Franz August Rode

Franz August Rode of the Zion Hill Mission, 1860's.

Franz Joseph August Rode (or Auguste  Rodé) was a joiner and cabinetmaker when he joined the Gossner mission institute to become  a lay missionary. He was the son of a musician in Siegert (Silesia, Prussia). He married Julia Emilia Peters (b.1815) from Hatzel in Brandenburg, who accompanied him on the Minerva to Moreton Bay. By 1841 they had three children. Rode played an active part in building the Zion Hill mission as well as establishing crops to sustain its community.