The Karoo town of Steytlerville is just over 2 hours’ drive from Port Elizabeth. With a population of 4 000, life has been laid back since the ostrich industry collapsed in the early 1900s and sheep farming fell due to ongoing drought and a drop in wool prices. The only hotel, the Karoo Hotel, is 2kms out of town as Steytlerville was founded when drinking was a major sin.
Steytlerville was established on the farm Doorschpoort in 1876 and named after Reverend Steytler whose efforts resulted in the establishment of a Dutch Reformed Congregation. Mr Roselt, a surveyor, was contracted to subdivide the farm. In September 1880 these erven were auctioned and fetched prices ranging from £80 to £30 an erf.
The wide Main Street of Steytlerville was designed at the time to allow ox wagons to turn around. The NG church of the Edwardian period can seat 3 000. It was built in the early 1900s for £16 000. Bats have taken over the ancient belfry at St Peter’s Anglican Church, and bat droppings are only swept away 20 minutes before a service. The town was home to the late Afrikaans poet and writer A G Visser.
The town is also famous for worms - thanks to Jan Claasens, otherwise known as Jan Pampoen because of the many Jan Claasens in Steytlerville. Jan Pampoen is a small stock farmer who supplements his income by selling what are said to be the longest earthworms in the world. He digs the 2 metre long bush worms from bone dry soil and sells them to fishermen in an area that receives less than 250mm of rainfall annually! According to Danie Craven who’s spent much of his life just outside Steytlerville on the farm Noorspoort, like his greatgrandfather and his father before him, the fishing is good. Danie is the grandson of the late South African rugby supremo Dr Danie Craven. His father, George, established ROEP (Restore our Endangered Platteland) in the 1980s in a bid to save Karoo towns from becoming depopulated. Danie is continuing his efforts.
Danie Craven married Beyera Hayward in 1938. Their eldest son George started farming on Noorspoort in 1977. In 1863, George Nathaniel John Hayward (1826 - 1890), son of the 1820 Settler, James Hayward (1799-1882), bought the farms Noordse Poort (whose first recorded owner was G C Strydom in 1820) and de Poort from Marx for £1 000. The transfer took place in 1871 and T I Ferreira, F Gerds and J Mosel were listed as co-owners. Hayward probably bought out his partners over a period. The farm later became known as Noorspoort. The original farmhouse was demolished in about 1950.
Riena Raymer, aka Tannie Riena, is Steytlerville’s answer to storyteller Herman Charles Bosman. She is Danie's great aunt. Steytlerville's history has been preserved in the Steytlerville Museum which was opened in September 1967, thanks to Reina Raymer's efforts.