South African family history, genealogy, heritage and interesting places, past and present. All articles researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl. COPYRIGHT ANNE LEHMKUHL, no article can be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission. EMAIL ME
Peaceful Rhodes
The village of Rhodes, at the southern end of the mighty Drakensberg and named for Cecil John Rhodes, has no street lights and most houses have no electricity. The village looks much the same as it did in 1891. It has about 70 houses and a few full time residents. Only eight new houses have been built since the late 1980s. Visitors go there for the peace and quiet, to get away from the rushed life in the cities. The first settlers came across the place in 1876 and decided to establish a village on the farm Tintern, which belonged to Jim Vorster. The sandstone church was built in 1892 and the Rev. Ross would ride his horse from Barkley East to preach to the local. He did this for eight years. By 1900 there were two hotels, according to Mrs. Hannah Rheeders, whose great-grandfather was one of the first settlers in 1876. In the 1970s the low wool prices hit the local economy, and soon hippies came to town until the late 1980s when holidaymakers discovered its peacefulness. Rhodes Hotel is more than 100 years old and still displays the horns of an ox that died of rinderpes in front of the entrance. Every nook and cranny in the area has a story to it. Bobbejaankoppie got its name when Stefanus Naudé of the farm Dunley showed his wife, Jettie, where he wanted to build a road. She commented that not even a baboon woon walk there. Stefanus built his road and named the koppie. At Maartenshoek there is a rock named Ragel se Klip, in honour of a Ragel who met her lover at that rock.