Konrad MULLER 1847-?
The widower Philipp Reinhard Muller, a tin-smith in Nieder-Weisel, and the widow Elisabetha Hauser nee Haub, were married in Nieder-Weisel on Sunday 10th September 1843. The seven children who were born to this marriage over the next thirteen years included the brothers Jakob, born 1845, and Konrad, 1st March 1847.
In 1857, Philipp Reinhard left the village to try his luck on the goldfields in Victoria, where 200 or more of the Nieder-Weiselerns were prospecting. His sons Konrad and Jakob followed independently. Konrad, who had completed his apprenticeship as a leather dyer, obtained work in Ballarat. In 1861, the 16 year old Jakob arrived and got work with a provisioning company, Geilhofer & Hauser, operated by Philipp Hauser in Smythesdale. Less than twenty weeks after the death of his father, Jakob was dead also, the victim of a road accident.
Konrad turned 20 in 1868. He believed he could be forcibly repatriated to Germany for army service, so decided to return of his own volition. Before leaving he had a memorial stone placed on Jakob’s grave in Smythesdale cemetery. Konrad left before he had the opportunity of bidding farewell to his half-sister, Katharina Klippel nee Hauser, as she was then living in the far north of the state. In the company of Martin Krausgrill of Nieder-Weisel, Konrad left Melbourne on 8th October 1868 aboard “Great Britain”; he gave his age as 22.
Konrad’s homecoming was not a happy one. He found that his mother had misappropriated cash he had sent back from Ballarat to help his sisters. This caused a rift that never healed. He was required to do military service and became involved in the bloody war of 1870. He entertained hopes of going back to Victoria but these were abandoned when he fell in love. He accepted instead an uninspiring existence as a day-labourer in Nieder-Weisel. He kept in general touch with Katharina through the uncertain mails. Konrad was living in Bachgasse 116 in 1909; he was farming.
View Konrad's Family Chart
