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Meet the Hermans - Oxford farmers

The Hermans, c1913	The Hermans' motorcar, c1913.
Herman family portrait day - indoor shot. Jack and Annie's youngest son, Doug, is yet to be born.	Outdoor shot. The Herman car was said to have been one of the first in the district.

Introduction

Francis and Harriet Herman (nee Chapman) were bakers in Clapham, London, England. One son - 'Sailor Jack' Herman, born 1859 - migrated to New Zealand in the 1870s. When the parents had passed on, highly innovative and successful Jack paid the fares of his siblings out to join him here. One brother worked at Parliament in Wellington, and a son represented Canterbury in rugby. Countless interesting tales of the rural homelife have been passed down through the years. This is an historiographical reconstruction of a happy, NZ-made Anglo-German family's lives. The second 'n' in Hermann had been dropped by the parents in London, though would occasionally appear reinstated.

Biography of Charles and Annie Elizabeth Herman

The received tradition that Sailor Jack 'jumped ship' in Lyttelton, around 1876, seems to be an example of the man's jovial humour rather than a true story. Jack Herman was not an assisted migrant, like most arriving that decade. If we have traced his arrival correctly, Jack was the J Herman who stepped off the Friedeburg (or Friedelburg) from Hamburg on 31 August 1872. This man was one of just five first class passengers on a full transport of 'mainly Scandinavians and Poles'. Had he utilised his London language skills to act in some shipping agent capacity for this voyage? A well-known company owner had the vessel specially built, of iron, in Glasgow, so this boatload was an unusual arrangement.

Charles's next legend is of having made his way out to the wood-cutting settlement of Oxford, where most Vogel Scheme German migrants were being shepherded. Here he found work at 'Woodside', the farm of Joseph 'Uncle Joe' and Martha Proffit (nee Cook). It is said that Jack held the Proffit's baby daughter Annie Elizabeth at her christening, and promised to marry her when she came of age. He waited, and duly did so.

Charles and Annie made their home at Coopers' Creek. They had a traction engine, and did contract harvesting on which some of the sons worked, initially. Then they became sheepfarmers. The Hermans had the first local electricity, with a turbine in the creek and a battery system in the barn. The Herman motorcar was said to have been one of the first in the district.

The war years must have been difficult for this family. One son required surgery after a rugby kick to the base of the spine, and died young of hospital-induced pneumonia. The women developed an unusually charming, particularly 'bolshie' disposition, with lively and amusing terminology and anecdotes. They played piano, sang, and voted Labour.

Move to Christchurch: Couldn't pay land tax in 1930s, so lost the Coopers' Creek farm. The move to town was most likely a relief for the health services available there. Jack became a night watchman (at the Aulsebrook's factory?). He died in 1942, aged 83, well-liked by his grandchildren.

...

The Press had no Charles Herman obituary in 1942.? No GR Macdonald index entry for Charles Herman (Canterbury Museum library, 1964)?

The children of Henry Ernest Charles 'Jack' and Annie Elizabeth Herman (nee Proffit):
Martha Maude Herman b.12Mar1897 c.31Mar1898 m.Watt d.c1985 @87
Edith Herman b.1899 m.Jack Morris d.1961
Alice May 'Ali' Herman b.7May1901 c.4Aug m.Jenssen, Batt d.c2000
Stanley Ernest 'Stan' Herman 1908 c.8May d.1927 @20
Reginald J 'Reg' Herman b.4Jan1908 c.8Mar d.200?
Stella Muriel Herman b.1909 (twin #1) m.Jack Bartley
Irene Pearl 'Rene' Herman b.1909 (twin #2) d.1948
George Clarence Herman b.26Sep1911 c.22Jun1913 d.c1993
Douglas Haig 'Doug' Herman b.18Mar1917 c.3Jun d.c2000

To be continued.

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