Willemsrivier Stories - Willemsrivier Trekpad Guest Houses

Historical buildings on the farm site

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Round threshing floor, chaff cage and the rectangular enclosure

After the wheat was cut down with sickles and then bound into bundles, it is transported with a horse wagon to the threshing floor. After a while a cutting machine was used to cut the wheat and to bind the bundles.

The bundles were laid out on the threshing floor, the ropes cut and after that the animals were brought on. Horses, donkeys or mules were used for these purposes. When there were trampled to fine straw, the animals were chased out. When the west wind usually started blowing in the afternoon it was time to begin the winnowing. The straw was, with the aid of the pitchfork, thrown to wind so that the chaff could be swept away while the wheat seeds fell right down.

After that the wheat was thrown again to the wind with shovels and the jointed grass was chased out with the broom. The broom’s cattle section was articulated to form a range. To use such a broom effectively takes a lot of skill.

The wheat was then, with the aid of a wooden spade, put into bags. Four bundles were usually thrown into a bag. This was equal to a mud (a dry weight measure). Eight buckets of wheat was also a mud. After this the chaff was swept into the chaff cage with a special broom. The chaff was then stuffed into a bags and taken to the stables as needed to feed the animals.

The combination where the threshing floor, chaff cage and enclosure is bordering, can be seen in the Bokkeveld. The animals that stamped the wheat is held in the enclosure so that they could be easily accessed and that time could be saved.

The sandstone Help Church / Die Sandsteen Hulpkerk

Alexander McGregor, who donated the two morg land where the Help Church was built, is according to accounts one of the McGregor’s who came on foot from Citrusdal to Nieuwoudtville.

In 1874 the Calvinia congregation broke away from Clanwilliam and this included

Nieuwoudtville as well.

Already in October 1975 the Commission for increasing the congregations by the Ring of Tulbagh recommended that a new congregation should be formed out of the Calvinia one. The case was brought to the attention of the Ring repeatedly, but the location for a suitable farm church could not be found.

In 1885 the total number of members hit the two thousand mark and representatives from Calvinia were sent to investigate the founding of a congregation in Nieuwoudtville. On April 1885 the start of construction began on a church which became known as the “Help Church from the Calvinia congregation to service the Northern Under Bokkeveld”.

At that point the residents of Loeriesfontein also went to the Willemsrivier Help Church. The church was built with sandstone rocks which was sourced locally. It was dragged with unbraided horse skins to building site. In later years a consistory, mother’s room and a stable for the church member’s horses were built on the side of the church.

From 1890 there was a conscious effort to form a new congregation, but the farm Willemsrivier wasn’t for sale at a low enough price. It wasn’t suitable as the site for a town either because there wasn’t enough water. Today the church is owned by Mr Japie Nel and it is being used as a storage place. The church needs some attention to restore it to its former glory.

Approximately 400 meters from the church, there is a presbytery which was built from sandstone. It also used as a storage facility now.

The Mill House / Die Meulhuis

In the mill house there was a wheat mill that was driven by donkeys, but during the Anglo-Boer war in 1901 English soldiers arrived at Willemsrivier and gave the order that the mill had to be disposed of.

Orders were also given that all the bread wheat in the house should be carried out and thrown on wood from the mill. Thereafter everything would be burnt. Two of the soldiers would stay behind to ensure that everything would burn.

The two soldiers saw that the farmer’s wife, Mieta Kotzé, had eleven children. They beckoned her and said that she should come and get some of the wheat, and to store it in a safe place, so that she could have food for her children.

After the war Paul Kotzé, who was then the owner of the farm, summoned a carpenter from Clanwilliam to build a new mill. In those years there were good carpenters in Clanwilliam because there was a lot of cedar wood to work with.

In 1947 Willemsrivier bought its first tractor. Because people then didn’t regard cultural history as very important, the mill was taken out, and the different parts were lost over time. Today the mill house is used for tractor storage.

The Stable / Die Stal

The stable was next to the mill house where the wheat was ground. When the flour was finally ground, the horses were brought to the stable and fed. Today this building is known as the “Blomhuis”. It is used as a guest house and is especially popular during flower season.

Grandpa Paul and Grandma Mieta’s house / Oupa Paul en Ouma Mieta se huis

This building was formerly used as the wine room and the milk room and is today known as “Kantoor”.

Oom Willie’s house

Today the building is referred to as oubaas Willem’s house. A lot of the seed that is bought for the new season is stored here.

Jew’s shop: Fisher and Vogelman

The one half of one of the established guest houses was formerly a Jewish shop. The two traders were Mr’s Fisher and Vogelman. Colloquially they were known as Fister and Voëlman.

School

The other half of the established guest house was the school. There were always a variety of kids attending of various ages.

Teacher’s Room

Approximately 250 meters away from the little school, there is a building known as “Juffrou se kamer” (Teacher’s Room). This was the home of the teachers who were responsible for giving the kids an education. The roof of the Teacher’s Room was built from Spanish reeds and poplar wooden beams, which can still be viewed today.

The tale is that the teacher always sprained her ankle on the steps. The school kids had to help her from her room to the school by pushing her on a wheelbarrow so that she could complete her work. When the bell struck in the afternoon, the whole spectacle was repeated.

Prison

The prisoners helping with the building of the road and pass on the Bokkeveld Berg, came to sleep here in the evening. Bars were placed in front of the windows to stop anyone from escaping.

Smuts and Maritz’s Office

This building was erected in 1745 and was the first building on Willemsrivier. During the Anglo Boer war (1899-1902) generals Smuts and Manie Maritz stayed in the building on separate occasions. Of course they didn’t agree most of the time, and were never at the house at the same time.

The little building has a wolf’s nose gable and the lower parts is built from stone, while the rest of the wall was made with a mix of clay and straw. With the exception of the “Tin house”, Smuts and Maritz Office was, just like the rest of the buildings on Willemsrivier, built with a reed roof. The “tin house” was James MacGregor’s house and had a corrugated roof from the beginning.

According to accounts Maritz did, on one occasion, ask grandma Mieta to heat him some water and bring soda so that he could wash himself. He then summoned her husband, Paul Kotzé. He had to look at a wound and had to hear how Maritz said “he got himself shot for the Afrikaner”.

The story goes that Maritz was so badly wounded on the farm Tontelbos, between Calvinia and Brandvlei, that a person could see “his lungs move through his body”. Apparently he was only a couple of days out of the saddle before he went back to the road.

The history of Willemsrivier’s name

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Originally the farm was called “Kliprivier”, named after the river that flows here. But after a violent Khoi group murdered a San woman who looked after the cattle for earlier generations of Kotzé’s, in the fields, the farmer decided to move the farm site to where the current building is today.

Just a bit from where there is a depression in the ground which formed a natural open space in the bushveld (“taaibos” and “kraaibos”), and which was known as “Willem’s river”. From this the farm’s originates.

At dusk on the day of the murder, when it became time to bring the cattle to the enclosure for the night, the San woman and the cattle never showed up. Farmer Kotzé then began to suspect something was off, and saddled his horse and went to investigate. To great dismay he found the body of the woman – her head was cut off – and his cattle was nowhere to be seen.

He informed the neighbours and a search party was organised. The farmers saw the Khoi group in the area of Van Zyl’s hill. But by then it was already too late in the day and there was a decision made to wait until the following day before they would confront the group.

Early the next day the farmers began to shoot on the Khoi, and in the process one of the farmers was wounded in the leg by an arrow. Finally the farmers got the upper hand. According to accounts all the Khoi were shot dead and the whole cattle herd was found.

Willemrivier comes into Kotzé’s ownership

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In the early 1800’s a widow Carstens with four daughters lived on Willemsrivier. Two of them were twins. Behind the yard, in the direction of the fountain, there were pine trees planted in a row, which symbolised the four daughters. Today there are still remnants of the big trees left.

The first Kotzé’s on Willemsrivier was originally from Aurora in the Sandveld, next to the West Coast. According to tales they were a family with nine kids of which three went to the Nieuwoudtville area.

Two of the young men wed two of the widow Carstens’ daughters. In 1832 the widow transferred the land to the Kotzé son-in-laws. Die family name of the Kotzé’s, Johannes Paulus, is originally from the Carstens family. Willemsrivier has been in Kotzé ownership for 180 years.

Other practices on Willemsrivier

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During the time that grandpa Paul and grandma Mieta (married in 1871) was on Willemsrivier with their eleven kids, a sheep was slaughtered every weekday and on Saturday even two. One of the extra sheep was for Sunday. In the case of cattle being slaughtered, it wasn’t even enough for a whole week. Including the family, all of the coloured people that worked on Willemsrivier, also received food out of the house.

The two Jews that had a shop there, also got their portion, while the teachers of the small school ate at grandpa Paul and grandma Mieta. Many a day there were also guests that could enjoy a meal there. During this period from 1900 to 1920 there were approximately 75 white and 150 coloured people living on Willemsrivier.

Grandpa Theunis’ one sister was married to Louis Pienaar, better known as “Red Pienaar”. They were extremely poor and struggled immensely. He was the so-called iron smith on Willemsrivier.

Although he also worked for the MacGregors, and here and there for other people, most of his work was for the Kotzé’s at Willemsrivier. Although Red Pienaar couldn’t make horseshoes himself, he could do a good job of affixing. He also “shortened” all the wagon’s wheels.

This is done when the iron band around the wheel began coming loose as a result of friction. Then the iron band is taken off, made shorter and warmed up. Afterwards it is placed back on the wheel and wet so that it could shrink again for a good fit.

Except for the wheat and the sowing, there was also a offshoot of sheep farming. As a result of all of the jackals the farmers were never without their guns or good dogs with the sheep in the fields.

In those days the focus was mostly the Damara sheep. Grandpa Theunis didn’t have money for for drill holes, so the sheep had to be content with drinking from “fixed waters” in the fields. Luckily the water of the Heiveld is extremely fresh.

Each Kotzé on Willemsrivier had a different mark for his sheep. This differed from “swallow tail” and one or two “half moons at the back or front”. So each person knew which sheep belonged to whom.

Years ago there was a “mandatory dip” as a result of sheep scab mite that broke out among the sheep. A “hourglass” was used to ensure that the work was done right. Each sheep must be in contact with the dip water for a certain amount of time because it had to be in contact with the medication for a set amount of time.

Ghost stories

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Lord Louw, grandma Mieta’s uncle, was a man who never worked. He was mostly dressed in a white jacket and liked to play the violin. Lord Louw had astounding amounts of coffee and he liked the beverage a lot, having the habit of looking away when the a cup was poured and it was almost full. Then he would wait until the saucer was full of coffee too and voice his approval.

In 1950 Pierre Wolfaart, a man who came from the Cape and opened a shop in Nieuwoudtville, landed at Ouplaas and hired it. He worked very hard at night – he plowed. In those years it was known as shared sowing – the tenant sows and plows the land and the owner of the farm receives a quarter of the production.

Late one night, after Wolfaart arrived home after his working on Ouplaas, uncle Willie Kotzé came by the next day at his shop in the town. Pierre said to Willie that he had seen that on his way back to town the previous evening he had seen that there was a dance at Willemsrivier.

“No, there was not a dance!” said oom Willie. “Yes, there was!” Pierre continued.

When Pierre stopped at the penny gate the previous night to open it up, he saw a man with a white jacket and violin between the pickup and the gate to the farm. He was forced to “reverse the pick up a bit” so that the man could come by.

Uncle Willie just made heard : O G ….it’s Lord Louw (already passed away in the 1920s).

Traditional cures

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For colds and flu’s zinc was specifically used. It made the sick person sweat profusely. Steel droplets helps to stop serious bleeding from a wound. Friar’s Balsam was put on painful places to dry it out and to steam a bad chest. Balsem kopiva was all that was used for pain at times.

In the case of toothache, you could use a clove or brandy.

Down in the canyon a certain Mr Jordaan lived, who knew a lot about traditional cures. When Willempie’s (4 years old) bronchitis transformed into lung infection, mr Jordaan was summoned, because the nearest doctor was away in Vanrhynsdorp. He cut a cat’s head off and slaughtered it.

Then the cat was put on Willempie’s shoulder blades to see if the lung infection would be cured. But as we know today, the only thing that would have helped, are antibiotics. During this September month it rained so much that the small corpse had to stay a full week at grandpa Theunis and grandma Miemie before it could be taken for the funeral in town. It was an incredibly traumatising time for everyone on the farm.

The reason why Willempie wasn’t buried on Willemsrivier was because the family was already in the process of losing the land the family church yard was located in.

Beliefs / Superstitions

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Grandma Mieta believed that the secret to making a successful tart was in how the rise of the dough. While the dough was made, the word “dough” may not be used. Both doors to the kitchen, the one to the outside and to the rest of the house, were closed. If there was any wind on the dough, it wouldn’t rise either.

She was also convinced that it was wrong to cut a pattern for clothes on a Friday. It would make you very unlucky. The same would happen if you walked under a ladder that was standing against a wall.

Uncle Paul (Boeta Paul) was very scared of ghosts. His car was in the wagon house approximately fifty meters from his house. When he had to push his car at night, he apparently believed in throwing a matchstick over his left shoulder. That would keep the ghost away.

When you took off your shoes at night and you’d want to keep away ghosts, you would have to place your footwear so that the points are in opposite directions. Even if you only curse a ghost, that would keep it from coming any nearer!

In earlier years the people also believed that when the thunder started, you had to close all the windows in your house so that the weather couldn’t come in. When you see reptiles walk, like for instance snakes and turtles, it could be a sign of rain coming. If you see a viper, it could mean big rain is on the way.

The Sishen-Saldanha railway goes right north of Willemsrivier. If you can hear the train, then it is a sign of rain, because then the air is set northwest. When you stand on the plato and look in a northeastern direction and see fog lying in a thick bank under the mountain in all of the canyons, then rain is coming. When a fog bank comes out, then it is a definitive sign of rain. This could just be cool air though.

Willemsrivier’s fountain

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The partitioning of the square of Willemsrivier took place in 1939. With this partitioning a contract was set up that divided the water of the fountain. There were five owners, the Kotzé’s had 22 morg, the three Louw’s each had a portion, and the McGregors as well. The other two owners aren’t known.

The square, that was section 9 of Kliprivier, was 44 morg big. The size of each owner’s piece of the square, determined how much water each one may take from the fountain. The source of the fountain, approximately 500m from the farm site, is encircled with a small wall on which a metal lid is affixed.

Bordering this is five rectangular enclosures where the overflow water from the fountain is held. The contract determined that only the water overflow that was in the five enclosures may be used. This stopped the fountain from being overused and the risk of it drying up.

The difference between how much water each one may use is determined by the overflow to the five sections. An engineer designed a copper plate with five different sizes that regulated the overflows to each of the five sections, determined by the size of each owner’s square.

The bigger your square of land, the more water would come to your side. The original copper plate is still there today.

With the copper plate, there is also a safety mechanism that ensured each one could lock his side of the fountain water. At the outside of each section, pretty low, there was a pipe which funneled the water along. All the houses on Willemsrivier received their water from the fountain.

It was usually the work of the young children and coloured people to carry buckets of water to the farm site. The water was stored in wooden tubs at the front of the house or kitchen, to ensure that remained cool and clean. After the wooden tubs were full, two more buckets were placed beside the tubs to make sure that there would be enough water for the next day.

Even to this day all of the water on the farm is still sourced from the fountain. Pipes were laid and wind pumps erected that pumps the water to the houses on the farm.

Land is Lost

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In 1927 grandpa Theun Kotzé suddenly died of a heart attack next to the wood pile on Willemsrivier. At that point he was also in an oral agreement with Floors Louw to speculate in trading sheep. Grandpa Theun was forced to do an advance payment to buy the sheep, while Floors did the buying.

A loan of 800 pounds was registered at Standard Bank in Theun’s name, but according to accounts, grandpa Theun’s testimony wasn’t signed and Standard Bank came to own a large portion of Willemsrivier.

The bank manager informed the family that they didn’t need to be concerned though, because he would buy the land back at an auction and give it to the family when they buy it back. But like in most cases, the man did not keep his word, and he sold the land to a friend of his, Koos Louw of Oorlogsrivier.

The Rebellion of 1914

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During the Rebellion everyone on Willemsrivier rebelled. Many farmers joined the rebellion, because they had the impression that they could get out from under English rule. There was also talk of the possibility of Germany helping the rebels against England. The Rebellion was also known as the Crying war because the farmers had a difficult time bidding farewell to their families and farms.

Everyone was sad and didn’t know if they would ever see their loved ones again. Two of Willemsrivier’s farmers, grandpa Theun and uncle Attie Kotzé, also joined the rebellion. Grandpa Theun, who was a bachelor, “didn’t have anything to cry about”.

Grandpa Theun’s horse, Heitsman, was a beautiful horse with strong hind legs. The horse was known for his ability to be very quick out of the starting blocks. Uncle Attie on the other hand had a tall, rangy horse with the name of Black. Black was known for having great stamina and being able to run far distances.

During the rebellion a close bond formed between Heitsman and his rider. Only one blanket was taken on this expedition and according to accounts grandpa Theun had to lie down quickly on his blanket or otherwise Heitsman would make himself at home on the soft fabric.

Sometimes the farmers slept against the saddle after saddling down. The Louw’s and

Kotzé’s as a precaution took turns standing watch under the pepper trees to protect the farm.

One night a chicken that was sleeping in the branches glided down to the ground. Then Attie Louw screamed extremely loudly: “Hands up!”. Of course, all to the great amusement of everyone gathered.

The drought of 1933

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During the drought the Kotzé’s heard that there were still good areas for grazing available near Grootdrif, under the Bokkeveld mountains. There was decided that, apart for a couple of cart horses, all the horses were to be taken to the mountains along the Old footpath, because there was no feed at Willemsrivier. It is also the route that was taken by Maritz during the war on his way to Vanrhynsdorp.

But unfortunately the horses couldn’t adapt to life by the mountains, and all of them died, including to good mares, Tyna and Grace, with which grandpa Theunis in 1926 (Tienkie’s dad) won the cup at Calvinia’s farming week (which is now known as the agricultural expo) in the cart horse class.

What made it such a disaster for Willemsrivier is the fact that most of the horses were descendants of the Prince of Wales horses.

With the Prince of Wales’ visit to South Africa in 1927, he brought special horses to transport his wagon train. After his visit, the horses stayed in South Africa. Grandpa Paul Kotzé (Tienkie’s grandpa) bought one of the foals with the name Ladise, at Robertson from a certain Mr De Wet. This was a beautiful animal and thereafter the horses were “bred higher in quality”.

The Penny Gate

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The Penny Gate was a gate in the road that led to north Bokveld, exactly on the border between the Louw and Kotzé parts of the site on Willemsrivier. Each year with the October communion, which was a big fund drive for the church, all the farmers of the Northern Bokveld rode in with their horse, donkeys and donkey carts. Then there were tents and fabric houses that popped up on the church square for the weekend’s activities.

During the Friday of this communion week, Mr Tienkie Kotzé, then approximately 10 years old, went and waited with the farm workers kids at this gate. When a wagon and a team of horses approached, Tienkie raced to the gate to open it. When the wagon rode through, the gate was closed again. For his efforts he was awarded a penny each time, hence the name penny gate.

By the end of the 1960’s the gate was removed by the local board so that the road could be better maintained.