Tuesday 2 February 1897

BIRTH on February 2nd at Bathurst St, the wife of James T. HAYS M.D. London, of a son.

MARRIAGE
The Rev. John CATLING, rector of Tarkastad, was married to Miss Mabel BRISTER, daughter of the late Mr. James BRISTER, of Port Elizabeth, on Wednesday last.

Thursday 4 February 1897

KILLED BY LIGHTNING
During the thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon (says the Johannesburg Star) a man who took shelter under a tree in North Street near Vrywilligers’ Club [illegible], was struck by a flash of lightning and killed instantly. The bark was almost stripped from the trunk of the tree. The body was removed to the Gaol Mortuary, but up to the present it has not been identified. Deceased’s underclothing is marked “J.T. EVANS”, but beyond that there is nothing to prove his identity.

DRINK AND DEATH
At Capetown on Saturday Richard CAMPBELL, a tinsmith, took a dose of muriatic acid, a chemical used by him in his business for soldering purposes. He died in great agony in the hospital on the same evening, despite every effort to save him. He left a widow and children. At the inquest the daughter of the deceased said that her father had been drinking heavily for the last two weeks. Her father ill-treated her mother when in drink. He said that he would cut his throat or drown himself. The suicide is supposed to have been due to domestic troubles.

MURDER AT KRANTZ PLAATS
AN OVERSEER KILLED – NATIVES SUSPECTED
BODY MUCH MUTILATED – HEAD, LEGS AND ARMS CUT OFF
On Tuesday afternoon Mr. John E. WOOD M.L.A. received a telegram from Cradock stating that Mr. ENGELA, the manager of his farm Krantz Plaats, near Cradock, had been murdered, and that four natives were in custody on suspicion of the crime. Mr. WOOD started for Cradock the same evening. We have been favoured with the following account of this dreadful affair by Mr. John E. WOOD.
Mr. ENGELA left the homestead at 7 on Monday evening to go and stop the windmill pump about 150 yards distant, but out of sight of the house, and did not return that night. On Tuesday morning Mrs. ENGELA went down to the pump and found a spot where there had been a struggle, and where there were a few drops of blood. Thirteen yards from this a lot of blood on a stone, with another stone which had evidently been used for battering the skull. The body was then dragged down into the [...duks] River (a dry river) about 17 yards distant. A stream of blood was traceable all along this track; the body was there left, evidently to let all the blood drain out. From this spot Mr. [PURSGLOVE], who had joined in the search, could find no further trace of the body or any blood.
He (Mr. P.) went to the railway station about 9am on Tuesday to report to the Magistrate what had been found. When he got there he was told that the 9 train on Monday night had gone over the body of a white man, which had been found dreadfully mutilated. With the Station Master he went to the spot some three miles from Halesowen, on the Grahamstown side, and identified the body. It had evidently been put across the rails; the hand and [head] were cut off and the body almost cut to pieces, but from the clothing and other marks there was no doubt whose the body was. It was also identified by others.
When this was ascertained, a party, some of them relatives, traced from where the body was brought to the rails the spoor of three men (one or two natives belonging to Mr. ENGELA were also found on the way) [several illegible lines] Six men have now been apprehended, and from what I can gather there will be very clear evidence against them.
The funeral will take place at [Dr....fontein], some 12 miles away, tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. The widow, Mrs. ENGELA, is left almost quite unprovided for. She has one daughter aged 12 and another almost 10.
[Transcriber’s Note: There follows a second account of the same incident which is difficult to read, but the train driver’s name was LYNCH. See also entry for 3 June 1897.]

Saturday 6 February 1897

PASSED AWAY at Grahamstown February 4th 1897, Emma Sophia King, eldest daughter of Harriett and the late Rupert Augustus WEARE.
The Funeral of the late Miss WEARE will leave the residence of her Mother, Market Street, this (Saturday) afternoon at 4 o’clock. Friends are respectfully invited to attend.
A. WILL, Undertaker.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH
The body of Mr. Richard DAY of the firm of Daly and Day, aerated water manufacturers, was found at his residence, Fir Cottage, Sea Point, with a bullet wound in the head. The case looks like one of suicide, but no motive can be assigned for the deed. Mr. DAY was the reverse of melancholy, being in fact always particularly cheerful in temperament, and he was prosperous in business. He leaves a wife and family.

Tuesday 9 February 1897

F. SUCKOW
Tailor and Habitmaker, (12 years Cutter to Mr. MACPHERSON) has started business on his own account, next door to Mr. R.H. RICHMOND, Bathurst Street. A splendid range of Tweeds to select from. Gentlemen’s own material made up. Moderate Charges and good fir guaranteed.

SERIOUS FIRE
The store of Mr. Paul ROSENHAHN, at the village of Bethany, near Bloemfontein, has been destroyed by fire. The damage is about £3,000.

KILLED BY LIGHTNING
Last week a 17 year old son of Mr. VAN VUUREN was guarding rinderpest cattle near Potchefstroom when the lightning struck him dead on the spot.

SUICIDE THROUGH DRINK
On Friday a European named SCHMIDT committed suicide by shooting himself through the head with a rifle, a few miles from Vryburg. He was a special constable, and had been drinking heavily before leaving the town.

WRONGLY NAMED
Among the applicants for admission to the Bloemfontein Rinderpest Police the other day, the tallest and the shortest men were named respectively DE KORTE and DE LANGE. DE KORTE was 6 feet 2 inches in stature and DE LANGE 5 feet1 inch only.

GOODBYE
A man named Julius JOLLY, proprietor of a steam laundry at Port Elizabeth, left a note saying he was tired of life, and intended drowning himself. The beach has been searched, but no trace of the missing man has been discovered. There is an idea that he has journeyed Randwards on Feb 2nd instead of drowning himself.

FATAL ACCIDENT
At Pietersburg, Transvaal, Mr. KRUGER was sitting talking to his wife and brother while his only child, a baby of ten months, was lying on the floor. The brother, during a lull in the conversation, bent himself over the [“kar.el”] to reach over to the corner of the room for a rifle which was standing loaded, and which he wished to examine. He carelessly seized it by the muzzle and drew it towards him when, something touching the trigger, the charge went off, smashing the arm and leg of the child, which died about two hours after the accident.

RINDERPEST GUARD DROWNED
At Upington a distressing drowning fatality occurred recently. While the river was in flood one of the rinderpest guards named NEL, stationed on the south side of the river, went to bathe with a companion who, after some time, dressed himself and went away, leaving NEL still swimming about. NEL was not again seen, and it is believed that he must have been washed down the river and drowned. His wife and two children are living near the vicinity of the drowning.

Saturday 13 February 1897

SHAMEFUL FRAUD
John Wallace McCALLUM, described as a chemist and druggist, was sentenced to twelve months hard labour at the Kimberley Criminal Session for theft of [£50] belonging to a comrade, who had entrusted it to him for safe keeping. Prisoner altered a receipt given to him by complainant for £5 to one for [illegible] but the fraud was detected.

Tuesday 16 February 1897

SUICIDE
On Tuesday at Pretoria a white man named RENSBURG committed suicide at his residence. The man, prior to committing the deed, bade goodbye to his three little children and then went outside and hanged himself to his own verandah.

PRETORIUS’S SON
Henning PRETORIUS Jun, son of the late Commandant Henning PRETORIUS, died on Tuesday last of typhoid fever at the Volks Hospital. The deceased, who was only in his seventeenth year, was generally popular, and great sympathy is felt for his widowed mother,

Saturday 20 February 1897

BIRTH on the 17th February at 7 Howard Place, St.Andrew’s, Fifeshire, Scotland, the wife of F.A. SAUNDERS F.R.C.S. Ed. L.R.C.P. Ed., of a daughter. (By cablegram)

BIRTH at Dal Josaphat, Paarl, on the 12th February, the wife of Fred. C. EUVRARD of a daughter.

DIED at Grahamstown on Feb 19th 1897, Gertrude Agnes McHUGH, eldest daughter of the late Arthur Donald McHUGH. Aged 25 years. R.I.P.
The Mother and Family tender their sincere thanks to the many kind friend who have been so kind to her during her long and painful illness.
The Funeral of the deceased will leave her Mother’s residence, William Street, at 3:30 tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.

DEATH OF A MISSIONARY
The Rev. Mr. [K..TZEN], for many years missionary at George, died on Saturday night after a few weeks illness.

MATRIMONIAL
Before Capt. [VON BRANDIS], at Johannesburg, Mr. Arthur Ernest GRADWELL, of Grahamstown, was married to Miss Katherine Mary LAIDLER, of King.

DEATH BY LAUDANUM
An old resident of Kimberley died under somewhat painful circumstances last Sunday night. Mr. H.J. KENNET had been suffering from insomnia for some time past, and had been taking drugs on this account. On Sunday afternoon he told his wife he was going to lie down, and when some time afterwards Mrs. KENNET entered the bedroom he was apparently lying asleep, but closer investigation revealed the fact that life was extinct. It is conjectured that deceased took an extra large dose of laudanum to induce sleep.

Tuesday 23 February 1897

A PLACE OF DEATH
Yesterday the six-year old son of Mrs. E.W. TILNEY was killed by a train at Jeppestown crossing. Two trains, proceeding in opposite directions, passed at the same time. This is said to be the forty-second accident which has taken place at this crossing.

DROWNED
Mr. W.F. FIRMSTONE, a well-known Natal Colonist, drowned himself the other day, while suffering from an attack of malarial fever, in a branch of the Ingogo River. The deceased, who formerly held a commission in the Scots Greys, frequently hunted in the interior and it was probably a recurrence of an attack of malarial fever contracted on one of those trips that led to his sudden death.

Thursday 25 February 1897

MARRIED
At the Wesleyan Church, Cradock, on February 17th by the Rev. J.E. Parsonson, William Edward COLLETT, Middelburg, was married to Miss Catherine Innes (Kate) BREMNER, Cradock, late of Wick, Scotland.
[Transcriber’s note: Although described as coming from Wick, there is a birth registration for Catherine Innes BREMNER in the third quarter of 1874 in Bradford, Yorkshire (Vol 9B p111) – mother’s maiden name MOORE. She appears on the 1881 census in Bradford as the daughter of the widowed Mary BREMNER. She appears on the 1891 census for Wick, Caithness living with her two sisters and two maiden aunts. Her two sisters were also born in Bradford.]

Saturday 27 February 1897

PASSED AWAY at Kimberley on Monday Feb 22nd, Constance (Connie), dearly beloved daughter of E.A. and S.C. BRADFIELD, aged 8 years 8 months and 23 days.
She has gone like a beautiful flower,
She was snatched from this world of decay,
She’s transplanted to bloom in that heavenly bower
Where her sweetness will ne’er fade away.

SAD DEATH
It is with deep regret we have to chronicle the death on Monday last of Constance, daughter of our esteemed fellow citizen, Mr. E.A. BRADFIELD. The sad event happened at Kimberley, where Mrs. BRADFIELD was spending a holiday. Constance, who was a bright and cheery little maiden, was only in her 9th year. We tender our sincere sympathy with the bereaved parents in their sore affliction.

CURIOUS WEDDING NOTICE
The Aliwal North paper has a unique way of chronicling weddings. The following is a sample. “On Tuesday morning last at 10 o’clock Mr. John SMITH of Leeuwfontein committed sui    (hem*) led to the altar Miss Susanna DE WET, daughter of Mr. P.J. DE WET of [Ootlogsfontein]. Both these contracting parties are so well and favourably known in Aliwal that it is needless for us to say anything about them. We do not profess to be up to ladies toilettes, suffice it to say the bride looked charming and the bridegroom as happy as a prince.”