| Notes |
- 2 Brothers, 4 sisters. 3rd son.
- VAN EEDEN, HON. FREDERICK JACOBUS, was born in the Swellendam Division in 1846, and is a successful agriculturist and stock-farmer, owning nearly 30,000 morgen.
He was a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly in 1887-8 for Swellendam, and from 1891 until recently sat in the Legislative Council as member for the South- West Circle.
He is an elder of the D.R. Church, and member of the Divisional Council.
- Grew up on Bruintjeshoogte not far from Jan Harmsgat (Also known as Nooitgedacht). Mainly wine farmers.
- Farmed on Voorrechtsvlei, eleven kilometers from Swellendam.
- 47 years old when he bought Jan Harmsgat/Nooitgedacht from Gideon Petrus VAN ZYL in 1876.
- Later years Member for Swellendam at the Legislative Council and from 1891 to 1902 a member of the Senate.
- Died 76 years.
- JAN HARMANSZ SCHAT
In 1674, east of the current town of Bonnievale, on a farm nestled under the towering Langeberg Mountains, Johannes Harman Jansz Potgieter was born.
Johannes married in 1714, and the farm appears on the grant of 1723 as Jan Harmansz Schat (treaure) from which it was apparently corrupted to Jan Harmsgat.
In 1731 we find the grazing rights being granted to a famous hunter, Jacobus Botha. His hunting career was brought to an end a couple of years later, when he shot a lion, and the lioness (which he had not seen) attacked and mauled him, leaving him for dead. Botha recovered but was never able to hunt again, and in 1734 Governor de la Fontaine made a freehold grant to Botha, for services rendered, of the farm Jan Harmans Gat which he was then occupying. The farm was described as "vier uur te perd van die dorp Swellendam" Jacobus Botha lived to the age of 90, dying in 1782, and his 12 sons gave him 190 grandchildren.
The farm is situated along the slopes of the Langeberg, between the mountain and the Breede River. The modern road from Swellendam to Ashton runs along this beautiful valley.
In 1789 the farm passed into the hands of Hermanus Steyn de Jonge.
In 1765 he had married the widow Margaretha van Staden, and by the time the farm was occupied by him, he was already a man of some stature in the area. In addition to farming, he also did some Trustee work and sat on the District Council of Swellendam.
In 1795 the farmers of the District rebelled against their Dutch masters, and declared themselves independent of the Cape Government. Hermanus Steyn was chosen as the president of the new Republic, which lasted only a short while before the British assumed control of the Cape Colony, and Swellendam again reverted to their original status.
Hermanus Steyn lies buried on the farm, Jan Harmsgat, in a small plot marked by a granite gravestone, which can be seen a few hundred meters from the main house.
A grandson of the old President, Gideon van Zyl, changed the name of the farm to the gentler name of Nooitgedacht. The old building with its three gables under thatch, was again changed by a cousin, one Piet van Eeden. He removed the upper floors and rebuilt the house with a corrugated iron roof.
The original wine cellar and old slave quarters were retained, but again the thatch was replaced by corrugated iron. This has subsequently been changed back to thatch and is the form in which the buildings now exist.
The wine cellar reminds us of the days when Jan Harmsgat was a large wine farm. The owner of the farm during that time, one F.J.van Eeden was a member of the Legislature, and inherited the farm from old Gideon van Zyl.
One day, while sitting in a meeting of the legislature, he became so angry about a proposed excise duty, that he had all the vineyards cut down, and planted orange trees in their place.
Jan Harmsgat became famous for its oranges, which thrived in this climate. Four giant old orange trees which had been planted by Hermanus Steyn, de Oue, produced wagon loads of oranges for 150 years, but were then cut down by van Eeden, and 5 dozen orangewood chairs made from the timber.
Extracts from: Geskiendkundige Swellendam. L.L.Tomlinson
In the Footsteps Of Lady Anne Barnard. Jose Burman
- He orange trees mention was cut-down because of some disease the contracted and the furniture was made by Jim Kennedy (Other Kennedy family members exist) [1]
- Frederick Jacobus van Eeeden (born 26 December 1826) began work as a shepherd for "1 sjieling en 'n emmertjie sop per dag".
He borrowed money from the Barry's of Lismore to buy his first farm Voorrechtsvlei. When a piece of land owned by Groenteboer van Zyl was auctioned the bid fell to him for £3800. He borrowed this money from a snooker partner, a Mr Swart from the Reüns.
Nobody expected him to be able to repay this money, however when he put the money (gold) on the desk of the lawyer he exclaimed "Dit hat ik nooit gedacht". Thus was born the name Nooitgedacht. F J van Eeden farmed with ostriches, horses and vines.
He served in parliament from 1887 till 1902 where he became known as 'Remskoen van Eeden'. (He never agreed with decisions that had to be made.)
A new law was implemented which introduced the taxation of alcohol. Van Eeden was so incensed by this legislation that he removed all his vineyards and replaced them with orange groves. He had 10 children and he commissioned the production of 6 chairs, made with orangewood, for each child. One of these chairs can today be seen in the Drostdy museum in Swellendam .
He left a large tract of land to his two sons, Jacob Douw and Petrus Paulus. Jacob Douw, the youngest, divided the land into two sections and invited his brother to make the first choice. One portion had a simple house but very fertile agricultural land. The other section had a large homestead (flat roof house on Brin Rebsteins farm, see photo).
Petrus Paulus had a lot of children and a difficult wife. Initially he selected the portion with the small clay house, but after opposition from his wife, he changed his mind after a couple of days.
SOURCE: https://www.vassa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bonnievale-Oct-98.pdf
|
Search | Advanced Search | Search Families | Search Site
1826 - 1903 (77 years)