In 1849 two sisters namely Maria Eva Iffland Born 2 May 1835 (age 14 at arrival) and Clara Iffland arrived in Sydney in the ship Beulah. Their father’s occupation was cooper and vine dresser. They came from the small German village of Eltville located on the Rhine River, in walking distance from the research institute of Geisenheim where, in recent times, the Germans have propagated new vine varieties to suit their short season and cool conditions. Eltville is a riverside town, at the foot of mountains devoted to vines, was the seat of the Bishop, the location of his castle which hosts today an exhibition of the work of the man who invented moveable type and printed the first Bible, Gutenberg. Maria Eva is my great grandmother. Her sister Clara was to marry Ludwig Yanz in Sydney.
Maria Eva was 19 years old when she married Christoph Carl Happ on the 19th November 1854 in St Patricks Church in Parramatta NSW. He was 28. Maria recorded her occupation at the time of her marriage as ladies maid. Christoph Carl Happ was also an Eltville boy and it is written that he came to Australia to marry her. He had another motivation.
His younger brother Andreas Franz Happ was already in the Victorian goldfields. Christoph Carl Happ paid his own way as a steerage passenger aboard the ship ‘Australia’ in 1851. Their residence in 1877, when the ninth child was born, was at 7 Bedford St. Kingston (part of Newtown). They spent their married life in the immediate vicinity but they must have moved abode many times as their children were variously recorded to have been born at Prospect, 371 Castelreagh St, Willmott St, Elizabeth St. Liverpool St. and simply Newtown. Maria Eva died in a house called ‘Eltville’ in Carrington St Concord in 1916 at the age of 81. Christoph Carl came as a pastry cook and became a grocer. He was known in Australia as Charles. He died 31st October 1890 at 7 Bedford St Newton aged 64. Their sixth child, one Charles Leopold, born 26/1/1868 in Liverpool St Newtown, was my grandfather. He came to Western Australia in the 1890s and in 1898 married Ellen Gallagher, herself born in Perth in 1863, lived to achieve 92 years of age dying in Balingup in 1955 twenty years after the death of Charles Leopold at age 67. We called her Little Fat Nan. As a child she played marbles in Hay Street. She had been employed at Western Australian Newspapers as a proof- reader. Her Irish mother Catherine McDermott had come to WA in the year 1857 and married George Gallicker (wheelwright) 13th May 1861. On my mantelpiece I have a clock presented to my grandfather by his workmates in the Midland workshops of the WAGR ‘as a token of esteem’ on the day of his wedding.
Christoph Carls brother, two years his junior, one Andreas Franz Happ (born 3/12/1828) Occupation, vine dresser, wine cooper, later prospector in Victoria was just 21 years old when he married on the voyage out, the ceremony conducted by the captain of the ship Balmoral. (He is recorded as bounty passenger) His bride was the 14 year old Amelia Smidth. The marriage date was 7/2/1850 in the year prior to the arrival of his older brother Christoph Carl. Somehow he lost Amelia in the goldfields and married again 21st Feb 1858 one Sarah Elizabeth Stearn who was 20 years old, born in Cambridgeshire England and was to bear him seven children in the next 20 years. All were born at ‘Alloway Bank’ Bathurst. He lived to 1909 dying at 81 years of age. She preceded him to the grave in 1905 aged 75 years.
My father Frank Happ was a store keeper as were my uncles George and Bert. All are, or were, well known in the South West. Dad was born in Bassendean, loved sport and gambling. Growing up during the depression he tended to regard government jobs as relatively secure and that he aspired to for his children. For some years in the thirties he was 'On sustenance' in the goldfields like a lot of other potentially troublesome young lads. He was a gregarious personality, the descriptive terminology of his generation that seems to convey something of his spirit is 'happy go lucky'. He was over 6 feet tall, a very tidy spin bowler and loved to hit other bowlers out of the ground. Memories disappear with the generations and very little has been written down.
The guy that I was named after 'Erland', was a Dutch Indonesian who studied at Christian Brothers, ‘The Terrace’ in Perth in the twenties, took out my aunt Edith and was a great family favourite. My dad must have been impressed with him to give me the amount of trouble that name has caused. My son Myles has just named his third child Finnegan and he will be a fifth generation Australian born Happ. These awkward names are almost equivalent in their effect to calling a boy Sue. Finnegan and I might perhaps have been more comfortable with something traditional like Charles or Andrew.
Erland Happ October 2001
This information depends upon that provided to me by Bert, Robert, Peter, and Steve Happ.
