Peters Hill SA. Wendish Sorbian community built Lutheran School here in 1884. White gravel marks school site. Burnt down in 1960s. Closed as school 1955.
Peters Hill a Wendish settlement.
On the drive out to Peters Hill we will pass the historic Scottish Ettrick Presbyterian cemetery. It is situated on the banks of a creek which feeds the Gilbert River. Only a few headstones remain in this cemetery. A Presbyterian church was built here in 1864 but closed in 1877 and was demolished in 1881. A school operated in the Ettrick Presbyterian church until its closure in 1877. Further on we reach Peters Hill and St Petri Lutheran Church. This
area was declared as part of the Hundred of Gilbert in 1851 with land sales starting around 1853.The earliest known settler was Johann Duldig in 1855. Another pioneer family were the Huppatz family who took up land in 1857. These families and others who settled were Wends sometimes known as Sorbs. Most Wendish families here arrived in SA on the ship San Francisco in 1848 and moved to Hope valley, then on to Hoffnungsthal near Lyndoch and then finally to Peters Hill in 1856. The Wends came from a specific region of Eastern Germany where they spoke Slavic language related to Polish, but not related at all to German. When the Wends settled in SA the English settlers assumed they were German because they also spoke German and they were Lutheran. But the Wends were a different ethnic group. Today 35,000 people still speak Wendish in Germany, despite the persecution they suffered from the Nazis during World War Two. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Congress of Vienna redrew the map of Europe and Lusatia, where the Wends lived, was ceded to Prussia from Saxony. The Prussians oppressed the Wends and after 1830 many migrated to Australia (as well as Canada etc.) Although the first Wends arrived in SA in 1848 the largest migration was in 1853-54 after the great European famine of 1848 and the consequent revolutions. The three major Wendish settlements in SA were St Kitts (near Nuriootpa), Peters Hill and Ebenezer (near St Kitts.) No one knows why the area was called Peters Hill but it is believed to be after Martin Petatz whose surname sounded similar to Peters.
The Wends built their first, pug and pine church/school room in 1857. It was replaced by the current larger church in 1864. The Wendish school was established in 1856 and operated here until closed by the government in 1917 during World War One. The first teacher of the Wendish school was Mr. Lehmann and the first pastor Mr. Meir. Until 1917 most lessons were in German. A later pastor was Christian Teichelmann who published the only written record of Kaurna language in 1840 which has been used to revive this dead language recently. His co-author was Lutheran missionary C Shurmann. The first school was located near the first Peters Hill church. In 1864 when the current Lutheran Church was built the congregation also built a teacher’s residence and classroom just south of the church. This was demolished in 1884 when a new solid stone teacher’s residence and school room was built. When the government closed this German Lutheran school it re opened as a state government school with the government paying rent for the school room. When enrolments became too low in the 1955 the government school for Lutherans and Wends and any other locals closed. Unfortunately the stone building was destroyed by a fire in the mid-1960s. The site now has a stone outlined for the original stone school and some remnants like the boys galvanized iron toilet shed and an information board and monument. Beside the school way a half underground cool room.
Wendish family names in this area included Borrack, Duldig, Huppatz, Noack and Schuppan. St Petri’s Lutheran Church is the only church in Australia known to have had services conducted in Wendish. The last known Wendish speaker in the area was Mrs. Seipelt who died in 1957. The church only opens for a few special annual services these days. The cemetery attached to the church is one of two Wendish in cemeteries in the district. The Huppatz family has their own private cemetery. It was the Wendish community, especially from Ebenezer, who began the Great Trek in 1868 to establish the Lutheran settlement of Walla Walla in the Riverina of NSW. Apart from the Wends, Robert Hannaford the portrait artist lives at Peters Hill. This spot can be very cold in winter and the SA archives have a photograph of Peters Hill covered in snow in 1906.The hill itself is 1,728 feet high or 526 metres.
Peters Hill SA. Wendish Sorbian community built Lutheran School here in 1884. White gravel marks school site. Burnt down in 1960s. Closed as school 1955.
Peters Hill a Wendish settlement.
On the drive out to Peters Hill we will pass the historic Scottish Ettrick Presbyterian cemetery. It is situated on the banks of a creek which feeds the Gilbert River. Only a few headstones remain in this cemetery. A Presbyterian church was built here in 1864 but closed in 1877 and was demolished in 1881. A school operated in the Ettrick Presbyterian church until its closure in 1877. Further on we reach Peters Hill and St Petri Lutheran Church. This
area was declared as part of the Hundred of Gilbert in 1851 with land sales starting around 1853.The earliest known settler was Johann Duldig in 1855. Another pioneer family were the Huppatz family who took up land in 1857. These families and others who settled were Wends sometimes known as Sorbs. Most Wendish families here arrived in SA on the ship San Francisco in 1848 and moved to Hope valley, then on to Hoffnungsthal near Lyndoch and then finally to Peters Hill in 1856. The Wends came from a specific region of Eastern Germany where they spoke Slavic language related to Polish, but not related at all to German. When the Wends settled in SA the English settlers assumed they were German because they also spoke German and they were Lutheran. But the Wends were a different ethnic group. Today 35,000 people still speak Wendish in Germany, despite the persecution they suffered from the Nazis during World War Two. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Congress of Vienna redrew the map of Europe and Lusatia, where the Wends lived, was ceded to Prussia from Saxony. The Prussians oppressed the Wends and after 1830 many migrated to Australia (as well as Canada etc.) Although the first Wends arrived in SA in 1848 the largest migration was in 1853-54 after the great European famine of 1848 and the consequent revolutions. The three major Wendish settlements in SA were St Kitts (near Nuriootpa), Peters Hill and Ebenezer (near St Kitts.) No one knows why the area was called Peters Hill but it is believed to be after Martin Petatz whose surname sounded similar to Peters.
The Wends built their first, pug and pine church/school room in 1857. It was replaced by the current larger church in 1864. The Wendish school was established in 1856 and operated here until closed by the government in 1917 during World War One. The first teacher of the Wendish school was Mr. Lehmann and the first pastor Mr. Meir. Until 1917 most lessons were in German. A later pastor was Christian Teichelmann who published the only written record of Kaurna language in 1840 which has been used to revive this dead language recently. His co-author was Lutheran missionary C Shurmann. The first school was located near the first Peters Hill church. In 1864 when the current Lutheran Church was built the congregation also built a teacher’s residence and classroom just south of the church. This was demolished in 1884 when a new solid stone teacher’s residence and school room was built. When the government closed this German Lutheran school it re opened as a state government school with the government paying rent for the school room. When enrolments became too low in the 1955 the government school for Lutherans and Wends and any other locals closed. Unfortunately the stone building was destroyed by a fire in the mid-1960s. The site now has a stone outlined for the original stone school and some remnants like the boys galvanized iron toilet shed and an information board and monument. Beside the school way a half underground cool room.
Wendish family names in this area included Borrack, Duldig, Huppatz, Noack and Schuppan. St Petri’s Lutheran Church is the only church in Australia known to have had services conducted in Wendish. The last known Wendish speaker in the area was Mrs. Seipelt who died in 1957. The church only opens for a few special annual services these days. The cemetery attached to the church is one of two Wendish in cemeteries in the district. The Huppatz family has their own private cemetery. It was the Wendish community, especially from Ebenezer, who began the Great Trek in 1868 to establish the Lutheran settlement of Walla Walla in the Riverina of NSW. Apart from the Wends, Robert Hannaford the portrait artist lives at Peters Hill. This spot can be very cold in winter and the SA archives have a photograph of Peters Hill covered in snow in 1906.The hill itself is 1,728 feet high or 526 metres.