Imagine the capabilities of bicycles in the 1885 during the age of the penny-farthing. Apart from having a fixed gear ratio, the roads were non-existent. Yet despite these impediments, two brave souls from Port Elizabeth attempted the trip from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.  

Main picture: Members of the P.E. Amateur Bicycle Club formed in 1881 outside Pearson’s Conservancy

Unlike other picturesque parts of Port Elizabeth, this area despite its beauty, is relatively unknown to residents of the town. This farm originated in 1815 when the Governor of the Cape Colony, Lord Charles Somerset, granted the farm to John O’Neal, its first owner. Many other pioneers from Ireland, or the Emerald Isle, settled in the area, hence its name.

An hotel, the Emerald Hill hotel, was established o Emerald Hill “surrounded on the west and southwest by miles of forest and bush.”

Main picture: Emerald Hill Hotel

From being an unknown entity some half a decade ago, the Stuurmans have been catapulted from obscurity into controversy and fame. The notoriety did not relate to his anti-colonial activities in the 1700s but rather due to the fact that the Port Elizabeth airport was renamed after Dawid,. Many felt that it should have been called Alister Miller Airport after the fact that he established Union Airways in Port Elizabeth which ultimately became SAA.

Main picture: Klaas Stuurman

Like her sisters, Anna D’Urban and Adelaide, Elizabeth Boland McCleland, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Francis McCleland, married well. Elizabeth’s “catch” was William Higgins, a successful merchant. One sister, Anna, had married Hugh Maynard Scrivenor, an attorney, whereas Adelaide had married William Fleming junior who had inherited his wealth from his father William Fleming senior.

Main picture: Painting by George Properjohn [From Ralph Properjohn]. The date on the face of the photograph at 1830 is wildly inaccurate as the dwarf jetty was constructed in 1844 and Coleman’s Steam Mill was erected in 1847.