Ancestry24

Mrs Catherina Elizabeth Rees

Wife of David Rees, Esq., Builder and Contractor, Maquassi, T.Daughter of Jan M. Beyers, Esq.

Born at Farm Nooitgedacht, district Stellensboch.

C.P Educ. Bloemhof Girls’ High School, Stellenbosch.

Taught in the district of Smithfield, Orange Free State, and experienced the hardship of a Boer Refugee Camp at Aliwal North, during the SA War (1899 – 1902).

Taught painting for 6 years after the cessation of hostilities at Bloemhof Girls High School, Stellenbosch.
Fond of Riding and is a student of Art.

Benjamin Osler also known as Bennie born in Aliwal North on 23rd November 1901 and died in Cape Town on 23rd April 1962, Springbok rugby player, was the son of Benjamin and Isobel Osler. Bennie’s ancestors have been traced back to Edward Osler, a prominent merchant and ship-owner, with a hint of piracy involvement.Bennie went to various schools, including the Western Province Preparatory School, Rondebosch Boys’ High School, and Kingswood College, Grahamstown. From 1921 he read law at the University of Cape Town, qualifying in 1925. During this period he represented the University on the rugby field, but from 1926 to 1930 played for Hamiltons and from 1931 to 1933 for Villagers. He acted as captain of all three clubs and on various occasions captained Western Province, which he represented from 1922 to 1933.

He gained his Springbok colours in 1924, when he played against Ronald Cove-Smith’s British team in all four test matches. Four years later (1928) he also played in all four tests against Maurice Brownlee’s New Zealand touring side, and in 1931-32 captained the Springbok team (which went to the British Isles) in all the tests of that series. He rounded off his rugby career in 1933 by playing in all five tests against the visiting Australians, acting as captain in the second test. He had scored forty-six points in the seventeen consecutive tests in which he played Osler is generally regarded as the best fly-half South Africa has produced so far (1979), a man who could dictate play. The decade during which he was a Springbok is even called the ‘Osler Era’ by sports writers, owing to his influence on the game. While he played for South Africa the country won all the test series, his province carried off the Currie Cup throughout, and each club for which he played won the Grand Challenge Cup. He had no equal as a tactical kicker and it was in particular his almost perfectly-placed corner kicks to wings which gained many tries for the Springboks. He could launch long outside kicks from any corner and as a drop-kicker he often clinched matches. Nobody was more feared by opponents than Osler.

He was also an attacking fly-half who could send his full-backs off with incredible speed when circumstances permitted or, if not, could himself shoot through an opening like lightning. Autocratic on the field, he would tolerate no passes from scrumhalfs that were above waist height; if the centres next to him blundered even once, he usually mistrusted them afterwards and would rather kick the ball – a course of action which can be regarded as one of his few weaknesses. As a captain he attached great value to tactical planning before a match, and he believed in strict team discipline.

During the Second World War (1939-45) Bennie went with the South African forces to East Africa where he contracted both malaria and amoebic dysentery which probably contributed to his relatively early death.

Unlike other great players Osler had little interest in coaching or the administration of the sport when he retired. After working as a salesman for a long time, he eventually went farming on a small scale, at first near East London and later near Bellville.

The brothers Bennie and Stanley Osler

He married Gladys Hobson and had two children. Photographs of him appear inter alia in The Bennie Osler story and Springbok saga (both infra).

Osler’s Cornish Connections

Benjamin. Falmouth born circa 1776 son of Edward and Mary (Paddy) Osler of Falmouth and husband of Jane (Sawle) Osler born 1775. father of Susannah, Stephen Sawle, Mary Anne, Amelia, Elizabeth, Sarah, Joseph, Jane, Benjamin, Phillippa and Julia. Leader of W.J. Cornish 1820 Settlers. Returned to Cornwall with wife and some members of his family 4.1822.

Stephen Sawle born in Falmouth 27th September 1804, died 21st October 1867 in Simonstown. Son of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler and husband of Catherine Osler (born Dakins, formerly Wright) of Llaway Glen, Montgomeryshire, Wales. 1802-1881. father to Benjamin, James Goodriche, Catherine and Jane; and also Christina, dtr of Orange Kleyne (Klein). Founder of the Osler family in SA.

Susannah Osler born in Falmouth circa 1800. daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler married 1st John Coleman (1792-1829) of Cock’s party at Reedfountain, Eastern Cape on 17th June 1820, 2nd time to Mr Fineran from Quebec.

The small Cornish party, under the leadership of Benjamin Osler of Falmouth, Cornwall, sailed in the ‘Weymouth’, which left Portsmouth in January 1820. Having arrived in Albany so that he might supervise the first arrivals, Sir Rufane Donkin considered that a more central and accessible site should be chosen for the administration of the settlement. Ignoring the fact of Graham’s Town’s better defensible position and that it was already established as a military base, the site he chose on 9 May 1820, was just west of Thorn Ridge. This was to be the centre of the civilian administration and also the seat of magistracy. Sir Rufane declared it was to supercede Graham’s Town as the capital town of Albany, and it was to be named Bathurst in honour of Earl Bathurst, Secretary for the Colonies. In his enthusiasm Donkin allotted plots to the Earl and also his own sons and nephews, while 500 acres of Glebe were allotted for a clergyman and chaplain of the Church of England, the vacant post to be filled in due course by a suitable man. The post of administrator, however, was filled by the transfer to Albany from the Western Cape of Capt Charles Trappes.

By 9 June the Cornish party of Benjamin Osler was enroute to their location from Algoa Bay. Osler’s party, it had been decided, was to be located some 12 miles southwest of the new town of Bathurst, and halfway to the Kowie River mouth. This was in the curve of the Mansfield River, a left bank tributary to Kowie River, today known as Grove Hill. Osler named the location Pendennis in memory of the similarity the area bore to his Cornish hometown of Falmouth and its Pendennis Castle.

Pitching their tents for protection from the cold winter nights and the intermittent drizzle, the party immediately set to clearing the land so that ploughing and sowing of their first crop could be done. Soon after arrival, they were to be joined by a young man, John Coleman, 28 years of age and a gardener from Cock’s party who had sailed with them in the Weymouth. Coleman was not altogether an unexpected arrival, for he had made his intentions clear earlier and on the 17 June, he was married by the Rev William Shaw to Benjamin Osler’s eldest daughter, Susannah. Theirs were the first marriage in the whole settlement.

The proximity to Bathurst of Osler’s location at Pendennis meant that these settlers were closely concerned with the early development of that town. Lots were already being offered for sale and the Colonial Secretary had ordered erection of a prison. The building of the Bathurst Residency got under way by October. All this activity afforded employment to bricklayers, carpenters, slaters, sawyers and stone-masons, who were able to direct their energies into a rewarding field while they waited patiently for the crops to ripen. Hopes for the future were bright, but by the end of November it became apparent that ‘rust’ had affected practically all the wheat sown since their arrival and the crops were useless. With little resources to withstand such a disaster, the administration decided that the issue of rations was therefore to be continued, but they became an additional charge against the deposit money. When that had been exhausted, it was a liability for future repayment. By Christmas Day that year, the circumstances of many were desperate and prospects for the future grim.

Undaunted by these hardships and their considerably reduced circumstances, the settlers sought what work they could find. The Bathurst Residency, long delayed in its completion by the number of unfortunate disputes that had arisen, was still an avenue for employment. William Mallett, a mason with Osler’s party joined with Thomas Marham of Bethany, James’ party’s location, and together they contracted on 5 November 1821, for slating and plastering work on the Residency to the value of £16. 10. 0d.

Lots had continued to be sold at Bathurst and houses built on them, but again, as a year earlier, ‘rust’ began to appear in the wheat and by the end of the year it was apparent to all that the wheat crop had once again failed. This was now a major calamity. Though rations were continued, they were reduced to half portions. Despite what the settlers had previously received, and even for those in dire need who had no money or hope of ever redeeming what they already owed, a parsiminous administration ruled they were only to get half a pound of rice per adult per week. Meagre indeed, but to ameliorate their difficulties, the stringent pass laws restricting settlers to their locations were relaxed and many now went in search of work, not only in Albany, but further afield if they could afford to get themselves there.

Lord Charles Somerset had by now returned to the Cape from his bride hunting furlough in England, and once again took up the reins of office as Governor.

He was furious to find the number of rather illogical decisions taken by Sir Rufane were actually detrimental to the scheme as he had originally envisaged it. He thus immediately set about reversing them. Bathurst was demoted from its pre-eminent position, which consequently caused another sharp depression when the Magistracy was summarily removed to Graham’s Town and the many settlers who had invested their small capital in establishing business premises in order that they might better serve the community, now faced ruin and impoverishment as it was quite evident the town of Bathurst would stagnate. It did and many then returned their attention to trading. Fairs were permitted at Fort Willshire and to these came the native tribesmen from beyond the Colony’s borders. James Weeks was one of the Cornish settlers who took to offering the more conventional manufactures. He and others traded tobacco and cloth in exchange for hides and skins, ivory, cut wood and simple items of use that could either be sold again in Graham’s Town or taken down to Algoa Bay and bartered there for the farming implements in such short supply. But the air of depression continued, it was no good having the basis for an exchange of goods if the majority the inhabitants, both settler and tribesmen, were so impoverished that goods and hard cash were virtually an unknown commodity amongst them. Osler left his location in April 1822 to return with his wife and five younger children to Cornwall. What remained of Osler’s party slowly broke up. Headed by John Dale, it began to disintegrate further. Osler’s daughter, Susannah and her husband decided to make their home at Simonstown where they were to be joined by her brother, Stephen Sawle Osler, who had elected not to return to Cornwall. By the beginning of 1824 William Mallett had moved away to Uitenhage and matrimony was to call Joseph Richards to a date in Graham’s Town where on 23 September that year, he was married to Sarah Attwell, the seventeen year old daughter of Richard Attwell of Crause’s party. Grace Weeks had died and the end of the year saw Charles Pearse returning to England to rejoin his wife with and family who had been unable to embark with him.

The small party of Cornish settlers, comprising only eleven men and their families at the outset, was already diminished in number by nearly half, and the few that did remain on Pendennis were to become so insignificant numerically that from then on their story melds with that of the settlement itself, conversely reflecting their great adaptability and absorption into the new country.

Source:
Dictionary of South Africa Biography Vol 5.
Cornish Immigrants to South Africa by Graham Dickason.
History of South African Rugby Football (1875 – 1932) by Ivor Difford

Further reading and resources:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bathonia/OslerBathFrancisConnections.htm

Osler Library – http://www.mcgill.ca/osler-library/

Acknowledgements: Michael Bath

Dr. Daniel William Alexander, Doctor of Divinity, Archbishop and Primate of the Province of South Africa and East Africa, in the African Orthodox Church-an independant Episcopal Church with apostolic succession through the Original Patriarchal See of St. Peter at Antioch.

Born 25th December, 1880, at Port Elizabeth, Cape Province. Second eldest child of Henry and Elizabeth Alexander (father a native of the French West Indies, Martinique). Educated at St. Peter’s Primary and Secondary Schools and the Sisters of Mercy (Catholic). Married Elizabeth Koster 28th August, 1901, at Pretoria. Boatbuilder by trade. Joined the British in the Anglo-Boer War, was captured at Colenso and sent to Pretoria.

After the capture of Pretoria joined the Anglican Church and was appointed chaplain at the Old Prison, eventually studying for the ministry under the Fathers Bennet and Fuller of the Community of the Resurrection, and Canons Farmer and Rev. H. Mtobi. Elected secretary of the A.P.O., Pretoria Branch, and the secretary of the committee for the purchasing of the Lady Selborne Township, Pretoria.

Resigned the Anglican Church and went to Johannesburg and joined the African Life Assurance Society as agent on their starting the Industrial Branch, and opened the Pretoria office after two and a half years. Resigned and was elected Grand True Secretary of the I.O.T.T., Northern Grand Lodge, before the separation. Re-elected 1920-21. Refused nomination 1922.
In 1924 organised the African Branch of the African Orthodox Church and was appointed Vicar-Apostolic by Bishop George A. McGuire, M.D., D.D., D.C., and in the following year was elected Bishop for the Province of South Africa. On arrival in New York was given Catholic Orders by Bishop W. E. Robertson and Archbishop McGuire respectively to the Priesthood, and on the 11th September, 1927, was consecrated Archbishop and Primate of the Province of South and East Africa, in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Boston, U.S. America. The Degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by the Faculty (Honorary)) on the Archbishop.

Editor of the African Orthodox Churchman, a monthly magazine of the Province, and author of An Orthodox Catechism. Dean of the Seminary of St. Augustine for the ministerial students for the Church. Address: 3, Brimton Street, Beaconsfield, Kimberley, South Africa.

Chief Sandile, a son of Gaika, was born about 1823. Gaika was a great friend of the neighbouring Dutch farmers. After the birth of Sandile some of these farmers paid him a visit. On being informed of the birth of the young prince and heir the farmers -were very pleased and suggested that he be given the name of .” Alexander de Groot ” saying they hoped he would be a great man. This name was accepted by the Xosas who Kaffirised it ” Sandile.” In 1850 the British colonists doubted Sandile’s friend=ship, and in the same year Sir Harry Smith instructed him to come and see him in order to settle a quarrel brought about through allegedcattle marauding. Sandile replied that the matter, must be -settled by Chiefs Pato and Magoma, his uncles, wno were older and also members of his council.

On receiving this reply Sir Harry Smith despatched fifty mounted soldiers to arrest Sandile, King of the Xosas. The Gaikas declined to hand over their beloved ruler to the white men as a prisoner. The soldiers attempted to use force and were massacred by the enraged Gaikas. Sandile could not be subdued. In 1853 the missionaries prevailed upon Sandile who in turn prevailed upon his people to cease hostilities. The missionaries further succeeded in persuading Sandile to cede to the Britisn the Province of Kafraria. In 1877 another Xosa war broke out, Sandile remaining neutral until 1878. At this time the Gcakelas-a section of the Xosa tribe-had been weakened considerably by the British Colonial Government. Sandile had made up his mind not to take part in this war, but he was reluctantly dragged into it. Sandile met the British commando that was sent to arrest him at Tyityaba where a deadly battle was fought, at the end of which the belligerents on both sides were exhausted. After this battle Sandile retreated to the Pirie Bush (Hoho) where he was killed by two bullets fired at random. Edmond Sigonyela, Sandile’s son, was employed as clerk at the Fort Beaufort Magistrate’s office, and on hearing that his father was cragged against his wish into the war, he at once, resigned and joined him in the struggle which ended in the death of his beloved father.

Sandile’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, married Chief Umhlangaso, a grandson of the great Faku. Edmond, Sandile’s heir, died at Kentani where his people lived after the death of Sandile. Sandile’s son and two daughters were educated. He gave much for the building of schools and churches. Could read and write Xosa, and was very popular with the missionaries. E. was also respected by the British agents.

Mr. NELANI JORDAN NOBADULA, born in 1844, at Tandjesberg, Graaff Reinet. His father was a servant to a Dutch farmer. Nelani attended a country school where he was taught to read and write. Later he went to East London and was employed by a carpenter. Also attended night-school. When he left East London he had reached Standard III. besides being a good carpenter. In 1876 he went to St. Mark’s Institution for further education. The Xosa War broke out during 1877 and he was obliged to leave school. After peace was declared he was appointed teacher and catechist of the Anglican Church to which he had become attached. In1882 he was sent to St. John’s College to study theology. During school hours he was at school, and in the afternoons and evenings he attended the Theological Classes. Ordained in 1887 as priest and appointed to Mount Frere where he worked all his life. Died in 1920. Established the Hebehebe, Unyika, Gqogqora, Sikobeni, Nqadu, Xabane and Tower Unyika Anglican Stations in the Umtata and St. Cuthbert’s Dioceses. He did much missionary work among the Bacas and the Pondos at Mount Frere. His six sons and three daughters are well educated. He had much influence over chiefs and heathen people.

Rev. Joel Msimang was born at Edendale, Natal, on 4th September, 1854. He married in 1880. In 1886, after the birth of his third child, he went to attend school, starting in the lower classes. In 1889 he joined the Wesleyan Church ministry and was sent to Swaziland where he founded the Emakosini Mission Station. In 1904 he disagreed with the European Superintendent of the Wesleyan Church. This led to him resigning from the church. Shortly afterwards he founded the Independent Methodist Church. In the same year his eldest son, Richard, left for England to further his education and joined the Taunton College, England. The Rev. Joel Msimang was fairly well off, but during the rinderpest he lost 700 head of cattle. He owned three farms, one in Edendale, one in Driefontein and another at Waschbank, Natal. He was a powerful preacher. His eldest son is a solicitor and is practising in Johannesburg, his second son is a clerk to a firm of lawyers, the youngest is a caretaker. Rev. Joel Msimang was well advanced in age when he was run over by accidently falling off a wagon when on a visit to his congregation. He died on the 21st May, 1929.

Joshua Norton

Among the 307 new settlers for the Cape of Good Hope, who came ashore in Algoa Bay from the British transport Belle Alliance early in 1820, was a small Jewish boy from London, and aged nearly two years old. Joshua Abraham Norton born February 4th 1819, son of John and Sarah Norton, who accompanied his family to this wild and far-off region, by a strange chance, forged a unique link between South Africa and the United States.Those 4,500 emigrants, from England, Scotland and Ireland, came to the Cape in consequence of the distress prevailing in the Old Country after the Napoleonic Wars. Downing Street, untroubled by their inexperience and lack of equipment, welcomed them as human buffers against the Xhosa’s across the Border. Though many learnt farming through bitter experience, John Norton turned towards the newly-founded settlements, first of Grahamstown and later of Port Elizabeth, where he built up a business as a ship-chandler and merchant. But here too, life was hard, as young Joshua discovered when, after leaving school, he joined his father’s firm.

In 1842 he was left in charge of the Port Elizabeth activities of Norton and Co., while his father moved his business to Cape Town, in partnership with another Jewish 1820 Settler, Benjamin Norden, and within another two years Joshua had joined them there. Disappointed with the Cape, John Norton returned to England in 1848, and died soon after. Norton and Co. went into bankruptcy and young Joshua began to look round for something new.

Not many months had passed before exciting reports penetrated even to the Cape, of gold discoveries in California. Before coming to California he had been for some time a member of the Cape Mounted Riflemen

Being unmarried and without other ties, Joshua Norton decided to join the stream of Forty-Niners. In November of that historic year, having first worked his way from Table Bay to South America, he landed at San Francisco.

His early years on the Pacific coast seemed well to justify his emigration from the Cape, for, starting as a commission agent; Norton rose to be a merchant, one of the most prosperous in the State. Then, in an ill-omened moment, he entered into a speculation in rice, which, coupled with the onset of a slump, landed him once again in the bankruptcy court. By November, 1856, Joshua was ruined.

This was the turning point in his life. Brooding over his misfortunes, he conceived the idea that they were mainly due to defects in the Constitution of the United States, to the reform of which he began giving his attention. Among the major changes he favoured was placing the whole country under a monarch, an Emperor for choice. Regarding the proposal as a harmless eccentricity, Norton’s friends nicknamed him “Emperor”, and because his brain was giving in, he willingly accepted the title.

I quote Dr Louis Herrman of Cape Town, who has done much research on this subject: “The delusion of greatness or grandeur is well known to be common in some forms of insanity. There was, however, one aspect of Joshua Norton’s case that was fantastically uncommon. It was the acceptance of his delusion by the entire sane inhabitants of the city of San Francisco over a period of 20 years.”

By tacit agreement, officials, businessmen, civic dignitaries and ordinary men and women treated this strange little man from the Cape of Good Hope as though he really was Emperor of the United States! Typical of this attitude was the proclamation published in the “San Francisco Bulletin” on September 17, 1859:

“At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now, for the last 9 years and 10 months past, of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different states of the Union to assemble in the Musical Hall of this city, on the first day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is labouring, and thereby cause confidence to exist both at home and abroad in our stability and integrity.

NORTON THE FIRST

Emperor of the United States.”

Entering into the spirit of the proclamation, the newspapermen as well as their readers had no objection a few weeks later to publishing further edicts from the same source.

“It is represented to us that the universal suffrage now existing throughout the Union is abused; that fraud and corruption prevent a fair and proper expression of the public voice; that open violations of the laws are constantly occurring, caused by mobs, parties, factions and undue influence of political sects; that the citizen has not the protection of person and property which he is entitled to by paying his pro rata of the expenses of Government – in consequence of which we do hereby abolish Congress, and it is hereby abolished; and we order and desire the representatives of all parties interested to appear at the Musical Hall of this city on the 1st of February next, and there to take the effective steps to remedy the evils complained of.

NORTON I

Emperor of the United States.”

When events, soon to culminate in the outbreak of the Civil War, caused a meeting of Congress, he issued an even stronger notice, again published throughout California.

“Whereas a body of men calling themselves the national Congress are now in session in Washington City, in violation of our Imperial edict of the 12th October last, declaring the said Congress abolished :

Whereas it is necessary for the repose of our Empire that the said decree should be strictly complied with;

NOW THEREFORE we do hereby order and direct Major-General Scott, the Commander-in-Chief of our armies, immediately on receipt of this our decree to proceed in force and clear the Halls of Congress.

NORTON I

Emperor of the United States.”

In those anxious months when the very existence of the United States was at stake, Norton’s pronouncements, ordering John Brown of Harpers Ferry to be confined in an asylum and removing from office Governor H. A. Wise of Virginia, culminating in July 1860 in an order dissolving the U.S.A. afforded a welcome touch of light relief.

No longer satisfied with merely issuing orders, Joshua Norton dressed himself in a semi-naval uniform and with dignity went about his affairs in San Francisco. As he entered a theatre the audience would rise, and neither there nor in public conveyances was he ever asked to pay. At his request printers produced paper “currency”, which kindly shopkeepers accepted in payment for his needs.

Determined to put an end to the wicked government of Mexico, Norton assumed the title of its “Protector” in 1860 and, when the American Civil War broke out, called upon the clergy of the various churches, including the Jews, to help him restore peace.

“He was kind, pleasant and affable,” wrote the American historian, A. C. Lane. “Except on the subject of his fancied Empire, he talked rationally. Everybody liked him – old folks, young folks and children.”

Famous men who were his friends include Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bret Harte and Henry George.

One strange incident occurred in 1866 when Nathan Peiser, of Cape Town, found his way to San Francisco, and taking him to task, asked for an explanation of his behaviour. “Behind locked doors,” Dr Herrman tells, “swearing him to secrecy, Joshua informed his friend of the mystery of his royal birth. He was not really John Norton’s son, he said, but a changeling, and really heir to the throne of France, Queen Victoria being his cousin. He had retained the name Norton out of love and respect for his Jewish foster-father. He was the sovereign ruler of the United States.”

So popular was Joshua that in the State Legislature of California, the sittings of which he was in the habit of attending, a bill was once actually introduced to award him a pension! Though the measure did not go through, he always had enough to live on, and when some ignorant official had him locked up as insane, there was such an outcry that he was straightaway released.

With his visits to schools and institutions of learning, in which he showed great interest, he was for several generations’ part of Californian life. Shortly before his passing, Robert Louis Stevenson in The Wrecker, which he wrote with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, left a literary monument to him.

“Of all our visitors, I believe I preferred Emperor Norton, the very mention of whose name reminds me that I am doing scant justice to the folks of San Francisco. In what other city would a harmless madman, who supposed himself Emperor of the two Americas, have been so fostered and encouraged? Where else would even the people of the streets have respected the poor soul’s illusion? Where else would bankers and merchants have received his visits, cashed his cheques and submitted to his small assessments? Where else would he have been suffered to attend and address the exhibition days of schools and colleges? Where else in God’s green earth, have taken his pick of restaurants, ransacked the bill of fare, and departed scatheless?”

“They tell me that he was even an exacting patron, threatening to withdraw his custom when dissatisfied …”

Robert Louis Stevenson describes his appearance – “a portly, rather flabby man, with the face of a gentleman, rendered unspeakably pathetic and absurd by the great sabre at his side and the peacock’s feather in his hat.” Thus attired he visited a friend of the author’s.

`I have called to remind you, Mr Pinkerton, that you are somewhat in arrears with taxes,’ he said with old-fashioned, stately courtesy.

“`Well, Your Majesty, what is the amount?’ asked Jim, and when the figure was named (it was generally two or three dollars) paid on the nail …”

The New York Times reported that he “dropped dead at the corner of California and Dupont streets, in that city”. He was on his way to a scientific conference.

When the old man passed away in 1880 there were 10,000 people at his funeral, including every section, rich and poor, the cost being paid by the Pacific Club, of which in his days of wealth he had been a member. When in 1934 the cemetery had to be moved there was a public ceremony at which leading citizens and detachments of troops did him honour and at which an impressive stone memorial was unveiled, with the inscription:

“NORTON I

EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES

AND

PROTECTOR OF MEXICO

Joshua A. Norton

1819-1880.”

Click here to read more on his family

Acknowledgements: Stars & Stripes in Africa by Eric Rosenthal published by Nasionale Boekhandel

Henry Selby Msimang

Born in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, 13 December 1886, died in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, 29 March 1982), interpreter, clerk, journalist, farm manager, and especially politician.He and his elder brother Richard Msimang were the children of the well-known African preacher who founded the Independent Methodist Church, Joel Msimang, and his wife Joanah Radebe.

Msimang received his primary education at the Emakosini Primary School in Nhlangano, Swaziland. Between 1903 and 1907 he studied first at Kilnerton Institution, a Methodist college in Pretoria, then Edendale Institution at Edendale, and finally at Healdtown Institution, a Methodist boarding school near Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. Though he was then a qualified teacher, he never taught. His career started in 1908 when he was appointed as interpreter in Germiston, Transvaal. He never stayed in any career for long but kept changing jobs and homes. Between 1908 and 1965 he had fifteen occupations and lived in ten towns or cities in three provinces (the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Natal ). From 1942, however, he settled in Edendale near Pietermaritzburg.

His political career started in 1912 when he was a founder member of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC, African National Congress (ANC) after 1923). During the following 30 years he participated in a number of their meetings, deputations and other activities. For many years he undertook the labour portfolio of the congress, and was a prominent member of the committee established to raise funds to send a deputation to Britain to try to have the Natives Land Act of 1913 repealed.

In Bloemfontein, in 1917, he was the editor of a newspaper Morumioa Inxusa (Messenger) (the title of the newspaper varied) which only existed for two years. (It could not be established if a connection existed between this newspaper and the one with which D.S. Letanka was involved in 1911, i.e. Moromioa.) During his stay in Bloemfontein (1917-1922) his long relationship with the labour movement started when, as a labour organizer, he led a strike of municipal workers in Bloemfontein in 1917, for which he was arrested and detained. In 1919 he liaised with Clements Kadalie, founder of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), about the organization of African workers. Together they planned the establishment of a national ICU and in 1920 held a meeting in Bloemfontein with this in mind. Msimang was elected president of the national ICU. When Kadalie failed to be elected to the executive he withdrew with his supporters. This led to increasing animosity between Msimang and Kadalie, resulting in Msimang’s resignation as president and distancing himself from the ICU until after Kadalie’s resignation in 1929. Msimang then rejoined and during the decline of the ICU he held the post of national propagandist. From 1928 to 1937 Msimang was a labour advisor in Johannesburg.

In 1922 Msimang returned to Johannesburg and became a member of the Joint Council for Europeans and Bantu. He was still involved in the activities of the SANNC/ANC and served on the national executive committee of the ANC during the terms of office of presidents J.T. Gumede (1927-1930) and Pixley Seme (1930-1937). In 1932 he was a member of the so-called revival committee that wanted to strengthen the organization from within to prevent its stagnation. Three years later, during the first meeting of the All-African Convention (AAC) in Bloemfontein in December 1935, he was elected as secretary.

In 1942 he returned to Natal and was elected provincial secretary of the Natal branch of the ANC, a position he retained until 1956. He was also a confidant of the Natal leader A.W.G. Champion. In 1948 he became a member of the Native Representative Council (NRC) although at that time it was no longer an active body. In December of the same year he attended the discussions with the AAC as delegate of the ANC during an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile these two organizations. During the annual congress of the ANC of that year Msimang was elected to the committee which had to draw up the Programme of Action. Early in 1949 he represented the ANC in discussions with prominent Indian leaders in an effort to reconcile Africans and Indians after bloody clashes between them in Durban and surrounding areas in January 1949. A year later Msimang and Champion’s political ways parted and Msimang lost his position in the ANC. However, when Albert Luthuli defeated Champion as president of the ANC in 1951, Msimang was reinstated as provincial secretary. But he lost interest in the ANC and even before the Defiance Campaign of 1952 he resigned as provincial secretary in Natal.

In 1953 Msimang became a founder member of the multiracial Liberal Party of South Africa. From 1956-1968 he served on the executive committee and in due course became the national vice-chairperson. His activities were, however, hampered in 1965 when the government forbade him to attend meetings for five years.

Msimang was also interested and active in local politics and problems. For many years from 1942 he was secretary of the Edendale Advisory Board Local Health Commission. He was the founder of the Edendale Benevolent Society and served as its secretary from 1946 to 1952, and from 1967 as honorary life president. In 1973 he was elected secretary of the Edendale AmaKholwa Tribe. In 1975 Msimang became a member of the national council of the Inkatha yeNkululeko yeSizwe. From 1974 to 1975 he served on the executive committee of the South African Institute of Race Relations. He was a Methodist and served in various committees of the church.

Msimang was a prolific author. Apart from numerous newspaper articles, including series of articles in several newspapers, he published a pamphlet The crisis ( Johannesburg, 1936) about the effect of the 1936 Land Act on Africans.

He was married twice and had four sons and four daughters. His first wife was Mercy Mahlomola King whom he married in July 1913. She died in September 1951, and in August 1952 he married Miriam Primrose Oldjohn.

Source and Image: New Dictionary of South African Biography

Boswell Circus 1959

From the evidence of early Dutch and Cape paintings, it may be assumed that the first White inhabitants of the Cape were diverted by performing dogs and various animals trained to do tricks, notably monkeys (which were common household pets) and baboons. The garrisons at the Castle possibly spent part of their leisure in training such animals, and performing bears and various animals from the Orient may have been seen when in transit to Europe. In the country districts feats and tricks of horsemanship were highly esteemed, and were probably demonstrated at kermis (fair) and other occasions where the farmers gathered. Organised exhibition of performing persons and animals cannot be traced before 1810, when an application was made for leave to stage a circus in Cape Town. Except for occasional theatrical performances and amateur diversions in the town, organised entertainment was rare, and the circus was one of the first forms to develop.

One of the earliest was W. H. Bell’s circus, but by the eighties there were several, including Feeley’s, Wirth’s, Cooke’s, Val Simpson’s and that of the incomparable Frank Fillis who, coming to South Africa in 1880 to join Bell’s circus, took it over when Bell died. The two mining towns, Kimberley and Johannesburg, and the seaports of Cape Town and Durban now provided profitable ‘pitches’, and the smaller inland towns, formerly almost completely Fillis’s Circus building, Cape Town, in 1895  without entertainment, constituted a worth-while ‘circuit’.

Going overseas from time to time in order to recruit his ‘turns’, Fillis developed his circus into a major entertainment which the highest in the land were glad to patronise. He established a permanent building in Johannesburg in 1889 known as ‘Fillis’s Amphitheatre’ and specialised in spectacles such as a reconstruction of the Niagara Falls, ‘Dick Turpin’s ride to York’ and ‘Major Wilson’s last stand’. These were also staged at a structure opened in 1896 in Cape Town at the foot of Adderley Street alongside the Pier. Madame Fillis was an equestrienne of note and performed haute école at a benefit night given in Johannesburg in 1895. Mr. Lionel Phillips presented Mr. Fillis with a set of diamond studs and Madame Fillis with a ruby and diamond brooch on behalf of Johannesburg residents.

The artistes and company presented him with a gold star set with diamonds’. In spite of the high tone and spectacular scope of his performances, Fillis was frequently in financial straits. In 1900 he took an extraordinary show entitled ‘Savage South Africa’ to England, but despite the attraction of an authentic South African stagecoach, black warriors and other novelties, it failed and he was again bankrupt. He was reintroduced grandly to his old South African pitch by the impresario A. Bonamici in 1902 with an ‘Imperial Circus’, but the current depression militated against him. He faced bankruptcy again and again, and his animals were once sold over his head to pay his creditors. Finally ‘Madame Fillis’s Circus and Wild West Show’ went into opposition against him in Durban in 1910. (Vincenta Fillis, once the world’s first ‘human canon-ball, died in Durban in May 1946 at the age of 75.) Frank Fillis, with the circus that had become a national institution, then left South Africa and operated in the East. He died in Bangkok in Jan. 1922, but his sons continued in the entertainment field. The eldest, Frank, a well-known cinema manager, died in Johannesburg at the age of 80 in March 1961.

During the acute depression that followed the Second Anglo-Boer War the circus was often the only entertainment in the large towns. In addition to Fillis, Bonamici himself, Blake, Willison, Bostock and Wombwell, and F. W. A. Pagel toured during this period. Pagel and his wife survived many vicissitudes to become as much a national institution as Fillis. Born in Pomerania, Wilhelm Pagel was a professional weight-lifter, wrestler and lion-tamer. Madame Pagel also performed with the lions and tigers in her earlier days. Later she left the ring to undertake the entire direction of the complex circus organisation. She was known all over South Africa and frequently caused a sensation by driving about in the streets in an open car with a fully-grown lion beside her. She died at the Pagel training farm for animals near Pretoria in December 1939. The circus continued even after her husband retired in 1944 and after his death at Knysna in October 1948. Bostock’s Circus, based in England, visited South Africa intermittently. One of its clowns, ‘Spuds’ (George Kirk), later joined Pagel, and in 1930 formed his own circus, which was disbanded in 1944.
The cinema and other forms of entertainment were drawing audiences away from the circus except in the smaller towns, where it was a welcome diversion, and in the large towns during holiday seasons. James Boswell, who with his three brothers had come to South Africa in 1910 to perform in a circus, stayed to establish his own. It rivalled Pagel’s as a South African entertainment institution, and in 1956 African Theatres bought an interest in it and kept it on the road. Boswell celebrated his 80th birthday in retirement in April 1961. Competing with Boswell on the Southern African circuit was Wilkie’s Circus, the two amalgamating on 1 July 1963 under the direction of Wilkie, and the combined circus continued to tour. A less ambitious enterprise operating simultaneously was Doyle’s Circus, which was sold in liquidation in 1967. In 1964, the two enterprises were faced by competition on a grand scale when the famous Chipperfield’s Circus was imported lock, stock and barrel from England to settle in South Africa, and opened for the Christmas season in Cape Town. A succession of misfortunes failed to prevent its establishing itself and regularly touring the sub continent.
In 1968 the International Circus Performers’ Award was won by the clown Charlie Bale, the first South African circus artist to be so honoured. Nicknamed the Circus Oscar, the trophy is awarded every five years by an international body to a circus performer whose work is outstanding.
Source:Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa

Mr. DANIEL DWANYA was born at Middledrift in the District of Kingwilliamstown. Educated at Healdtown Institution where he qualified as a teacher. Taught at the Port Alfred School for a few years. Later he was enrolled as an agent-at-law and practised in the Magistrate’s Office, St. Marks, Cape Province. Married a daughter of a rich client, and had two daughters. After the death of his wife he moved to Middledrift and continued his practice. Later he married a Miss Grace Duna and had three daughters by her.His practice became a flourishing one and Mr. Dwanya bought a farm. Was respected by all who knew him, both black and white. In 1909 he was appointed a Cape representative on the deputation that visited England to protest to the British Government against the Colour Bar that was introduced in the South Africa Act, 1909. He died on his farm in 1922. Mr. Dwanya was an example to his people; a reserved and upright man and a true gentleman. He was a brother of the late Mrs. Paul Xiniwe, of IKingwilliamstown. His eldest daughter is the wife of Rev. J. Ross Kota, the next is the wife of Mr. Pendla, a defeated candidate for the Provincial Council in the Port Elizabeth West Constituency, the third daughter is Nurse Tapa and the youngest is still attending •school.