart
