According to the Biographical Index of South Australians, Christoph Friedrich Rechner was born on 27 May, 1806. In 1830 he married Christina Wilhelmina nee Maywald  and their first child, Gustav Julius Rechner was born 29 December 1830 at Liegnitz Silesia, Prussia (Germany).

At age 18, Gustav arrived in South Australia in 1848 aboard the "Victoria" and became a Lutheran pastor in Light Pass and Tanunda.  In 1850 he married Josepha Louise Bertha nee Bergmann. (He, his wife, and several of his children are buried at the Lutheran cemetery at Light Pass.)

Gustav's reports of South Australia must have been favourable, as his parents, Friedrich and Christina, also decided to emigrate, departing from Hamburg. They arrived in April 1854 aboard the "Wandrahm". The couple also decided to reside in Light Pass.

Luhr's Cottage                                          Light Pass, South Australia

An advertisement in the South Australian Register of 20 November, 1854 announced Friedrich's intentions to practise as a homœopath. (This is the first advertisement for a homœopathic practitioner in South Australia which I have discovered to-date.):

A CARD - F. Rechner begs to acquaint the Inhabitants of Light's Pass and neighbourhood that he has commenced Practice as a HOMŒOPATHIC PHYSICIAN. Address, Mr F. Rechner, schoolmaster, Light's Pass.

At this stage it is unknown how many years Mr Rechner provided consultations as a homœopath.

Christina Rechner died in 1885. Christoph Friedrich Rechner died at Light Pass on 15 June, 1896.

(The mud and straw schoolhouse at Light Pass, built in 1846, still stands, as does Luhr's Cottage, built in 1848 for the first Lutheran schoolteacher.)

 © Barbara Armstrong