Arnold Wienholt

Arnold's birth date and place are recorded in a red leather pocket book which lists the births of all ten siblings. This record (probably written by their mother, Sarah) states that he was born on 22 January 1826 at Penycoed. From the record of his sister Ellen's birth we know this to be at or near St Clears, Carmarthenshire. Further, it states he was vaccinated at Caen (as was Ellen) but no date for this is given.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography [online at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wienholt-arnold-4849] provides the following information jointly for Arnold and his younger brother Edward:

"WIENHOLT, ARNOLD (1826-1895) and EDWARD (1833-1904), pastoralists and politicians, were sons of John Birkett Wienholt (1775-1852), merchant, and his second wife Sarah, née Hill. Arnold was born on 22 January 1826 and Edward on 28 March 1833 at Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the setting for Dylan Thomas's poem Under Milk Wood. Two other brothers, Daniel (1822-1865) and Arthur (1835-1892), were also prominent Queensland pioneers. The family, originally Winholdt, originated at Wiemsdorf, Oldenburg, Germany, in the sixteenth century.

"Educated privately, Arnold arrived at Sydney about 1847. He purchased Maryvale in 1849 and Gladfield in 1852, both on the Darling Downs, Queensland; they became two of the finest Clydesdale studs in Australia. In 1860 he failed to win Warwick in the Legislative Assembly, but held the seat in 1863-67; he ran for Maranoa in 1871 but lost. His assembly career was unspectacular and characteristically silent. Politics for him was an onerous obligation to his fellow 'Pure Merinos', neither a pleasure nor a pursuit of intrinsic satisfaction; his importance lies in his practical abilities as a stock-breeder and pastoralist and his partnership in the family pastoral empire.

"At the end of the 1870s he retired to Locarno, Switzerland, where he died unmarried in the Grand Hotel on 16 January 1895."

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In 1865 he was present when his brother Daniel died in Australia, in pain from an intestinal blockage. A letter from Arnold to Daniel's wife Helene (who was with the children in Hamburg) describing the circumstances of his death can be viewed under 'Media'.

Arnold's will:

In the Brisbane Courier of Monday 7th March 1898, under details of claims under 'Real Property Acts', it is reported that he was late of Locarno and died on 16 Jan 1895.

Names of Claimants - William Wienholt, Esquire, Ellen Wienholt, spinster, Emma Bowen, wife of the Rev. Charles James Bowen, all of Merley, Wimborne, in the county of Dorset, and Mary Frances Wienholt, late of the same place, spinster, deceased; Edward Wienholt, of Wellisford Manor, Wellington, in the county of Somerset; Helene Wienholt, of 102, Avenue de Villiers, Paris, widow; Magdalena Ellen Bethune, of the same place, wife of Baron Felix Bethune; Mary Helena Henrietta Stark, wife of Mark Dugald Stark, of Oxtord; Agnes Elise Henrietta Richter, of the same place, widow; Ellen Elizabeth Wienholt, Florence Wienholt, Mabel Hutton Wienholt, Jessie Clementina Wienholt, and Abra Violet Wienholt, all of Ballingham Mansions, Pitt street, Kensington, in the county of Middlesex, spinsters; Emma Charlotte Molony, wife of James Hamilton Molony, of 28 Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the county of Middlesex aforesaid, solicitor; John Daniel Wienholt, of Fassifern, grazier; Daniel Wienholt, of Warenda, Winton, grazier; Frederick Edward Wienholt, of Saltern Creek, Barcaldine; and Edward Ormond Waters Hill, of Maryvale, grazier. Description and Situation of Land. Portion 237, subdivisions 3 to 15 of section 8 of portion 238, subdivisions 1 to 10 of section 13 of portion 238, and sections 9 to 12 of portion 238, sections 1 to 6 of portion 239; subdivisions 3, 4, 7, 8, 20, 25, to 28, 30, 31, 79, 80, 92, 99, and 108 to 112 of portion 341; subdivisions 57, 58, 59, 63, 65, 66, 84, 85, 86, 141, and A of portions 240 and 241, county of Stanley, parish of Enoggera. Estate Claimed to be Transmitted.-Fee simple. Particulars of Will or Otherwise. Will dated 20th October, 1890, and two codicils dated 1st July, 1892, and 27th October, 1894, respectively.