(Daniel) HENRI TREYVAUD
| First name | (Daniel) HENRI |
|---|---|
| Last name | TREYVAUD |
| Country of Origin | Switzerland |
| Date of Birth | 11th November 1832 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1852 |
| Submitted by | Ian Treyvaud |
Story
Daniel Henri Treyvaud was born to Louis Samuel, a joiner by trade and Sophie (nee Schmidt) on 11 Nov 1832 at Cudrefin, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. He had an older sister Elisabeth. Treyvaud family connections with Cudrefin go back many hundreds of years. The village is located on the shore of Lake Neuchatel, near Avenches and celebrated its millennium in 1999.
Henri left Cudrefin in April 1852 after being asked not to return to college following repeated absences. The Headmaster, did however write a reference that said ‘Daniel Henri Treyvaud, from Cudrefin, has attended the Ecole Normale from 14 May 1849 until 12 Feb 1852, as a regular student, that he has given proof of his assiduity and zeal and his conduct in general was good\’
In Switzerland during the 1850\’s there had been crop failures; the Republic clashed with Prussia over sovereignty in Neuch‰tel; there had been the 1848 Catholic / Protestant civil war and there was little employment for the young. All these events were enough for somebody to leave the country.
Why Victoria? Perhaps two reasons – the gold rush that had just started and the first Governor of the colony of Victoria, Charles La Trobe, was married to Sophie (de Montmollin) a Swiss national. She encouraged Swiss relatives and other compatriots to bring their knowledge and expertise to Victoria where they established vineyards in Melbourne, Geelong and the Yarra Valley. These vignerons established the colony’s first wine industry.
A passport issued by Prefect Augte Fornallan of Avenches District and sealed in Lausanne on 12 Mar 1852, states that Henri is ‘going to Paris with the intention to take a position as a teacher\’.
He didn\’t stay long in Paris as he arrived at London in June the same year. He departed from London in August and arrived at Hobsons Bay on 9 Dec 1852. He sailed on the ‘Eliza’, of 912 tons capable of carrying 339 passengers but on this journey provisioned for 280.
Shipping records show Henri’s name incorrectly spelt as ‘Treyvood\’ and his age to be 21, when in fact he only turned 20 on the sea journey. His occupation is shown as a clerk and nationality as French.
On 16 Feb 1857, Henri married Mary Ann Henderson, daughter of Hector and Mary Ann Henderson at Fyansford (near Geelong). The Henderson family had arrived in the colony from Glasgow, Scotland just two months prior to Henri.
The two first born of Henri and Mary Ann\’s 15 children, Louisa Eliza and Henry Charles were born in the Fyansford district in 1858 and 1859. The next seven children were all born at Sebastopol or Ballarat between 1861 and 1870. They moved back to the Fyansford district around 1871 and probably stayed for at least nine years as this is where the last six children were born. The last child Laura Elizabeth Claudine was born in 1880. Three children had died in infancy.
On 21 Jan 1858, application was made through the Colonial Secretary to Sir Henry Barkly, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Colony of Victoria, to obtain a Certificate of Naturalisation.
Henri is described as a farmer on both his marriage and naturalisation certificates. He probably worked in the vineyards at Fyansford for a while and would have been one of the many Swiss in the area involved in wine production around this time.
He was employed by the Geelong Waterworks and Sewerage Trust for a period of time as reservoir keeper and weather recorder at Lovely Banks where he lived with his wife and family in the reservoir keepers cottage.
Henri & Mary Ann moved to Hawthorn in 1894, where he died in 1910. Mary Ann predeceased him in 1903.