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Click here to view the Passenger List published in the South Australian REGISTER on August 25, 1838
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THE VENERABLE MENGE IS NO MORE
Professor Johannes Joseph MENGE
Some reports say "He died in the winter month of August 1852 in a tent on the Bendigo diggings, poor and alone".
One report added "without a friend to solace him, or to see him through the valley of death.
This statement lacks historical accuracy, if we believe the reports in the newspapers of the day.
The following letter published
in the South Australian REGISTER on November 29th, 1852
by a special correspondent, who was on the spot, says:
"You will perceive by the Melbourne papers that the venerable Menge is no more. In the residence of Mr Nicholson at Forest Creek, late of Hindley Street,
Menge breathed his last, expressing a cheerful resignation to the Divine will and a perfect confidence in Divine mercy.
As pleasing proof of the esteem in which the old savant was held, his funeral was attended by a considerable number of English and German fellow-colonists."
This letter bears out the statement of Pastor Fritzsche's students that Professor Menge, despite occasional eccentric behaviour, was at heart a humble Christian. |
Whilst researching when and where
Professor Menge died,
I found the following which refers to
C W NICHOLSON - and wondered who he was.
The reference "late of Hindley Street"
sent me searching the SA Passenger Lists.
C W NICHOLSON was a cabin passenger onboard the MEROPE from Hobart, which arrived Adelaide on August 12, 1838. Source: SA REGISTER - August 25th 1838.
It is quite possible that this Mr Nicholson is
also the same as the one referred to below:
The Argus reported on 14/10/52 "Mr C.W. Nicholson, chief gold inspector at Forest Creek ('nearly the only capable amongst all the incapables we are blessed with') resigned due to 'smallness of salary'. Diggers presented him with a 'handsome' testimonial -'We cannot but contrast the untiring assiduity you have displayed in the discharge of functions more important, it appears to us, than the act of signing a name at the foot of a license form, with the utter incapacity, selfish apathy, and reckless disregard to our wants and requirements, exhibited generally by the local officials."
Their occupations being somewhat similar, I believe that whilst Professor Menge was at Forest Creek, he would have visited "Mr C.W. Nicholson, chief gold inspector at Forest Creek"
In 1860 Alfred William Howitt led a prospecting party to Crooked River, discovering alluvial gold there.
A second party, led by C.W. Nicholson
explored the Tambo and Snowy Valleys.
In 1861 Nicholson party discovered gold at Pinch Creek
near Bonang, and alluvial gold near Bendoc,
and some in the lower Snowy.
Source: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~surreal/AVG/Resources/timeline.html
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