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Louisa and Wilhelm Ortloff
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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.
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.
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ORTLOFF FAMILY C1895
Ethel & Beatrice at rear,
seated is Fred, Louisa nursing John,
Dora, centre front is Blanche
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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).
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Fred, Alf and Maude Ortloff
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Louisa and Charles Ortloff
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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.
