Osswald, Ferdinand Carl (or Karl) (fl.1840s-50s)
A Germnan chemist who lived in North Adelaide, South Australia, around the 1840s to 1850s.
He returned to Germany about 1856.
He may have collected plants with Ferdinand von Mueller as there are
numerous plants at the Melbourne Herbarium with identical collection dates from Gawler,
Barossa Range, Bethany and Guichen Bay for the period 1848-1851.
Ferdinand Karl Osswald is listed as a passenger on the ship Pauline which sailed from Bremen, Germany on 24 August 1849; arriving in Port Adelaide, SA, on 9 December 1849.
He arrived with Georg Carl Osswald, presumably his brother, on the same ship, (the list of passengers has the two spellings of the name 'Karl/Carl'). (The South Australian Register Wednesday 12th Dec 1849)
Reg Butler (Hahndorf Historian) includes in his researched list of passengers of the Pauline:
OSSWALD, Ferdinand Carl ( - ). Merchant; Adelaide. Chemist; Adelaide (Rundle St)
OSSWALD, George Carl (c.1815- ). Carpenter; Adelaide, Tanunda.
The South Australian Register on Saturday 18 March 1848, Page 3, under the heading: LICENCES;
Colonial Treasury, March 15, 1848.
List of persons to whom Licences have been granted
by virtue of the Act of Council No. 1, 2nd Victoria,
during the week ending this day, for the year ending March
25, 1849
:—
PUBLICANS GENERAL LICENCES
No.20. Ferdinand Osswald, ' The Alliance,' Tanunda.
This is more than one year before the brothers arrive in South Australia, which suggests that Ferdinand was in SA previously and perhaps had already opened a pharmacy in Rundle Street.
It seems most likely that Ferdinand Osswald was in South Australia by 1948 and returned to Europe to collect his brother George with the two of them returning on the ship Pauline in December 1849, presumably with the plan for his brother to manage the hotel in Tanunda. This would account for some of his herbarium speciment in MEL being dated July and September 1848 and collected near Tanunda.
FIRE - HERBARIUM BURNT
Adelaide Observer, Sat 20 April 1850, Page 3:
'LOCAL INTELLIGENCE'.
". . . Shortly after twelve o'clock at noon of Thursday the
city was alarmed by cries of 'Fire !' and numbers of
persons were seen hastening in the direction of Rundle Street.
The alarm was but too well founded, and the
consequences have been disastrous. Mr Ferdinand
Osswald, the highly respectable German chemist, had
a wooden building in the rear of his premises which he
employed as a store for drugs, spirits, &c., with a
laboratory. This building was attached to the engine
house and workshops of Mr Conigrave the upholsterer.
The whole mass was in a blaze and consumed within
half an hour, owing to the combustible quality of the
contents, and the buildings being entirely composed of
dry wood. The flames were visible from all parts of
the city, and the heat was intolerable.
A number of
citizens, police, and soldiers, were quickly on the ground,
as well as the government fire engine, and a good
supply of water.
Prior to the arrival of the engine
the neighbouring privies and the back of an adjoining
house had ignited, and from the fire rapidly running
along the fences, great fears were reasonably entertained
for the warehouses in Rundle Street, close by.
By the speedy tearing down of
surrounding fences, and a good play of water on
the adjoining houses, the people succeeded in
confining the fire to the premises of Messrs.
Osswald and Conigrave, and thus averted a terrible catastrophe.
Mr. Osswald is a loser to
the extent of upwards of £800, including a
valuable collection of Botanical specimens collected by himself in the Brazils, and which he
was about to take to Europe. . ."
[His brother George married Auguste Luise Friedericke née BLUME (born c.1830) on 17 July 1850]
Ferdinand returned to Germany about 1856 where he lived in Nordhausen.
The wattle Acacia oswaldii was named by Mueller in his honour, the name is presumably misspelt. In the The Plants Indigenous To The Colony of Victoria Vol.2 (not considered validly published) Mueller writes "in honour of Mr Ferdinand Oswald, formerly resident of Adelaide, later Nordhausen, Germany."
Source: Extracted from:
https://www.myheritage.com/names/ferdinand_osswald
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Pauline%2C_sailed_24_August_1849
https://localwiki.org/adelaide-hills/Ship_Pauline_%289Dec1849%29
Adelaide Observer, Sat 20 Apr 1850, Page 3
Kraehenbuehl, D.N. 'History of Botany in South Australia (1800-1955) in Flora of Sth Aust, Part 1. (1986)
Whibley, D.J.E, Acacias of South Australia, p.174 (1980)
Portrait Photo: Seeking portrait
Collecting localities for 'Osswald, F.' from AVH (2024)
Data from 38 specimens
