SPIRO, HENRY Henry Spiro was an Alderman from 1871 to 1872 and 1874 to 1876. He was Mayor from 1870 to 1873. He died on the llth December, 1876. HENRY SPIRO - TOOWOOMBA'S GERMAN-BORN MAYOR In 1869, nine years after the proclamation of the Municipality of Toowoomba the electors of the Central ward of the Municipality elected Mr. Henry Spiro to the council. Mr. Spiro was not the first German to become an alderman - Henry Flori, an innkeeper of James Street, was elected in 1852 - but in 1870 his fellow aldermen conferred on Henry Spiro the additional honour of being chosen as Mayor of the Municipality - a position to which he was re-elected in 1871 and which he held for a total of three years 1870-72. Henry Spiro was a German Jew. He was born in Posen and came to Australia in 1861 at the age of 22 years. He first set up business in Ipswich but in 1863, came to Toowoomba and in partnership with a Mr. Benjamin set up a store in Stewart Street. (This store was off James Street in what is now Geddes Street.) In 1855 Spiro and Benjamin built a truly magnificent store on the corner of Margaret and Ruthven Streets on the site now occupied by the C.B.A. bank [now demolished] [Now the site of an empty shop was a Chemcare chemist]. The handsome two storey brick building became a landmark in the town, and the name of Henry Spiro became a byword for generous honest dealing. In 1868 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Benjamin moving on to Dalby, and Hr. Spiro continued the business. Henry Spiro died in 1875 leaving a wife and large family. He was only thirty-seven years old. Some quotations from his obituary, published in the contemporary papers, may serve to illustrate the esteem in which Henry Spiro was held. " Mr. Spiro possessed a large amount of natural ability and was a clear-headed shrewd financier. There are many successful businessmen in Toowoomba who owe their start to his assistance, and he tided them over difficulties which without him, must have stranded them in bankruptcy. He had his faults, like most men, but they were completely overshadowed by his kindly generous instincts, and by his noble disinterested efforts to relieve friends and even enemies from pecuniary embarrassments. Actions speak louder than words, and one case, out of scores, will suffice to strengthen our statement. For one gentleman, with whom he had had strong political contentions he not only lent him, in a moment when he most needed it, a cheque for £500, but subsequently endorsed for him promissory notes to the value of £1000, and never asked a farthings consideration for it. A friend in need is said to be a friend indeed, but it is not many friends who would advance their cash and add the responsibility of their names to aid others with whom they were in no way allied except as fellow-townsman. The writer of the obituary noted that at his death Mr. Spiro's business had book debts of £10O00. Many of these dated from 1866. As Spiro said in his clearing out sale advertisement a year before his death he was - "The oldest established storekeeper in Toowoomba, who gave credit during the crisis in 1866 and continued the same to date, when everyone else wanted cash. Besides his active political and business life, Spiro was a strong supporter of the Hebrew faith, and was largely responsible for the building of Queensland's first synagogue in Neil Street, on the site now occupied by the Redeemer Lutheran Church. He died soon after the building was consecrated and as the obituary reported - "At his own particular request his remains were taken past the new synagogue in Neil Street, which he had helped to erect, and at the consecration of which, not long ago, he took an active part." Spiro's business was purchased by his old partner Benjamin, but apparently the debts were too much for Benjamin to carry. His company became insolvent, and in May 1980 the property was sold. The building was bought by the Australian Joint Stock Bank for £4500 and the site has housed a bank since then [demolished in the 1990s]. More to follow when I get it typed up