The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 1) – Matthes Schippan

Towitta, a tiny township located on the Long Plain, about 5kms north-west of Sedan, is a remote village consisting of just a few houses. The original settlement was put in place in 1877 due to an excellent water resource in the area, used to sustain stock travelling through the region to interstate destinations.
 It is most probable you have never heard of this town, nor of what unfolded within in it in 1902, an event that would mark the area, the people and annuals of South Australian Law for all time.

Matthes Schippan was born in 1853 in Germany. Legend has it that after his mother died, his father became a raging alcoholic and his brother was killed and eaten by a wolf.

 His Father moved him to Australia at three years of age. His future wife, Johanna Dohnt, was born in Kotbus, Prussia on the 9^th of April 1844, and had moved to Australia with her 1854 to Victoria, to later move to the wine regions of South Australia, where her father worked around Eden Valley, the Barossa Valley and Flaxman's Valley.

The Schippan family first came into the region when Matthes Schippan acquired land on the 18^th of August 1873 through a Government lease. Matthes purchased the property at the end of the lease in 1888 and built the family home - a pug and pine construction.

The couple had seven children; The oldest being Pauline Auguste, born in 1875, followed by Maria Auguste, born in 1877 in Towitta (known in the family as Mary), then followed Fritz Carl Martin in 1879, Heinrich Johann Gustav in 1881, August Wilhelm in 1883, Wilhelm Johann Gottleib in 1886 and the youngest, Johanne Elizabeth in 1888, who was known in the family as “Bertha.”

Although many identified the Schippans as German, they were actually of Wendish descent, a people with their own language and customs, distinctly different to their neighboring German cousins. A large Wendish community can be found in the Barossa Valley in the town of Ebenezer.

 The Wendish were often regarded by Germans as a strange group, due to being prone to superstition and belief in witchcraft, which put them offside with God Fearing Lutherans.

 Matthes was a man of little emotion, except anger – he fired up to a rage very easily and was a strict disciplinarian to his children. Everyone in Towitta knew Matthes, but few called him friend, in fact most people avoided the bearded grizzly looking man if they could.

 In 1896, Matthes found himself in a world of trouble. On his way to a neighbour’s home one Sunday evening to collect two of his children and bring them home, Matthes came across three young men,  Karl Hartwig, his brother Hermann and their friend William Radomi. The three men young, all around 20 years of age began to taunt Matthes, who was walking the road to his neighbours, carrying only his rifle.
 The three young men tried to get Matthes to fire his rifle in their direction, one of them started throwing stones at the older man, goading him into firing the rifle. Matthew warned them to stop.

 They continued their taunts until finally, Matthes fired his gun into the ground.
The three young men rushed at Matthes and pushed him, then began to sprint away, Matthes anger drew up, he fired his gun into the ground again, but this time the bullet ricocheted and hit Karl Hartwig in the calf, wounding him.

 Matthes Schippan was arrested for his crime and later released on bail. He appeared in the Adelaide Supreme Court, but the case was soon dropped when the prosecutor dropped the charges. However, Justice Boucat did caution Matthes about firing his rifle in the manner he had and warned him the young man might have been killed if circumstances were different, and this could have seen him hung in Adelaide Gaol.

 After this event, Matthes was avoided even more so than usual in and around Towitta, and he became much more withdrawn from society and his family, finding it hard to trust anyone.

Next Week: The Tragedy at Towitta (Part 2) – Johanne Schippan and Her Family

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen

George Massey Allen was one of the most controversial newspaper editors South Australia has ever had.

In 1860, Allen worked for The Advertiser but decided he wanted more and left to form the first English language newspaper in the Mid-north, The Northern Star at Kapunda. (The only previous newspapers in the Barossa Valley and Mid North had been German-language newspapers).

Allen was a man of principle, but also very outspoken, which often got him in serious trouble with the law.

His newspapers were often very controversial as he preferred to voice his own opinion, without considering the consequences of his actions.
 This eventually led Allen into a liable case in Kapunda, in which he was declared guilty of liable and slander. His newspaper was cancelled after his conviction, which came with a 6-month gaol sentence.

 After serving his gaol sentence, Allen returned to Kapunda to find that his newspaper The Northern Star had been replaced in his absence with The Kapunda Herald. The new newspaper was incredibly popular and far outsold his former local paper.

Instead of going back into the newspaper business, where his opinions would most likely see him Gaoled again, he instead went into the Hotel business, buying a local Kapunda pub, in which he could voice his opinions all he wanted.

Pub life wasn’t what Allen desired though, and eventually, he moved back to Adelaide in 1867 and founded a new newspaper called The Satirist.

The Satirist was in direct competition with another newspaper The Register, and Allen's former employer, The Advertiser.
 The competition did not phase Allen though, and on at least one occasion, his newspaper outsold both his bigger rivals.

Allen had trouble keeping his opinions to himself. His newspaper lampooned local politicians, events and his rival newspapers and because of Allen's unwillingness to reel in his satiric tongue,  he eventually found himself in court again charged with liable. Not having the finances to keep hiring lawyers, and prosecuted again, with a gaol sentence, he eventually had to shut his newspaper down.

The prospectus of the South Australian satirist read:
“The lamentably abject condition of the daily Press of South Australia, its want of political principle, its hypocritical fear and timorousness, has forced upon the proprietors of the Satirist the palpable necessity of launching forth upon the unimpassioned waters of honesty, truth, and fearless independence, a journal whose aim shall be to guide, not truckle to, the public opinion of this colony. ... What, then, is the demand of the hour? To find and to sustain a fearless advocate of the people's rights and requirements, one who will dare to speak and teach the truth ...” (27 July 1867, p. 2)

 Allen was incarcerated for six months by Judge Wearing, his wife and six children, who needed his income to survive, became destitute and relied on the kindness of others.
A parliamentary enquiry ensued, and eventually, a Parliamentary Intervention happened, releasing Allen from Prison.
  Judge Wearing declared he had probably misinterpreted the law somewhat harshly but stated: "the great social advantage which has, I believe, resulted to the public by the cessation of so infamous a print as the Satirist." (South Australian Parliamentary Paper no. 145, 1868/69)

Allen and his wife didn't enter into the media again, instead, they took up another Hotel, The Alexandra Hotel in Rundle Street and lived out the rest of their lives as publicans.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2014