Catherine Frank, nee Koenig, was born in the Rhine Province, Germany on March 4, 1852, and was buried at Macksville Cemetery in 1939.
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Most of this article has been sourced from a newspaper story written by well-known Macksville citizen Harry Bragg circa 1951.
The Koenig family of seven sailed from Hamburg aboard the Whilhelmsburg, on March 1, 1855. There were 630 passengers, 30 of whom died on the way, including Catherine's baby sister Joan. The journey via the Cape of Good Hope, took six months.
The family went from Sydney to Port Macquarie, where Catherine's father was a soap and candle maker, employed by a Mr Tozer, who was the father of Queensland Premier, Sir Horace Tozer. It was here they took up the surname of King instead of Koenig.
A few years later the family moved to the Macleay River as farmers, but were caught up, along with seven other families, by flood waters in 1864, and were rescued by boat. They lost everything, yet felt lucky to escape with their lives.
I have found what I believe to be the burial place and headstone of Catherine's parents, but I may be at odds with Harry's account.
He states they changed their name to King quite early, but the headstones, at Kempsey West Cemetery, which I assume to be the parents, Maria Theresa and Herman Joseph, still bear the surname of Koenig. My claim is supported by the date of Maria Theresa's death, confirmed in Harry's writings, which is the year after the flood.
The Koenig/King family, without their mother, took up another farm on the Macleay, with Catherine and her sister caring for the family. They had a nephew also living with them, one Joe Mohr, who eventually settled at Yarrahapinni.
In 1868, the family moved to what is now Macksville, on the peninsular which now bears their name. Catherine married Charles Frank in 1873, and lived at their farm known as Frank's Wharf. They raised 10 children.
They were known as an industrious hard-working couple, carrying out their farming in the harsh conditions of the day, enduring attacks on their crops by cockatoos and vermin, and facing the difficulty of unreliable transport of crops. The nearest doctor was 37 miles away and there were no roads.
In 1911, Catherine and Charles retired and went to live in Macksville. Charles died in 1927, and that left Catherine with her daughter Pauline, who predeceased her.
She spent her last years living with her daughter Theresa in Bellingen, until her death in 1939, at the age of 87.
This article also used the resources of the Nambucca Headland Museum.
