*For the full story see "Lourens Murders" link on the Family History Index page
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| The Kenhardt Lourenses - Page 3 | |||||||||||
| The inherited names of the Swarts were Jacobus Johannes, Jacobus Nicolaas, Johannes Nicolaas or any combination of these names. The first child of Johannes Gerhardus and Jacoba Petronella Swart was a son, and he was baptised Cornelis Janse on 8th May 1814, this is naturally the name of his Oupa (Grandfather) on his father's side. The second child was also a son, Jacobus - he was baptised on 15 September 1816. I assume that Johannes Gerhardus was a sort of loan farm occupier of the land - as previously mentioned, he later owned his own two farms. | |||||||||||
| Jacobus Lourens married Magrieta Pieters who according to his daughter Ouma Van Staden, grew up on the farm Skuinsberg in the District of Caledon. Ds A D Luckhoff, who wrote down Ouma Van Staden's story, presumably tried to be agreeable or perhaps he heard wrongly but in reality the farm name is Schuitsberg and this was originally 1422 morgen large. This farm was transferred by the State on 1st September 1832 to Barend Hermanus Pieterse, and I wonder whether Magrieta Pieters with whom Jacobus married was not in reality Magrieta Pieterse and that at that stage this farm belonged to her father. I was not on the farm but it seemed to me that it was a beautiful farm which was laid out between the cliffs of the mountain and the Sonderentriver and the Soutriver and Soetmelksvallei as shown on the map. The farms were later subdivided into three portions of 609 hectare, 636 hectare and 8 hectares. It looks as if the present owners have no connection with the previous owners. | |||||||||||
| As a consequence of the fact that Jacobus and Magrieta were so richly blessed with successors I expect that he also had to set out with his family to find a refuge in the interior, especially in times of drought and therefore, according to what his daughter Ouma Van Staden told me later, he left with other farmers in 1860 trekking over the Kareeberge to find new grazing pastures. | |||||||||||
| According to her he made water at a place Kalbasputs in the district which is now known as Carnarvon, and I assume that this was in the form of a well or gorra. He then stayed on when the other farmers trekked back, and continued with his grazing and trading. It was there that the Bushmmen murdered him and two of his children on the 4th May 1862 (although Ouma Van Staden wrongly says this was 1860). I will tell that tragic story separately in an appendix as told by Ouma Van Staden to Ds Luckhoff.* | |||||||||||
| This Jacobus did not name his eldest son after his father, namely Johannes Gerhardus, but baptised him Bernadus. Bernadus is one of the child killed by the Bushmen*. He named his second son after himself and his third son born in 1848 was named Christoffel Petrus Johannes. This is the first time that that this family name comes to light in our family tree. His three younger sons were Jan, Thys and Manie, all of whom went to South West Africa, and the youngest child was Elizabeth who later married Jacob Wasserfall of Boomrivier, Kenhardt. I can clearly recall how Ouma Breggie always spoke of of Uncle Jacob Wasserfall of Boomrivier. These people were ancestors of van Schalk Wasserfall who had the garage at Upington, and his sister who married the late Stoffel Wiese and the mother of Christo Wiese of Pep Stores fame. *For the full story see "Lourens Murders" link on the Family History Index page |
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| I had no doubt that until that time our surname was spelt with a "w", namely Louwrens, and the three sons who went to South West Africa kept that spelling. About 10 years ago I met the Manager of the Cape Medical Plan, Gideon Barnard, and he told me that he was married to a Louwrens girl who came from Keetmanshoek but they spelt their name with a "w" and that in their earlier years in the | |||||||||||