Bethulie
AND THE FAMILY WAS HERE ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER THAN THIS ENTRY USED TO SAY. The station was BOESMANSKOOL when GEORGE AUGUSTUS KOLBE was placed at it, among the San, with JAMES CLARK. He gives the date himself in a letter printed in the Society’s monthly for 1831: “When I arrived, in April, 1828, with my colleague, in the Bushman country”, having resided “nearly three years among the Bushmen previous to my removal to this station”. Clark says it from the other side, writing from the Bushman Station on 31 December 1828: “brother Kolbe and myself removed to this station, and arrived here in the beginning of May last.” Added 13 October 2026 — until then this place began the Kolbe story at 1839, because the 1828 evidence was only found on 11 October. THE OTHER MISSION ON THE CIRCUIT, and a font this family came back to. FREDERIK FORTUNATUS KOLBE was born here in 1839 — the source of a forename that has since crossed into four surnames — and JOHAN CASIMIR in 1844, the year his father died. FORTY-TWO YEARS LATER Frederik Fortunatus brought his own youngest daughter, ADRIANA HENRIETTA JOHANNA, back to be baptised here on 23 October 1881.
The place
| Name | Bethulie |
| Kind | Mission station, later town |
| Region | Southern Orange Free State |
| Standing | Documented |
Why it is here
AND THE FAMILY WAS HERE ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER THAN THIS ENTRY USED TO SAY. The station was BOESMANSKOOL when GEORGE AUGUSTUS KOLBE was placed at it, among the San, with JAMES CLARK. He gives the date himself in a letter printed in the Society’s monthly for 1831: “When I arrived, in April, 1828, with my colleague, in the Bushman country”, having resided “nearly three years among the Bushmen previous to my removal to this station”. Clark says it from the other side, writing from the Bushman Station on 31 December 1828: “brother Kolbe and myself removed to this station, and arrived here in the beginning of May last.” Added 13 October 2026 — until then this place began the Kolbe story at 1839, because the 1828 evidence was only found on 11 October. THE OTHER MISSION ON THE CIRCUIT, and a font this family came back to. FREDERIK FORTUNATUS KOLBE was born here in 1839 — the source of a forename that has since crossed into four surnames — and JOHAN CASIMIR in 1844, the year his father died. FORTY-TWO YEARS LATER Frederik Fortunatus brought his own youngest daughter, ADRIANA HENRIETTA JOHANNA, back to be baptised here on 23 October 1881.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Apr 1828 | George Augustus Kolbe placed here, at the station then called Boesmanskool, with James Clark |
| 1839 | Frederik Fortunatus Kolbe born here |
| 1844 | Johan Casimir Kolbe born here, the year his father died |
| 23 Oct 1881 | Adriana Henrietta Johanna Kolbe baptised here — her father's own birthplace |