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Peter Zwar – a detailed life story15.5.1824– 27.6.1917
When Peter was born he was next in line to two living brothers - Andreas, 6 years old and Johann two and a half. The eldest brother and two sisters had died before these three boys were born. When Peter was almost three years old a sister, Maria was born, and she was the only sister to reach maturity. School Confirmation "Avoid the passions of youth, and strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help. But keep away from foolish and ignorant arguments; you know that they end up in quarrels." Apparently Peter did not always heed the advice of the text in the years following. When he writes to his teacher in 1865 he says; "Sometimes I reflect on my life and thank God that He did not call me away in my younger years when I was not walking in the ways of the Lord as I ought." WorkPeter turned 15 in May 1840. He had two older brothers, a younger sister and two younger brothers. The youngest, Karl, was then two and a half years old. He began to look for a job. He found an opportunity near Dresden, the Capital of Saxony, about 65 kilometres from home. Peter was vaccinated against Small Pox. Before taking up work he had to apply to the authorities for a Servants Report Book. This 32-page booklet gives a detailed description of Peter on page one:
Page two gives the authorization by the Apprenticeship Board and the seal of approval is stamped on it. Round the edge of the wax seal are the words:
Pages 3 to 8 give a detailed list of numerous rules governing apprentices and their relation to their employer (in whose home they usually lived). At the end of each year the Master would give a brief report that would be signed by a witness, such as an accountant, councillor or a Judge, and a seal would be attached. Peter began work at Hühndorf near Dresden on New Year's Day 1840 under Johann Gottlieb PIRTZICH. On 20th March 1840 Peter's father died. Peter was 15 years old. The responsibility for looking after his mother and the younger brothers and their sister Maria fell on the oldest living brother, Andreas. We are not told what kind of work Peter did for Pirtzich at Hühndorf. Exactly two years after he started there his employer writes in the Servants (or 'Apprentices') Book:
Peter spends the year 1842 working at Unkersdorf for Karl Gottlob Berthy, who reports that Peter conducted himself "in an honest, faithful and diligent manner". At the beginning of 1843 Peter is back at Hühndorf employed as a groomsman on a farm. Apparently he soon felt his future did not lie with horses, and it seems that by mutual consent with his employer he left on 3rd May. The report says that Peter
From 8th May until the end of the year Peter worked as a farmhand for Carl Wilhelm Pietsch
At the beginning of 1844 we find Peter back at Unkersdorf again,
this time working as a farmhand for Carl Gottlieb Bartz.
On 6th December 1844 Peter received exemption from military service
from the Military Recruiting Centre at Dresden on the grounds that
he was medically unfit. Peter had apparently built up a good reputation at Unkersdorf. He now begins work there as a carpenter's apprentice under Joh. Heinrich (Master Carpenter). In 1847 Peter gets permission to go home during the winter months until the carpentry work would begin again. Peter Kaiser, a councillor, signed a statement that Peter conducted himself in a faithful, honest and proper manner while staying with his mother from 3rd January until 14th April. (The Kaisers were good friends of the Zwar family. They were guests at Johann Zwar's wedding that year. Little did Anna Kaiser, only 10 years old, dream she would become Johann Zwar's bride at his second marriage 16 years later in Melbourne, Australia). Peter was probably home again for his brother Johann's wedding at Purschwitz, about 5 kilometres northwest of Drehsa. Johann was the first of the family to marry. Qualified Carpenter We know nothing about Peter in 1848. Times were hard. There had been three successive years of drought. There was general unrest throughout Europe. In Saxony the Wends sent a petition to the Prime Minister asking for wider official use of their Wendish language. Peasants began forming associations for better conditions under the feudal landlords. A 'Peasants Petition' was published in the newspaper in June asking for better conditions but it remained unanswered. A number of people were considering migrating to the New World, to the Americas or Australia. There had been letters and brief reports for five or six years about Germans who had migrated to South Australia. Shipping agents were looking for passengers to fill their ships and gave glowing reports of the new countries, including Australia. In 1849 there was a revolt by the peasants at Dresden, which was put down after some days of fighting. There was another military call-up and Peter had to go for another medical examination. On the back of his birth certificate it states:
We are not told why Peter was medically unfit for military service. His younger brother Michael was not so fortunate. He had just turned 20 and was due for his two years of military service, and his sympathies lay with the peasants and not the army. Michael decided to leave the country. He could not do so until he had completed his military service, and he could not leave officially without a passport. So he left without one. It is said he hid under a load of vegetables until his ship left port. On 23rd August 1849 the ship Pribislav sailed for Melbourne in Australia with Michael on board. The passengers were Wends and Germans who had been encouraged to go to the land of Promise by a shipping agent named Hartig. The family waited to hear word from Michael. His sister Maria wrote so he would receive her letter by his birthday (15th May). Johann wrote and asked what things were like, as he was considering going to Australia too. In fact all the family were considering it, even their mother. There was no word from Michael. They might possibly have heard from others that Michael had arrived safely in Australia despite being severely ill on board ship. A year after Michael left there was still no word from him. Johann and his wife and their little daughter Maria, and also Peter began making preparations to go to Australia. Peter applied for a passport to travel overseas, and received it on 24th May 1850. It includes the following description and details:
For some reason Peter changed his mind and decided not to emigrate to Australia in 1851. His brother Johann became the leader of a group of 98 Wends who made the journey to Australia on the ship Helene that sailed from Hamburg on 20th August 1851. Johann intended joining his brother Michael in Melbourne, but when the Helene called in at Adelaide a number of Wends living in South Australia called on them and convinced some of them, including Johann Zwar, to stay and help them with the harvest. Although Johann later visited Melbourne he settled in South Australia at Ebenezer, a Wendish community in the Barossa Valley. It was two years since Michael had left home and there was still no word from him. Almost six months later his family received his first letter home. He was working on a farm 60 miles from Melbourne, at Point Henry near Geelong. He had gone through quite a difficult time, particularly because he could not speak English. He advised the family not to rush out to Australia to join him. He thought his mother was too old to go through the rigours of such a long journey. He had received Maria’s letter right on his birthday! It cheered him up no end. Michael is hesitant to recommend his brothers should join him. Johann had already left for Australia.
Michael made it clear that they would have to be prepared to work hard and overcome many obstacles if they wanted to join him. Johann wrote letters home too and told them about life in South Australia. Travel to Australia with Bride
On 25th June 1854 Peter Zwar married Magdalena Pätzold (Batz or Bötz in Wendish) in Gröditz. (?). He was 30 years old, and Magdalena 22. Magdalena had been born at Nechern on Christmas Eve 1831. The Zwars travelled through Nechern three kilometres from their home on their way to church from Drehsa to Gröditz. Magdalena received her schooling at Wurschen, the same school as Peter Zwar. She was confirmed in the Lutheran Church at Gröditz by Pastor Andreas Voigt, the same Church where Peter had been confirmed. Magdalena was the seventh child of the Gardener Johann Bötz and his wife Marie nee Rentsch. On the marriage records in Gröditz Magdalena is described as the third and youngest daughter. Her passport was issued at Wurschen only three days before the wedding. Her occupation is given as a 'servant' and she is described as 'born and living in Nechern'.
The newlyweds planned to leave on 4th July for Hamburg and travel by train via Leipzig. The ship Steinwarder sailed from Hamburg on 16th July. Tradition has it they caught the ship with three hours to spare. Australia
Peter and Magdalena went to Ebenezer and lived with his brother
Johann Zwar and his family in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Ebenezer
The church was the first Lutheran Church built at Ebenezer and was opened in 1859. Peter did the carpentry work. When the church was later dismantled, to be replaced by a new one Peter’s initials could be seen on some of the timber.
Peter also worked the land. One of the main aims of the Wends who migrated to Australia was to own their own land. In their experience at home it was the wealthy who owned land. It was almost impossible for the average person to own land such as farming country. Many of the Wends who came to Australia had a trade or profession,
but gave it up to own and farm their own land. Some of them, like
Michael Zwar, struggled at first and found it hard to justify leaving
home, so only wrote their first letter home when they had bought
some land, something they might never have achieved if they had
stayed at home. [In the 1970’s the current owners (Tscharkes) showed me several rooms and a bake oven in reasonable condition and built after Peter’s time; and also the remnants of an older bake oven they think Peter built while he was living there.] Peter also leased another 80 acres (section 2995) and two lots of 10 acres each on sections 2995 and 2996. In 1865 Peter wrote a letter [possibly to Joh. Heinrich at Unkersdorf under whom he learnt his trade as a carpenter].
Peter includes a delightful little ink pen drawing of his Australian stripper being pulled by a horse! Peter and Magdalena were still living on the Pannach property in 1869 when Elizabeth was born, 12.7.1869. [Her daughter Elizabeth Koch said that “My mother always said she was born on the (later known as) Tscharke property.”] Magdalena was busy bearing a child every two years and caring for the family. The children were all born in Australia, and the first seven were born at Ebenezer.
St Kitts On the stone gable of the house two sprigs of peppercorn tree leaves
were carved in the stone, and between them the words 'Gott mitt
uns P Z.' The house was lived in until 1954 and is still standing,
though the front doors and the mantelpiece have been stolen. The last three children were born at St Kitts. Charles Jacob on 26.8.1873 and the twins Carl Heinrich and Hermann on 7th March 1876. Hermann died a little over a year later [4.7.1877] from measles. The remaining 9 children each lived to be more than 80 years old. On 14.12.1875 Peter bought 48 acres (Part of section 306) and 55_
acres (Half of section 91) from Thomas Shearer [with a mortgage
to J F W Koch 13.11.76, discharged 16.2.1880]. St Kitts was a settlement (and never a town). The Jericho family lived across the road from the Zwars. St Peter’s Lutheran Church was about one kilometre south of Peter’s place, but Peter belonged to a different Synod of the Lutheran Church. The children attended the Lutheran school and were taught by the teachers Rechner and Klar. Peter Zwar is listed as a foundation member of the Stockwell Lutheran Church, which began in 1865 as a branch of the Ebenezer congregation. Pastor Maschmedt, the first pastor, was still there when Peter moved north about 1880. Previously Peter had been a member of the Ebenezer Church, which had remained independent of any Synod until 1865. Peter and Magdalena had brought a supply of Wendish religious books with them to Australia. This included a thick book called “Domjaza Postilla” that had belonged to Magdalena’s father and was inscribed “Johann Petzold in Nechern 1845 “. [The book is now in the Lutheran Church Archives in Adelaide.] Peter and Magdalena had a large family including six boys. Ernst was learning his trade as a blacksmith. Peter looked for more land. The opportunities in the St Kitts and surrounding areas were limited. The land was expensive. Peter bought land about 250 kilometres to the north in South Australia where land was cheaper and more land was being opened up. He bought 623 acres (section 99) near Booleroo Centre on 13th July 1877. It seems his son John worked this land with the hope of one day owning it. Then Peter bought section 209 from Menz near Wirrabara on 3rd November 1879. It seems as though some of the boys moved north and began clearing and working the land. In the meantime their oldest son Ernst had married on 26th June 1878. He was a blacksmith and lived in the Barossa Valley. Then their eldest child Maria Magdalena married Johann Traugott Joppich on 29th October 1878. They settled at Wirrabara. The first grandchild, Anna Maria Joppich was born on 14.8.79. On 16th February 1880 Peter paid out his mortgage to J F W Koch and five days later he sold all his St Kitts land to Falland, who lived there and became the butcher of the St Kitts District. On the Appila Plains On 17th June 1880 Peter bought another block of land, sections 110 and 131 near Appila from Daniel Meirs, and he and Magdalena lived there for the next 25 years. In 1891 Peter mentions that he built their house ‘already before the marriage of their youngest daughter’ in 1889. He describes the house as “60 feet long and 40 feet wide with 6 rooms and 9 doors. It cost about 1500 Taler and is covered with a galvanised iron roof.” The first grandson was born when Johannes Ernst Carl was born to Ernst Zwar and his wife Bertha Buhlmann 5.6.1881. Johanna married Edward Altmann and their children started arriving in 1882. A busy mid-wife Lena was kind hearted. She always remembered to bake a cake for the grandchildren’s’ birthdays. She also made German wedding cakes. The grandchildren thought their grandmother was a wonderful woman. Mrs. Dowling (grand daughter) recalled putting the milk in wide dishes in the cool cellar. After a day or two they would skim the cream off the top and make butter. [When Mrs. Dowling was 8 years old Magdalena got their first separator – 1897.]
When he was shaving Peter used to lather his face with a rabbit’s foot and this really amused the grandchildren. [Marie Schultz]. Despite what his wife told him, Peter firmly believed a man only needed a bath once a week, and that was on Saturday night before going to Church on Sunday. This practice applied even when Peter was doing work that made one dirty, like digging a well. When Peter dug a well near their house and close to the road, [You can still see the top of the well, but it has been filled with rubbish – K Z ] Magdalena was near the top of the well chatting with others when an excited call came up from one of the diggers at the well bottom that they had struck water. Magdalena called back “Push him under, push (Peter) him under!” [... from Ed Zwar and various others]. In 1890 Peter wrote a letter to Germany and described the good life they were enjoying. There was a plentiful supply of meat. They killed two or three steers each year and about six or seven pigs. They had everything they needed. They could eat cake every day of the week (and not just on Sundays). He wrote that four of the boys were still at home. The youngest was 15. One son worked with 8 horses to plough and pull the wagon, and another worked with 6 horses.
Peter also describes the delicious watermelons they grow on the farm. He draws a little picture of the melons on their runners on the bottom of a page. Peter sends some seeds to his in-laws in Saxony. The Lutheran congregation was the centre of their social lives. One Sunday Peter and Magdalena had gone to church at Appila (Pine Creek) in their buggy and pair. Their son Charlie and one of the other lads had stayed home and were experimenting with gunpowder. Charlie put a tin over the gunpowder as it exploded and it blew his thumb off. They wrapped his thumb/hand in a sheet, made their way to the church, walked down the aisle in church during the service and showed his parents! They quickly took him to the doctor in Booleroo in the buggy and pair! In 1890 there was a big financial crash and Depression. This, coupled with some bad seasons meant that John could not keep up the payments on the 623 acres at Booleroo Centre and he lost it. [Nor could John pay his father back the money he had borrowed, so they did not get along after that. It is said Peter never again lent any of his sons money to buy land.] [However check the Booleroo Times book page 175 Section 99. 13.9.1901 Zwar Peter (title issued.) Peter and his family remained in contact with his brother Johann in the Barossa Valley and his family. Sometimes they visited each other.
Elisabeth Koch remembered that Peter was visiting them in the Barossa
when they had a big flood in 1913. When the old people got together
they would talk in Wendish. When the Petschels (Johann’s daughter
Maria) visited her sister at Quorn they would speak in Wendish.
At home Maria had a Wendish Calendar on the mantelpiece. One could
turn a knob and change the dates. Gus Zwar recalled his father John
[son of Peter] talking Wendish, especially with Mrs. Nitschke [Johann’s
daughter] from Ebenezer. Peter and Magdalena would speak to each other and the children in Wendish. The children understood it and replied occasionally in Wendish, but usually they replied in German. The grandchildren knew some Wendish phrases, mainly curses or swear words! Few people in the Appila congregation spoke Wendish. The services were all in the German language. The Pechs were Wendish and were one of the few families where the old generation spoke Wendish. It seems Peter virtually lost contact with his brother Michael who lived at Broadford in Victoria. In 1891 he asked his in-laws in Germany for any news of Michael as Michael had visited Germany (in 1878 ?). In 1904 Peter and Magdalena celebrated their Golden Wedding. Ernst travelled over from Western Australia. A family photo shows the immediate family seated outside the front door of the house Peter had built on the Appila Yarrowie plains. Standing: L to R: Carl Zwar, Pauline (1st wife) & Jack Zwar, Andrew Zwar, Minna & Peter Zwar, Ernst Zwar. Seated: Anna & Edward Altmann, Magdalena & Peter, Marie & Traugott Joppich. Absent: John Zwar, Elisabeth Koch. Wirrabara They moved about 10 kilometres to land near Wirrabara. At first they lived in a straw roofed house of three or four rooms Peter had built (some years earlier) on land that became known as ‘Menz’s’ block. It seems his son Peter had lived there for about five years after his marriage in 1894. [Mrs. Dowling said: Grandfather Peter built a house there - two rooms, and a straw roof. Peter Zwar’s (Jnr) used to live there too. Peter Jnr then moved to Kentish’s near Laura.] Peter (Jnr) wrote in his brief statements about his married life: “The first five years I lived at Wirrabara, then Caltowie …
Then Peter had a stone house built. [He did not build this one himself.] His grandson Alfred later built a new stone house for himself and wife Jane before their marriage in 1924. This new building incorporated a small room of the old stone home on the eastern side, which was used as the kitchen. In 1910 a large church bell Peter had ordered arrived from Germany. It weighed 10 cwt.
A grandson Edgar Zwar could recall the exciting trip to the Laura railway station to load the bell on the wagon. The large bell still hangs at the Appila Church. Final Years
Magdalena died on 19th May 1910. She was 78 years old. One of the obituaries mentions that she died at home. It describes her as a very highly regarded and hardworking woman, one of the oldest settlers in the District who had been blessed with good health until shortly before her passing. [It also says the couple had lived at ‘Bethel’ for 18 years. This is an obvious mistake. It should read ‘Ebenezer’. If there was a connection with Bethel it was probably because Pastor Schondorf from Bethel had sometimes ministered to the Ebenezer congregation. I think he dedicated the first Ebenezer church in 1859.] [The obituary also mentions they moved from St Kitts to Appila in 1881. I think it was more likely 1880. I once saw a note written by Jacob (West Coast) saying he had moved north in 1878 or 79 - I can’t recall which one. He would only have been six or seven years old at the time. Peter Jnr wrote that he went north 3 days after his confirmation - March 14th 1880. Peter had sold the St Kitts property on Feb 21st 1880. So I think they moved north in 1880. Some of the older boys had probably gone north before this, as land had been bought in the north in1877 and ’79. Maria married Johann Joppich in October 1878 and they settled at Wirrabara, but I don’t know if they went there immediately. - Kevin Z]. In his letters Peter referred to his wife as Lena. Maybe everyone called her Lena. After her death Peter lived alone. There were granddaughters who would come and do the housework and some cooking. One recalled having to boil seven eggs and sit them in a row on a rack in the kitchen. Peter would have an egg for breakfast each morning. Because he lived to such a great age many of the grandchildren got to know him and many stories were passed down. Peter could be a moody character! For years there had been times he would go into a melancholy stage and shut himself away in his room and "sulk” for days on end. Food would be passed through the door at mealtimes. It is said that Peter had two doors built into each room of their house on the Appila plains so they could each go their separate ways and not bump into each other in the house.
Ida remembered that he growled a lot. One day she went there to help out and she wore a dress with a collar with white lace and he told her off for coming to work there dressed so flash!
Agnes could also recall her grandfather telling her about life in Germany, but she could not recall what he said. One day there was a noise outside when Mary was there with him and Peter thought it might be a robber so he grabbed a broom handle and poked it through the window and called out “I schiess, I schiess (I shoot, I shoot)...! and Mary laughed and laughed. Another time a commercial traveller called and asked for permission to camp in the paddock overnight. Next morning Peter went and asked him if he sold pencils, and the traveller said “Yes” and handed him one to look at. Peter said, “Thank you, that is for the permission to camp in my paddock overnight!” Sometimes the grandsons would stay with him too. Alfred and Edgar would each walk their plough and horses from ‘Kentish’s’ near Caltowie to Wirrabara and stay with Peter for a week or so.
When Alfred came home Edgar would go out and open the gate for him and tell him if grandfather Peter was in a good mood to talk to or not. Peter lived to the grand old age of 93. In those days there were no Old Age Homes to retire to and none of the modern medicines and tablets. The flagons of Port and Sherry were about the only medicine to relieve the pains and help the aged to get a good night’s sleep. The grandchildren came and did the housework. A schoolteacher used to call on Peter on his way home. One day Peter had a heart attack. He made it down to the roadway where the teacher found him and took him to the Altmann’s [ Peter’s daughter’s] place in Wirrabara where he died a few days later. It was 27th June 1917. The funeral left from the Altmann’s house. As was the custom the coffin was open in the house and the mourners would call and view the body.
The coffin was closed and the funeral procession made its way through the hills to the Pine Creek (Appila) Lutheran Church. After the service the coffin was carried from the church to the cemetery about 100 metres away. One obituary says that one son and one daughter had predeceased him, and 16 of the 70 grandchildren had also predeceased him. Rita Becker was 10 years old at the time. She later married one of the grandchildren. When I asked Rita if she remembered Peter Zwar she said,
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Peter
was born at Drehsa on 15th May 1824, a Wendish village about 10
kilometres east of Bautzen in the Kingdom