The descendants of a prize-winning Yinnar South orchardist John Frederick Deppeler held a ceremony at Dandenong Cemetery on Sunday, finally placing a plaque on his grave which had been unmarked 100 years.
His great-granddaughter Elaine Andrijczak and her brother Latrobe City mayor Darrell White were two relatives to study the family tree and historical documents to learn about the man that planted the family’s roots in the region.
“We’ve all had wonderful childhoods you know growing up with our parents so it’s really great to recognise and remember, you know, those early days,” Ms Andrijczak said.
Victoria’s first governor, Charles Joseph La Trobe spent time in Switzerland in his youth and later encouraged Swiss vignerons to immigrate to the Geelong area to establish a wine industry.
John Frederick, born in 1844 in Tegerfelden, Switzerland, took the plunge as a viticulturist until a major disease forced him to uproot his crop and later adapt his skills to food production in Yinnar South.
“He actually became renowned for some of the produce he produced and went to the Royal Melbourne Show and won awards there,” Cr White said.
He described his ancestor as a “trail-blazer” – John Frederick worked by hand to clear land for his crops of fruit, vegetables, legumes, maize, seeds, nuts and more.
Ms Andrijczak was impressed by the thought of John Frederick exhibiting in Melbourne and even overseas in New Zealand.
“You can imagine what his transport was like in the 1890s,” Ms Andrijczak said.
“I believe Janet, his wife, must have been a very strong woman who was able to look after all the children and keep things going at home while he was off exhibiting at these shows.”
John Frederick advertised his produce in the Morwell Advertiser and through the siblings’ research they found he had created two apple varieties, being the ‘J D Seedling’ and the ‘Evening Party Apple’ which is renowned for its juiciness.
Ms Andrijczak said she was also surprised he “turned his hand” to breeding dark bay ponies.
It was an interest which led him to sell ponies at Kirk’s Bazaar in Melbourne and find success exhibiting at the Royal Melbourne Show and other regional shows.
His obituary describes his 1918 death from an illness as “painful”.
Since there are no living descendants who knew the man personally, no one can speak much about his personality.
Ms Andrijczak said at a family reunion in 2016 her aunty Edna Holmes was able to provide some idea of what the family was like – a notable memory being “even the cat knew when it was Sunday”.
Cr White said his work into the family history was about providing the foundation for the family members who followed them.
“Albert and May were my grandparents – so they had two boys and [five] girls and it was a fantastic family and I can still hear them laughing,” Cr White said.
*This online story has been edited to change the number of daughters Albert and May had to five.
