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Introduction to Bethel
On 24 November 1864, Ehrenfried purchased Section 350 in the Hundred of Light from his father-in-law. This property was three kilometres southwest of the Bethel Lutheran Church. (p 293 ‘Changing Pastures’). This land remained in the Arnold family for 114 years until 1978 when the last Arnold owners, Esther Irene and Edith Agnes, daughters of Ehrenfried’s sixth son Ernst Wilhelm, sold the property.
The sixth son, Erst Wilhelm married Albertine Bertha Lousie Weir who was born in Stockport, eight kilometres from Bethel. Wilhelm was a founding member of the Bethel church, a lay reader for 27 years and an Elder for 30 years. Wilhelm had a property in Stockport and bought his father’s Ehrenfried’s property and adjoining land for farming.
In the 1940’s Wilhelm sold his Bethel property to his two sons Aurther and Benno. The brothers lived in the family homestead with their sisters Edith and Esther, all their lives and are buried in the Bethel cemetery.
The Bethel Lutheran Cemetery has Arnolds from the first four generations who settled in Australia including the matriarch Johanne Elisabeth Arnold.
Betha Lutheran Church Altar 1993
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