tenterfieldjulie
26-11-12, 00:10
Name: CHRISTOPH ALT (also known as John the German and John Christopher Alt)
Date and place of birth: 20 May 1828 Bannerod, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany
Names of parents: Christoph Alt and his 2nd wife Anna Margareta Ruhl
Date and place of baptism: Protestant Church, probably Bannerod in Hessen Darmstadt, Germany)
Marriages:
1. Elizabeth Jeffrey (Jaffrey) on 21 January 1857 at St. Clement’s Church of England Yass.
2. Martha Crossley on 1 January 1862 at St. Clements C of E, Yass
Occupation: Farm hand, Man Servant/Butler, Carrier, Hotel Owner/Licensee and Farmer.
In the baronial class system, the Alt brothers, Heinrich b 1818 and Christoph b 1828, were educated and trained as manservants/butlers. Bannerod was a poor area and the conditions were harsh where he worked hard on his father’s farm. His father died when he was 16 and he took up a position as a manservant at Lauterbach, but 9 months later was conscripted into the Army. He joined the Hessen Archducal Third Infantry Regiment on 10 April 1849, aged 21. He received two service medals, one from the Archduke of Hesse and the other the Archduke of Baden. He spent just under 3 years in the army and was discharged on 29 February 1852. Heinrich, Christoph’s older brother, who had settled at Yass, NSW, sent him the 12 pounds required for his fare to Australia. He sailed on the ‘Reiherstieg” from Hamburg and arrived Sydney on 5 August 1852. Christoph was intelligent, industrious and thrifty and became a carrier soon after his arrival at Yass, NSW. After marriage they lived at Rossi Street, Yass, beyond the stables at the rear of the Yass Hotel, where he advertising as John C. Alt, Rossi St., Yass. In July 1859 they rented new hotel premises, The Galway Inn, (changed it’s name to Carriers Arms in 1861) at the junction of the Hume Highway and the road to Wargiela about 2 klms from Yass. Christoph was naturalized at Yass on 14 February 1861. Soon after Elizabeth died tragically from spasmodic cholera. Christoph then had two boys, aged 2 years and 5 months, and a hotel to run. Ten months later he married Martha Crossley, aged 19. On 1 June 1863, Christoph bought 27 acres at Fairyhole Creek for 160 pounds sterling. The land was situated 1.5 klms north of the Carrier’s Arms, 6 months later he purchased an additional 42 acres for 500 pounds sterling. He then sold the Carrier’s Arms and built a new hotel called the Fairyhole Creek Hotel (Fairy Hotel Inn) in June 1864. A new road bypassed the hotel and business became so poor that when the license expired on 30 June 1867 it was not renewed. Fortunately farming was proving profitable. In April 1869 Christoph took over the license of the Yass Hotel at corner of Cooma and Rossi Streets, North Yass. He then advertised “To SELL, or to LET. The farm, of sixty-nine acres, at the Fairyhole Creek, the property of the undersigned, with stone-built Dwelling-house of six rooms, together with detached stone Kitchen, well of water, Garden and Orchard, well stocked with fruit trees. There are fifty-nine acres of cleared land, all of which has been under cultivation. For particulars, apply to C. ALT on the farm.” The farm did not sell and was retained by the family until 1897.
Addresses: Christoph grew up at Bannerod, south of Lauterbach in Hessen Darmstadt; worked Lauterbach 9 months; then the Hesse Army 3 years; Yass & district NSW 20+ years.
Date, place and cause of death: On the 15 July 1873 at Yass Hotel, Yass from pulmonary phthisis (tuberculosis) exacerbated by pneumonia. (Both he and his brother suffered from TB and from the earliest days in NSW he was not of robust health)
Date and place of burial: on 16 July 1873 in the C of E section of Yass cemetery
Details of admon: Christoph died intestate and Letters of Administration were granted to his widow, Martha, on 7 August 1873, a month after he died. The value of the estate was sworn at Three hundred pounds.
Memorial inscription: In Memory of CHRISTOPHER ALT Died 15th July, 1873 Aged 45 yrs. We loved him. O! no tongue can tell How much we loved him and how well God loved him too and thought it best To take him home with Him to rest.
Obituary: “DEATH OF WELL-KNOWN TOWNSMAN. On last Tuesday Mr. Christopher Alt died at his residence the Yass Hotel, at the comparatively early age of forty-three and his funeral, which was largely attended by all classes, took place on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Alt was for many years a carrier on the road, and was well-known as “Johnnie the German”. By industry and thrift, he acquired a snug farm in the neighborhood of Yass, which he cultivated successfully, and latterly became landlord of the Yass Hotel. Not long after commencing hotelkeeping, he was attacked with illness, from which he suffered until the hour of his death, although medical practitioners both in Yass and Sydney were consulted. He was very generally respected and leaves a wife and seven children behind to mourn the loss of an attentive husband and father.”
(Source of much of the above information is from “Christoph Alt of Yass” by Ronald H. Alt, Printed in 1989. Most of the information in the book relates to the family’s life in Australia which can be verified. Ron Alt is now deceased and so where he obtained the information on the family in Germany, apart from Military Service of Christoph Alt, is not stated and has not been verified to date).
Children : Elizabeth’s children: Christopher 1858, Henry 1860; Martha’s children: Martha Maria 1863, James 1864, Sedonia 1866-1866, John 1867, Sidonia 1868, William 1870-1872, Elizabeth 1872.
Date and place of birth: 20 May 1828 Bannerod, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany
Names of parents: Christoph Alt and his 2nd wife Anna Margareta Ruhl
Date and place of baptism: Protestant Church, probably Bannerod in Hessen Darmstadt, Germany)
Marriages:
1. Elizabeth Jeffrey (Jaffrey) on 21 January 1857 at St. Clement’s Church of England Yass.
2. Martha Crossley on 1 January 1862 at St. Clements C of E, Yass
Occupation: Farm hand, Man Servant/Butler, Carrier, Hotel Owner/Licensee and Farmer.
In the baronial class system, the Alt brothers, Heinrich b 1818 and Christoph b 1828, were educated and trained as manservants/butlers. Bannerod was a poor area and the conditions were harsh where he worked hard on his father’s farm. His father died when he was 16 and he took up a position as a manservant at Lauterbach, but 9 months later was conscripted into the Army. He joined the Hessen Archducal Third Infantry Regiment on 10 April 1849, aged 21. He received two service medals, one from the Archduke of Hesse and the other the Archduke of Baden. He spent just under 3 years in the army and was discharged on 29 February 1852. Heinrich, Christoph’s older brother, who had settled at Yass, NSW, sent him the 12 pounds required for his fare to Australia. He sailed on the ‘Reiherstieg” from Hamburg and arrived Sydney on 5 August 1852. Christoph was intelligent, industrious and thrifty and became a carrier soon after his arrival at Yass, NSW. After marriage they lived at Rossi Street, Yass, beyond the stables at the rear of the Yass Hotel, where he advertising as John C. Alt, Rossi St., Yass. In July 1859 they rented new hotel premises, The Galway Inn, (changed it’s name to Carriers Arms in 1861) at the junction of the Hume Highway and the road to Wargiela about 2 klms from Yass. Christoph was naturalized at Yass on 14 February 1861. Soon after Elizabeth died tragically from spasmodic cholera. Christoph then had two boys, aged 2 years and 5 months, and a hotel to run. Ten months later he married Martha Crossley, aged 19. On 1 June 1863, Christoph bought 27 acres at Fairyhole Creek for 160 pounds sterling. The land was situated 1.5 klms north of the Carrier’s Arms, 6 months later he purchased an additional 42 acres for 500 pounds sterling. He then sold the Carrier’s Arms and built a new hotel called the Fairyhole Creek Hotel (Fairy Hotel Inn) in June 1864. A new road bypassed the hotel and business became so poor that when the license expired on 30 June 1867 it was not renewed. Fortunately farming was proving profitable. In April 1869 Christoph took over the license of the Yass Hotel at corner of Cooma and Rossi Streets, North Yass. He then advertised “To SELL, or to LET. The farm, of sixty-nine acres, at the Fairyhole Creek, the property of the undersigned, with stone-built Dwelling-house of six rooms, together with detached stone Kitchen, well of water, Garden and Orchard, well stocked with fruit trees. There are fifty-nine acres of cleared land, all of which has been under cultivation. For particulars, apply to C. ALT on the farm.” The farm did not sell and was retained by the family until 1897.
Addresses: Christoph grew up at Bannerod, south of Lauterbach in Hessen Darmstadt; worked Lauterbach 9 months; then the Hesse Army 3 years; Yass & district NSW 20+ years.
Date, place and cause of death: On the 15 July 1873 at Yass Hotel, Yass from pulmonary phthisis (tuberculosis) exacerbated by pneumonia. (Both he and his brother suffered from TB and from the earliest days in NSW he was not of robust health)
Date and place of burial: on 16 July 1873 in the C of E section of Yass cemetery
Details of admon: Christoph died intestate and Letters of Administration were granted to his widow, Martha, on 7 August 1873, a month after he died. The value of the estate was sworn at Three hundred pounds.
Memorial inscription: In Memory of CHRISTOPHER ALT Died 15th July, 1873 Aged 45 yrs. We loved him. O! no tongue can tell How much we loved him and how well God loved him too and thought it best To take him home with Him to rest.
Obituary: “DEATH OF WELL-KNOWN TOWNSMAN. On last Tuesday Mr. Christopher Alt died at his residence the Yass Hotel, at the comparatively early age of forty-three and his funeral, which was largely attended by all classes, took place on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Alt was for many years a carrier on the road, and was well-known as “Johnnie the German”. By industry and thrift, he acquired a snug farm in the neighborhood of Yass, which he cultivated successfully, and latterly became landlord of the Yass Hotel. Not long after commencing hotelkeeping, he was attacked with illness, from which he suffered until the hour of his death, although medical practitioners both in Yass and Sydney were consulted. He was very generally respected and leaves a wife and seven children behind to mourn the loss of an attentive husband and father.”
(Source of much of the above information is from “Christoph Alt of Yass” by Ronald H. Alt, Printed in 1989. Most of the information in the book relates to the family’s life in Australia which can be verified. Ron Alt is now deceased and so where he obtained the information on the family in Germany, apart from Military Service of Christoph Alt, is not stated and has not been verified to date).
Children : Elizabeth’s children: Christopher 1858, Henry 1860; Martha’s children: Martha Maria 1863, James 1864, Sedonia 1866-1866, John 1867, Sidonia 1868, William 1870-1872, Elizabeth 1872.