Helmprecht, Anton, Br. (1874-1939)
born 9 June 1874, Metten (Bavaria)
died 2 December 1839, Broome, age 66
Br. Anton was a Pallottine teamster and builder in the Kimberley for 35 years and a pioneer of Lombadina.
For all the time spent in the Kimberley mission, very little is known about Br. Anton, and it is possible that he was a reluctant hero of mission work. He joined the Pallottines at Limburg on 15 November 1894, at age 20. In 1903 he seemed to be worried about his health, but a medical examination in Limburg declared him fit.1
He came to Australia with Franz Stütting, Heinrich Krallmann and Alfons Hermann on 5 May 1904. (Stütting and Hermann both returned in 1909.) In 1910 accompanied Fr. Droste to Lombadina to commence a mission there and erected a small building at Chilli Point which was later destroyed by a storm.2
When he heard in August 1912 that a printing shop was being added to the Limburg monastery he pleaded with the Superior to be allowed to return to Limburg to learn that trade.3 He described himself as having a few marks against him on the tally stick (‘vieles auf dem Kerbholz’) and a few complaints against him. He mentioned being in good health and having almost finished the bricklaying job he had been assigned.
In the Beagle Bay Boxing Day race 1914 he ran in the final race against Br. Mathias Kasparek and Br. Heinrich Krallmann (who won on the ‘Durack’) but four weeks later he had such a bad fall that Fr. Droste administered the last rites to him.4 This was during the preparations for the wedding of Martin and Bertha Sibosado, for whom Br. Anton later built a small house.5
During World War I he and Br. Heinrich were in charge of the cattle herds that underpinned the economy of the Beagle Bay mission.
In the Christmas period of 1933 Br. Wollseifer mentioned that Br. Anton was ‘still doing well’.6 He is reported as dying in Broome three years later, but his grave is at Beagle Bay alongside Br. Kasparek.
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Br. Kasparek and Br. Helmprecht side by side at Beagle Bay Source: Roberta Cowan |
1 Note written on behalf of Dr. Kremer, Limburg, to the Pallottine Superior, 23. 4. 1903, in Anton Helmprecht, Br. ZAPP.
2 Lombadina Chronicle, in Nailon, Emo p.183.
3 Helmprecht to Superior, 27 August 1912, in Anton Helmprecht, Br. ZAPP. It is possible that Helmprecht was in Germany at that time, because he states ‘the last time you were here you said I could come’.
4 Droste diary, 26 December 1914 and 23 January 1915. The abbreviated diary entry leaves unclear whether the fall was from a billy cart or from a horse called Billy: ‘Br. Anton schweren Fall von Billy, versah ihn mit Sterbesakramenten.’
5 Sr Brigida Nailon CSB Nothing is wasted in the household of God – Vincent Pallotti’s Vision in Australia 1901-2001, Richmond: Spectrum 2001:41.
6 Wollseifer at Beagle Bay to Kugelmann in Limburg, 2. Advent 1933. Australien Nachlass Kugelmann B7 d.l. (1) ZAPP.
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