A different view on current affairs & history
The Horse Memorial has been a feature of Port Elizabeth since the 11th February 1905 yet very few people are aware of the story of why the citizens deemed it necessary to erect it.
This blog sets this to rights as told by Tennyson S. Bodill
Main picture: The Horse Remount Depot in North End during the Boer War catered for over 30 000 horses
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With the advent of these two innovations, the speed of communication surged by leaps and bounds. The first to make its mark was the telegraph in 1861 which enabled long distance communication for the first time albeit in written form. Nonetheless the telegraph reduced the speed of transmission of a message to Cape Town from a week to several minutes. The introduction of the telephone in 1882 to the residents of Port Elizabeth would initially only benefit the local residents but that drawback too would be overcome when inter town telephone lines were laid.
Main picture: South Africa’s first telephone exchange switchboard was installed in Port Elizabeth during 1882. The telephone exchange was later transferred to Queenstown in the 1920s or ’30s, and was in use there until 1979.
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Adolph Schauder is one of a number of residents who have played a pivotal role in Port Elizabeth’s development but foremost amongst the Jewish community’s contribution was Adolph Schauder who, despite being an immigrant, was instrumental in the provision of housing for its underclass and poor population. More pertinently, what drove this man to see the world through the lens of the needs of the indigent and the needy thereby marking him as the most significant of PE’s Jewish mayors?
Main picture: Councillor Adolph Schauder turning the first sod of the slum eradication scheme at New Brighton on the 21st November 1937
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Much like the current tensions between Uber and the Metered Taxis embroiling the taxi industry, likewise there was a similar tense relationship in 1873 between the various modes of transport and operators with shysters and hucksters prevalent. In this era the antagonists were the horse-drawn trams, officially known as omnibuses, and hackney carriages.
To regulate the operations of the various modes of transport, the Municipality drafted a set of Regulations and gazetted them on the 29th July 1873.
Main picture: Cabs in front of the obelisk
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Technically this building has not been lost as it still exists. Rather the problem relates to inappropriate alterations which have destroyed the façade of the building making it unrecognisible.
Main picture: WM Cuthberts & Co Building
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Having obtained a commission from the Royal Geographical Society to explore and investigate Africa west of Delagoa Bay, James Edward Alexander was thrust into the Kafkaesque world of the 1835 Frontier War for which he might not have purchased front row seats, but they were not the cheap seats from which the action is barely visible. Port Elizabeth itself might not have been engulfed in the war but the hordes of African warriors knocked on its front door, the Sundays River.
This blog details the defensive lines constructed, military plans drawn up and other martial actions undertaken
Main picture: Port Elizabeth’s Defence Lines during the 1835 Frontier War
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Over a period of several decades, the dog had been transformed from an animal into a pet, a mongrel into a pure-bred. Thus, the threat of mass canicide to obviate the menace of rabies in 1893 was met with implacable opposition by these canine owners. By the time that the harsh restrictions such as muzzling and tethering were relaxed in December 1893, 1,917 dogs had been destroyed and one human died, Lydia Gates.
Yet again, class played a prominent role in how the epidemic was dealt with.
Main picture: Prize dogs in Port Elizabeth in 1895
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By the 1890s, Port Elizabeth Port Elizabeth possessed four Locations: Strangers’ Location off Russell Road, Cooper’s Location off Albany Road, the Reservoir Location off Mount Road and Gubb’s Location in Mill Park. Despite immense pressure from white residents to relocate the residents to Locations further from white residential areas, this had never materialised mainly due to inertia and cost.
Events after the turn of the century would ultimately witness the actualisation of these dreams and the clearing of the original western Locations.
Main picture: Burning of huts in Stranger’s Location in 1903
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This is a definitive list of all 238 vessels which were sunk of Algoa Bay from the period 1552 to 1984.
Main picture: 1902 Gale with wrecked sailing ships on the North End beach
The name Samuel Makama Martin Masabalala is not well-known in Port Elizabeth nor is the fact that twenty-four people were killed in what subsequently became known as the Masabalala Riots of 1920.
What is the background to this massacre and what triggered this deadly train of events?
Main picture: Scene outside the Baakens Police Station
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