Farmers brought peace, prosperity

During the 1840s, the frontier of the Eastern Cape was a dangerous place to farm, but the intrepid spirit of some farmers brought prosperity and peace to the region, says Graham Jooste.

- Graham Jooste

During 1847, John Connellan from Glendree, in the Parish of Tulla, near Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, arrived in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha).

With him was his wife, the widow Mary, her son John Kilfoil, as well as their three-year-old son Jim. Their first home was in the Somerset East district, where Connellan managed the farm Glen Avon for Hannah Brown during the seventh frontier war against the Ngqika, Ndlambe and Thembu tribes.

This war was known as the War of the Axe, because of allegations from a settler that his axe had been stolen by a Xhosa tribesman.

They attacked and wiped out the villages of Auckland, Woburn and Ely at the foot of Hogsback Mountain, near to the present-day town of Alice, on a Christmas Day.

They attacked the occupants while they were having their Christmas midday meals and celebrations.

ARROGANCE

Three years later, during 1850, the Eighth Frontier War erupted when Sir Harry Smith, the governor of the Cape, deposed the Xhosa chief Sandile, and declared him a fugitive.

This had come about by Sandile not attending a meeting at Fort Cox to discuss their differences over new boundaries.

The arrogance of the governor towards the Xhosa was unacceptable to them and led to the conflict, which ended three years later. At the conclusion of the Crimean War, Britain had on their hands a battalion of the German Legion, and sent them to Qonce (formerly King William’s Town) to bolster the defences of the frontier and to offer them land to settle and farm on. It was a failure, because the troops, led by Count von Stutterheim, were receiving army pay and did not want to work the land.

SUICIDE