John Robert Brandt was born on 22 October 1876 in the goldfields near Gulgong. He was the fourth son born to Alfred and Louisa Brandt. Another two sons and a daughter were born after John.
John lost his father in 1883 when he fell to his death down a well. His mother remarried August Engstrom in 1886 and another daughter was added to the family in 1887. Then August died in 1888, leaving his wife of two years with eight children. Louisa was the licensee of the Sugarloaf Inn, near Gunnedah NSW, which she had run with her first husband and continued after his death with her second husband, although the license was only in her name.
As a young boy of thirteen and the fourth oldest my great uncle John Robert Brandt must have had yearnings to get out into the world and help his widowed mother. No doubt he was home schooled and ready to take on more responsibility. I assume like most teenagers he was keen to prove his worth and earn a living. He probably nagged his mother to let him get a job. He would have had dreams and plans, but I assume initially it was only his desire to help his family.
From a report found in the local newspaper of the day I have learnt that John’s employment came to a tragic end.1 Also I feel for his mother who had buried two husbands and now was faced with her son’s death all in the space of seven years. In the same clipping from this paper it was reported on the amount of rain the area had received. Most probably the ground where he was working in his employer’s yard was very slippery from all the rain and may have contributed to his accident. It sounds like he was in great pain for four days in hospital before his death. Did his mother sit by his side in her own pain during this time? Whatever his dreams for future employment they were cut short too soon.
I have not been able to find any information as to what he was actually employed as or how long he had been employed. Surely at the age of thirteen it couldn’t have been for long. I hope that he was happy in whatever he was doing and not just treated as a drudge as a lot of children were treated in these times.
From the Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW
ACCIDENT, - A lad named John Brandt, about 14 years of age, met with a painful accident on Sunday last. It appears that he was doing something in the back yard of his employer, when he somehow fell on to a pointed piece of wood. The splinter tore his jaw and some part of the cheek. He was afterward removed to the hospital, suffering great agony, and died on the following Thursday.
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1 Gunnedah. (1890, March 1). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), p. 15. Retrieved February 4, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71108542
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