A different view on current affairs & history
Blogs on Port Elizabeth
This blog is a verbatim extract from the publication: The Port Elizabeth Directory and Guide to the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope for 1877
It provides a contemporary view of the town in a sometimes overly honest manner such as the words describing the town as “pleasingly disappointing” and bemoaning the paucity of trees.
Main picture: BIrd Street highligting the paucity of trees
Continue reading
For the majority of the 143 years from 1652 to 1795 during which the Dutch occupied the Cape, Algoa Bay and its potential use as a Harbour can be likened to a black hole. Nothing was known about it and the Government authorities were ignorant of its existence. The raison d’etre of the use of Cape Town was that it served as a replenishment station en route to the Dutch East Indies. Nothing more and nothing less.
It took more than a century after 1652 before the Dutch authorities displayed a modicum of interest in this Bay. This blog deals with that unhurried awakening of interest and its gradual adoption as a harbour. If the truth be told, without the British occupation of the colony, the recognition and adoption of Port Elizabeth would possibly not have arisen and some other river mouths such as the Zwartkops, Buffalo or Kowie would have snatched the prize.
Let it be crystal clear: It was not a foregone conclusion that the harbour in Algoa Bay would be situated at the mouth of a paltry stream such as the Baaken’s River.
Main picture: Blockhouse on the Baakens River in 1803
Continue reading
The rating of the state of the economy is subjective. It is a function of the observer’s personal status and wealth at that moment in time. Even if poverty is visibly evident, many wealthy people cannot internalise or comprehend what impact the state of the economy has on impoverished people. This situation can be likened to the current divide in South Africa.
In this blog, I will utilise a letter written in 1884 by hides and skin merchant, Peter Titheranton who bemoans the ostentatious displays of wealth, to underscore my contention. Titheranton’s views can be juxtaposed with what Harradine emphatically states in her singular book, The Social Chronicle in which she states that ‘this was a period of drought and deep economic recession causing great hardship from retrenchments, insolvencies and general unemployment’. This will provided balance in the debate but will not justify the wealth and societal imbalances.
Main picture: Sketch of Wesleyan Methodist Church in Russell Road. Commenced erection in 1870, opened in 1872 and closed on 7 Dec 1969 to be demolished in order to widen Russell Road
Continue reading
The most extensive and productive farm in the Port Elizabeth area over the first two decades of the nineteenth century was that of Frederick’s Korsten’s Cradock Place. It covered the area from today’s Korsten, taking in swathes of today’s Algoa Park and swept down to the mouth of the Papenkuils River. Like most farms, it also experienced the twin depredations of vagrancy and trespassing.
In early 1833, probably after a spate of incidents, Korsten decided to take action.
Main picture: View of Cradock Place by Walford Arbouin Harries in 1860
Continue reading
Normally the Baakens River is a placid stream but is extremely deadly when provoked by flood waters abusing its avuncular nature. It might be endearing when untroubled by raging water but caution always needs to be taken.
On the last Tuesday of January 1834, the Baakens River showed that even a seemingly placid stream can be deadly.
Main picture: Bridge over untroubed waters
Continue reading
Like a magnet, a murder or any barbaric act always draws the media’s attention. In the case of the “manless head” [the opposite of headless man] discovered on the Fishwater Flats in 1840, it certainly did. This case could have acquired the sobriquet “The Case of the Missing Corpse”
Main picture: View of Fishwater Flats
Continue reading
The edition of the newspaper Graham’s Town Journal dated 7 February 1839 carried the following advert notifying the public of the sale of this historic building being the first building constructed in Port Elizabeth after the arrival of the first settler ship, the Chapman.
Main picture: Scorey’s Hotel with its gardens below it
Continue reading
Of all the recreational facilities that Port Elizabeth required at the end of the 19th century, a state-of-the-art seawater swimming pool located in the harbour was not on that list. It should not have been amongst the highest ranking priorities but yet clearly in the rankings of the Port Elizabeth Municipality this was the one that they, in their wisdom, selected.
This is a detailed description of this facility taken from the 1899 issue of The Visitors’ Guide
Main picture: April 1901 – the swimming pool in the harbour
Continue reading
An enterprising local resident, John Owen Smith, entered into various disparate business ventures. Several of them such as mining copper in Namaqualand or recovering guano on Bird Island, required a seagoing vessel. This is what set in motion the necessity to build one locally. The unlikely location selected was a non-descript lake at the western end of Kragga Kamma road known as Lake Farm.
Main picture: Lake Farm in 1944
Continue reading
In the first seventy years of the nineteenth century, executions by hanging were carried out in public, the primary rationale being that it would serve as a deterrence. Apart from that, the culprit would never become a repeat offender nor would there be any recidivism. On the other side, the general public relished the spectacle with many executions, especially the most notorious murders, attracting sizable crowds. Attendance at an execution can only be classified as the most bizarre form of morbid curiosity. Ultimately public executions were outlawed in 1869 and in future all executions were performed inside the prison walls.
This blog covers the execution of Hermanus Jager by hanging on the 23rd November 1833 for murdering his wife as well as briefly covering three executions of which two were public.
Main picture: Exhibition held at the Kgosi Mampuru Prison in Pretoria
Continue reading