← The land

Farm PAR-000068

Rhemhoogte No. 125

125 on the cadastre · on record 1873–1971 · show on the map

Farm number
No. 125
On the cadastre
125, whole farmregistered as RHEMHOOGTE
District
Prince Albert
Modern surveyed area
12288.9 ha

Why this farm is here

Abel Albertus Oosthuizen held it. 17 km from Klaarstroom.

Abel Albertus Oosthuizen is on record on this ground directly. No trace needed.

Stories

What this farm became

From 1931 this ground stopped being one farm, and the story continues on the pieces cut from it. Its own record above ends there; what happened afterwards belongs to a portion, not to the whole.

What the record holds, in order

  1. 1873 document SG diagram verso 861/1873 (verso)
  2. 1875 document SG diagram B.876/1875
    P.A.Q.2-20
  3. 1 July 1879 ownership Abel Albertus Oosthuizen (5 October 1849–22 June 1918)
    Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence medium
  4. 2 February 1901 event Johannes Kleu (d. 1901, Remhoogte) (about 1878–2 February 1901)
    [SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] The Boers caught the retreating Yeomanry at REMHOOGTE, a farmstead beside the old Prince Albert road, and shot the horses from under them. Lance-Corporal J. Boyd, wounded, sheltered at Wolwekloof; Johannes Kleu, a 23-year-old unarmed rebel walking home to Aberdeen, stumbled on him and was shot dead. That night Scheepers's men stayed at BLOEMENDAL. On 5 February they slipped north across the Witteberg via Boesmanskloof, SLEUTELFONTEIN and BOTTERSKRAAL, reaching ZEEKOEGAT on 7 February and looting two shops. Four of those farms are in this model. || *** [7 Sep 2026, SRC-172 pp.11-13 and SRC-632] THE FARM IS SETTLED AND THE FAMILY IS NAMED. *** Two patrols out of Prince Albert under Capt. McDowell and Lt. Torrane rode towards Klaarstroom on 2 February, took three Boer scouts on the way, saw how many Boers held the village and turned back. 'The Boers gave chase and NEAR THE FARM REMHOOGTE began to close in.' Eight of the Yeomanry were taken with their horses shot under them; Sgt.-Maj. Jackson and Tpr. Mobsby dismounted under fire to get Col. Parke back into the saddle and Jackson was captured doing it; Corp. Boyd was fatally wounded. JOHANNES KLEU DIED IN THE HOUSE. p.13: he 'was seriously wounded and was left behind with the Du Plessis family at Remhoogte'. The family's own account is SRC-632, from Miemie de Wit (PER-002051), who was ten and in the house: the wounded Englishman hid in Wolwekloof, Kleu came upon him, and the Englishman shot him at point blank range through the chest. Her father ROELOF DU PLESSIS (PER-002050) carried him in through the back door and laid him in the room at the far end of the stoep, where he died, and buried him quietly that night. WHICH REMHOOGTE: THE QUESTION FLAGGED ON THIS ROW IS ANSWERED, AND IT IS REIM HOOGTE No. 167. The book states the distance twice and from two different informants - p.36, Anna Snyders: 'the farm Remhoogte, 40 km from Prince Albert on the Klaarstroom road'; p.45, of the grave: 'Forty kilometers from Prince Albert on the farm Remhoogte'. Measured against this project's own cadastre, Reim Hoogte No. 167 (PAR-000092) lies 36.9 km from Prince Albert in a straight line, which is about 40 km by road; Rhemhoogte No. 125 (PAR-000068) lies 46.3 km in a straight line, which cannot be 40 km by road. The grave's own coordinate, which came from eGGSA and not from the book, already sat on 167. Three independent things agree, so the affair belongs on Reim Hoogte No. 167 and the cameo's filing under Rhemhoogte No. 125 is wrong. BOYD WAS BURIED BESIDE HIM AND DID NOT STAY. p.13: 'Boyd was also buried at Remhoogte but after the war his remains were reinterred in the graveyard of the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd at Klaarstroom.' Miemie de Wit watched it: he 'was buried 50 yards from the Boer. After the war his wife in England asked that he be reinterred. I can well remember the grave being opened.'
  5. 1931 boundary change subdivision: becomes Annex Modderdrift (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 3)
  6. 1937 boundary change subdivision: becomes Kareemoerhoek (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 4)
  7. 1948 burial Barend Cornelius Vry _1 Diedericks
    Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
  8. 1948 burial Barend Cornelius Vry _2 Diedericks
    Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
  9. 1954 burial Jan Vreek Visagie
    Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
  10. 1971 boundary change consolidation: becomes Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 5)

Ground cut out of this farm

On the 1915 divisional map

As the Surveyor-General printed this farm in 1915: the registered holder, the date the title was issued and its quitrent reference, copied off the sheet as written. The whole map, farm by farm

Farm, as printedHolderTitleQuitrentNote
REMHOOGTEJ. A. & J. D. Oosthuysen1st July 1879P.A.Q. 2.20 · fol. 991

Buried on this ground

The burials also appear on this farm's timeline above, each at its own date.

Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it

Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, B.876/1875, 1875 Surveyor-General diagram, B.876/1875, 1875
SCAN335 Rhemhoogte.jpg
Scan of Diagram verso, 861/1873 (verso), 1873 Diagram verso, 861/1873 (verso), 1873
10TRF301.jpg

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

MIDDELWATER'S NORTHERN NEIGHBOUR - the "Remhoogte" on the 1883 Middelwater diagram's north boundary and the 1915 registry map. THREE Remhoogte-named farms exist in the division: this No.125, Reim Hoogte No.167 (Middelwater's WESTERN neighbour, DOC-0070/0071), and Rhemhoogte No.8 in the Gouph (DOC-0083) - never conflate them. Farm diagram B.876/1875 (DOC-0082, part 1 held; part 2 with the data NOT yet held). Granted 1.7.1879, deed P.A.Q.2-20, to "(J.)A.A. Oosthuysen & another" (OWN-000060) - THE OOSTHUIZEN FARM NORTH OF MIDDELWATER. Neighbours per the 1875 face: Groot/Klein Sleutel Fontein, Middel Water, Rondavel, Modderdrift, Zoutwater, Klipgat; Traka River the boundary through it. Whole-farm diagram cancelled vide farm 125/5 (CCT 7856/72). Extent not yet read (on part 2).

[SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] THE AFFAIR AT REMHOOGTE, 2 Feb 1901: the Boers caught the retreating Imperial Yeomanry here; Johannes KleuH (PER-000518) was shot and died in the farmhouse; the owner is given as 'R DU PLESSIS' and his daughter MIEMIE DU PLESSIS, then ten, remembered it. We hold no owner for this farm in 1901. Judy Maguire's 'Prince Albert and the Anglo Boer War: The Affair at Wolwekraal, Remhoogte' (Prince Albert Museum, 2021) is the study of it.

[3 Aug 2026, SRC-207] THE GRANTEES ARE NAMED. Diagram 978/1883 for Portion 1 describes it as "being one-half of the farm RHEMHOOGTE granted to Mess[rs] J AND J A OOSTHUYSEN on the 1st July 1879". This row and OWN-000060 have carried that grant as '(J.)A.A. Oosthuysen & another'. The 'another' is a second OOSTHUYSEN - two men of the same surname took the farm together. [TO VERIFY which J and which J.A.]

[SRC-325, 7 Aug 2026] A FARM CEMETERY IS RECORDED ON THIS GROUND BY eGGSA: 'Rhemhoogte 125, Zwartskraal', Cemetery ID 7838, at -33.175800, 22.541050. Photographs and captions at https://graveswcape.eggsa.org/PRINCE-ALBERT-Rural/Rhemhoogte-125/ - linked, not copied.

[9 Aug 2026] WHY THE PORTIONS OF THIS FARM DO NOT ADD UP, AND HOW FAR THAT GETS US. checks.py reports farm 125's portions summing to 23,654.4 ha against this row's 12,288.9, which is 92.5% over. Reading DOC-0177 removes the largest part of it: GEDEELTE 8 IS GEDEELTE 6 AND GEDEELTE 7 COMPILED INTO ONE FIGURE, 4728,2437 + 4,6475 = 4732,8912 exactly, so about 4,785 ha is in the sum twice. Drop it and the portions come to 18,869.0 ha, still 53.5% over. THE LIKELY REST OF THE ANSWER IS THAT THIS ROW IS THE REMAINDER, NOT THE WHOLE FARM. That is exactly what Klaarstroom No. 178 turned out to be (PAR-000097): its extent_text was the farm before the resurvey and its sg_area_ha was the Remainder the resurvey left, 30% apart. Not proven here. [TO VERIFY] against the original grant extent for Rhemhoogte and the deduction table on B.876/1875 (DOC-0082).

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.

Open questions

What the record is missing

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.