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Queenstown Free Press

Queenstown Free Press 1884 3 July - September

Tuesday, July 1, 1884

In the Intestate Estate of Ralph JOHNSON.
All Persons having any Claims against the above Estate are requested to send them in within Six Weeks from this date; and all persons indebted to pay the same to the undersigued within the same period.
E.W. WELCH,
Executor Dative.
Queenstown, Juue 30, 1884

THE SUSPECTED MURDER NEAR THE GOLD FIELDS.
We have received the following extract from a private letter dated from Grasskop, near Lydenberg, on the 25th ultimo:-
"I only reached here on Friday evening (23rd May) and have been into Pilgrim's Rest since to report a very sad as well as serious affair, which I have had to take part in. Last Tuesday night when I got on to the top of the "Crocodile Berg" (on the Spitzkop side) I met a Mr. GLYNN with two wagons, so I slept there, as I was travelling with Mr. HALL's wagons. Mr. FINLAYSON (a digger), who was travelling with Mr. GLYNN, told me that as they were travelling along they saw some firewood in front of a small Kafir hut. Close to the road, so they went to fetch it away, and on going up to the hut the Kafir, who was first, turned and said to Mr. F., "Boss, there is a white man inside," so Mr. F. Called out, and getting no answer he entered the hut, and found a white man lying on his back dead, with a knife sticking in his throat. The poor fellow had been murdered some days previous, it seems, and Mr. F. Looked for papers in one of the coat pockets, but only found a little tobacco, so left the body alone and came away, On my hearing this I had a talk with Mr. HALL, who caught his wagons up that night, and we decided to bury the body and report it. This is what we found next morning: On entering the hut we found the man lying on his back, with a shirt, waistcoat, trousers, and socks on, and lying about the hut we found a couple of coats, a blue blanket, and several other things, and only three papers. One was to the effect that a Mr. TWEEDIE had been in the Chronicle office, Harrismith, as compositor, in Mackay & Co.'s employ and was an efficient compositor, a steady, willing and obliging person; the other, that a Mr. TWEEDIE and LLOYD had been fumigated, Geluk, 19th March 1883, and signed B. DE JOYING; the other was of no importance at all. We could see the poor fellow had been most brutally murdered. He had evidently been asleep when the murderer must have sat on him, as there were no signs of any struggle having taken place at all. He had a cut on the forehead, between the eyes, but only skin deep; he had been stabbed in the right side of the mouth, and his throat to the left ear, and a small dessert knife left sticking in the throat. It was a very common knife, and very blunt; it was evidently the fellow to the fork we found in the hut. Mr. HALL and I took everything we could find and made into a bundle, which the authorities got; we took the body and buried it in a prospecting pit, which happened to be close by. The authorities have gone out to examine the body, and I don't envy them their job. This man is TWEEDIE, as far as we can ascertain."

Tuesday, July 29, 1884

DESTITUTE CHILD.
NOTICE.
WHEREAS Jonah LIKALAKALA, a Native Male Child. Aged about 3 years, has been left in a state of destitution with Gona LIGABYALA, a Native, residing in the Native Location, Queenstown, some time in January last,- Notice is hereby given that unless the said Jonah LIKALAKALA be claimed within six weeks from the date hereof, by some relative, fit, proper, and willing to maintain him, he will be apprenticed to the said Gona LIGABYALA, in terms of Section 7, of Act 15 of 1856, Cap. 3.
Egbert GARCIA,
Resident Magistrate.
Resident Magistrate's Office,
Queenstown, 2nd July, 1884

Friday, August 1, 1884

MARRIED,- At Maclean Town, on the 9th July, Joseph Holehouse BARNES, of Imvani, to Emma, fourth daughter of Dennis LEARY, Esq.

RIRTH.- HELLIER.- On July 22nd, at Dordrecht, the Wife of John Griffin HELLIER, of a Son.

Tuesday, August 12, 1884

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.- On Thursday last Mr. W.C. BOTHA, a farmer residing on the Zwaart Kei, was coming into town on an ox-wagon, which he brought in for the purpose of loading up to Dordrecht. When quite close to Queenstown Mr. BOTHA, by some unfortunate means slipped off the wagon and the wheels passed over his body, injuring him so badly that, though at once removed to the Hospital, the unfortunate gentleman died the same night.

Friday, August 22, 1884

DIED,- At Ugie, near Maclear, on the 10th August, Sydney Ray, youngest son of Richard and Sarah BARNES, aged 15 months.

Friday, August 29, 1884

DIED.- At Queenstown, on 27th August 1884, Jonathan Burnham WAKEFORD. Aged 49 years. He was but one week ill. Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.

We regret to have to announce the death of Mr. Jonathan WAKEFORD, which took place in the Hospital on Tuesday evening last from typhoid fever. The deceased gentleman came to this town some sixteen years ago, and worked with Mr CROUCH until the latter retired in favour of Messrs. EDKIN Bros.. when Mr. WAKEFORD transferred his services to those gentlemen. Mr. WAKEFORD was held in much esteem by those who knew him, and though of a quiet and retiring disposition, his sterling worth and many amiable qualities, endeared him to all his friends. To his wife and family we tender our respectful sympathies.

Tuesday, September 2, 184 [sic]

BIRTH,- At Panmure, on the 23rd Aug., the Wife of Mr. E.R. BRADFIELD of a Daughter.

MARRIED,- At All Saints' Church, Dutoitspan, on 12th August, 1884 by the Rev. Canon GAUL, M.A., Edmund James WILLIAMS, only son of the lat Edmund WILLIAMS, Newport, Mon., England, to Mary Boyd FARREN, second daughter of the late William FARREN, Chemist, Ludgate Hill, London.

THE LATE REV. W.S. DEWSTOE.- In an article on the "Death roll" of Wesleyan ministers during the past year the Watchman has the following remarks on the Rev. W.S. DEWSTOE, who died at Green Bank Terrace, almost suddenly, in the early part of April last:- "In the death of William S. DEWSTOE, Methodist literature suffers a distinct loss. His contributions to the Sunday School Teachers' Magazine will be missed by many whom he instructed to the end that they might instruct others. We can ill-afford to lose practised writers at this time, when the revival of Methodist letters is so marked." – Mr. DEWSTOE was in his 48th year at the time of his death, and sudden removal was a severe loss to the Falmouth circuit, where his ministerial labours were greatly appreciated. [Mr. DEWSTOE was formerly superintendent of the Queenstown Circuit and will be remembered by many in Queenstown. – E.D.F.P.]

The death is announced at the age of 56 of Mr. George WOOD jr. Of Grahamstown, from congestion of the brain.

DEATH OF MR. E. PARSONSON.- The P.E. Telegraph says:- Intelligence was received in town yesterday of the death of Mr. E. PARSONSON, son of the late Rev. G. PARSONSON, of Lesseyton, near Queenstown. Mr. PARSONSON was a clerk in the Standard Bank at Kimberley and was a young man of much promise. He formerly resided in this town where he was a clerk in the firm of L. LIPPERT & Co. While resident here he was identified with many good organizations, being secretary of the Sunday School Union and a prominent member of the Young Men's Association. Deceased was engaged to a young lady in this town, and was shortly to have been married. His premature death is mourned by numerous friends. [The late Mr. PARSONSON was a brother to the Rev. J.E. PARSONSON and to Mr. J.M. PARSONSON both of this town.]

Friday, September 5, 1844

DEATH OF MR. W.A. RICHARDS.- A Cablegram on Monday last announced the death of apoplexy of Mr. W.A. RICHARDS one of the proprietors of the Journal and the Senior partner in the firm of W.A. RICHARDS & Co. Of Cape Town, the publishers of the Gazette. The deceased gentlemen was also largely interested in other literary ventures in the Colony. Mr. RICHARDS left here some short time since, in search of health, and letters had lately been received by his family stating that he had derived considerable benefit from his trip, the unexpected news of his death therefore falls heavier on them.

Tuesday, September 23, 1884

The sudden death is announced from the O.F.S. of Mr. Thomas WEBSTER which occurred at Table farm, Boshof, on 5th instant from heart disease. The late Mr. WEBSTER who will be well remembered in this district was the son of Mr. Thomas WEBSTER one of the 1820 settters and ws born in December 1825. For the eminent services which Mr. WEBSTER rendered during the Kafir War of 1851, he was rewarded by the first choice of a farm on the Eastern Frontier, and his selection rested on what is known as Bowkers Park. A long obituary appears in the Friend of the Free State, which we regret want of space precludes us from responding.

Tuesday, September 30, 1884

BIRTH,- At Queenstown, on the 27th instant. The Wife of P. McGILLEWIE of a Son.

MARRIED, at St. Peter's-on-Indwe, on 24th September, 1884, by the Rev. A.J. NEWTON, assisted by the Rev. C.F. PATTEN, W.C.A. SCHULTZ, of Bolotwa, son of the late Mr. John SCHULTZ, to Emily Christina, youngest daughter of Mr. Martin SCHULTZ of Santi,

Shocking Dynamite Accident.
On Saturday afternoon a most shocking and fatal accident occurred in Dutoitspan Mine, which ought to serve as a serious warning to those employes who are we might almost say criminally careless in the indulgence of the habit of smoking, while engaged in the manipulation of explosives. It seems that about the usual time when the blasters busy themselves in the preparation of their charges, a man named William Guy ROBERTS, employed as a miner by the Ne Plus Ultra company, was engaged in the same duty. He was observed to have a pipe in his mouth, while fitting the detonator on to a section of fuse, and was standing near a tank containing a small quantity of dynamite. Shortly afterwards a loud report, some time before the warning bell rang, caused considerable alarm and excitement in the main-street as well as among the employes in the mine. When the smoke and dust cleared away from the spot where ROBERTS was last observed standing, he could not be seen anywhere and on a search being made, it was discovered that he had been blown literally into pieces, the fragments of his body being picked up in various parts of the mine. Several natives were seriously injured and were taking to Hospital. One or two white men working near the spot when the explosion occurred had a hairs-breadth escape. It is surprising that a man of poor ROBERTS' experience should have acted so recklessly as he seems to have done. He was a Cornish miner, had been for some years in the employment of the Central Company, Kimberley, and from his great experience must have known the danger to which he was subjecting himself and others, by smoking while in such a dangerous proximity to any quantity of so powerful an explosive as dynamite... – Independent.

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