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Beginnings (1837/38 and on)[edit]
The city was founded in 1837 or 1838 when the Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit ("Clear stream"), which flows through the town. Klerksdorp is the oldest European settlement north of the Vaal River, and thus of the former Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Z.A.R), also known as the Transvaal Republic.
The most prominent of the first settlers was Hendrik Grobler who claimed a farm of about 160 km2 (62 sq mi), called it Elandsheuwel ("Hill of the Eland"). He gave plots of land and communal grazing rights on this farm to other Voortrekkers in return for their labour in building a dam and an irrigation canal. This collection of smallholdings was later given the name of Klerksdorp in honour of the first landdrost (magistrate) of the area, Jacob de Clercq.
City status[edit]
Although Klerksdorp was officially proclaimed a town only in 1888, long before that it was considered a town not only by its residents, but also by visitors and even by authorities.
In 1850 the Rev. A. Murray mentioned the "town on the Schoonspruit" during his trip through the Transvaal. In the same year, an official document, an inspection report, spoke of the "town of Klerksdorp" when the residents requested additional pieces of land.
Seven years later, in 1857, state attorney J. H. Visagie wrote to government secretary C. Moll that it was desirable that regulations be drawn up for Klerksdorp. President M. W. Pretorius then issued regulations for Klerksdorp and Skoonspruit in 1859.
In a letter to the President, magistrate Cornelis Johannes Bodenstein of Potchefstroom in 1863 also designated Klerksdorp as a town.
The Executive Council had a sketch map of the town drawn up in 1871 and according to article 196 of the minutes dated 18 January 1872 the town regulations were approved.
Gold rush of 1885[edit]
In November 1885 gold was discovered in the Klerksdorp district by M. G. Jansen van Vuuren as well as on the Witwatersrand, which lies about 160 km (99 mi) to the east. As a consequence, thousands of fortune-seekers descended on the small village, turning it into a town with 70 taverns and even a stock exchange of its own. This stock exchange opened its doors in 1888 and soon did a roaring trade, selling as much as the equivalent of R20,000 in one day.
Old Klerksdorp Stock Exchange
However, the nature of the gold reef demanded expensive and sophisticated equipment to mine and extract the gold, causing the majority of diggers to move away in the late 1890s and leading to a decline in the gold mining industry. This also led to an early demise for the Stock Exchange that stood empty for many years, were converted to a cinema in 1912 and finally being demolished in 1958. The amalgamation process used to extract the gold from the crushed ore was relatively inefficient and largely contributed to decline. By 1893 the new MacArthur–Forrest process used for gold extraction brought a short-lived revival in the Klerksdorp gold mining industry, but uncertainty created by the Jameson Raid of December 1895 as well as transport problems created by the rinderpest of 1896 soon led to a near collapse of the industry.
Second Boer War (1899–1902)[edit]
During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), heavy fighting occurred in the area, which also housed two large concentration camps, one for Whites (centred on modern day Klerksdorp High School) and a separate one for Africans (situated in the area that is today the Ellaton and Neserhof suburbs).
Klerksdorp Concentration Camp for Africans
Klerksdorp Concentration Camp for Whites
The most famous of the battles around Klerksdorp, is that of the Battle of Ysterspruit ("Iron Stream"), in which the Boer general Koos de la Rey achieved a great victory. The battle is one of the most celebrated of the general's career, being the battle in which the Boer soldiers pioneered the art of firing from horseback. On April 11, 1902, Rooiwal, near Klerksdorp, saw the Battle of Rooiwal, the last major engagement of the war, where a Boer charge was beaten off by entrenched British troops.
Australians and New Zealanders at Klerksdorp, 24 March 1901 by Charles Hammond (1904)
The graves of the victims of both the concentration camps can still be visited today in the Old Cemetery Complex just outside town, numbering just below a thousand.
Desmond Tutu and Boer heritage[edit]
Today Klerksdorp is celebrated as the birthplace of Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on October 7, 1931. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work towards "a democratic and just society without racial divisions". The life work of Desmond Tutu has been to heal the scars left among the descendants of the many battles for control of South Africa. There is an irony of his birthplace set amidst Boer monuments and old battlefields, early settlements by those same Boers, among them famous leaders like Jacob de Clerq, even close to Witwatersrand where gold was discovered. He somehow managed to rise beyond pettiness and division to bring all these forces together with displaced native peoples in places such as this creating an international role model. He was later awarded multiple worldwide honours for his achievements in the reconciliation of the ethnic and cultural divisions in the history of his country.
Economic revival since 1932[edit]
The gold mining industry was revived by large mining companies in 1932 during the Free State Gold Rush, causing the town to undergo an economic revival, which accelerated after World War II.
Newspaper[edit]
The first local newspaper, The Klerksdorp Pioneer, was published in 1887. In November 1888 it was replaced by George Vickers's newspaper The Representative. This in turn was replaced by H.M Guest's Klerksdorp Mining Record in August 1899. It still exists as the Klerksdorp Record.
