Johannas Dohle

Story

Hermann Dohle was born in Bremen, Germany, the date is unknown. Hermann married Friederike Siebenmeyer (also known as Meyer), and they had eight children, namely, Julie, Johannas (Johann), Hermann Adolph, Ann Friederike, Diedrich Fritz, Marie Sophie, Heinrich and Gottfried Edmund.

Johannas Dohle, aged 20 years, the eldest son of Hermann and Friedricke set sail from Bremen, Germany in 1858 bound for Australia. It is believed that he travelled on his father’s merchant ship the “SS Ohio”. Johannas Dohle disembarked at Port Misery, in Adelaide, South Australia. He is understood to have spent a little time in Mt. Gambier (South Australia) looking at the countryside with the prospect of buying land and settling as a farmer, before making his way across the border to Victoria where he took up a selection in the Tahara district, later to be known as “Hopevale”. Perhaps the name suggests his hopes and dreams and sense of adventure of a new life in this vast land so far from his family back in Germany. As far as his descendants know he never made a journey back home to see his family and his mother country.

In 1866 Johannas married Elizabeth Schult in Mt Gambier, and in 1869 he became a naturalized Australian citizen. Elizabeth and Johannas had thirteen children, namely, Johann Hermann, Dieterich Charles, Friedrich Wilhelm, Albert, Louisa Elizabeth, Anna Maria, John, Helena, Herbert, Maria Augusta, Wilhelm, Peter and Minna Matilda. Their eldest son Johann Hermann settled in Queensland where his descendants are living today. Friedrich settled in Mortlake, Victoria, and later in Adelaide, South Australia, whilst John settled near Mt Gambier, South Australia as a farmer. Five sons (Dieterich, Albert, Herbert, Wilhelm and Peter) settled on farming land in the district near theIr parents’ property at “Hopevale”, Tahara. Only two daughters, Minna and Mary married.

Just three years after Johannas had arrived in Australia, his younger brother, Hermann Adolph, who was born in 1839, joined him in Australia, also seeking to settle as a farmer. Hermann Adolph sailed to Australia on the “SS Iserbrook” and arrived in Port Adelaide before making his way to the Western District of Victoria, where his brother had settled. He settled at Wannon Vale, Tahara, and was naturalized in Australia in 1868.

The third son, Dietereich Dohle, born in 1843, lived in New Orleans in the 1860’s where he lived for nearly twenty years during which time he became a succcessful businessman selling cotton. He married Elizabeth Deeyton who was descended from an old Bremen family. They were married in Germany in 1885, and had five children, Lisa, Freddie, Dieterich Jnr, Jenny and Julia.

Johannas (also known as Johann and John) farmed at “Hopevale” until he died in 1919 at the age of eighty-one years, and he is buried at the Merino cemetery in Victoria. Today there are six generations of descendants of John Dohle living in most states of Australia. Recently family members who were able to attend, gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Johann Dohle’s arrival in Australia. This is believed to have been the only Dohle family reunion ever held. Family members plan to mark the auspicious occasion by erecting a bronze plaque in memory of Johann Dohle and his family, which is to be placed at the entrance to the original family property “Hopevale”, Tahara, Western District of Victoria.

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