St Peter’s Lutheran Church cemetery, Greenock
In 1850 a Congregation was formed in the township of Greenock and a church was built. With little participation from the congregation the church was eventually sold to the Roman Catholics in the 1860’s and later demolished.
In 1897 eleven families tried to establish another congregation. After having a lot of trouble trying to find a suitable place to build or buy a church, they began to hold their worships in the Daveyston School. The congregation then worshipped in the Methodist church in Greenock between 1898 and 1900. The Lutheran church was finished construction on the 22nd of April, 1900. From 1897 to 1953 the Pastor was J.H.S Heidenreich. He introduced the English service in 1919.
Records for this cemetery began in 1865. During the early years of settlement many children under the age of five years were buried here. Isolation and lack of prompt medical help along with little knowledge about how to treat diseases resulted in many deaths. Today we have cures for many of the common infectious diseases of that time.
Contagions often spread rapidly through the districts and frequently took many lives. In 1867 Mr Christian Hage tragically lost his wife and four of his children within nine days to diphtheria. Scarlet Fever was to take four of the children of the local school teacher Mr Friedrich Klewts. He only survived for another two years and died of a brain disorder.
Thus, this cemetery tells us a rather bleak story of the bygone days.
4 Wilhelm Arnold Greenock
4 Johann Wilhelm Arnold
Born: 7 April 1826
Died 20 March 1868
Fourth child of Elisabeth and Gottfried, Wilhelm travelled with his brother Carl Friedrich to Adelaide arriving in October 1854. He married Maria Sophie Dorothea Parbst at Bethany Lutheran Church on 19 January 1857. They had five children. Tragically Wilhelm died when struck by a horse leaving Sophie with three children under 9 years of age.
Whereabouts of the grave of Maria Sophie Dorothea Arnold (wife of Wilhelm) is unknown
4.1 Maria Sophie Dorothea Arnold (nee Barbst)
Born: 1837
Died/Buried: 20 April 1882
Following Wilhelm’s death in 1826, Sophie married Johann Gottfried Wilhelm Fiebig on 1 October 1869 at Bethany. He was 23 years of age to Sophie’s 32 years. Three more children were born, the last in 1882. She was 45 years old when she died.
1.3 Ernst Wilhelm Arnold
Born: 7 August 1856 in Neundorf Silesia
Died: 15 October 1937
Caroline Louise Wenke
Born: 4 July 1864
Died: 1 October 1949
Ernst was the third child of Gottlieb and Christiane Arnold nee Bachmann. He was ten when arriving in South Australia with his family. He married Caroline on 21 Nov 1884 in the Moravian Church in Bethel. They had ten children.
1.4 Auguste & Eduard BACHMANN Greenock
1.4 Ernstine Auguste Arnold
Born: 1 March 1863
Died: 13 March 1922
Ernst Eduard Bachmann
Born: 3 July 1854 at Haynau Silesia
Died: 19 August 1936
Ernstine Auguste was the fourth child of Gottlieb and Christiane Arnold. She married Eduard in 1883 who then established a business as a carpenter and cabinet maker and later a hardware and paint store in Greenock. Ernstine Auguste died at Marananga in 1922 and is buried in Gnadenfrei Lutheran Church.
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St Peters Greenock
1.3-Wilhelm-Caroline-ARNOLD-Greenock-
1.3 Wilhelm and Caroline ARNOLD Greenock.
4.1 Maria Elisabeth Anold Greenock