Page 231 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1914
The year 1914 was the 50th year after the establishment
of Bethanie Station and we had planned to hold a great thanksgiving feast. My brass band practised much and bought uniforms and instruments, flags etc. for this purpose. 44 players. The feast was to be held on 29 November because this was the day on which father had arrived in Bethanie.
Then the great World War broke out in July 1914 and all our plans turned to water! Even here in Transvaal a civil war broke out and there was a battle at Zoutpansdrift and I had to bury a fallen boer on our church yard in Bethanie [?]. I was commanded to hand over my horse and for a whole year I had to travel to Bethanie with two donkeys before my Spider. But we could sit in peace on our stations.
In October 1914, in the first battle in South-West on the border Johannes Grotherr , Lissy’s fiancé, fell. We only heard of this in March 1915 from Durban, where prisoners talked about
the battle and incidentally someone who heard it and knew
us wrote us about this. Johannes had been commanded on the German side. That was a hard blow for Grotherrs and for us (his mother turned 90 in March this year and is in hospital in Pretoria with a broken hip).
In spite of the World War the construction of the Hartebeestpoort Dam was started here.