Eastern Cape, JANSENVILLE district, Rural (farm cemeteries) / Eastern Cape, JANSENVILLE district, Darlington Dam, Dwaas 232_1, Lake Mentz Memorial and cemetery / (8 of 8 images)
Cemetery information:-
Darlington was a hamlet officially founded in 1905 by a hawker and farmer, P.W.F. Weyers, who harboured a life-long grudge against the Boers because they shot and killed two of his cows on Bedrogsfontein Pass during the Anglo-Boer War.
Darlington disappeared when Lake Mentz was built to supply irrigation water to Sundays River Valley farmers.
Lake Mentz. is a gravity type dam situated in the Sundays River, near Kirkwood. It was completed in 1922 and only filled by 1928, the delay a result of extensive drought. The construction experienced many setbacks, including lack of materials and machinery, with shortages caused by the First World War, unsuitable labour (returning soldiers), the 1918 influenza epidemic, bubonic plague, very difficult logistics and drought.
It was renamed Darlington Dam in 1990.
(source: Wikipedia & https://aridareas.co.za/roses-s-roundup/darlington-a-damn-fine-story/)
Album complete.
eGGSA captions by: Annel Meyer & James Anderson
The GGSA Cemetery DVD only has information on the cemetery location.
Cemetery ID: 5877
Google Earth Cemetery Initiative Information:-
GPSID: 7043
GPS: -33 12.767, 25 08.585
VIENINGS Johannes Wilhelmus 1871-1927
VIENNINGS J. - bailiff (VIENNINGS Johannes Wilhelmus, aged 55) MERWE D., van der - labourer (MERWE Daniel Johannes, v.d., aged 42) NEIL N. - blacksmith & fitter (NEIL Nicolaas Johannes Hendrik, aged 36) The event was described in the Adelaide newspaper: That night the Irrigation Board's employees entered the water tower to open the valves that would release the imprisoned tons of water. The men's lantern was extinguished by a gust of air. One of the crew struck a match which ignited an accumulation of marsh gas. the tower became a sheet of flame, from which emerged blackened figures that jumped 30 feet to the rocks below in their suffering. Three men died and the great irrigation gates of the lake were locked fast by the explosion for two months. (source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56515340?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FR%2Ftitle%2F89%2F1927%2F10%2F08%2Fpage%2F5115175%2Farticle%2F56515340) -South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Records, 1840-1972", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WFM3-NBPZ : Sat Oct 14 00:41:03 UTC 2023), Entry for Johannes Wilhelmus Vienings, 18 Apr 1927.
contributed by: Fleur Way-Jones
viewed 370 times
