Harry Struben
Full name: Johan Hendrik Wilhelm (Harry) Struben (also known as Henry William)
Lifespan: 1840 Germany - 1915 Cape Town
Occupation: Transport rider, prospector, farmer, politician, cattle breeder, horse breeder, author
See: Johan Struben (father), Fred Struben (brother), Edward Struben (brother)
Harry Struben
Timeline
Biography
Name: While many historical records and biographies commonly refer to him as Hendrik Wilhelm Struben, the full formal name often includes "Johan" as a prefix, likely in honor of his father Johan Hermanus Marinus Struben - a common Dutch/German naming convention in the family. The "Johan" is sometimes dropped in English-language accounts. (under correction)
Harry Struben married Mary Lydia Cole (bef. 1848 England - 1928 Cape Town) in 1868.
Harry and his younger brother Fred Struben were pioneering German-South African prospectors, miners, and entrepreneurs whose work on the Witwatersrand directly contributed to the events leading to the major 1886 gold discovery that founded Johannesburg. They are often credited with extracting the first payable gold from the Reef (though in quartz veins rather than the richer conglomerates) and attracting prospectors to the area.
Their family immigrated from Germany in 1850, initially settling in Pietermaritzburg before moving to Pretoria in 1855. Their father, Johan Struben, was a Dutch-born retired ship’s captain and an official in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR).
- Captain Johannes Hermanus Marinus Struben (1806 Netherlands - 1869 Pretoria).
Kwaggaspruit runs west of Quagga Road near Pierre van Ryneveld Road opposite Laudium. "Zebra's Ridge/Poort, so called because this animal frequented the place in earlier times. HB (?) Struben records that during 1855-56, the Pretoria Commanage swarmed with gnu, blesbok, springbok and quagga in winter which came from the highveld into the sheltered valleys for warmth and better grass. He used to go out before daylight and shoot them as they returned to the higher veld during the daytime. (Pretoriana, Jul 1993)
Harry arrived in South Africa as a child. He became a transport rider (buying oxen spans in 1856) - at the age of 17 he bought a wagon and a span of oxen and started transport riding to Durban. He was an avid hunter and described the animals that roamed freely in the interior around 1855. He regarded the Dutch / Afrikaners as his friends and was sympathetic to the Boer cause and against the 1877 annexation of the ZAR by Shepstone. He started prospecting from 1859 onward. He found traces of gold, copper, and iron in various Transvaal locations between 1859-1868. Politically active, he represented Pretoria East in the Volksraad (ZAR parliament) from around 1876. He was Director of the Delagoa Bay Railway from 1875-76.
"Op 28 Maart 1864 is 'n vergadering beleë waarop besluit is om 'n munisipaliteit in Pretoria te stig. Landdros J.F. Schutte wat F.K. Maré opgevolg het, het saamgewerk en onder Voorsitterskap van J.H.W. Struben met J.G.C. van Leenhof as Sekretaris is die regulasies vir die Munisipaliteit opgetrek."
- Johannes Francois Schutte (c.1832 Cape - 1895) was a prominent Boer leader, farmer, and official in the ZAR. He became a field cornet and later a commandant in the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881), and a Volksraad member, representing Zoutpansberg and other interests. Schutte was involved in native affairs, including revolts like those of Mapok and Malewu in Lydenburg (1865).
- Frans Karel Maré (1835-1887) was a South African Boer leader, magistrate, and politician in the ZAR. He became a key figure in Pretoria's early administration. After 1864 he became a Volksraad member for Rustenburg.
- Johan George Christiaan van Leenhof (c.1830 - post-1870s) was a Dutch-born administrator and public official in the early ZAR. In 1860, he was appointed as Pretoria's first postmaster.
The Willows / Die Wilgers
The Willows farm was where Harry Struben and his brother Fred faced farming failures (ostrich disasters, veld fires, Boer War looting) before their mining success.
Harry purchased The Willows (near Hazeldean, east of Pretoria) in 1862 using profits from transport riding between Pretoria and Natal. Fred assisted on the farm. Farming failures (near bankruptcy) pushed the brothers to mining. Harry transferred the farm Lynnwood to his son Frank in 1912. Frank was an invalid after an aeroplane accident. He built a new house, Lynndower, in 1939 with a cottage for his full-time nurse. The house still exists and it still gets its water from a borehole in the grounds of the Menlo Park Hoërskool. Frank was very philanthropic and donated the land for the proefplaas to the university and also gave the land for St Albans College. He bought many other properties including the farm, Lynnwood (formerly known as 'Strubenpad').
- During the pioneer years, it was believed that willows cause malaria. For a while the planting of willows were even banned, yet farmers continued planting the trees next do dams and rivers. (Pretorius, 1987).
- "The earliest reference to the willow tree in Pretoria, is in reference to Henry Struben’s farm The Willows which he acquired in 1862. The weeping willow has naturalised in South Africa and has unfortunately invaded many of the natural watercourses and riparian zones in South Africa. (Grové, 2022)
"Op 4 Augustus 1869 het Harry Bloekomboomsade gesaai wat teen 1911 reeds in reuse plantasies ontaard het. Op 2 Augustus het hy die waenhuis self gebou." (Bronberger)
Remnants at the top of Old Fort Street in Lynnwood (e.g., a stone wall) survived into the 1960s but are now mostly destroyed. The area was donated to the Pretoria City Council and has been fenced in. The "fort" is the British Eastern Redoubt (a stone fort with loopholes, towers, and zinc elements) - Oostfort - built on Strubenkop. It is from this fort that the British marched against Commandant-General Botha's commando, which was stationed at Swartkoppies (acquired by Sammy Marks post-war) on the Pienaars River. The fort remnants are not a major tourist site but are mentioned in Anglo-Boer War guides and Pretoria heritage walks.
Strubenkop
Strubenkop in Lynnwood, forms part of the former farm The Willows. It was a British Fortification during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). After the British occupation of Pretoria in June 1900, the hill was strategically important as it overlooked eastern approaches to the city. The British constructed the Eastern Redoubt (Oostfort), a stone fort with loopholes, towers, and zinc roofing, on Strubenkop to defend against Boer commandos. From this fort, British forces marched against Commandant-General Louis Botha's commando stationed at Swartkoppies (later Sammy Marks's property) along the Pienaars River. The fort's remnants (primarily a stone wall) were visible into the 1960s but are now largely destroyed or overgrown.
Strubenskop location
Struben Farm
Op 1 Februarie 1876 word 'n gedeelte (van Hartebeestpoort 328 JR) deur die Hans Heinrich Mundt aan Harry Struben verkoop en kry ons die welbekende Struben Farm. Dit is die plaas waar die huidige Pioniersmuseum nou gelee is. Hulle het daar 'n uitspanning georganiseer vir die boere wat na Pretoria toe kom vir besigheid. Hulle kon oornag daar slaap en hulle perde of osse laat versorg. (Pretoriana, March 1993).
Munro bought Struben’s farm Kaalfontein,.
"The name of this place was 'Struben's Farm,' situated about a mile and a half from Daniel Erasmus's Farm. During the siege of Pretoria this latter place had served as a laager, with about twenty or thirty waggons, and was garrisoned by a force of a hundred Boers, who maintained a strong position on the left-hand bank of Six-mile Spruit under a hill. To it 'Struben's Farm' served as a kind of outpost, where from twenty to thirty men were placed in laager in an equally strong position. It was an exceedingly pretty place, but desolate from the fact that the owner no longer lived there." (Dixie, 1882)
Prospecting
"According to H. W. Struben, a syndicate consisting of C. Becker, A. Gusman, P. Marais and H. Struben purchased and prospected Pilgrims Rest in 1872 and at that time there were 1,000 to 1,500 diggers on the field. He also states that Fred Struben was working at Pilgrims Rest, Duivels Kantoor, Barrett Berlin and other places between 1873 and 1883. We thus see that the exploitation of gold was approaching Barberton in those years."
After financial losses in the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881), Harry invested capital while Fred handled fieldwork. They formed the Sterkfontein Junction Mining Syndicate in 1884 to explore farms like Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Wilgespruit (near modern Roodepoort/Krugersdorp).
"In 1884 Mr. H.W. Struben purchased properties in the district and obtained a concession of the mineral rights on the farm, Wilge Spruit, where he erected a small battery and milled some rich ore from a reef which he named the "Confidence." At this time he was joined by his brother (Fred) Struben, who, while prospecting the neighbourhood, made the acquaintance of the conglomerate beds at the western end of the Kand, and found some of them carrying gold. Following upon this proof of the payable character of the banket formation, the Government was communicated with, and on the 20th September, 1886, the Witwatersrand was declared a public goldfield." (Noble)
Fred discovered the promising quartz reef on Wilgespruit in 1884. Harry named it Confidence Reef. They imported stamp mills and steam engines from England, erected the first battery on the Witwatersrand, and mined payable gold from quartz veins - though yields disappointed after initial promise and government aid in 1885.
"Here since 1883 the brothers Struben had been carrying on exhaustive experiments... For three years the results were disappointing, but at length, in the spring of 1886, Walker, one of the workmen, struck the layer, afterwards known as the Main Reef Leader, on the farm Langlaagte... Thus Robinson, Rhodes
and the other pioneers, who believed in the marvellous wealth to be obtained from the Strubens' discovery, were soon justified. Within a year the mining camp had been turned into the beginnings of Johannesburg" (Noble)
"In the historic year of 1886, an Australian jobber, who had worked for the Struben brothers, was busy building a wall on the Oosthuizen farm at Langlaagte. He recognised in a line of banket outcrop the Main Reef conglomerate that the Strubens, working at the Confidence Reef at Wilgespruit, had failed to find. He had discovered what was to be the world's richest gold-field." (Chipkin)
"Even on the Witwatersrand there is a tradition of a lost gold mine. The same hill near Krugersdorp on which the Struben brothers successfully prospected the Confidence Reef in 1886 contained, they say, a secret deposit of gold, far richer than any hitherto found (the Confidence Reef itself was only moderately payable). Natives would carry away from it the precious metal for ornaments. My old friend, Godfray Lys, testified that this hill was given the Spanish name of 'Monte D’Oro' (the Mountain of Gold)." (Rosenthal, 1959)
Their efforts drew prospectors, indirectly enabling George Harrison's 1886 Main Reef find at Langlaagte. Harry served on the first Diggers' Committee in Johannesburg (elected 1887) and became the inaugural president of the Chamber of Mines.
Strubenholm
He sold most interests (including rights on Driefontein and Vogelstruisfontein) in 1888-1889, retiring to 'Strubenholm' (aka Strubenheim) in Rondebosch, Cape Town. The house has been home to the SACM since 1925. Two new buildings, linked to Strubenholm, were completed at the end of 1972.
He authored Recollections of Adventures: Pioneering and Development in South Africa, 1850-1911 (edited by his daughter Edith). A 1936 monument (later damaged/destroyed) honored the brothers for "discovering and proving the gold-bearing conglomerates of the Witwatersrand, September 1884."
Westoe, Mowbray, Cape Town
The farm Coornhoop was granted to Thielman Hendricks in 1661. He divided the farm into three portions, and Francois Pieter de Necker purchased the central northern section, on which he built Westoe in c.1785. The house was a T-plan farmhouse, which he later expanded into an H-plan.
"In 1892 the property was bought by H W Struben who then 'modernised' the house even further. Now it was the turn of the sash windows to be replaced by French doors. New interior walls divided the old rooms and formed passages where none had existed (The City Council contract for the installation of
electrical wiring in the house dated 21 July, 1926, states that there were fifteen bedrooms). Prior to these innovations, the high pitched thatch roof had been replaced by corrugated iron on roof timbers of a much lower pitch, and, as so often happened during this operation, the gables were 'clipped'." (Mills)
The farm appears to have been known as 'Struben's Field':
"The minutes of the City of Cape Town shows considerable evidence of 'unsightliness' as a legitimate cause for exclusion or removal of both people and edifice from the cityscape... the word is often used as a catchall when a building or dwelling was deemed inappropriate. Consider the report from the CE concerning a wood and iron structure 'constructed as a sleeping apartment by a Chinaman at Westoe Farm, Strubens Field, Mowbray'. This dwelling was cited as being in contravention of building regulations." (Coetzer)
Westoe. (Photo: André Pretorius)
Other
From 'Cape Town Heritage Building Plans Registers c.1890-c.1913', HW Struben employed the following "architects" on various Cape Town projects (including additions):
- A. Struben
- H. Lang
- Baker & Masey
- Lord
- Tully & Waters
- A. Plint
Place names like Struben Street / Strubenpad (now Lynnwood Rd, Pretoria), Strubenkop (Lynnwood), and Strubendam (Lynnwood Glen) derive from the family.
Sources
- Shovel and Sieve. Rosenthal, E. c.1959. George Allen and Unwin: London.
- Hendrik Wilhelm Struben
- Harry Struben
- SACM
- S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science
- South African Journal of Science. Vol 30, Oct, 1933. Watermeyer, G.A.
- Toeka se dae. Bronberger, 21 Jan, 2010.
- Illustrated Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa. 1893. Noble, J.
- Johannesburg Style. 1993. Chipkin, C.M.
- Pretoriana, Jul 1993.
- Pretoriana, Mar 1993.
- 'n Blywende herinnering. 1987. Pretorius, J.C. Restorica 24, 1989.
- Restorica 4, 1977. Mills, G.
- The Production of the City as a White Space. 2003. Coetzer, N.R.
- Willows and bushwillows. 2022. Grové, N. AgriPulse.
- Bronberger, 21 Jan, 2010.
- In the Land of Misfortune. 1882. Dixie, F.
- Recollections of Adventures: Pioneering and Development in South Africa 1850-1911. 1920. Struben, H.W.
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