Born: 19 september 1836. Aabenraa. Denmark Died: 10 february 1905. Victoria. Australia
Biography by David Moore, Melbourne.
Johann Theodor Wissing, known to his many descendants in Australia as Frederick John Wissing, was born on September 19, 1836, in Aabenraa (pronounced Or-ben-ror), the major city in the Danish municipality of Aabenraa-Sonderborg situated about 30 km from the German border.
The exact origin of the surname Wissing is unclear although there are two villages called Vissing in Denmark.
Both Wissing (and Wissinger) were quite popular names in the neighboring region of Prussia to the south and in the nearby Netherlands where the famous 17th Century artist Willem Wissing was born and painted many portraits of the members of the European royal houses and nobility.
The province where Johann (we'll call him Frederick from this point on) was born and raised - Schleswig-Holstein - was a particularly volatile region whose sovereignty was often disputed by Denmark and Prussia (Germany).
These territorial disputes had been waged for centuries and continued into the 20th Century, the last change to the border occurring in 1920 following WWI when the northern portion of Schleswig, now known as Sønderjylland (South Jutland), was returned to Denmark.
This extended the southern border to about the line of the Sønderå River.
The city of Schleswig (pronounced Shlez-vig) is about twenty miles south of the present day Danish border. The area, which extended south to the Elder River, was part of Denmark until 1864 when Dismark's Prussian-Austrian army pushed the southern border of Denmark north to the Kongeå River.
Bismark's advance resulted in the Schleswig-Holstein province becoming part of Germany.
As a result towns such as Lyksborg became Glucksburg and Frederick Wissing's hometown, Aabenraa, became Apenrade.
A perfect example of what occurred during this period is that Frederick Wissing described himself as a Dane from the town of Aabenraa when he arrived in Australia in 1854 while his younger brother Paul Christian described himself as a German from the town of Apenrade when he arrived in Melbourne twelve years later. Frederick was christened six days after his birth. The three witnesses/sponsors named in the church records were Jørgen Paulsen, Catharina Callesen and Claus Holdt.
Jørgen Paulsen, we presume, was related to both Kathrine Paulsen, a baptismal witness/sponsor of Frederick's father Paul Christian in 1806, and two of the three witnesses/sponsors of Frederick's aunt Anna Maria Wissing (born 1808) - Jacob Paulsen and the woman he eventually married, Katrine Bertelsen.
Using the IGI FamilySearch on the Internet we also found a Catharina Callesen listed as being married to a Fester Fischer in Aabenraa in 1803.
If this is the woman she would probably have been a relation and aged roughly between 50-60 years at the time of the christening.
The only person fitting the bill of the third mentioned sponsor was a Claus Iwersen Holdt who married an Ingeburg Maria Tychsen in the same church little more than two weeks after Frederick's baptism.
Why he later changed his name from Johann Theodor to Frederick John is still a mystery.
Although it might have been to cover his tracks after "jumping ship" in Australia (see below), it might simply have been in deference to the ruling monarch of his time, Frederick VII (1848-63).
With the change to Frederick, both he and his father Paul Christian bore the two names used by 19 of the 20 kings who ruled Denmark from the advent of the House of Oldenborg in 1448 until the present Queen Margrethe II was crowned in 1972.
For some reason he left home as a sailor at the age of 16 in September, 1852.
We do not know the reason for his departure but it is unlikely he was fleeing to avoid military service because the Danish Army had been disbanded just after the first Slesvig War of 1848-50 with Germany.
During the ensuing 14 months he sailed first to the Gulf of Finland, then to Malaga on the Spanish coast just north east of Gibraltar, and to Montevideo in the South American country of Uruguay.
We know this because when Frederick later became one of Victoria's prominent citizens in the 1880's, a brief biography appeared in Victoria And Its Metropolis: Past and Present.
This biography also revealed that he later sailed to Falmouth in England after cruising about for some time.
The name of the ship on which he saw much of the world remains a mystery at this point but with any luck we might track it down.
In England Frederick joined the Dutch barque, Jacobus Mortimus, captained by a Captain Gargostein, and left London for Australia in December 1853.
Frederick arrived at Point Henry near Geelong on April 6, 1854.
After jumping ship and being interred for a few days he resided in Geelong until making his way to the Ballarat Goldfields on October 26 of that year.
The Victorian Goldfields were a magnet to many throughout Europe, and Scandinavians were no exception.
It is estimated there were between 2500-2800 Scandinavian miners in Victoria by the late 1850's, many of them Danes due to the abovementioned disbandment of the Danish Army after the First Slesvig War of 1848-50.
From his biography we know that he dug for gold at Creswick, Black Lead and Clarke's Flat at the time of the Eureka Stockade uprising. Frederick then worked at Ballarat until 1856 and was also present at the Chinaman's Flat rush.
On December 27, 1861, at the house of James May and in the presence of Rev. Rob Sutherland at Bullarook near Ballan, Frederick married Janet Graham May, a 19-year-old Scot born in Dundee, Angus County in 1842.
Janet was the daughter of James May of Rathen, Aberdeen County, and Helen Bell of Scone, Perthshire County, both who accompanied her to Australia two years earlier.
Witnesses to their wedding were Janet's brother Andrew and sister-in-law Sarah May Burns who were living at Bullarook after emigrating from Dundee, Angus County, sometime prior to 1855. Frederick was listed as a miner of Daylesford at the time and Janet was listed as a resident of Bullarook.
Between 1863 and 1885 Frederick and Janet had a total of 14 children.
All those who lived to adulthood married and all but his second and fourth sons, Paul Christian and Albert Matteias, had families of their own.
The lines of each of Frederick and Janet's 10 productive children have survived to the present day and, at last count, their known direct descendants totalled 406 when a count was made in preparation for the first Wissing Reunion on 18.11.2000.
From a selection of Daylesford records we now know that Frederick mined at Daylesford for five years from 1860, after which he became a tobacconist. He is listed as a tobacconist on son Frederick Arthur's birth certificate of 1866 and in various Victorian directories from 1868 to 1872.
His tobacco shop was listed as being in Vincent Street in 1869 but had changed to Raglan Street in 1872.
Frederick was also listed as a tobacconist when granted his Naturalisation as an Australian by the Governor of Victoria, Sir John Henry Manners Sutton
Although some records suggest he took up hotelkeeping in 1872 he is listed as being the recipient of the licence to run the Victoria Hotel in Vincent Street on December 12, 1870, the licence having been transferred from the estate of John Lavezzolo.
The hotel re-opened for business the next month and the licence was next transferred to J. Smart in December 1873
In 1872 Frederick purchased the Albert Hotel and adjoining store, to which he attached the Albert Hall, a place for large gatherings of the community prior to the construction of Daylesford Town Hall.
He is listed as a hotelkeeper or publican in various Victorian directories from 1875 to 1885, the year he was first elected to the Mining Board.
Perhaps the most apt description of our Frederick is to paint him as an entrepreneur.
He was certainly a risk taker who obviously enjoyed turning his hand to anything interesting which offered the chance of a financial return.
He is known to have managed some rich alluvial gold mines around Wombat hill and owned and mined at the Ajax Mine in Daylesford.
He also operated as a carrier, owned a corn store in Raglan Street, Daylesford for many years as well as a wine and billiard saloon known as Wine Palace on the corner of Raglan & Wombat Streets, and he is also reputed to have run a skating rink and a vineyard.
In addition he was also a contractor for the Borough Council and the State Government, oversaw the construction of four miles of railway for the State Government in 1879, and was an agent for the Red Cross (Fruit) Preserving Company in Melbourne.
Victoria and Its Metropolis: Past and Present records that "in 1884 sent them fruit to the value of 884 pounds, and in 1886 of 635 pounds; in 1887 he sent them 150 pounds of plums alone".
He also played an active part in local government and other community activities. He became a member of the A.O.F. Court in Daylesford in November 1865. In 1885 he became a member of the Mining Board.
We have detailed accounts of his re-election onto the Board during February of 1896 at the time of his first wife Janet May's death.
In January 1886 he was elected a member of the Daylesford Borough Council and resigned in August 1887.
He was also a committed Mason, having become a member of the M.U.I.O.O.F. Loyal Hand of Friendship Lodge no. 1658 in December 1859 and of the United Grand Lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England, Mount Franklin Lodge of Hiram No. 716 in February 1864.
Frederick's first wife, Janet, died of heart failure on February 28, 1896 and was buried two days later at Daylesford Cemetery on March 1 just near the plot which bears her parents and elder brother James who died in 1885. Frederick and Janet were living in Raglan Street at the time.
The following year Frederick married a widow named Elizabeth Polglase however she died within a few months of their marriage in April, 1898.
Never one to be deterred, Frederick married a third time in 1899 to English-born Maria Wakeham.
It was Maria's fourth time to the alter, having formerly carried the surname Martin (daughter of William).
At this time Frederick was listed as a Daylesford farmer on the Electoral Roll having been listed as a carrier in the 1893-94 Victorian Directory and produce merchant in the 1895-8 editions.
In 1900 Frederick took over the management of the Bay View Hotel in Portarlington (built circa 1868 - closed 1926).
Ever-mindful of any potentially lucrative venture, in April of that year he purchased an eight-year-old steam launch, the Wanda, built on the Gippsland Lakes by a Mr. Krecklow of "Scarborough House', Metung.
The 50-foot long vessel was built with double-bottomed kauri and copper fastenings and, courtesy of a very informative article in the Geelong Advertiser, we know that the launch was piloted by Frederick's brother Paul who, the report informed us 'had the necessary qualifications for the bay trade".
Paul's only assistant on the launch was an engineer and the Wanda was engaged in the general trade around the bay, the main object being to enable fishermen to get their fish to market cheaply.
We know that Frederick was still at Portarlington in 1903 but sometime in the ensuing two years he returned to his old stamping ground at Daylesford where, at 7.40 pm on February 10, 1905, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 68.
He also suffered heart and kidney disease for 12 months before his death. He was buried alongside his first wife and our ancestress Janet May on the Sunday afternoon following his death at Daylesford Cemetery.
Also interred in the same grave, the tombstone still legible, is their daughter Florence May and their grandson, William Gino.
Frederick's third wife, Maria, died on November 4, 1906, at the age of 69 of pancreatic cancer and is buried at the Church of England, Waverley, in NSW.
Obituary: (from the "Daylesford Advocate", Saturday February 11, 1905)
One of Daylesford's oldest residents, Mr. Fred Wissing, passed away last night, at 20 minutes to 8 o'clock, leaving a widow and grown up family of twelve, seven sons and five daughters.
He was a native of Denmark, and came out to Victoria in 1854. In the early days of Ballarat he was engaged in mining there, and afterwards settled in Daylesford, where he followed mining for some time and subsequently was engaged in hotel keeping, and took a sub-contract on the Daylesford-Woodend Railway Line during its construction.
He had a corn store in Raglan Street for many years, and in that and other businesses was successful. He was at one time a member of the Borough Council, and also of the Mining Board, and took a warm and active interest in Public Affairs.
Personally he had many friends who will sincerely regret his death, which took place at the age of 68 years.
The funeral is appointed to leave the residence of his son, Mr. Albert Wissing, Hill Street, at 1.30 pm tomorrow afternoon.
Burial: (from the "Daylesford Advocate", Tuesday February 14, 1905)
Mr. Fred K. Wissing, an old Daylesford identity, was buried in the local cemetery on Sunday afternoon. Mr. Verey being the undertaker.
The funeral was largely attended, there being eighteen conveyances and a number of mourners walking including members of the Loyal Hand of Friendship Lodge, M.U., Breathren of which were also the Bearers, Messrs. H. Wood, J. Bodinnar, G. Cox, C. Metcalfe, F & C Mathieson.
The Church of England service was read by the Rev. G.A. Parker.