Excellent as normal Trailrider!
BTW, the "Dry Hotel", as far as I know is not in Misgund, but next to the road, just before the railway line towards Avontuur.
Gideon Scheepers also had his "bad moments". Murraysburg was not so fond of him. At https://www.heritage.org.za/karoo/murray.htm and https://www.centralkaroo.co.za/murraysburg.htm the following information is given:
"A BOER COMMANDO HAVEN
Murraysburg played a strange role as a Boer haven for the first six months of 190l during the guerrilla war phase of the Anglo-Boer War in the Cape Colony. “It all began when a Boer commando under Commandant Pieter Kritzinger defeated Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Grenfell’s column at Waterfall on the road to Skietkuil on
January 16,” says researcher Taffy Shearing. “Afterward, Captain Gideon Scheepers (as he then was) executed two black post office linesmen at Sekretariskraal. The Colonial Defence Force was then raised across the Colony in order to drive off the Boers and protect the towns.” However, each town was only garrisoned by troops from elsewhere if about 20 locals would volunteer to join the local town guard. Murraysburgers refused. “The magistrate, W van Rheede van Oudsthoorn, who should have taken the lead, was said to have been a coward. There were only 1 500 whites in town and district, which appeared fairly neutral as only 48 men actually became Cape Rebels. Without a garrison the Boer commandoes, principally those under Scheepers, had open access to the village and commandeered stores about 15 and 20 times between January and July, 1901. Scheepers controlled the town and refused to let schoolboys return to school in the Cape that year. At first Boers only looted the shops and were polite to the local people. Then their behaviour deteriorated. On June 14, Standard Bank manager Frank Lilford was beaten up and forced to hand over £120 in bank funds. By the end of June the shops were ransacked and empty.”
MURRAYSBURG IN FLAMES
Commandant Gideon Scheepers returned to Murraysburg from the Camdeboo on June 27. He told Van Oudtshoorn to inform the military unless they garrisoned Murraysburg within eight days he would burn down all public offices. The military had plans to surround Scheepers in the Camdeboo, so they ignored him. Only General Sir John French was keen to send in troops. On July 6, Scheepers and Lieutenant J Luyt rode into Murraysburg. By that afternoon the public office, post office, the chief constable’s office, Herbert Sharwood’s shop and Rose-Innes’s house were burning. “It is quite incomprehensible why Scheepers burned buildings in the one village where martial law was weak and from where he could obtain provisions,” says Taffy Shearing. She has researched and written a book on Gideon Scheepers as part of her Cape Commando Series.
BOERS BURN A HANDSOME HOME
The Boers then threatened to burn down Vleiplaas, a beautiful farmhouse built in 1822. It belonged to Albertus Herholdt, Secretary for Agriculture in the Schreiner Government. The house, the pride of the district, had been built by the wealthy Burgher family. It has stinkwood beams and yellowwood ceilings. Herholdt had received warnings of the threat, but hoped the house would be saved. Rebels told him they had pleaded with Scheepers to leave it, and “he appeared to be listening.” Then, on July 8, Luyt and 25 men arrived, tore down the veranda and set the building alight. Murraysburgers stood on the koppies and watched the house burn from a distance. The villagers then scattered. Within a fortnight the village was deserted. Shops and houses stood empty. Only a few pensioners remained in the care of the local doctor. Dead horses lay rotting in the streets and a month later the stench was unbearable. In September 1901, Hendrik Veenstra, a Hollander was executed at Colesberg for high treason, marauding and arson, which involved the burning of Vleiplaas. A few months later, when Scheepers was tried at Graaff Reinet, the burning of Vleiplaas was one of the charges he acknowledged without admitting guilt. Others included the burning of Rose-Innes’s house, as well as Sharwood’s house and store."
Regarding his execution. The website https://www.reocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/1266/historical-rebel.htm has some very interesting information.
Groetnis!
Deon Strydom
Ook 'n afstammeling van daai Krakeelrivier Strydoms! Kan jou nogal 'n paar lekker stories oor hulle vertel! ;-)
Lotsa peeps have asked me about doing tours though.
