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Nederduitse Hervormde Kerk
Dullstroom, Mpumalanga
G GUDE: Contractor
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| Introduction The only prior knowledge that the writer had of her great grandfather, WP DIEPRAAM, was an article, written not during his lifetime but much later, in the 'Hervormer' (the newspaper of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk), on the founding of Dullstroom. On the 2nd of November 1887 the congregation of Groot Suikerboskop was founded. On the occasion they decided that, when circumstances were favourable, they would proceed with the construction of the church building. The building of the Dutch Reformed Church commenced in 1891, with WP DIEPRAAM as the architect and G GUDE as the contractor. On the 16th of May 1891 a building contract was signed by JP Kotze as builder [Hoevers 2006:29 has him as co-architect] where he asks permission to build the church with stone. He said that due to the heavy rains and a lack of black labourers the making of bricks would be difficult. On the 9th of January 1892, the corner-stone was laid by the elder, CJJ Joubert and the inauguration of the church was held in 1893. Originally the church was designed to carry a steeple above the main entrance of the church. According to the town clerk, Mr. Kitzoff it had been destroyed by a shell fired from a Long Tom, a French Creusot artillery piece, used for the shelling of British forces entrenched near the railway station. The Boer forces had deployed the Long Tom on Suikerbos Kop just behind the church. In the church archive, the register of those baptised in the original 1893 church, dates from 1895 with the first entry being that of one Ewout Cornelis Hofland, baptised on the 3rd of April 1895. During the War it was hidden beneath corrugated iron sheeting placed next to the church. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) Dullstroom was sacked twice by the British forces following the Scorched-Earth policy of Kitchener. This was done to prevent the Boer women and children from providing food, ammunition and shelter to the Boer commandos. These dastardly acts of war in Dullstroom happened on the 16th of November 1900 when the town was partly destroyed and then again on the 18th of April 1901, when the whole town, including the church was burnt to the ground. The first of these farm and town burning expeditions where carried out by Canadian mounted troops and artillerymen under the British General Smith-Dorrien on 16 November 1900. An account in the book of Canadian Lt Edward WB Morrison, 'With the Guns' said: "Nobody who was there will ever forget that day's work. There was nobody in the town (Dullstroom) but women and children... Amid the row of cannonade and the crackle of riflefire, the sacking of the place began... on the steps of the church were huddled a group of women and children. Their faces were white and their eyes blazed..." "It was a sad sight to see the little homes burning and the pretty flowers shrivelling up in the pretty gardens, and the sad groups of women and children huddling among the ruins as we rode away." On the 18th of April 1901 the church building was totally destroyed. This was not achieved without any resistance as a story in Dullstroom tells of the British having to shoot a horse in the church in an attempt to get the women and children out of the building. They left the horse to rot in the hope that the stench would drive them out. The destruction of the church was captured in a painting made by the well known Emily Hobhouse, of which a replica hangs in the church itself. After the war from 1903 to 1908, the Boer people fell into a great despair. But their hardships did not prevent them from rebuilding the church. In 1905 it was eventually rebuilt and inaugurated. (See 1905 Church) Sources The archive of the Nederduits Hervormde Kerk in Pretoria provided me with a file on the church that contained documents and photographs of the church throughout the course of its history. Mrs Johanna Janson whose family also played an important part in the history of Dullstroom, accompanied me to the church. Gerda Whitehorn from Dullstroom Accomodation, provided me with information. (Lorinda BEZUIDENHOUT, 2005 All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. References:
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