Colesberg
George Augustus Kolbe, the 1820 Settler, died on the farm “Wurtemburg” in this district on 1 December 1844. His widow signed the death notice here in January 1845, and the 1840 Montjoy notice was signed here too. AND HE WAS THERE BEFORE THE TOWN WAS. John Montgomery, founder of Burgersdorp, writing in The Friend of the Free State in 1869 about a journey made about 1824, passed “by KOOLSKOP, WHERE THE FATHER OF THE LATE LAMENTED COMMANDANT KOLBE CONDUCTED A BUSHMEN MISSION SCHOOL, AND WHICH IS NOW COLESBERG”. Colesberg was laid out in 1830. If Montgomery is right — and he is recalling forty-five years back, and names the man only as the father of a Commandant who had died the year before — then the Settler was keeping a mission school for Bushmen on this ground six years before there was a town on it, and twenty years before he died in the district.
The place
| Name | Colesberg |
| Kind | Town |
| Region | Northern Cape midlands |
| Standing | Documented |
Why it is here
George Augustus Kolbe, the 1820 Settler, died on the farm “Wurtemburg” in this district on 1 December 1844. His widow signed the death notice here in January 1845, and the 1840 Montjoy notice was signed here too. AND HE WAS THERE BEFORE THE TOWN WAS. John Montgomery, founder of Burgersdorp, writing in The Friend of the Free State in 1869 about a journey made about 1824, passed “by KOOLSKOP, WHERE THE FATHER OF THE LATE LAMENTED COMMANDANT KOLBE CONDUCTED A BUSHMEN MISSION SCHOOL, AND WHICH IS NOW COLESBERG”. Colesberg was laid out in 1830. If Montgomery is right — and he is recalling forty-five years back, and names the man only as the father of a Commandant who had died the year before — then the Settler was keeping a mission school for Bushmen on this ground six years before there was a town on it, and twenty years before he died in the district.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| c. 1824 | “Koolskop, where the father of the late lamented Commandant Kolbe conducted a Bushmen mission school, and which is now Colesberg” |
| 25 Jun 1840 | the James Montjoy death notice signed at Colesberg |
| 1 Dec 1844 | George Augustus Kolbe dies at Wurtemburg |
| Jan 1845 | M. Kolbe signs his death notice |