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Home Page
Pioneers |
| The Klopper
Family
By Clair Barker
1979 |
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Heinrich Frederick Wilhelm Kloepper (Henry Klopper) was born according to the
Petershargen Register of Births, Death and Marriages, on 24th March 1823, though his bible and the headstone on his
grave record that he was born on 13th November 1823. He was the firstborn child of Cord
Heinrich and Marie Elisabeth Kloepper of Suedfelde, near Minden
Germany who were married on 18th August 1822. Henry had three brothers
Heinrich Christian born 20th June 1825, Heinrich Frederick Christian born
30th May 1829, Frederick Wilhelm born 12th May 1831, and a sister Johanna
Wilhelmina
Caroline Christine born 3Oth January 1827. |
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Henry at the age of 24 years sailed from Hamburg
, Germany on the 20 th July 1847 in the sailing ship the "Hermann Von
Beckerath" of 580 tons, which was under the command of Captain Kahl.
The ship carried 25 cabin and 266 steerage passengers. The ship
sailed to Australia
via South America, calling at Rio
for passengers to disembark there, and finally arrived at Port
Adelaide, South Australia on the 15th December 1847, the journey taking nearly five months. The
destination of Konrad Klopper, who also sailed from Hamburg
on the Herman Von Beckerath is unknown. There is no record of his
naturalisation in South Australia , though the signature on one of the witnesses on the marriage
certificate of Henry and his wife three years later, could well
be that of K Klopper. There is a possibility that he could have set�tled in
Victoria
as Mr F W Klopper of Torrens Park
now aged 95 years, while holidaying in Bairnsdale ,
Victoria , met another FW Klopper who owned property at Bairnsdale
and was a farmer and cattle breeder. While chatting they
discovered that both of their grandfathers came out from
Germany but the subject was not discussed further. |
| Also
as passengers on the "Herman Von Beckerath" travelling to
Australia
were the Wetzel family of Brunswick
, Germany. Henry married the eldest daughter Caroline, aged 17 years, 3
years later. The marriage was solemnised on 11th March 1850 in the St Andrew Church of Scotland,
Grenfell Street
,
Adelaide , according to the Lutheran rites and they lived at
Hope Valley . The present Stock Exchange Plaza stands on the site once
occupied by the church. |
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In the days of the first settlers, Hope Valley and the
surrounding district was covered with forests of gum, sheoks and wattles and they used to reap the long grasses (by
Scythe) of kangaroo, spear, barley and silver grass for hay.
Birds were numerous it was a common sight to see a dozen turkeys marching
along. There were thousands of cockatoos, parrots, quail and
kookaburras and many other native birds were also plentiful. The
soil was of very good quality and crops, orchards and market
gardens were successfully grown. |
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Henry's first home was of eucalypt and pug, but in 1850 he
helped a Mr Holbrook build a house of stone. The
stone came from his own quarry at the bottom of Anstey's Hill. The large kitchen and bakehouse, also of stone,
were built near the house. As the family increased more pug and
timber rooms were built until the house comprised seventeen
rooms. Three large cellars and an underground tank were also
provided. Henry also built a hay shed, large barn, stables and
sheds. The home and buildings were situated on land which is now
the south‑eastern corner of Valley and Grand Junction
Roads. The only reminder of the old days is a large pepper tree
under which the children used to play. Regular dances and
concerts were held in the Klopper's barn
and sometimes the hayshed also, and
it was the centre of social activities until the year 1927 when
it was demolished. |
| Henry was an
excellent performer on the accordion and there was considerable
talent in his children,there were elocutionists, composers,
singers and musician. Henry and his wife had a family of
fourteen children, eight sons and six daughters, one daughter
died at the age of nine and a half months. The children were all
christened at home, a white bowl with a blue band at the top
being used as the christening font. The bowl was also used for
the christening of the three children of Edward Klopper, who was
the sec�ond son of Henry. All of the boys grew to be over six
feet tall and all the girls over five feet ten inches. The girls
were all given a very good educa�tion, but the boys needed to
help their father in busy times so their educa�tion was rather
limited. |
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Caroline
was
an excellent cook, and as well as visitors always being welcome
the homestead was also a haven for "runaway" sailors
from the ships arriving at Port Adelaide. The sailors were
assured of a meal and bed until they could establish themselves
in the new colony. They were also a source
of cheap labour for
Henry. It was a hard life for Caroline, fourteen children in
twenty one years., and even tho she
always had help (the teamsters built their homes on Klopper
land and their wives helped at the Klopper home) , it was a busy life. Henry, on the birth
of each
child, presented his wife with a piece of furniture which later
was given to that son or daughter. Mrs Vera Dankel of Unley has
the cedar bookcase given to Caroline on the birth of her father
Frederick William Klopper. One of the Forrester's girls had the sofa given on the
birth of her mother Williernina. The Klopper women made their own bread, butter, cheese and candles.
ground their own coffees besides the never ending housework, cooking and sewing. 'File
Klopper men always killed
their own meat and
cured the hams and bacon and made their own smallgoods. |
| Henry
was apparently a man of some means when he purchased his first
land on his arrival in 1847. The property he acquired was 80
acres, section 823 in Hope Valley itself, which he began to
clear and fence using the felled trees and stumps as fencing
until he was able to erect post and rail fences. It was on this
section that he built his home. He planted crops, orchards and
vineyards (one of the cellars was used to store the wine) and
there was also a large vegetable garden. Henry was a very good horseman
and
judge of horse flesh and he bred his own horse and
bullock teams, which were used on the farm and for deliveries
from the quarry. |
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At
the time of his
marriage in 1850 he owned 218 acres, by 1853, 268 acres,
and by the year 1864 he owned 324 acres of land in the district
section
824, 830, 855, 5627, 5404, also section 5626 below Anstey's
Hill which he operated as a metal and building stone
quarry, Most of the roads in tile district of Highercombe (the district was named after
Highercombe Estate, the property owned and named by George Anstey
a man of means and one of the earlier large property
owners whose name is perpetuated in Anstey's Hill) were constructed from metal supplied, under
contract, from the Klopper's
quarry. Good building stone from the quarry was used to build
the "bluestone homes"
in Adelaide and suburbs and as stone.
After hisdeath in 1888 the
quarrying business was carried on by his wife and three of
their sons. One son Frederick. was later killed at the quarry by
a flying rock |
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Henry was a strong, hardworking man and took a great interest in the progress of his new
country and in particular Hope Valley itself. and was greatly involved in community affairs. In
the German Settlers became impatient at the delay of the
District Road Board to build a bridge over the creek below the
Bremen Arms Hotel on the bullock track to Adelaide
, so Henry and his neighbours built
the bridge. Later when the bridge was allowed to fall into a
state of disrepair they rebuilt the bridge. In the same
year Henry was one of a committee of four, formed by William
Holden (a well educated 'Englishman who acquired one of the
first allotments at Hope Valley . As he spoke German he befriended the German settlers and acted
as their interpreter) to raise money to establish a school for
the growing number of children in the district. The sum of �10
was raised for the purchase of 1 acre of land west
of the Bremen Arms hotel, facing Grand Junction Road
. The acres block was divided into three smaller allotments, for use as a cemetery (the present day Hope Valley
Cemetery, where Henry and his wife Caroline are buried, no.3 for
a school and schoolhouse and no.1 for parking horses for the
cemetery and the school and as a school playground. The was held in trust by a committee consisting of William Holden,
Henry Klopper., Joseph
Farrow and Heinrich Wohlers until the year 1874, when it
was vested in the District of Highercornbe. The Hope
Valley School was completed towards the end of 1849 and its first headmaster
was Mr Dempster. The second headmaster, Mr Prowse, was
appointed in 1851, and advertised "to inform his friends
and the neighbourhood" that the day school would be opened
from 9am -4.pm and that night school would be opened three nights a
week. |
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In 1849 Hope Valley became a postal town on the mail route to
Mt Torrens. Mails were delivered, twice weekly by horse at a cost of four
pence a letter. Highercombe Hotel (which is now owned by the National Trust) was
used as the first post office. Due to the discovery of gold in
Victoria
in 1852 and the exodus of workers to the goldfield, there was no
postmaster or school teacher until 1854 when the Hope
Valley post office reopened and the school reopened in 1856. The
increased population in Victoria
due to the gold rush, caused a demand for South Australia
where and the District of Highercombe
came rapidly under cultivation. By 1857 there were 4,464 acres
under wheat, 219 of barley, 815 of cut hay and two flour mills
were operating in the district. |
| When
the new District Council of Highercombe was proclaimed on July 4th
1853,
Henry became the first councillor for the District of Hope
Valley. The first meeting was held on August 2nd in
the Assembly Room of the Bremen Arms
Hotel. On October 70' 1858 with
Charles Knowles, he was re‑elected as councillor for the reproclaimed
District of Highercombe when the
area was reduced in size form 47.5 miles to 17 miles square, as
proclaimed in the Government Gazette. Local Government was
South Australia 's earliest form of self government.
South Australia was in fact, the first of the colonies to institute the
principle of an elected government. On November 25th 1852 an Act was passed by Government to appoint District
Councils and define their powers. The Act gave the district the
power to tax land owners in the district for the making and
maintaining of roads, bridges and public buildings. To grant
Publican, Depasturing and
Slaughtering Licences and to build pounds for the impounding of
stray cattle, sheep etc. Fines for stray horses and cattle 1
shilling and 3 pence, 6 pence for pigs and 2 pence for sheep and
goats. The land owners were taxed at the rate of 1 shilling in
the pound. The Council remained divided for 77 years and were
united again in 1935 as the District Council of Tea Tree Gully. |
Council workers supplied their own tools and for their wage of
5/- per day they were expected to crack 3 yards of metal per
day. In the 1860's stone cracking hammers and picks and shovels were
supplied to the regular road workers, but it was not until 1922
that Council could afford tools for the dayworkers.
Also the Council had no "Road Plant" and cartage was
hired at the rate �1 per day for two horses and cart with man, 6 bullocks and
dray with man 15/-. In 1856 the Council purchased its
first equipment-2 wooden wheel�barrows, two picks, two shovels
and one crowbar.
1935
"Plant Statement" for the Highercombe Council was as follows -
I Road Roller
Value
�20
1 Water Cart
�20
4 Wheelbarrows @
5/-
�l
Picks and shovels
�2
_________________________________
Total
�33 |
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Part
Two
Another
community activity Henry became involved in, was the annual
ploughing match. It involved ploughing � acres in the given time of 5 1/2 hours, the furrows not to exceed 9 inches in width
and 5 inches in depth. For a bullock team competing, a driver
was allowed, but with horses no assis�tance was allowed. The
first HopeValley ploughing match was held on September 20th 1860
on the Klopperland behind the Bremen Arms Hotel. The entrance
fee was 5/- and as there were many. stumps in the ground it
wasn't a great success, but the dinner held the Hotel that night
was well attended and enjoyed by all. In the following years the
event took on a more festive atmosphere with sideshows and
competitions. Henry was one of a committee who conducted
sporting events for children and adults. The Klopper boys as
young men, were unbeatable as a tug-of-war team. In
1873 the ploughing matches were discontinued and a combined
picnic for the Districts of Highercombe and Tea Tree Gully were
held, and this was popular for some years. |
Henry & Caroline Klopper
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| HopeValley
had its German Rifle Club from 1860 and competed annually on
Easter Monday with the Adelaide German Rifle Club for the honour
of being "King" of the year. In 1871 the competition
took place at the shooting ground along side the Bremen Arms
Hotel. Henry was one of the five local Germans competing
but Gerber of the Adelaide Club, renamed "King", was
presented with a medal. The Ball held in the hotel that night
was kept up till dawn. There were few restrictions on hotels in
those days bars were open legally until midnight and the
minimum drinking age was sixteen. |
| For many years the
road to Hope Valley from Walkerville via Gilles Plains was a
bullock track, and in winter it became a quagmire even though
tons of road metals were spread on the bad areas. In 1887 the
Council of Highercombe acquired a secondhand roller which
greatly improved the quality of roads. This roller was to be
lent to the neighbouring councils free of charge, and constantly
repaired, it was still in use in 1935. The track to Adelaide via
Walkerville was the most popular track used as the settlers,
being mostly of German origin, had relatives and friends in
Klemzig and would call in on their way. Also another reason for
the popularity of this route was the permanent springs in the
gully, a very welcome stopping place for drivers and bullock
teams. The second line of road entered the District of
Highercombe form the present Lower North East Road via a ford
over the river Torrens. |
| Until
1935 the residents of Hope Valley had no direct transport to the
City. In that year David Bowman purchased his first passenger
bus, a seven seater Buick, and made two return trips to the City
each day. Prior to that the residents had a two mile walk to
what is known as the North East Road to catch the city bound
horse tram (1884), electric tram (1911) trolley bus (1932). |
| Adelaide's
first reservoir was at Thornton Park and had a capacity of
142,000,000 gallons and as the population grew another reservoir
was necessary. Because of its clay beds, Hope Valley was chosen
for the new reservoir. The tender of the Fry brothers of Kapunda
for �35,467 was accepted, and besides their own 60 horses and
drivers another 60 local horses and drivers were required. Henry
supplied several teams of horses and bullocks with drivers, and
some of the Klopper boys were also employed by the contractors.
For the amount of the tender the Fry brothers were to raise an
embankment nearly 1/2 mile long and 70 feet from the floor of the
valley, and the breadth of the embankment, at its greatest, to
be 355 feet, and 17 feet wide at the top. It was estimated that
the surface of water in the new reservoir would cover 170 acres
and the holding capacity would be 1,000 million gallons, enough
to extend the water supply to the main centres of population and
industry around Adelaide Walkerville, Port Adelaide, Glenelg,
Hindmarsh and Brompton. The construction of the reservoir began
in 1869 and on its completion it was discovered that there was a
serious leakage of water. After supplying water during the
summer of 1873 the reservoir was drained in March of that year
and examined. It was discovered that the natural clay bed of the
reservoir itself was permeable under pressure and it was
necessary to cover the bottom with 6 feet of clay at its deepest
part. The extra work took 6 months and cost the Government an
extra �50,000 as well as reducing the holding capacity. Today
the capacity of Hope Valley Reservoir is 765 million gallons.
The enlargement of the aquaduct in 1954 allows up to 40 million
gallons a day to feed into the reservoir. |
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As
property surrounding the reservoir was required for a picnic
area and reserve, Henry sold the land he owned in the area to
the Government and used the money to buy properties at Crystal
Brook for his sons Charles, John and William. In 1875‑6,
1000 trees were planted around the reservoir. |
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As
"Trespassers will be prosecuted" signs are numerous
and all gates are padlocked, this area is apparently no longer a
picnic area. |
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It was at the time of the construction of the reservoir, October
1st 1873 to be exact, that the Government of the day decried to
adopt the eight hour working day, but it was still as a six day
working week. Drivers and gangers working on the reservoir were
paid 6/- per day, and pick and shovel workers 5/6 per day. Wages
rose to 8/- but the Fry brothers could not afford the rise, they
agreed to the eight hour day and offered 7/- which was accepted
as a good wage by the workers. |
| In the year 1891, after Henry's death,
a section of the Klopper's land was sold to Douglas Tolley who
began a vineyard as a hobby but it rapidly grew into a
flourishing business. Tolley's wine cellars are on the land
which was originally owned by Henry Klopper.While digging
an underground tank, Henry caught a chill and contracted
pneumonia. He died at Hope Valley on the April 1888, aged 66
years and was buried in the Hope Valley Cemetery. His wife
Caroline and two sons Adolph and Edward carried on the quarrying
business until her death on March 18th 1914. Caroline never
recovered form a broken hip she received in a fall and died at
age 84 years. She was buried in the same grave as Henry in the
Hope Valley Cemetery. Edward carried on the quarrying business
until 1927 when it was sold. The old family home has since been
demolished and all that remains on the site is an old pepper
tree. |
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The Klopper Boys
and the Klopper Girls
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Heinrich
Friedrich Kloepper (Klopper)
Born
Nov 1823 Germany
Died
April 8th 1888 Hope Valley
Married
Caroline Henrietta Wetzel
Born
June 22nd 1830 Germany
Died March 18th 1914 Hope Valley
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Ferdinand
Heinrich Charles
Born Dec 8th 1851
Married Emily Seaman
4 sons � Charles, Henry, Louis, Lawrence
4 daughters _ Ida, Elsie, Amy, Pauline
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. Augusta Henrietta
Born Feb 10th, 1853
Married Morgan Wake
4 sons- Stanley, Percival, Wilfred, Clarence
4 daughters - Gertrude, Beatrice, Hilda Ruby
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Anna Wilhemenia
Born 27th March 1854
Married John Forrester
3 sons - Raymond, Lorimer, Melville
1 daughter -Adelaide Victoria
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Frederick William
Born Ist September 1855
Married
1 son & 1 daughter
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Louisa Caroline
Born 18th October 1856
Married William Forrester
4 sons - Percival, Herbert, Milton, Eardley
1 daughter (adopted) Myrtle
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Friedrich Wilhelm
Born 29th August 1858
Married Charlotta Meyer
2 sons - Frederick, Roy
5 daughters - Bertha, Henrietta, Vera, Charlotte, Roma
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Louise Augusta
Born 12 February 1860
Died aged 9 1/2months
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August Friedrich Wilhelm
Born 7th January 1862
Married Margaret Bothy
4 sons - William, Edward, Milton, Carew
4 daughters - Lucy, Mabel, Anne, Wilhemina
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. Johan
Gustav
Born 26th March 1863
Unmarried
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Johanna
Mary,
Born 8th Dec 1864
Married John Knoee
3 daughters- Vera, Ada, Fay
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Agnes
Bertha Emma
Born 9th July 1866
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Christian Ernest Theodor Born 11th May
1868
Married Amy Bell
1 son 1 daughter
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George Edward
Born l7th Sept 1870
Married Rose Gage
2 sons- Arthur. Milo
1 daughter- Ivy
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Adolf
Bernhardt
Born 9th Dec 1872
Married Elsie
1 son- Harold
1 daughter - Elsie |
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