Reverend Carl Wilhelm Schmidt (died 1864), also known as Karl Schmidt, was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

, and an ordained minister of the Prussian United Church

Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)

The Prussian Union was the merger of the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Prussia, by a series of decrees – among them the Unionsurkunde – by King Frederick William III...

. Schmidt's missionary work took him to Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 and Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

, where he founded a number of Lutheran institutions and settlements.

Early life

Schmidt was born in Stargard

Stargard Szczecinski

Stargard Szczeciński is a city in northwestern Poland, with a population of 71,017 . Situated on the Ina River it is the capital of Stargard County and since 1999 has been in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship; prior to that it was in the Szczecin Voivodeship...

, Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

 (Stargard Szczeciński Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

). He studied at the Universities of Halle and Berlin, before becoming the first theological student of Johannes Gossner

Johannes Gossner

Johannes Evangelista Gossner , German divine and philanthropist, was born at Hausen near Augsburg.He was educated at the University of Dillingen...

, a minister of the Bethlehem Bohemian Church in Berlin. Gossner was the founder of the Evangelical Union for the Spread of Christianity among the Heathen, and he recommended Schmidt to lead a party of nine missionaries trained for work with a British society.

In 1837, Schmidt came to the notice of Rev John Dunmore Lang

John Dunmore Lang

John Dunmore Lang , Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.-Background and Family:...

 in Australia, via Samuel Johnson, a friend of Gossner's in London. After being joined by fellow missionary Christopher Eipper

Christopher Eipper

Christoph Eipper, was a pioneering missionary and Presbyterian minister in Australia.Christoph Eipper was born to Georg Christoph Eipper and Sophie Juliane Schaettler...

 in Greenock, Scotland, Schmidt and his party set sail for Australia on the Minerva. Conditions aboard the ship were harsh, with Moritz Schneider, a surgeon employed by Lang, dying of typhoid en route. Schmidt arrived in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 in January 1838.

Sydney

Upon arrival in Australia, Schmidt was admitted as a member of Lang's Presbyterian Synod of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 on 15 March 1838. He founded the New South Wales Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, whose mission involved supporting a mission in connection with government funding. Schmidt ministered to a German congregation in Sydney for some months while a party scouted in the Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...

 area for a suitable site. Upon arrival in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 in June 1838, Schmidt found that his scouting party had selected a location north of the settlement that they called Zion's Hill.

Zion's Hill Mission

He was the leader of the first European settlement in what is now the area of Nundah

Nundah, Queensland

Nundah is an inner suburb in the city of Brisbane, Australia, located approximately 8 kilometers north-east of the Brisbane central business district, in the local government area of the City of Brisbane....

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, when he helped found the "Zion Hill" mission

Zion Hill Mission

The Zion Hill Mission was a Christian mission founded in the area now known as Nundah, Queensland by German Lutheran missionaries. The mission is notable as being the first free European settlement in what is now the state of Queensland...

, located near to the modern-day "Walkers Way". Although joined by fellow German missionary Reverend Christopher Eipper

Christopher Eipper

Christoph Eipper, was a pioneering missionary and Presbyterian minister in Australia.Christoph Eipper was born to Georg Christoph Eipper and Sophie Juliane Schaettler...

, Schmidt did not have much success in bringing Christianity to the Aboriginal people in the area, and his mission was dismantled at the behest of the colonial government in 1846.

Kilcoy Poisoning

Schmidt was also notable for being involved in leaking the details of a deliberate mass poisoning of Aboriginal people at Kilcoy

Kilcoy, Queensland

Kilcoy is a small farming town and part of the Somerset Region Local Government Area in South East Queensland, Australia. The township lies on the D'Aguilar Highway, 94 km north west of the state capital, Brisbane, and just to the north of Lake Somerset...

 in Queensland to the Sydney press. Schmidt had recorded in his travel diary the details of the incident, in which as many as sixty Aboriginal people were given flour

Flour

Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

 and other rations laced with strychnine

Strychnine

Strychnine is a highly toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion...

 by white settlers. Not wanting to upset the delicate situation and cause any reprisal attacks, the authorities attempted to hush up the affair. Fellow minister and evangelical reformer John Dunmore Lang

John Dunmore Lang

John Dunmore Lang , Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.-Background and Family:...

 published the details from Schmidt's travel diary in the Colonial Observer, causing a major scandal in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, the colonial capital.

Return to Europe, and Samoa

Following the failure of the Zion's Hill mission, Schmidt returned to England in 1846. He briefly ministered to a Lutheran congregation in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 before being accepted by the London Missionary Society

London Missionary Society

The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...

. From 1848 to 1857, he served as a missionary in Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

. On May 25, 1855, his wife died, and in 1857 he resigned from the society and started a free school for the children of foreign residents of the city of Apia in Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

. Around this time he also married Salaneta, a Samoan woman, with whom he had one son. He died in Apia in early 1864.