Lautenthal Hanover Prussia


The Harz Mountains in Central Germany
Heinrich and Ernst Nagel were the sons of Carl Nagel and Ernestine Heidenrich from Lautenthal, Prussia. Their mother died in 1822 and the father followed in 1824. Eldest brother Carl was nineteen when the family were left orphans. He had the responsiblility for his younger brother and sister, the youngest being Ernst aged 4.

In the Harz Mountains at this time many people were unemployed with work in the silver and lead mines restricted to one miner in each household. The orphaned children remained in Lautenthal. Among church records of confirmations, baptisms, marriages and deaths is the entry recording the birth of a son on 1 April 1837 to Heinrich Nagel and Caroline, the widow of Carl Heinrich Bohn.

Heinrich Nagel 1814 - 1866
Heinrich and Caroline immigrated to Australia in 1846 on the ship Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel with their son Wilhelm Friedrich Christian Nagel, aged 9, and Caroline’s remaining children, Johann Heinrich Christian Bohn aged 13, Christiane Caroline Juliane Bohn aged 15, and Caroline Wilhelmine Bohn aged 20. Caroline's  two eldest girls emigrated to Australia three years later.

Heinrich and Caroline spent their lives in South Australia’s Lyndoch Valley. Their son Friedrich married Juliane Noske in 1856 at St Johns Lobethal and had a family of ten children.

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION 1847
"Henrich Nagel and Carl Herberger, appeared upon the information of Heinrich Geyer for an assault. The parties were German miners of Glen Osmond, and each party was represented by his own interpreter of the broken English one by-the-way was as difficult to understand as his clients German. The case was a trivial one of pulling by the hair and knocking down, to which Nagel pleaded guilty, and alleged  that under the provocation of having been called a lazy fellow. Herberger pleaded not guilty, and alleged that he had merely endeavoured to separate the combatants, but the contrary was made out by his own witness, and his Worship fined the defendants in 40's each."
Heinrich died at the age of 51 on 16th March 1866 from dysentery and his wife Caroline died in Adelaide on 12th November 1869 aged 73. Heinrich was buried in the cemetery of St Michael’s Church Hahndorf without a headstone; his grave is now under St Michael’s car park. Caroline was buried in a public grave at West Terrace Cemetery, she also has no headstone.

Ernst Nagel 1819 -1896

Augustina & Ernst Nagel
Heinrich Nagel’s youngest brother Christian Ernst Nagel married Caroline’s eldest daughter Caroline Augustina Bohn. In July of 1848 he applied to the Government of Hanover for assistance to emigrate to South Australia with his family. A note on the second son’s baptismal record says the family had left for Australia. Due to the population and difficulty finding work The Government of Hanover had subsidised immigration to Australia and the USA. An assistance scheme to pay their passage and provide them with a small sum of money was to be repaid when established in the new country. In records of the Clausthal-Zellerfeld Chief Mining Authority Ernst has a comment “the brother in Australia wants to pay all the costs immediately at arrival.” Ernst’s older brother Heinrich had emigrated to Australia in 1846 with Augustina’s mother. Ernst stated on his application to emigrate that “he had no money whatsoever and would like to follow his brother Heinrich.”

In October 1848 the emigrants gathered at Clausthal from where the men walked while the women and children were transported together with their luggage to the railway line at Vienenburg, a distance of twenty kilometres. The following day they travelled by train to Bremen and after signing promissory notes embarked at Bremerhaven ready for the voyage. British regulations meant a doctor had to be on board and six months supplies carried.

Ernst and Caroline emigrated to Australia on George Washington in 1849 with Caroline’s younger sister Johanne Henriette Augustine Bohn b1823 and their two sons, Ernest and Friedrich. They were among the first group of immigrants to be assisted by this scheme. They departed Germany on 25th October 1848.  After fourteen days at sea an outbreak of Cholera claimed their youngest son Friedrich, he died on 8th November 1848 aged 14 months along with twenty eight passengers. The George Washington arrived in Port Adelaide on 2nd March 1849.

The New Country
It is believed the Nagel family first settled at the Mount Barker Mine in South Australia as their third son Ernest August Peter, was born there in February 1850. This was also shown as their place of residence on his birth certificate. Another son Christian Heinrich Francis Martin Nagel was born in September 1852 at Grunthal.

Ernst Nagel's Signature
Ernest was naturalised on 22nd December 1852, his address given was Greenthal and his occupation was a miner, the certificate also stated that he had been a resident in South Australia for four years.

Two more children were born in Grunthal, Wilhelm Heinrich Carl Nagel in 1855 and a daughter Louisa Wilhelmina Friederike Nagel in 1858. During this time Ernst attempted a farmer’s life, as the Day Book of Winters Mill at Hahndorf SA records Ernst bringing wheat to the Mill.

Ernest & Augustina Nagel
Ernest and his family then moved to Callington where he returned to mining at the Wheal Ellen Mine. Two more daughters were born, Augusta Caroline Nagel in 1862 and Bertha in 1864. Ernest and his eldest son Ernest (known as Henry) were approached by Captain Hancock to work for him as he had been transferred to take over the management of the Moonta Mines. They accepted his offer and finally settled in East Moonta where Ernest took up as an Ore Dresser.

Ernest worked as an Ore Dresser at Moonta until his death on 8th August 1896 at the age of 76. According to his Obituary he did not take time off due to sickness in that 31 years, he only gave up work six weeks prior to his death from bronchitis. His wife Caroline Augustina died two months later on 2nd October 1896 aged 78. They are both buried at Moonta South Australia.

Obituary
"MOONTA, August 8, much regret has been expressed locally at the death of Mr. Johannas. C. E. L. Nagel who was for many years a highly respected resident in this district. He arrived in Adelaide by the ship Washington in the year 1849 with his wife and one child, and settled first at Hahndorf, afterwards removing to Callington, where he worked on the mines for five years. When the Moonta Mines opened he took up his, residence in the district, where he passed the rest of his life as oredresser. He held that position for 31 years. He was a prominent member of the Lutheran Church, but at Moonta he made one of the congregation of the Church of England. His wife survives him and he also leaves, 4 sons, 3 daughters, 29 grand and 2 great grand children. He was highly respected by all who knew him, and, continued at his employment up to within about six weeks of his death."

Extracts From The Nagel Family of the Harz and Australia by Shirley Kalisch 1993 ISBN 0 646 14288 7 Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide SA 5000


Louisa W F Nagel 1858-1931



Louisa and Wilhelm Ortloff

Louisa was the first daughter born to Ernst and Augustina. In 1874 she married Wilhelm Ortloff in Moonta. Wilhelm had a boat on the Murray River which he used for trading goods but lost in the 1870 flood. He then worked as a draper in Moonta before starting his own business.

In 1896 Wilhelm and his son, Edwin, tried their luck in the gold rush in the Southern Cross area of Western Australia while Louisa and seven other children remained in Moonta. When Edwin died at Southern Cross Wilhelm returned to Moonta and took up farming. Typhoid claimed another two of their children in 1905 while two recovered. Louisa and Wilhelm had twelve children.

In March 1918 the family used a wagon and dray and moved to Moorlands. Wilhelm farmed the land with his three younger sons John, Victor and Leonard until he and Louisa retired to Tailem Bend in 1929.

Louisa died in 1931 and Wilhelm four years later. They are both buried in Tailem Bend.

ORTLOFF FAMILY C1895
Ethel & Beatrice at rear,
seated is Fred, Louisa nursing John,
Dora, centre front is Blanche


Mrs. Louisa W. F. Ortloff, who died at Tailem Bend recently, was born at Verdun (formerly Grunthall) where she lived with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. E. Nagel until seven years of age when the family moved to East Moonta.   There 50 years ago she married Mr.   Ortloff. Then the couple went to Moorlands, but had been residing in   Tailem Bend for the past two years. She had twelve children, seven of whom survive. The sons are Messrs. John, Victor, and Len Ortloff (Moorlands),  and C. E. Ortloff (Renmark), and Mes-dames B. Mathews (Adelaide). D. Herbert (Moorlands), and Miss B. Ortloff (Tailem Bend).




Fred, Alf and Maude Ortloff

Louisa and Charles Ortloff
Charles was the third child of Louisa and Wilhelm. He married Louisa Muller in 1900 and had seven children. Charles was employed in the mines as ‘first picky boy” and later as an engine driver operating the skips and cages. A picky boy picked out rich pieces of ore after the large rocks had been broken up by the ore dressers.

Their second child, William, was killed in an accident in 1904.


MOONTA, 1904 December 10 - A shocking fatality occurred at Yelta last evening to a child four months old. Mrs. C. Ortloff, the infant's mother, was about to drive into the town on business, and had led the horse out of the yard, after placing the baby in the bottom of the cart. As she was in the act of getting into the vehicle, the horse, which is a young one. took fright, and bolted into the scrub. After galloping about two miles over rough country the animal collided with a tree and overturned the cart. Two young men who had been out hunting came across the runaway, and discovered the baby a few yards away, battered beyond recognition. The unfortunate infant had been killed previous to   being thrown from the cart by the shaking and jolting of the vehicle. The runaway was brought back with the remains of the child.
Charles and Louisa left Moonta for Renmark in 1907 with their two children Alfred and Maude. Charles cut wood for paddle steamers on the Murray River before becoming an engine driver at the Renmark pumping station. At the start of WWI he was asked to take over a farm, which he did for two years with the help of his eldest son Alfred who was just fifteen. In 1917 he took over the running of another farm at Taldra. Maude was a cook for her father and his two workmen while her mother and three brothers remained on the first farm. Three years later Charles left the farms and returned to his old job at Renmark.

Whilst using a circular saw in 1925 the blade broke and he suffered serious injury from which he never fully recovered.

SERIOUS INJURIES. 1925 Renmark, July 22
Mr. Charles Ortloff, a fuel merchant, was cutting firewood with a circular saw on Monday afternoon when three pieces flew off the saw. His nose was split and his skull cut from the front to the back, exposing the brain. In addition be lost three fingers of his right hand. It is stated that the saw was cracked, but that it did not break at the flaw. Mr. Ortloff is in the district hospital in a very serious condition.

Charles and Louisa’s youngest two sons enlisted in WWII, Maurice was killed in New Guinea in 1943 and Fred died as a POW in Borneo in 1945 after being reported missing in Malaya in 1942.

Louisa died in 1946 and Charles passed away four years later. They are both buried at Renmark.


Ernest A P Nagel 1850-1910


August was Ernst and Augustina’s third child. He was born in summer at Mount Barker Mines on 23rd February 1850.

As an adult he took up farming in the Kulpara district and provided a home to his younger sister Bertha and her two children when she and her husband separated in 1890. August bought extra land and had two farms at Melton before he died of heart failure in 1910. He left one farm to his nephew Ernest and the other to Bertha and her youngest son Henry.

August did not marry.

NAGEL.-In loving memory of August Peter, who died suddenly on January 4, 1910.

While thou on earth was spared to us
All life seemed fair and gay,
But death, that stern and relentless foe,
Hath taken thee away.
And now thy voice is hushed and still,
That face that was so bright,
Thy form that once we knew so well,
Have vanished from our sight.

-Inserted by his loving sister and nephew Sophie, Ernest, and Henry Harrison.

Wilhelm H C Nagel 1855-

William Nagel
William was born at Grunthal on 21st September 1855, the fifth child of Ernst and Augustina. William followed his family into mining.

Elizabeth Hinton
In 1879 he married Elizabeth Hinton of Moonta. Elizabeth’s father had been a member of Goyder’s Survey Party. The Goyder Line is the South Australian boundary drawn in 1865.

William and Elizabeth were responsible for the first post office at Kainton.  William was working for the Board of Main Roads in 1882.

In October 1884 William and his brother, August, purchased land at Clinton on Yorke Peninsula. Adjoining land was also purchased by William who later became a farmer.

William and Elizabeth had eight children, three of which died as infants.

In 1911 William was living in Brisbane. He sold the land to Elizabeth who continued to farm it with her four sons until 1917 when she became ill. Elizabeth passed away at the home of her sister, Mrs Conner, at Moonta Bay.

The four Nagel sons Richard, Arthur, Harold and Roy remained on the land until after their mother’s death.

Their father William lived in the Toowoomba area of Queensland but research has failed to discover when and where he died.

Albertha S Nagel 1864–1949


Cousins Bertha, Louisa and Augusta Nagel

Bertha was the last child born to Ernst and Augustina on 17th December 1864 at Callington SA.

She married Charles Harrison at the age of eighteen. Charles was twenty nine. They were living at Goodwood when their first son, Ernest, was born in 1886. Their second son, Charles, died at the age of eleven months.

Following the death of her son and pregnant with her third child, Bertha separated from Charles and moved to Moonta where her last son Henry was born in 1891.

Bertha kept house for her older brother August who was farming at Melton. When August died in 1910 he left his land to Bertha and her two sons. They sold this land in 1914 and bought ‘Broughton Hills’ a property of 325 acres east of Yacka. They farmed this property until 1920 when they moved into Yacka and the family bought a general store and drapery with a Post Office agency.

Henry and his mother took over the Post Office and later Henry built a new post office behind Ernest’s shop. Henry was Postmaster in Yacka until his death in 1948.

Charles settled on the West Coast in the Wudinna area where he befriended George Opitz and his wife. He taught school children unofficially and was described as an “old gentleman living in a tent.” Charles was officially asked to open the new stone hall (Yaninee Hall) in 1925.

He spent his last years in the Home for the Incurables and died on 31st July 1937. He is buried in the West Terrace Cemetery.

Bertha spent her last few years in a nursing home at Salisbury where her eldest son lived. She died in November 1949 and is buried in the Salisbury Anglican Cemetery.

Christian H F M Nagel 1852-1924

Christian Nagel
Louisa Nagel

Christian was born at Adelaide on the 1st November 1852, the fourth child of Ernst and Augustina Nagel.

He followed his father and older brother into mining and was a crusher foreman for many years at Moonta. In later Electoral Rolls he is listed as an ore dresser.

Christian married Louisa Scheffel in 1874. The witnesses to the marriage were his sister Louisa and Wilhelm Ortloff. Christian and Louisa had five children; Julia, Amelia, William, Ernst and Edward

When Captain Hancock developed a type of Jig used to process crushed ore, Christian assisted with their installation in Broken Hill and remained there for twelve years in charge of them. He was also employed to assist with the setting up and use of the Jigs in Tasmania and the Flinders Ranges

Louisa passed away on 2nd November 1908, ten weeks after having a stroke. Christian retired in 1913 and passed away on 6th December 1924 at Moonta SA. They are both buried at Moonta Cemetery.


Three Sisters Marry Three Nagel’s.
Florence Mary Tonkin was born in 1878, the second child of William John Tonkin and Emily Jane Isaac. She married Louis Nagel in 1900. Her younger sister Eva, born 1880, married Louis's brother Ned Nagel in 1905. Louis and Ned were sons of Ernst Nagel  who immigrated to Australia with his parents as a four year old.

In 1910 Eva and Flo’s younger sister Emily Ethel Tonkin, born in 1883, married William James Nagel. William was the cousin of Louis and Ned and the son of Christian Heinrich Friedrich Martin Nagel and Mary Louise Scheffel. The Tonkin sisters were from a family of six girls and three boys.

Augusta C Nagel 1862–1945

ELSWORTHY FAMILY c1915
Seated is Augusta with her husband William 
standing is Hubert, Alice and Albert

Augusta was born the seventh child of Ernst and Augustina Nagel at Wheal Ellen, South Australia on 5th December 1862. She moved with her family to Moonta as a child.  After completing her schooling she was employed by Mr Broad, a musician who also owned a music shop at Moonta. Augusta eventually became the manager of this business.

In 1895 she married William Elsworthy 1867-1946 who arrived in Australia on the ship Hesperus at the age of eleven. Augusta and William had three children; William Hubert, Albert Edward and Alice Elizabeth. When their son Hubert married in 1921, Augusta and William retired and purchased a home at Kadina.

William’s sister Rose married Augusta’s nephew John Nagel in 1898.

On 17th December 1945, ten months after celebrating their Golden Wedding, Augusta died. William followed two and half years later on 16th May 1948.

Driver William Elsworthy seated next to his nephew John Nagel,
John’s wife Rose at rear with Augusta and baby Hubert
c1896

Ernst H A H Nagel 1844-1909

Ernst was aged four when he arrived in Australia on 2nd March 1849 with his parents and aunt on the George Washington. His younger brother Ernst Fredrich Nagel had died on the voyage of Cholera aged 14 months.
Ernst and his family settled in the Hahndorf area of the Adelaide Hills. On any Australian record of Ernst he is recorded as Henry Charles Ernst Nagel. At the age of 20 he moved with his family to Moonta where he worked with his father under Captain Hancock at the Moonta Mines.

Henry married Johanne Ernestina Urbasch on 17th October 1867 at the St Thomas Church of England at Balhannah East of Adelaide. Ernestina had arrived in Australia on the ship Pauline at the age of five. Her father Gottlieb Johann George Urbasch had died on the voyage which left her mother and sisters to settle in the new country alone. The couple settled in Moonta.

Henry & Ernestina Nagel

Ernst and Ernestina had ten children. They lost their second child Julius Ernst Nagel to typhoid on 27th December 1870 aged eight months.

They moved to Adelaide in 1904 when their daughter Elena developed tuberculosis. Elena died on Christmas Eve 1906 aged twenty nine. After her death her parents returned to Moonta.

Three years later Ernst Henry Nagel died at the age of sixty four, he is buried in Moonta Cemetery.

In 1911 Johanna moved to live near her daughter Matilda. On 3rd February 1922 Johanna Ernestina Nagel died of a stroke in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She was aged eighty.