Alfred John Peterson was born in 26/8/1896 in Maldon Victoria.
“Freddy” as he was known also went under the name of Frederick John Peterson /Petersen and I knew him as Uncle Bryce.
Young Freddy
His father, Carl Herman Peterson had arrived in Victoria in 1865 from Denmark seeking his fortune from gold mining in Maldon. He married an Irish girl, Annie Elizabeth Shearer and they had 10 children. Alfred John came along last. Cousin Geoff Peterson says he was known as “Big Fred”.
At 5’ 7 ½” he was a good athlete who played baseball for Essendon. He became the glamour boy of the family when he applied for a passport and went off to spend time in the USA in the 1920s. They also knew him as a playboy type with his handsome looks, dark eyes, brush back dark brown hair and gold teeth. He was a very good mechanic, hard working and a member of a Masonic Lodge.
He was also three times married!
At age 25 he married a 20-year-old Victorian woman from Parkville, Victoria. Minnie Veronica (Vera) Tibbetts on 3rd of June 1922. Looking at her photos she’s a very chic and fashionable lady of the 20s. According to her travel records she was 5’4 ½ “ with light brown hair and blue eyes.
Minnie Veronica Peterson nee Tibbetts
In January 1928 Fred applied for a passport for he and his wife. Weeks later he and Minnie travelled to America sailing on the SS Orangi from Sydney on 9/2/1928. Their intention was to stay their permitted four years. They arrived on 3/3/28.
Their arrival coincided
with the opening of FORD River Rouge Complex- the largest integrated factory in
the world at the time. It was of enormous industrial and economic importance to
the US economy and eventually employed thousands of people. I’m told that Fred worked here at what became
the FORD Motor Company Dearborn. This assembly plant became one of the worlds
most famous automobile plants with its hundreds of kilometres of roads and rail
together with power plants, rolling
mills, glass production etc. It was the home of mass production and every
management student has learnt about its “efficiency practices” . Fred's time there as a motor mechanic would have given him good standing and good experience and skills for life.
Ford Factory Detroit 1920s
So they lived in Detroit Michigan in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and travelling distance from Chicago, Toronto and New York. Whilst in the USA Fred and Minnie travelled around the USA. He had searched for his long lost his lost brother Samuel Henry or Harry Peterson who resided in Little Rock Arizona. Harry had been badly injured in an accident and Fred brought Harry back to Melbourne.
Geoff Peterson tells me Fred boasted of working on entertainer, Eddie Cantor’s car. One trip to New York is recorded with a very classy “couple shot” showing them in Central Park and a souvenir silhouette of Fred from the newly opened Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn was amongst his daughter Julie’s mementos. They finished their time overseas in late 1931 with a trip to Toronto, Canada and then travelled via Calvary and across to Vancouver to connect with their ship home.
Souvenir Silhouette of Fred Freddy and Minnie in Central Park NY
The travel documentation contains a wealth of information such as friends and relatives they were in contact with in each location. Fred and Minnie’s description and details of the money they were carrying home. With his job at and perhaps tips from the rich and famous his travel departure card shows he has $2125 (American dollars) when leaving USA for Canada. In today’s money that is equivalent to $40,352. Not a bad amount to amass on a working holiday during the depression! It was certainly enough for a comfortable deposit on a home back in Australia.
One travel photo remains. They had a stop in Papeete, Tahiti and Fred is shown here in jodhpurs third from the left and Minnie is the lone female on the left. They were in Papeete December 1931 and arrived back in Parkville, Melbourne late 1931 early 1932 during a time of the Great Depression. At this time brother Harry is seen living down the street form them. After nearly 10 years of marriage they were still childless.
Enjoying Papeete Dec 1931 Fred is third from left and Minnie on left
This newspaper article from the Truth (Sydney, NSW )Sunday 16 October 1938 - Page 25 tells the next part of the story
INDUSTRIOUS WIFE GETS COLD SHOULDER
Husband Fell Down On His Promise
A wife who was working to make both ends meet in Sydney, and who counselled her errant husband in Melbourne to 'come over here,' after she had heard that he was playing fast and loose down south, would surely measure up to the standard of 'a good sport.' ANYHOW, Mrs. Minnie Veronica Peterson, who married Frederick John Peterson on June 3. 1932, told a story in the Divorce Court last week that convinced Mr. Justice Roper that she was a trier and broadly tolerant of the fallings of mere man. But Frederick John failed to respond to the lead given by his resourceful spouse, and now, in six months' time he will be back where he started six years ago - that is, matrimonially speaking. When Mrs. Peterson found that things were not going too well in Melbourne she sensed a chance to secure remunerative employment in Sydney, and came to New South Wales with her husband's consent. The pair corresponded with each other twice weekly.Frederick John came to Sydney to see his wife on two occasions. Then in December 1934, he wrote an apologetic letter telling how he had got 'mixed up with a woman.' 'Knowing him as I did, and knowing that he could not have done anythlng very dreadful said the wife. 'I replied at once urging him to come here and start all over again.' He was so overjoyed at this unexpected reception of the cold douche he had administered his hard-working , helpmate that he telegraphed saying he would be in Sydney almost before you could say Jack Robinson. Once again he failed to make good on his promise - a promise which was backed by a letter saying: 'I am coming right away. It was two years afterwards that Mrs. Peterson saw Peterson getting into a tram in the city. She sought him out at his abode and asked him to explain. 'I am fed up,' he muttered. 'Fed up! Leave me alone!' That was the end of their romance,; Mr. Justice Roper granted Mrs. Peterson a decree nisi. Messrs. Penny and McTague, solicitors for petitioner.
As the story suggests, Minnie had gone to Sydney to find work with Fred promising to follow. It looks like sometime around 1934 he met young Victorian woman Vera Kersten and as described by the papers was playing "fast and loose". Then around 1936 he was seen with this “other woman” in Sydney by Minnie and that was the start of his divorce.
The decree nisi was issued on the
grounds of desertion in PETERSON V
PETERSON 16th of October 1938. The decree absolute was issued 20/4/1939. They both remarried in
Sydney having found Sydney a bit more like what they had experienced in Detroit.
Minnie had two further marriages:once to Albert Lindsey Clarkson in1939 in Woollahra and after Albert’s death in 1964 she married Edgar Frederick Gregory in 1966. She died in 23 December 1989 in Cammeray, Sydney.
Vera Kersten
Fred married his pretty
blue eyed, redheaded lady friend at St John’s Church of England , Glebe on 19/3/1940.
His marriage certificate has Vera Kersten as a 27 yo spinster sales woman and himself as
a 41 yo divorced welder. Vera number
two! Record shows that Vera became the proprietor of “ Lorice” a millinery shop
in 14 Imperial Arcade Sydney on 29 April 1939. She was a very successful owner
and remained in business after her marriage. She later moved to the First floor
176 Pitt Street in January 1951. The business had expanded to dressmaking and
accessories. Later it was known for her larger ladies evening and day wear.
Vera's store in Pitt St
Together Fred and Vera lived in a very pleasant and sunny flat at 3/ 320 Edgecliff Road Woollahra. They had connections to the entertainment world and she was a pianist/ composer of music. They even had a baby grand piano in the flat possibly in the little front sunroom.I'm told they hosted soirees for friends and neighbours.
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| The apartment building 320 Edgecliff Rd |
However, trouble began to
brew in the marriage around 1950. After a nearly 12year marriage she moved out
in 1952. Fred missed Vera saying “The home….. is pretty dull without you” and “I think the world of you” in a letter to
Vera asking her to come home. It is possible in reading between the lines in
the divorce proceedings that there was another man but certainly Vera, the
musician was wanting her freedom at night to go and play her music. This
marriage was also childless.
After they divorced she married to Kurt Winter in 1956 and continued entertaining and composing. There is a “showbiz” story in the newspapers that Vera used to write lyrics and music on serviettes during her lunch break at a Kings Cross café. ”YoYo Heart” and “Fickle Fingers” (1952)were two of her successful releases. Some of her music is housed in the National Library in Canberra and it is said that she recorded with people like Bobby Limb’s Band. She and Kurt lived their days in Darling point in Sydney until his death in 1970 and her death some years later.
At some point Fred decided to change his name to Bryce. At this point Bryce was a mechanic for Hastings Dearing and later Ford in King’s Cross area of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
Fred was devastated when Vera left. After his divorce he found the strength in the company of neighbours in the apartment block next door. One neighbour was a recent widow, Ruby Garten who was a friend of both Fred and Vera. If fact Ruby testified at the divorce saying that “Fred was very considerate and fond of his wife” and interestingly that she saw Fred most nights.
Another neighbour was a separated mother of three. She was my grandmother Julia Kelf and her children were Frank, Airdrie and Marlene. Julia became ill in 1953. Her daughter, my Auntie Airdrie was a nursing sister planning a trip overseas. Airdrie would’ve been gleaning any tips from Fred for her proposed travel. Julia became ill in 1953. Soon Julia became so ill she needed nursing as she was dying from Hodgkinson‘s disease. Airdrie put off her trip to nurse her mother.
Instead she fell in love with Fred Aka Bryce and despite the very big difference in age. I suspect she fell for his movie star grin and moustache. He was a handsome and likeable man like her father. Airdrie Desolie Kelf married Bryce Petersen in a registry office in 23rd of March 1956. Bryce was 59 and Airdrie nearly half his age.
Bryce and Airdrie on their honeymoon
Three years later their only child, Julie Louise Petersen was born and Bryce became a
first-time father at age 61. And very proud he was too of his happy little family.
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| Dad's shot of Julie as a toddler with Airdrie |
Despite losing contact with a large number of his family members due his travel and living in Sydney Bryce took Airdrie and Julie on trips to Maldon in Victoria where he was born. For example in 1968 they visited his siblings Emily and Charlie and Beth. This kindled the interest in family history in Julie.
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| Julie, Airdrie, Fred (Bryce) , Emily in Melbourne 1968 |
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| Airdrie and Julie with June Petersen Bondi 1962 |
For a short time from 1955
until mid 1960 my family lived in the apartment block next to Bryce and Airdrie’s apartment
block.My mother was Airdrie's little sister. Of course, I was only little and don’t remember the details but I
imagine the sisters were back and forward between the two apartments with the
babies.
Of course the Petersens often visited with my mother, Marlene, father Alf and and us three Kerr cousins when we eventually moved. A good excuse for Bryce to polish the car and take the Peuguot for a Sunday spin. I suspect it was a bit of a trek crossing the Harbour Bridge to visit us in the north of Sydney from the Eastern Suburbs. Other times we met up at Nielson Park, the beach or Centennial Park.
The Kerrs and Petersens at Carlingford
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| Christmas Day with the cousins Nielson Park c 1963 |
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| In the backyard Edgecliff Rd |
Bryce was a low handicap golfer. Sadly Bryce died when his car and a truck collided one wet Saturday on 22 April 1972. His daughter Julie was only 12 years old. He was 74 and was driving his beloved Peugeot on his way to golf at Bonny Doon Golf Club, Botany.
Bryce was a low handicap golfer
I remember it was a very sad time for Airdrie and Julie. Auntie Airdrie was unable to sleep well at night for years she had the legal issues because of Bryce’s lack of will and no bank accounts. She returned to her beloved nursing career and studied geriatric nursing. She loved her job until her retirement. She and Julie continued to live in the infamous flat in Edgecliff Road until Julie branched out on her own.
The Edgecliff Rd flat prepared for sale Sunroom above and lounge room below
Airdrie remained there until her move to a nursing home a couple of years ago. I helped pack up the flat and the memories came flooding back. It has been great researching the history behind this flat that I knew had belonged to Bryce before their marriage (and that there was an ex-wife named Vera who came to Bryce’s funeral (but which one?)
Finding answers to Bryce’s story has been complicated due to the changes of name from Alfred John Peterson to Frederick John (Freddie) from Peterson (SON) to Petersen (SEN) probably were related due to the anti-German feelings during two World Wars (They were actually Danish!). Certainly the spelling changed between the first divorce and the second marriage and finally to be known as Bryce, a movie star type name? A name I think Bryce assumed after his second divorce and probably because he fancied it
As I said Julie was only 12 when her father died. When she was old enough she decided to research her family history and was delighted to meet with and reconnect with Fred‘s extended family in Maldon, Sydney and Queensland. She assisted in writing the family story of the Shearers and the Petersons coming to Australia and contributing to the Peterson family book compiled by Geoffrey Peterson more recently.
Airdrie and Julie also connected with Al Daff , Fred's cousin on the Shearer side. Al was Head of Universal Studios and he was in Sydney to appear on "This is Your Life".Julie with Emily's daughters Jenny and Sue Noosa
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| Airdrie with Al Daff 1978 |
Julie’s final sentence in her Petersen story written in the ninties was….
"the rest of the history should be written by those who remember it and correct the mistakes I have made”. Sadly, Julie passed away in 2019 before we could collaborate on and update more aspects of the family history given improvements in genealogical research.
She gifted me her photo album and there were enough unanswered questions to send me on this quest. Julie, I hope you are happy with the outcome R.I.P. little cousin.
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