A cool South African City image:
Freeling. St Martins Lutheran Church. it began as Herberge Christi Lutheran, the Redeemer Lutheran from 1953 then St Martins from 1967.
Image by denisbin
Freeling.
Once a country town far from the city today Freeling is now almost a dormitory suburb of Gawler. It was named after the third Surveyor General of South Australia, Sir Arthur Freeling who served in this role from 1849 to 1861 until the appointment of George Goyder. Freeling was founded because of copper at Kapunda. It was on the track from Gawler to Kapunda and after the Hundred of Light was declared in 1851 a few farmers began to trickle in to take up land in the district. When the railway line from Gawler to the mines at Kapunda was completed in 1860 Freeling became a stopping place and a town was surveyed that year around the earlier Freeling Hotel which was licensed from 1855. A new Freeling Hotel opened in 1863 and the Railway Hotel started operating a few years later in 1867. The Freeling School opened as a town school in 1867 before becoming a government school in 1875 but this original school was replaced with a new school on a different site in 1910. The original school of 1867 was demolished in 1943 and turned into Mattiske Park. The early Institute of 1888 was replaced with a new one in 1906 which was opened by Sir Jenkin Cole the local Member of Parliament. The current Post Office was erected in 1910.
Many of the pioneering families were of German background and the “father of Freeling” was considered to be Friedrich Heinrich the local grain merchant and wheat buyer and general store keeper. Later Freeling had a Eudunda Farmers store, number 19, from 1917 until 1984. It is surprising that it opened in 1917 the year that all German place names in SA were changed by act of Parliament but then Freeling’s war dead from World War One were mainly men of German background who served for Australia. Early German businessmen in Freeling included Thamm in the saddlery shop, Neldner in the chaff mill, Aistrope in the bakery, Nenke and Kernich in two different general stores, Schaefer in the blacksmiths, Hanisch in the wheelwright shop, and Anders, Kleinich and Heinrich as grain and chaff merchants and implement makers. The town grew as a local agricultural service centre but the railway meant it could produce goods for a wider area. Thus in the 1890s Branson and Kleinig established chaff mills in the town as did Neldner too. Chaff was railed to Adelaide daily as fodder for city horses when nearly every household had a horse and also for farmers elsewhere at a time when every farm had up to six horses. The last chaff mill closed in 1976 but at its peak 40 to 60 tons of chaff left Freeling in at least 15 rail trucks every day. The railway station, once a hive of activity became unmanned in 1978 and closed a few years later. Ernst Anders and sons ran a blacksmiths and foundry producing agricultural implements from 1865. The plough shears and other equipment was sold far and wide including South Africa, Malaysia and New Zealand. Anders later had foundries in Cavan, Melbourne, Horsham and Parkes. Anders continued for over 100 years and as late as 1978 they employed 70 people in Freeling. In 1991 Anders was sold to Agpoint which still manufactures agricultural implements in the town producing ploughing disc for the SA and WA wheat belts. Apart from wheat and hay, grape vines were grown from 1891 mainly on tenant farms around Freeling owned by the South Australian Company. Freeling also had one of the earliest large-scale commercial poultry farms in SA which began operating around 1900. It was the Indra Poultry farm owned by Friedrich Heinrich the “father of Feeling.”
Religion was an important dividing factor in SA towns in the late 19th century and so to accommodate this Freeling had three cemeteries- Methodist, Lutheran and General. But the churches themselves cooperated to the extent of
buying and selling each other’s properties. The town had three Lutheran churches by the early 20th century each belonging to a different Lutheran synod. To understand their history it is best to look at the churches by number rather than denomination!
Church one Clark Street: built by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1871 as the first church in Freeling. In 1901 the Lutheran congregation of St Peter’s purchased the church and added the vestry in 1905 and the porch in 1936. It was sold by St Peter’s to the Methodists in 1970 and then it became St Peter’s Uniting Church which it still is.
Church two in Hanson Street: built by St Peter’s Lutheran congregation in 1883. They had been meeting in the Wesleyan Methodist church since 1873 and in private homes from 1865.They sold this to the Methodists in 1901. They repurchased their church back again in 1970 from the Methodists. They amalgamated with the Redeemer Lutheran congregation and they formed St Mark’s Lutheran church. The building was subsequently demolished.
Church three Barrow Street: St Paul’s Lutheran congregation was formed in 1902 and their new church was built in 1909. In 1953 they sold the church to the Anglicans and it became St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church. In 1953 St Paul’s church amalgamated with Herberge Christi Lutheran Church to form Redeemer Lutheran Church which later became St Mark’s Lutheran. This former Anglican Church from 1953 is now a private residence.
Church four Coulls Street: Herberge Christi Lutheran congregation was formed in 1903 and led by Pastor Heinrich. The church was built in 1904. In 1909 a manse was built. Herberge Christi united with St Paul’s Lutheran in 1953 and formed Redeemer. In 1967 Redeemer united with St Peter’s Lutheran and the new church became St Mark’s Lutheran. This 1909 church with the fine tower is the current and only Lutheran church in Freeling opposite the primary school. The Lutheran Church Hall across the street was built in 1956 for the newly formed Redeemer Church.
Image automatically curated and published by www.free-mail.co.za – CLICK HERE to learn more about WP Robot for WordPress.
Have you tried: Travelling to South Africa?