4 Johann Wilhelm Arnold
Wilhelm Branch Arnold Family re-union 1993
Born: 7 April 1826.
Died: 20 March 1868, Siegersdorf, South Australia.
Wilhelm travelled to Australia with his brother Carl Friedrich on the ‘Reihersteig’ arriving in Adelaide in October 1854.
He married Maria Sophia Dorothea Parbs of Siegersdorf at Bethany Lutheran Church on the 19th of January 1857. On 17 January 1859 Wilhelm purchased a property from Johann Joachim Parbst consisting of forty acres (sixteen hectares) at Siegersdorf being Section 74 of Seven Special Surveys. Thirty months later on 1 July 1861 Wilhelm sold his land and moved to the Greenock district of the Barossa Valley.
On 2 June 1863 Wilhelm purchased Part Section 7597 of Belvidere and Light consisting of 141 acres (57 hectares) on the road to Kapunda just out of Greenock. Wilhelm and Maria met with much sadness on the 7th of August 1864 when their first child, Maria Elizabeth, died at the age of six. She was buried in the Neukirch Cemetry.
Wilhelm and Maria attended Neukirch Lutheran Church following their move to Greenock, and it is interesting to note that by 1865, this was a flourishing church with about 300 members.
On the 2nd of May 1865 Wilhelm took the Oath of Allegiance and became a British Subject.
Wilhelm was killed tragically on the 20th of March 1868, when he was struck by a horse when carting water at Siegersdorf. He was buried in Greenock Public Cemetry. Maria was six months pregnant at the time.
- Maria Elizabeth (died aged 6)
- Wilhelmine Johanna (married Wilhelm Otto Handke)
- Carl Wilhelm (married Johanne Maria Gutte)
- Anna Louise (married Charles Schwark)
- Maria Ernestine (died aged 2 months)
- Maria Louise Fiebig (1870 86/355 Barossa)
- Johann Gustav Heinrich Fiebig (1876 175/186 Kapunda)
- George Fredrick Rudolph Fiebig (1882 280/48 Frome)