The colourful Elbeshausen brothers were my grandmother's cousins. I've previously written about William whose body was washed up near Luna Park in Melbourne.
William's brother Charles was born in 1872. When he was 19 he was brought before the Monday sessions of the Essendon Police Court charged with furious driving. According to a newspaper report, a well dressed Charles Elbeshausen drove a horse and buggy through the Flemington Racecourse gates at a very violent pace without paying the usual charge of half a crown for admission. Later, Charles and another man, Frederick Pearce, drove their vehicles through the gates of the Governor's drive almost running over the man in charge of the gates.
As the two young men had been in the lock-up since Saturday afternoon they were let off with a fine of 20 shillings.
Charles' behaviour might have had something to do with his apparent estrangement from the rest of his family. He left for Western Australia. When William died in 1923, the family death notice listed all of William's siblings, except for Charles. Charles and his wife inserted their own death notice ending with : "Some day we'll understand".
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