Konrad WINTER 1833-? & Katharina REUTER 1839-?
All three surviving children of the five who were born to Katharina nee Schmidt, wife of the tailor Johann Georg Winter II, emigrated to Victoria during the gold rush period and all returned to the village after several years in the colony. Jakob, the youngest child, was with the very large group on “Sunshine” late in 1856. Anna Juliana left with her bridegroom, four days after her marriage on 15th March 1857 to Philipp Hildebrand. Konrad, who was born on 31st July 1833, was the first to leave. The party he was with left Hamburg on the tiny barque “Victoria” in August 1854 and reached Melbourne on 21st November. A faint entry on the passengers list records that Konrad lost a leg during the voyage, presumably as the result of an accident, in which case he would have been unable to go prospecting.
Konrad was fortunate that his apprenticeship as a tailor enabled him to earn a living in Melbourne, notwithstanding this disability. While working in the capital he became acquainted with Katharina, daughter of Johann Jakob Reuter of Nieder-Weisel, born on 20th November 1839. Katharina’s arrival in Victoria was a mystery until it was realised that she had been with the family of Georg Schmidt and had been listed under his family name; this group left Liverpool aboard “Red Jacket” on 20th May 1856 and reached Melbourne on 11th August.
Konrad and Katharina were married in the Lutheran Church in East Melbourne on 30th January 1862, with the pastor Johann Matthaus Goethe as celebrant. Konrad’s brother Jakob was best man, with Jakob Hildebrand (then a fuel merchant in Melbourne) as witness.
The couple had no children in Australia. Later in 1862 they returned to Nieder-Weisel where a child was born on Christmas Eve. She was sponsored by a younger sister of Katharina, Maria Reuter, and as custom dictated received her given name. No doubt more children were born to the wife of ‘Schneider Konrad’ in their home on the corner of Korngasse and Grosser Reisserbach in the following years.
View Konrad's Family Chart
