The baby in the feature picture is Mary Caskie, daughter of Alexander Caskie and Mary Craig.
Her father Alexander Caskie became mayor of Harrismith. She married JFA Bland II and gave birth to JFA III.
Frank (JFA III) Bland married Annie Watson Bain, daughter of Stewart Bain, mayor of Harrismith. So much of mayors, your worships!
Part of the stone wall which surrounded Granny Bland’s home in Stuart Street, Harrismith; and the oak tree her grand-daughter Pat Bland planted.
Bain Sisters Annie Bland and Jessie Bell lived with Granny Mary Bland after their husbands died. Annie’s daughter Mary and granddaughter Barbara Mary also lived there for a while. She, Barbara, now has a daughter Linda Mary who has a daughter Mary-Kate – So much of Mary’s !
The old home now has an artist family living in it and has been beautifully restored.
Apparently this was Granny Bland’s – we grew up with it in our display cabimet
Granny Bland had a husband and five sons. She buried her husband and three of her sons in the same grave – later she was buried there. Her only surviving son Bunty later joined them all.
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For those interested, here you can see the original broken daguerreotype Sheila had, and how I digitally ‘stitched’ or ‘healed’ it with FastStone Image Viewer (lovely program):
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So many of your posts lived in Stuart St – it would be nice to see a list of the street numbers and known occupants!
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Hi Anthony. Are you a Harrismith Maeder? Which of the Maeder clan do you belong to? Peter
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Theodore Maeder who farmed at “Platberg” round the back of the mountain was my great grandfather.
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Magic. We then had Dirk the auctioneer and Theo the engineer in town – relatives, I suppose? They’d be around 80-90+ now.
Theo and Annemarie lived just off Stuart street in Boys street. Their kids Karen, Theo and Karl would be 64 to 70 yrs old about.
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Yes they were grand children, of my fathers generation. We lived in Durban. Both of them gone now sadly. There were two sets of chidren as Theodore (I) married twice. His first wife (van Reenen) died in the Spanish Flu. Second wife was a Wepener. All 3 buried in the little cemetry by the spruit on Platberg South farm. I have many happy memories of holidays on farms Alsace and Siloe in my youth.
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Happy, carefree days! Behind the mountain we knew the Gobles, Pattersons, Sharratts. I was born in 1955 in HS. My folks left in about 2000 – to PMB. We had the Platberg bottle store in town and Annemarie worked for us for years. Of her kids I believe Karen and Theo are still alive. My gran Annie Bland had the Caltex garage opposite the town hall.
Did you ever climb the mountain from the back? I never did. Always up the rocky passes in front.
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I am 1958 vintage and always lived in Durban, now Australia since 1982, Theo still going strong in Bryanston. I did go up from the back once with my father and not yet up the front! I still own Maedersdeel, on the corner of the Collingspass Road, turning off from Verkykerskop. Come out every year and make a trip to Morija in Lesotho, where our first Maeder ancestor Francois came out as a missionary from Germany in mid 1830s.
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Amazing! You still own a farm there! Have you written the family story? It would be fascinating, I’m sure.
Which Theo is in Bryanston? The one born ca.1953 who went to school in Harrismith and joined the Army?
Out Verkykers way and towards the pass we knew of farmers Wessels, Glutz, Jelliman.
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There’s a story about Morija? I remember a snippet somewhere in the back of my memory – A death at the mission? A mystery? Do you know anything about the mission story? Is there anything on the ‘net about it?
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It was in the later 1800s, the Jacotett family. Tim Couszins wrote an historical novel about it, Murder at Morija, a good read. The history is well preserved there via Morija Museum and Archives. The original church built there by my g-g-grandfather in 1840s still stands.
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I’m going to go searching. I’m a huge fan of Couzens. His Tramp Royal is one of my all-time favourite reads. I wrote about it here:
https://bewilderbeast.org/2016/12/09/trader-horn-and-me/
Am also a Lesotho fan. We have visited often in the last decade. Modumong / Molumong, Sani and Afriski in the winter.
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