Emanuel Sr, the patriarch of the Australian Brandstater family, was born in 1836 in the East Prussian city of Gumbinnen (now Gusev). His birth family lived on a farm estate called Rittergut Puspern, and was part of a community of Salzburger Protestants expelled from Salzburg in 1731. In early life Emanuel learned the practical skills of farming and received training in carpentry.
As a young man he was employed as a shipwright in the port of the capital city Konigsberg. There he married his first wife Wilhemine Josties, who bore him four children: Emanuel, Louisa, Gustav Adolph, and Carolina. Following Wilhemine’s death, he moved to the farming village of Benkheim and married Carolina Lange, who gave birth to a son Herman. Faced with an unpromising future for himself and his family in East Prussia, Emanuel decided to emigrate and accepted a subsidized ship’s passage for his family from Hamburg to Hobart in Tasmania. They left behind daughter Louisa in custody of two unmarried sisters of Emanuel living in Seehausen village, in Puspern. Louisa had been deaf since birth. The family embarked on October 20, 1871 on SS “Eugenie” and reached Hobart on March 24, 1872. On arrival their ages were recorded as Emanuel Sr. 37, Carolina 31, Emanuel Jr. 10, Gustav Adolph 6, Carolina 3, and Herman 9 months. The authorities also recorded the family name in the Anglicized form as Brandstater.
Emanuel was employed as a farm hand for two years by John Meredith, sheep farmer in Swansea on an estate called Cambria. In 1874 or soon after Emanuel moved with his family to a German-Danish settlement near Hobart named Bismarck. He acquired a land grant of 37 acres on Springdale Road and on it developed a mixed farm. A son Charles Albert was born. In 1876 Emanuel was awarded a government contract for constructing the district’s first public school plus a teacher’s house on the Main Road entering the village.
Emanuel built a sturdy house for his family on the property on Springdale Road. A toddler son named August died from burns. Two more sons, Fritz and Charlie, were born. That homestead still stands, the oldest surviving colonial house in the valley. It is in disrepair and not occupied (in 2017).
In the 1880s Emanuel joined many devout fellow-settlers in embracing the teachings of visiting American preachers, and they joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. On a central land block donated by August Darko, and with help from his sons and other believers, Emanuel had a leading role in constructing the first S.D.A. church building in Australia. The church was opened and dedicated in August 1889.
At about 1900 there was a grand family reunion in Bismarck, which included Gustav and Albert, who had returned with their wives from studying in America. A historic family photograph recorded the occasion, taken in front of the homestead.
Emanuel retired with wife Carolina and daughter Carolina to 507 Main Road, Glenorchy. He died there in 1911.
