Lodewyk Bothma lays out Gatsplaas, named for the hole the first nugget came from
1891 · local · Prince Albert
He beat N.J. Gillet, who wanted to found a town called Gilletville. F Brazier developed the township; Jan Haak put up the first iron-and-wood building; Thomas Vinson a shop, a German firm a butchery, Cole of Cape Town a bakery, Dr Bastable a practice. Two shops, a hotel, a bottle store, barbers and blacksmiths followed, and a police sergeant with two constables. | [1 Aug 2026, date audit] Two rows recorded Bothma laying out Gatsplaas. EVT-000056 (SRC-032) is retired into this one. ITS FACT IS KEPT: the village had two shops, a hotel and a post office, on Spreeuwfontein. EVT-000056 is retired and its id is not reused. *** THE PERSON LINK WAS CORRECTED ON 28 Aug 2026 AND IT WAS NOT A JUDGEMENT CALL. *** This event carried PER-000037, the grandfather, whose own death notice now has him dead on the farm on 30 June 1874 (SRC-602), seventeen years before this. A man cannot lay out a village from a grave. It is moved to his grandson and namesake LODEWYK BOTMA (PER-001606), who was thirty-five in 1891 and is the only Lodewyk of the family alive and adult that year so far as the records gathered here go. [TO VERIFY] against a deed or a proclamation; the story S002 has carried the same doubt in words since it was written.
Who is on record here
Everyone the record names at this occasion. Who stood together is the clearest surviving evidence of which families were close to which, if you know of others who were here, this is the page they belong on.
Sources
- Rose Willis & Doreen Atkinson, "Zeekoegat: Explorations in the Koup Karoo" (2022) 38pp cameo
- "The Prince Albert goldfields, 1891" Rose's Roundup