Die Spook Dames en die Begraafplaas

- Ailsa Tudhope -

Spoke in ons begraafplase?

Het jy onlangs oor die wit gekalkte muur van die ou begraafplaas in Markstraat geloer? Kyk gerus en jy sal verbaas wees. Alles is netjies, elke graf se klippe mooi reggepak, die onkruid en vullis is weg en die blomme begin om hulle gesiggies in die son oop te maak. Hierdie was die eerste begraafplaas wat die NG Kerk op Prince Albert gebruik het, wel vanaf 1844 tot 1884. Net ‘n paar van die eenvoudige grafte het kopstene wat die oorledenes identifiseer, die meeste grafte is naamloos – moontlik was daar oorspronklik houtkruise wat oor die jare verweer het?

Die skoonmakery is die werk van Elsa de Beer en haar hardwerkende span, Francis Claassen, Norika Scheepers, Chantal Flieër en Anna Witbooi. Die span het mekaar die “Spook Dames” genoem, omdat hulle vir die spoke werk!

Dit was Elsa se idee om die ou begraafplaas op te knap. Sy het hulp gesoek by die Munisipaliteit en ’n flinke reaksie van die waarnemende Munisipale Bestuurder, Dawid Rossouw, gekry. Hy het die raad se lys van werklose persone wat graag wil werk, geraadpleeg en so is die vier dames gevind.

Ons sonnige wintersdae is ideaal vir fisiese werk in die buitelug en die hardwerkende span het vinnig ‘n hele paar bakkievragte rommel en onkruid verwyder. Elke graf se klippies is netjies reggepak en die meeste is met vygies beplant, wat vir spatsels kleur sal sorg nadat die lenteblomme se tyd verby is.

Volgens Elsa is al die grafte in die ou begraafplaas nou in ere herstel en die span is baie trots op die merkbare verbetering wat hulle poging aangebring het. Daar is nou planne vir soortgelyke werk in die dorp se ander begraafplase.

Baie dankie Spook Dames, ons sien uit om die ander begraafplase net so netjies te sien!

Dorothea de Villiers Rest in Peace

Tourists visiting Prince Albert are always intrigued by the Markstraat graveyard and since the “Spook Dames’” blitz, some have already commented on how well kept it is.

This would have delighted local historian Helena Marincowitz, who was particularly concerned that it be preserved. The Wri-ters’ Guild members and Museum staff remember her glee when she discovered a photograph of the 1938 service in the graveyard during the centenary commemorations of the Great Trek. It must have been taken from the wind pump which used to stand in St John’s Church grounds and shows the villagers dressed in Voortrekker clothing, the cars parked around the graveyard the only sign that it isn’t an assembly from an even earlier year. The photograph can be seen at the Fransie Pienaar Museum.

While a list of most of those buried in the Markstraat graveyard exists, very few of the graves have any form of inscription.

It was Helena who discovered some locals called it the “No Name” graveyard, due to the lack of headstones. Some of the graves bear English inscriptions, which is not surprising since the “English” Burial Ground was only consecrated in 1872, when Bishop Robert Grey visited the village.
One English headstone is that of little Dorothea Elizabeth de Villiers, who died in infancy. Some years ago our Tourism Officer at that time, Inge Mynhardt asked Prince Albert Friend readers whether they knew anything about the de Villiers family. It took six months but eventually a letter arrived from Mr M de Villiers of Somerset West which made fascinating reading. It appeared in the June 1999 edition of the Prince Albert Friend. Mr de Villiers wrote:

“My grandfather Jacob Nicholas Pieter de Villiers was born in Paarl on 27 October 1837. He was the second child of the eldest son of ten children in the family of my great great grandparents CC de Villiers and Dorothea Elizabeth de Villiers (born Retief). His father died when he was a young boy of 16 and his mother three years later. It fell to him and his elder sister to rear his younger brothers and sisters - the youngest was only three years old when their mother died. He started work in the Magistrates Court in Paarl.

My grandmother, Anna Johanna Marais, was born in Paarl on 19 December 1854. My grandfather knew the family and saw his future bride grow up. He had to wait a long time but on 7 January 1874, shortly after her nineteenth birthday, they were married in her parents’ home in Paarl and as he had just received an appointment at Prince Albert, he and his teenage bride set out by horse and cart for their new home. By this time all his younger brothers and sisters had completed their schooling and further education. The second brother JH de Villiers - later to become Lord de Villiers - became the Chief Justice of the old Cape Colony, the third brother CC de Villiers was an attorney in Cape Town with the firm van der Bijl and de Villiers and the youngest brother Melius de Villiers became Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony.

My grandparents settled down in Prince Albert and their first child Maria Emmerentia was born there on 28th December 1874; the second Charles William followed some 18 months later on 14th June 1876 and the third child, a little girl, was born on 15th December 1877. She was given her grandmother’s name: Dorothea Elizabeth - but she died early in 1878 and is buried in the Market Street cemetery. Her mother was a young woman of just 22 years at the time.

I have been told that my grandmother was an excellent horsewoman and notwithstanding her many duties as a wife and mother still found time to ride in the hills around Prince Albert.

Later in 1878 my grandfather was transferred to Victoria West where he was Magistrate until 1890 when he was transferred once more, this time to Worcester where they lived in the Old Drostdy until he retired in 1897. He was later a member of Parliament for Worcester in the old legislature of the Cape Colony and died in 1922, while living in retirement in Kenilworth.”

If anyone has any information about any other graves in the Markstraat graveyard, the Fransie Pienaar Museum would be delighted to hear from you, please phone 023 5411 172.