Every Photo Tells a Story: About Adelaide Isabella Baker
By Christine Leonard
Adelaide Baker with children Cecelia Sturwohld (left) born August 1889, and Edith May Sturwohld (middle) born October 1891. Photograph believed taken in Mackay on 6th March 1892.
This photograph of my great great grandmother Adelaide (Ada) Baker was likely taken the day the girls were being baptised at the Holy Trinity Church in Mackay. The pictured normalcy however belies a story of loss.
Ada secured passage on the Indus which sailed into Keppel Bay 2nd June 18771 a far-flung outpost but importantly beyond her father’s reach to marry her off to “an old man.” Colonial life must have been a shock to take in as Ada came from a comfortable existence in Oxford Street London. Determined to make it work she went into domestic service in Mackay and by February 1880 was married to Charles Benke a blacksmith. The Benkes had a son William the same year and two daughters, Laura born 1881 and Mary born 1883. The family moved to Brisbane in late 1883 unfortunately as typhoid fever raged throughout the city. Laura and Mary both died in May 1884.
The tragedy ended the marriage and Ada left her memories behind taking young William back to Mackay. By 1885 she partnered with Claus (Charlie) Sturwohld, another German national and a blacksmith. Their first-borne was my great grandmother Annie Sturwohld born 15th August 1885.
Photographs are insights into the seen and the unseen — lest we forget.