John (or Johan) Frederick Henry Wohlers (originally Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers, 1 October 1811 – 7 May 1885) was a Lutheran missionary from Germany who lived for 41 years on Ruapuke Island, a small island in New Zealand's far south.[1][2]
Wohlers was born in the North German hamlet of Mahlensdorf, near Bremen, to Johann Gerd Wohlers and his wife Margarethe (née Ahlers). He went to a mission school, and was then sent by the North German Missionary Society to New Zealand, where the New Zealand Company was establishing new settlements.
He left Germany on an emigrant ship the St Pauli in 1842, going first to Nelson where there were a number of German settlers. He went south on the ship Deborah in 1844 after he was invited by the Kāi Tahu chief Tūhawaiki to make his headquarters on Ruapuke Island.[1] He built a church in 1846 and had a bell with "Ruapuki" cast on it sent out from Bremen by the North German Missionary Society.[3]
He married Eliza Hanham in Wellington in 1849, and they had one daughter, Gretchen.[1] Wohlers died on 7 May 1885 at The Neck on Stewart Island; he was survived by his wife for six years. Both are buried at Ringaringa near Oban.[1] A memorial to the Wohlers was built above Ringaringa Beach looking out towards Ruapuke Island.[4]
The "Ruapuki" bell came into the ownership of Māori elder John Topi Patuki. In 1900, it was installed at the bell tower of St Andrew's Anglican Church in Oban.[3]
The writer and naturalist Sheila Natusch was Wohlers's great-granddaughter.[5]
^ abcdNatusch, Sheila. "Wohlers, Eliza and Wohlers, Johann Friedrich Heinrich". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
^"Work of first missionary". Southland Times. 17 May 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
^ abSt Andrew's Anglican Church (Plaque on bell tower). 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
^"Memorial to Mr Wohlers". Southland Times. 3 March 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
^"The Ruapuke settlement". Press. 27 December 1969. p. 4. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
John (or Johan) Frederick Henry Wohlers (originally Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers, 1 October 1811 – 7 May 1885) was a Lutheran missionary from Germany...
canoeist Horst Wohlers (born 1949), German football player and manager JohanWohlers (1811–1885), New Zealand missionary Jürgen Wohlers (born 1945), German...
between 1839 and 1849. In 1849 Wohlers was living in Wellington when a Lutheran missionary from Germany, JohanWohlers, began asking for recommendations...
Natusch was the great-granddaughter of Eliza Wohlers and her husband, German missionary JohanWohlers. She grew up on Stewart Island, where her father...
A mission station was established on the island in 1843 by the Rev JohanWohlers, but it too is long gone. The island was the site of several shipwrecks...
victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 30 October 2021. Natusch, Sheila. "Wohlers, Eliza and Wohlers, Johann Friedrich Heinrich". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography...
and publish the birth, deaths and marriages register compiled by Rev. JohanWohlers of the North German Mission Society at the Ruapuke Island Mission in...
wins +14 nom. Gun-Shy Dito Tsintsadze Fabian Hinrichs, Lavinia Wilson, Johan Leysen, Christoph Waltz Crime drama a.k.a. Schussangst Hero of the Gladiators [de]...
reason for the inconsistency between Ørsted's and Wöhler's experiments was discovered by Danish chemist Johan Fogh, who demonstrated that Ørsted's experiment...
Windhoek 4 Heinrich de Waal Winger 24 Mar 1990 v Zimbabwe, Windhoek 5 Johan Deysel Centre 24 Mar 1990 v Zimbabwe, Windhoek 6 Manie Grobler Prop 24 Mar...
Jöns Jakob Berzelius and became a close friend of fellow student Friedrich Wöhler.: 38 In 1832 Jöns Jakob Berzelius retired in favor of Mosander, his student...
County Stadium. Two nights later, on September 21, 1996, Braves closer Mark Wohlers yielded Guerrero's first career home run (HR) — a ninth-inning blast that...
his younger brother to be superior to himself. His former manager Horst Wohlers named him as the best player he had ever coached, and as the top footballer...
"Introduction to the Rarer Elements". Kongl. Vet. Acad. Handl. XV: 137. Gadolin, Johan (1796). "Von einer schwarzen, schweren Steinart aus Ytterby Steinbruch in...
Brazilian chemist Anthony Joseph Arduengo, III (born 1952), American chemist Johan August Arfwedson (1792–1841), Swedish chemist Anton Eduard van Arkel (1893–1976)...
disulfide, and nitrogen, a yellow insoluble residue. In the same year, Wöhler described the characteristic twisted yellow column that forms when the salt...
came out employed by the Lutheran Mission under Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers. Not a missionary himself, Jacob later owned the Whitehouse Hotel in Waikiwi...
newly discovered element tungsten, he named it ytterbite. Finnish scientist Johan Gadolin identified a new oxide or "earth" in Arrhenius' sample in 1789,...
Conrad Barchusen Eugen Baumann Otto Bayer Johann Joachim Becher Gerd Becker Johan Heinrich Becker Karl Heinrich Emil Becker Ernst Otto Beckmann Walter-Ulrich...
resonates on 250th birthday". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 23 April 2021. Östling, Johan (2018). Humboldt and the modern German university: An intellectual history...
he named it ytterbite and sent samples to various chemists for analysis. Johan Gadolin at the University of Åbo identified a new oxide (or "earth") in...