Archistori

Built: 1954 Architect: Unidentified View from north. Image source: Archistori View from north-east. Image source: Archistori Side entrance. Image source: Archistori Corner stone. Image source: Archistori Locality map Sources

Built: 1903 Architect: Karl Heyne Location:  Fatima Bhayat St (Kerk St), Rustenburg. Aerial view showing Derdepoort Monument in front of church. Image source: NG Moedergemeente Rustenburg on FB. Timeline The Reformed (Hervormde) and Dutch Reformed (NG) Church in the old Transvaal merged in 1885 to form the 'Dutch Reformed or Reformed Church' (Nederduits Hervormde of Gereformeerde Kerk), but barely seven years later, the new church split again. The court ordered the NG Church in Rustenburg to transfer its property to the Reformed (Hervormde) Church. Fortunately, the ZAR government donated 4 erven in the town to the impoverished NG congregation to help them get back on their feet. Following the runderpest (1896) and malaria (1897) epidemics, construction on the church began early in 1898. General Piet Joubert laid the cornerstone on 23 April 1898. The building was nearly completed when the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, instantly halting any final completion or offici...

Full name:  Rutger Andreas (or Andries) Weerman Lifespan:  1712 Netherlands - 1751 Asia [38] Occupation: N.G. Kerk (Dutch reformed) minister Reverend Weerman was the very first minister of the Swartland / Zwartland (Malmesbury) congregation. Personal Background and Early Life He was born on Monday morning, 25 August 1712, and baptised on 31 August 1712 in the Reformed Church of Denekamp, Netherlands. His father was Rev. Johannes Henricus Weerman (also a minister) and his mother was Aleida Palthen. His wealthy godparents, Land Rentmeester (Land Bailiff/Treasurer) Patthull and his wife (née De Lintels van den Marsch), held him at the font. He was named "Rutger Andreas" directly after his godfather. He registered as a theology student at the University of Groningen on 14 September 1736. VOC Career and Arrival at the Cape On 23 January 1745, he set sail from Enkhuizen, Holland, as an official VOC minister aboard the ship Huis ter Duine ( Huijs ten Duijne ). He was originally b...

Full name: Michiel Christiaan Vos Lifespan: 1759 Cape Town - 1825 Tulbagh Occupation: NG Kerk minister, missionary Vos  was a pioneering South African-born Dutch Reformed Church minister, noted for his missionary zeal, energetic evangelization of slaves and Khoi-Khoi, and role in early missionary societies at the Cape. Timeline Background and Early Life A man of incessant energy despite being troubled throughout his life with a painful skin disease ( dauwworm / dermatitis / exzema), Vos was born in Cape Town as the youngest of five children. His family had Pietist influences; his maternal grandfather was a freed slave (Michiel Bok), giving him slave descent on his mother’s side. His father came from Batavia, his mother, Johanna Bok, was born in Cape Town. Orphaned young (father Jan Hendrik Vos from Batavia died early), he received what education was available locally and was apprenticed as a silversmith to his older brother, Jan Hendrik Vos. One of his older brothers, Jacobus J...

Full name:  Theophilus Christian Dönges Lifespan:  1863 Schietfontein (Carnarvon) - 1949 Kroonstad Occupation: NK Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) minister Family: Newphew of Theo Dönges . He was the father of the well-known politician Theophilus Ebenhaezer “Eben” Dönges (1898-1968), who later became a senior National Party figure, Minister of the Interior, and State President-elect. T.C. Dönges married Cornelia Hendrika Appeldoorn Cruywagen (1866 Wellington - 1950 Kroonstad) in 1889. T.C. Dönges T.C. Dönges with wife Cornelia. Dönges qualified at the Victoria-Kollege in Stellenbosch. He served in various Transvaal and Free State congregations, including Parys (1890-1896), Klerksdorp, Bothaville (1896), Hoopstad (1903), Kroonstad, and Goedemoed (1920) . Dönges served as the second consulent of the NG gemeente Odendaalsrus in the early Goudveld (c.1909-1910) while based in Hoopstad. In subsequent years he served various other congregations on a temporary basis. " Dit was ’n b...

Built: 1890-1891 : 1954 Architect:  A.C.  Brislin & H.G. Veal (won in an architectural competition) Contractor: J.B. Kirton View from east. Source: Elizna Coetzer on FB (2025) The NG congregation was formally established in 1865. The very first church on the site was the Kruiskerk (demolished 1898), a simpler building erected in 1865 by the Nederduits Hervormde (NH) congregation on the same square. Heinrich Ueckermann (the founder of Heidelberg) acted as secretary of the early church council - he was responsible for authorising payments to the contractor for that first structure. By the 1880s, both NH Kerk and NG Kerk groups had a presence in the small town, leading to overlapping congregations on the same square. NH Kerk (Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk), the original “state church” of the ZAR, was established in the 1850s (first congregation in Potchefstroom 1842/1853) by Voortrekkers who wanted complete independence from the Cape Colony’s NG Kerk (Nederduitse Gereformee...