The 1865 drought: watering the Middelwater orange grove from vats

1865 · family

So dry that Jan Adriaan Oosthuizen, then living on Middelwater (PAR-000001), watered the orange grove before the house with wagon and vats so the trees would not die; the only water left stood in the heights toward Kouwveldt at the steep drift. His grandson's diary carries it, from his son's telling - the only picture of daily life on Middelwater in the 1860s this record holds.

Who is on record here

• 1816 Johannes Adriaan Oosthuizen

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

• 'Brokkies uit oupa Almero Oosthuizen se dagboek', Klaarstroom - Zeekoegat 1885/1933 - Die Oudtshoorn Courant Scans DOC-0348 (left), DOC-0349 (page), DOC-0350 (right); published verbatim as story STO-0048

Told in

• subject Brokkies uit oupa Almero Oosthuizen se dagboek