Page 159 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

74
1888 – 1889
My agent Mr Charles Cowan saw to the appointment of the 200 workers at ₤ 3 per month, which made ₤ 600 per month. Payments were made monthly to me by cheque and in three months we had ₤ 1800 and could pay Smit his money!! Of the 200 workers, those who wanted could continue working in Johannesburg for their own account, the others returned home. Since then Leeuwkop has remained the land of the people to everybody’s satisfaction.
1889 was a year full of events. The Missionary’s Directors Harms and Haccius came to South Africa for an inspection
and in November the big conference was held in Saron. In February 1889 two daughters were born to us in Rustenburg
at Miss Zimmermann. The oldest one died 8 days after birth from a stroke, the second one is our Lissy, today Mrs Roos. The village where she was born is called Bethlehem and the building in which she was born was a horse stable, made up for us. So Lissy was born in Bethlehem in a stable, as we said. In 1889 there was no business on the “platteland”, but only
in Pretoria and Rustenburg. However, there were “smouse”, traders, that came to Bethanie and the boer farms with goods on ox wagons and sold these for money, cattle and produce.
I advised cousin August to open a shop in Bethanie. When I promised him my help because he had no idea to do something like this, he agreed.