(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

[? 1816 - 1915]

Heinrich Christian Fischer was born in Hanover around 1816, which at that time was in Saxony before it became part of Germany. He was the son of Christian and Christina Fischer.

According to his obituary, Fischer came to Australia because of ill-health. He became a miner and eventually joined the mining community at Hill End, New South Wales, where he became a long-lived resident, known locally as Dr Fischer or Henry Christian Fischer.

Although his obituary stated that at the time of his death in 1915 he had been in Australia for 70 years (which would have meant an arrival date of 1845), the 1899 announcement of his Golden Wedding Anniversary in the Sydney Morning Herald provided a wedding date of 3 November 1849 at Itzehoe, Germany. On that date he married Magdaline Emilie Sophia Thompsen (also known as Emilie or Emille). She was 23 years of age. This was Magdaline's second marriage. She had a daughter, Joanna Hellena (also known as Hellena) by her first marriage.

Heinrich Fischer and family in their carriage outside the Hill End Public School Photograph courtesy of Suzanne Butz

Harry Hodge, in his book The Hill End Story, Book 3, had the following to say about H.C. Fischer, describing the Garden Party to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Fischer's wedding:

The good doctor owed his title not to university degrees, but to a diagnostic and homeopathic skill which had saved the lives of scores of the local inhabitants during his long residence, dating back before 1863.

Heinrich Christian Fischer left Heidelberg University in 1851 with his medical degree half-completed to emigrate to Australia with his newly-acquired bride. He landed in Sydney late in that year, joined in the gold-rush to Ophir and the Turon and finally brought up in Hill End in 1861 when it was a straggling offshoot of Tambaroora. By this time his skill at healing had earned him such a wide reputation in a field where there were few competitors that he abandoned active mining, but joined in partnership with others who could work the claims while he practised medicine.

As a mine owner, Heinrich Fischer went into partnership with a "dynamic widow, Mrs Harriet Beard. He held a claim at Hawkins Hill. "Fischer and Beard's was one of the smaller claims but one of the rich ones, and it put the doctor on the road to affluence." According to Harry Hodge:

As the years went by the kindly doctor put much of his fortune back into worthless shows and more into the pockets of impecunious patients and friends. So much so that when he reached the advanced age of 93 his financial resources were strained to the limit.

At some stage Dr Fischer formed a partnership with Charles Henry Degener, Chemists and Druggists, of Hill End. (This may have been the same as Dr Degener of Hanover who was a registered medical practitioner in New South Wales.) This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 1877.

In 1873 Fischer became a Councillor on the Hill End Council and in 1880 the Australian Town and Country Journal announced that Dr Fischer was the Mayor of Hill End. He also became a Justice of the Peace. In 1893 he was appointed to be the licencing magistrate and official member of the Licensing Court for the licensing district of Hill End.

Although Fischer was practising in Hill End, it is clear that he was not a registered practitioner. The 1886 edition of The Australian Medical Directory and Hand Book contained Ludwig Bruck's list of Unregistered Practitioners, with the following entry:

FISCHER, _, Hill End. J.P.; Miner

Unlike most of the other people in the list, the particular modality used by the practitioner was not provided. However, the details provided match Heinrich Christian Fischer.

It is clear that in his older years (in 1892) Fischer was still personally involved with his mining activities, as reported in the Sydney Mail:

I continue my journey towards Hill End, and reach a hill where Dr Fischer, an old identity of Hawkins Hill, has been prospecting for seven years. .... Fischer, now very grey, but still active, has, unaided by man or State, driven three tunnels across this hill. One was 306ft., another 200ft., and another 201ft. in length. He is now sinking, assisted by a lad, and is down 80ft. on a narrow gold-bearing vein.

In 1895 Fischer's instructions for  a "valuable and simple recipe for making cherry wine" were published in the Australian Town and Country Journal. The writer stated: "We have tasted a sample of the wine, which, as a home-made article is simply perfect."

The Sydney Morning Herald stated that Magdaline Emilie Sophia died on 27 March 1911 at her residence Standen's Flat, Hill End.  According to the death notice, she was Mrs Fischer (nee Becker) of Itzehoe, Holstein, Germany, although her death certificate states that her father was Jacob Thompsen, not Becker. It is believed that the name of her first husband was Fredrick Becker whom she had married at age 19. The following children are listed on her death certificate: Hellena (her daughter by her first marriage), Emma, Amandus, Rosa, Franz, Agnes, and Henrietta. Her daughter Caroline, born in 1855, died in 1866 and is buried at the Hill End Cemetery. It is believed that the two children in the above photograph are Joanna (Hellena) and Caroline. 

Heinrich Fischer died at Hill End on 7 November 1915.  According to his small obituary he was aged 99 years (which would mean a birth year of about 1816).  According to his death notice he was aged about 97 years.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With thanks for the contributions provided by Suzanne Butz.

©   Barbara Armstrong      

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