A different view on current affairs & history
Blogs on Port Elizabeth
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
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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.
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William John Huggins was a well-known painter of maritime scenes of which three owned by the Nelson Mandela Art Museum are probably the only ones in his extensive portfolio which relate to Port Elizabeth. Like all paintings of the nascent recently conceived new town of Port Elizabeth, all paintings of whatever nature whether by a skilled craftsman or a dabbler are invaluable as they provide the sparse record of those early days.
Main picture: Painting of whaling off the coast in Algoa Bay during 1832 by William John Huggins with No 7 Castle Hill visible on the brow of the hill
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Apart from a handful of famous residents of yore, the history of the majority of the most outstanding people of 160 years ago have been lost in the mists of time. One such person was a worthy Scotsman, John Campbell, the Resident Magistrate from 1st September 1857 and then the Civil Commissioner until July 1870. The only legacy that remains of him is a series of four semis that he built comprising Alfred Terrace.
Main picture: Campbell’s semis in Alfred Terrace
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What the saga to establish a library in Port Elizabeth indicates is the civic mindedness of its citizens. This is a case in point in which the denizens of the town understood that to improve society, education in general and libraries specifically had a significant role to play in this process. Unlike today’s public libraries which offer a free service in those days it was a “subscription” service.
Main picture: Port Elizabeth Public Library
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Having lived in Port Elizabeth until 1980, I had heard about Savage & Lovemore as they were so prolific but what I only discovered recently was that the famous so-called Third Avenue Dip was the brainchild of David Bailee Lovemore of Savage and Lovemore fame.
This blog is a verbatim transcript of the story of this iconic firm as recounted in the family history entitled Lovemores Then and Now – June 2000.
Main picture: David Lovemore with his first bulldozer
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Very little is known about Fortuin Weys but what is known makes him a very remarkable person and an asset in an embryonic town.
This is the story of Fortuin Weys or Weiss as he is sometimes referred to
Main picture: 1803 Gesigt van Fort Frederick en Algoa Baai by Willem Bartolome Eduard Paravicini Di Cappelli
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For at least 70,000 years, if not more, humans have passed through here. Evidence of human presence at this location is visible in the form of large hand axes, cleavers, cores, and flake tools. These are the tools of the Acheulian culture. No other evidence of their existence can be traced. With primitive shelters constructed of natural vegetation by peripatetic people and soil of high acidity which eroded the bones, all traces and signs of human presence were swiftly obliterated.
This blog covers the estate in the Coega River Valley from its initial “owners” 70,000 years ago through its more civilised iterations as initially being Rietheuwel, then subsequently Balmoral and most recently Amanzi Estate owned by Sir Percy FitzPatrick.
Main picture: Original house on Rietheuwel
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The history of this monument stretches over 500 years from 1488 when the intrepid Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias erected a Cross or Padrao on a promontory known as Kwaaihoek, in the district of Alexandria. The planting of this padrão was in all probably a tense and rushed affair as against the wishes and desires of Dias, in a regrettable turn of events, the caravel’s crew had mutineered and demanded to turn back for home. Yet even in this tense atmosphere, Dias had to perform a singularly important ceremony: the planting of a cross which signified Portuguese hegemony over the land. This was a sacred imperial duty which compelled him to continue with his duty however rushed.
In the intervening centuries, knowledge and the physical location of the monument was lost.
This is the story of its recovery and a duplicate being made.
Main picture: The Diaz Cross in the elegant Mayor’s Garden
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In David Raymer’s book, Streams of Life covering the water supply to the Port Elizabeth / Uitenhage area, he states that “A number of tales have arisen about the artesian water coming out at the sea near the Coega River mouth.” Is this merely a myth or is it a fact?
After recently reading CJ Skead’s description of hot water artesian springs on Amanzi farm in the Sunday’s valley, I was reminded of David’s claim in his book.
Main picture: Operation of an artesian spring
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