Luise Sophie Bertha (Wehr) Rowe (abt. 1894 - abt. 1937)

Born about 24 Nov 1894 in Terowie, South Australia, Australia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Frederick John Rowe — married 3 Apr 1928 in Albany, Western Australia, Australia

Died about 1 Jul 1937 at about age 42 in Albany, Western Australia, Australia [uncertain]

Biography

Named after her mother Luise and her grandmother Sophia Wehr, Luise Sophia Bertha Wehr was born in Terowie, South Australia in November, 1894.

When she was about two years old, she travelled by sailing ship with her parents to Denmark in Western Australia. The town of Denmark started as a timber town in 1895 and so there was little accommodation for the family, except for tents and then later, probably a small hut.

After a few years the family moved to Albany, and it was here that Luise, now sometimes called Louise, went to St Joseph’s School and excelled in music as one of her subjects. At the age of fifteen, she passed the public examination in the Practice of Music, Grade 5, with the Melbourne and Adelaide Universities. And in 1918, the “Albany Advertiser” reported that Louise had passed her invalid cookery with the Albany Technical School.

On 3 April 1928 in Albany, Louise married Frederick John Rowe, a barber in Albany and a widower with three grown children. Frederick had been born in South Australia in the town of Kapunda and, like Louise, had moved to Albany with his parents when he was fourteen years old.

Louise and Frederick lived in the Wehr family home on the Perth Road and raised their three children, Joyce Luise (called Biddy), John Barry (called Jack) and William Harry (called Bill).

Louise and her husband were gifted musicians. They played music for the silent picture shows, Louise on the piano and Frederick with his violin, both playing furiously while the heroine was tied to the tracks or the bad guys were coming.

They were both interested in painting and would gather their painting friends in either the large shed at the back of the house or the garden, and have “Painting Days”. This large shed also used to accommodate the “lost souls” whom Frederick often brought home to stay.

In 1937, nine years after they were married, Frederick, aged 53, died at the Albany Hospital from a heart attack and bronchiectasis. This left Louise to support her children, the youngest child Bill, being only seven. This she did with her dressmaking skills.

Jude Scott writes of “Nan Rowe” as her grandchildren called her:
She was an energetic, independent woman, a dressmaker by trade in Albany for many years. By today’s standards she would really be called a dress designer – always very sought after.

Apparently, when the race meetings were due, all the ladies would have to have a new dress. They were all trying to out-do each other. Poor Nan was the one who had to come up with the design! Of course, in those days the “dressmaker” had to do the lot – design, make the pattern, make the dress and then sew on all the beads and sequins (that was her daughter Joyce’s job) – all in about a week!”

In Louise’s later years, the old family home that she had helped her father build became dangerous due to white ant infestations. Her sons, Bill and Jack knocked the house down and burnt all timber and many of her possessions in order to kill the white ants before they built her a small modern home on the same land.

Here she spent the rest of her days, until on 1 July 1978 aged 83, Louise, the beloved “Nan Rowe”, died. She is buried at Allembie Cemetery in Albany.

A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 - 2004. Written by Wyn Allen (née Weidenhofer) 2004 ©.
Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.

This is a works in progress and any assistance with information or source details would be very much appreciated.'

Sources

• Information taken from the Weidenhofer Database compiled from family input and research for the book “A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 – 2004© ”.
• Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.

Further research is required to locate primary documents to satisfy Wikitree source standards.