BOCKLER, FRANCIS (1832-1908)

BOCKLER, FRANCIS, painter and decorator; b. Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland), 22 Dec 1832; m. 1865, Margaret Murray, d/o William C. Murray and Alexanderina Hyslop; d. Newcastle, 22 Dec 1908.

Nothing is known about Francis Bockler's life prior to his settlement in Newcastle in the early 1860s, when he was past thirty. In 1864, the year before he and Margaret Murray were married, he was hired to paint and gild the ship Edward Cardwell, which was built at Peter Mitchell's shipyard. He was later called upon to decorate and paint ships belonging to other owners, including Call & Miller's steam ferries, New Era and Andover, which were completely renovated in 1876. He was also a house painter, but his specialty was interior decoration and ornamentation. One of the earlier jobs for which he won public praise was the interior of St Andrew's Church, Chatham, which was refurbished in 1873. In 1879 he was the principal interior painter and decorator of the William Watt house in Newcastle, now the 'Old Manse'. In 1895 the Miramichi Advance stated that there was "not a more handsome church interior in the province" than that of St Mary's Chapel in Chatham, of which he was again the decorator. Many other churches, public buildings, and private residences were adorned by him, a late example being the Daniel Sullivan home at Red Bank, for which he had the painting and decorating contract in 1900.

An unrelated sideline of Bockler's was the concoction of medicines, or cure-alls. In 1878 he had a supply of "Hyopossomum," or "Magic Cough Syrup," on hand and was looking for agents to peddle it. It cured throat, lung, and liver complaints, catarrh, bronchitis, asthma, and tuberculosis.

Bockler died on his seventy-sixth birthday. He and his wife, who predeceased him by a year and a half, had one son who died young and five daughters who outlived them.