Auerbach, John Joseph

AUERBACH, John Joseph (c1835–1906) was born in Altona, opposite Hamburg on the north bank of the Elbe River, in what was then part of Denmark, son of Jacob Josiah Auerbach, a merchant. When he migrated to Australia, his brother Sali (b.1833) moved to Central America. John Auerbach may have been in Australia by August 1853 when a John Auerbach travelled from Melbourne to Sydney. By 1860 he was an agent at Gayndah, then an important town on inland roads to the north with coastal road travel obstructed by major rivers. He was an active member of the community. As secretary of local committees, Auerbach wrote the specification for plans provided by ANDERSON & PHILLIPS for construction of the National School at Gayndah, and possibly also for additions to the Gayndah and Burnett District Hospital. He married Bridget Mary Gregan at Gayndah on 6 August 1861. Auerbach later worked as a postmaster, in Knebworth by 1864 and in Tambo by 1868 when he served as secretary and treasurer of the Great Western Downs Jockey Club where his wife died in May 1871 but where he remained at least until 1874 when he travelled to England. In 1875 he married his second wife, unidentified but either Susan Adams or Clara Culley and by 1880 he was in partnership as Sali & John Joseph Auerbach, London merchants. By 1881 he had migrated to the Republic of Salvador where he lived in San Miguel. After his second wife died, he moved with his three children to England where he married Scholastica Seville Randall at Hounslow in 1887and worked as a Central American merchant. In 1891 he was living at Chiswick, Middlesex and by 1901 was listed as a retired importer and exporter. He died at Hendon, London.