Dr Thomas Smartt, who built a dam
Thomas William Smartt had such a high profile as a politician that his medical background has almost been forgotten. He was born in Trinn, County Meath, Ireland, on February 22, 1858, and he obtained his degree from Trinity College, in Dublin. He came to the Cape, was registered as a medical doctor and, in 1880,…
Read MoreLayers of history on Rietpoort Farm
Fancy a stay on a historic Karoo farm? Try Rietpoort, 30 km north of Victoria West on the road to Britstown. This farm lies right alongside the N12 and its “modern history”, say owners Dirk and Naomi Ras, begins in the 1700’s, when nomadic European farmers moved into the hinterland and started settling down. They…
Read MoreAberdeen farmer saved ostriches from extinction in Oudtshoorn, 1890
Max Rose, who arrived in South Africa in 1890 from Shavel, in Lithuania, started out in Oudtshoorn as a feather buyer. In time, he became such a successful ostrich breeder that he was known throughout the Klein Karoo as the “ostrich king.” He told reporters that the ostrich feather boom, of the early 1900s, netted…
Read MoreSmall-scale tilling, Beaufort West 1895
When Robert Wallace visited Beaufort West in 1895, he found it an interesting area from an agricultural point of view. In Farming Industries of the Cape Colony, he writes: “The plains below the mountain have aromatic Karoo bushes suitable for grazing by sheep and goats, while on the top of the mountains, actually a new…
Read MoreJohn Molteno’s pioneering farm: 1841
John Charles Molteno was a dynamic man. He first saw the Karoo as a fatherless lad of 17. By 23 he had founded Molteno and Company, a firm dealing specifically in the sale of wine, wool, meat and aloes. When the bottom dropped out of the wine market, he sold his business and warehouses to…
Read MoreDrought and floods: 1877-1879
The year 1877 was a traumatic one for the Molteno and Jackson families who farmed at Nelspoort, north of Beaufort West. In The Jacksons of Nelspoort, Dr A O Jackson records that a drought which started two years before had taken severe toll of the stock. “He writes that two-thirds of the small stock and many…
Read MoreThe Depression in the Karoo: 1933
The worst thing about the Great Drought was that it coincided with the Great Depression – a terrible time for farmers and almost everyone else in the country. Many farmers left their farms because they could not afford to stay. Animals stood forlornly about without food or water, abandoned by owners who could not afford…
Read MoreDrought Cripples the Central Karoo, 1933
Over the years the Karoo has seen many droughts and, even now despite good rains in the interior, Beaufort West’s Gamka Dam remains empty. Droughts were reported in 1864, 1877, 1903, 1916, 1925 through to 1928. The one considered to be the fiercest climaxed in 1933. Known as The Great Drought, it peaked after almost…
Read MoreMerinos Make Their Mark
By 1830 experts considered the teething stages of the Cape Merino industry to be over. F W Reitz, the man destined to become president of the Free State, believed that 1830 was the turning point for the South African wool industry. He was proved right, states Edmund H Burrows in Overberg Outspan. In 1830 the…
Read MoreJersey Cattle Arrive In South Africa
Jersey cattle were brought into the Karoo shortly after the first small herd was imported into South Africa in 1882 by Adrian van der Byl of Roodebloem Estates, in Woodstock. “From there the Jersey moved to Paarl, Worcester, Robertson, Bredasdorp, Stellenbosch, the Eastern Province, Karoo, and Cape Midlands,” wrote Douglas Houston, a past chairman of…
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