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| The Kenhardt Lourenses |
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After the murders Jacob's wife did not return over the Kareeberge to the sea, but stayed in the district of Carnarvon. Ouma Van Staden said that after the funeral of her husband she returned to Kalbasputs and signed a document on the farm about 1863. The farm Kalbasputs where the murder took place was first granted to John George White in 1883, that is, 23 years after the murder. The farm was originally 13,133 morgen and is owned today in its entirety by Stefanus Johannes Latsky. It looks to me as if he inherited the farm from his father Stefan Johan De Villiers Latsky who bought it in 1942. |
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The farm De Riet where the murdered are buried, was coincidently given to Louis Jacobus Schalkwyk on 25 June 1883. Today it belongs to Jacobus Johannes Van Schalkwyk (since 1966) and of the 6 owners only 2 were not Van Schalkwyks. The communal grave of the three murdered is still to be seen on the farm. |
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Apparently because the belongings of Jacobus were stolen by the Bushmen, the distribution of the assets had to be negotiated with the creditors, and only 10/- in the Pound could be paid out. It is difficult to imagine oneself in the position of the widower, but it must have been a very traumatic time for her sitting on the farm without money and with seven young children, of which the youngest was still breastfeeding, without a husband. |
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In the interior there were still no villages and places such as Fraserburg and Carnarvon were surely the most northern settlements. Magistrate Maximiliaan Jackson was sent inland to suppress the Koranna uprising. He reached Kenhardt on 27th December 1868 (what a Christmas!) which then consisted of two small buildings, namely one where the Brandvleiroad came into the "settlement", and the other an abandoned one which served as a police station. There are many guesses about the origins of the name of the town, but the late Oom Jan Wolhuter was of the view that it was named after another police officer and came into general use. During the first 20 years the village never had more than 100 persons and of these about 80 were policemen. |
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As mentioned, after the murder the survivors went back to live on the farm Kalbasputs and I assume that when the children became older they had to make their own futures and for them South West Africa was more alluring. In those years communication with the outside world was by post, which arrived in Kenhardt from De Aar or Hutchinson station once a week. The oldest son, namely Jacobus J N probably obtained employment as a mail-rider and was therefore known as Nicolaas Posryer. I think he transported post between Prieska and Kenhardt. It is after him that Lourens Sreet in Kenhardt is named. Ouma Van Staaden's name was Miemie, she was apparently married to a Van Staden and they farmed at Pofadder, while as mentioned Elizabeth married Jan Wasserfall of Boomriver in the Kenhardt district. The remaining son Christoffel Petrus Johannes who was born in the Prince Albert district on 17th July 18848, married Elzabe Christina Jacoba Pieters, the daughter of his Aunt Elzabe Christina Lourens, his father's sister who was married to a certain Hermanus Jacobus Pieters (later the name of Oon Manie) and they lived on the farm N'Rougas-Suid in the district of Kenhardt. |
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I must now again return to the history of Kenhardt. Following a proclamation number 467 in 1870 a strip of 200 farms about 75 miles wide from Pella on the western side to Prieska on the eastern side on the southern side of the Orange River was made available for lease to suitably qualified applicants for a period of twenty-one years. These applicants had to be prepared to carry out military services for no longer than three months in a year. The lessee also had to keep three armed men on the farm who were not permitted to leave the farm without the permission of the magistrate, and then no charge would be made for the first five years of the lease.
This procedure did not attract any great number of farmers, and I assume that there was considerable resistance to the thought of not only farming successfully, but also having to find the money to keep three armed men and pay rent! The magistrate eased the leasing conditions, but this contributed little to the alleviation of the position.
Kenhardt was declared a separate magisterial district in 1889, and it is probably for that reason that this date is considered the date for the establishment of the town, and the reason why the centenary was celebrated in the year 1989. |
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