The van Pletzen Saga

by Helen Lewald (nee Van Pletsen)
Translated by Blane van Pletzen-Rands
(Klik vir Afrikaans)
(Click for Genealogy)

Here follows The van Pletsen Saga , which I have promised to write down before I become senile and can’t remember anything. I cannot guarantee that all the facts, dates, etc., are accurate, because what I am writing is based on hearsay on what father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, and old aunts and uncles have told me!

According to my uncle Sauer van Pletsen (who had journalistic leanings and allowed a few books to see the light of day), one, Carl Johannes von Plessen, born 1795 in East Prussia, ran into difficulty with the authorities and left that land and established himself in Brabant, Belgium. (Grandfather’s sister, Aunt Mart Vorster, boasted the fact that we Van Pletsens were originally Von Plessens and, therefore, belonged to the German aristocracy and then my father’s brother, the stately childishly absurd uncle Kootjie, always deflated her with these words: “Oh well, Auntie Mart. The old rascal was probably a horse thief. That’s why he had to get out of East Prussia!”)

In Brabant, he became a mercenary, and as such fought under Napoleon. After the battle of Waterloo, he and a certain Havenga (surely an ancestor of Klasie Havenga) arrived here [South Africa] in 1820 as stowaways on a ship. It appears that he ended up in Graaf Reinet and married an Anna Susanna Sauer (born 1805) whose father, Johan Nicholas Sauer, had come from Keulen in Germany to be a school teacher in Graaf Reinet. His wife was Susanna Maryna Mulder.

This Johan Nicholas Sauer was the forefather of former Minister Paul Sauer. Carl Johannes von Plessen was 25 years old when he arrived in South Africa in 1820, and lived to 93. When my grandfather, Carl Johannes van Pletsen, was born in 1857, the above-mentioned Carl was a man of 62, and when he passed away in 1888, that’s when Carl Johannes van Pletsen was a man of 32. He knew his grandfather well, but apparently did not pay much attention to the old man’s ancestry. Pity! What he remembers well and repeatedly told our children was the fact that his grandfather came from Brabant, Belgium, and that he had fought under Napoleon and that he “had married a pretty Sauer who always said, “What is this ‘von’ nonsense? It’s mos ‘van!’” and so the name became Van Pletzen.

To my eternal shame and regret, during that time I didn’t place enough importance to ask grandfather if he could still speak Dutch and when the “Plessen” became “Pletzen” –and now it’s too late for tears.

My insight is that the alteration of the “ss” to “tz” is very understandable. The “ss” is written in German as β and to the uneducated at the time, it must have appeared completely strange, and the “tz” was the most likely on-the-fly solution. Over time, the pronunciation of the name changed to Pletzen. For some, this was still not phonetical enough, and became Pletsen.

We Afrikaners have never had much respect for either the spelling or the pronunciation of a foreign name. Think of the De Raans (du Rand), Lospers (Laubscher), Lawwerskaiings (Labuschagne), Du Toois (Du Toit), and Senekals (Seneschal).

Here follows a few of the yarns that Grandpa told us children many times. I quote, “Yes, he and another little fool by the name of Havenga crept away on a ship without paying. They hid in a large vat and when they later emerged, they were almost dead from hunger and the lice had almost eaten them up.” Then Grandfather shook as he laughed over the predicament that the two had found themselves in.

Further: “He said that Napoleon wasn’t afraid of anything. One day he was sitting in front of his tent writing a report when a bomb burst so nearby so that dirt and rocks rained down over the table where Napoleon was, and Napoleon came running over with just such huge bumps on his head.” Here Grandfather always used his fist to show just how large the lumps were.

And then: “This Napoleon was as brave as a lion. He was a short, pudgy fellow with a pot belly, you know, child, but he had just a little heart. When a fight was near, he always walked around among the dead with his right hand in front of his chest and his left hand behind his back, and then he would weep like a child.”

(A little over-the-top I find, but with the many retellings the van Pletsens naturally added one more tiny detail.) “And child, there was a man that knew how to drill soldiers. “In the evening, they had to “spoon” when they slept in the bush, and at midnight an officer would come and yell “TURN!”, and then the whole bunch rolled over and spooned in the other direction.” (Grandfather always ended this unbelievable and unlikely story with the words: “Yes, child, if we had had such generals the Boer War would have gone in a different direction!”) Nonsense! He must have been very small when his grandfather told him this story, and he naturally grabbed the sharp end of the story, but we children always ate it up like sweets.

When I later heard of Napoleon and his comings and goings, I sometimes laughed whenever the picture of the spooning soldiers crossed my mind. With the return from Moscow it wasn’t such a bad plan after all. But to get back toCarl Johannes von Plessen. He and Anna Susanna lived in Graaf Reinet where her father (in-law?) was deputy sheriff as well as teacher, and I quote Grandfather again: “She was in bed with a baby when the thatched roof of the house caught fire. They couldn’t carry her out through the door, which was also on fire, so they carried her, the bed, and the child out the window.”

The house and everything in it burned up and poor Carl Johannes probably stood there in his nightshirt surely also wet from perspiration from carrying Anna Susanna out the window. Then one of his neighbors gave him a jacket. I can still hear my mother ending the story in shocked whisperings with the words, “And child, he first cut off all the buttons!” (Also understandable. It was around 1832 when buttons were trade articles in South Africa.)

They moved to Burghersdorp where both of them taught. Anna Susanna’s terrifying experience in the burning house in Graaf Reinet apparently did not dampen her enthusiasm as she, with renewed strength and iron will, brought nine male heirs into the world. In that time of (fruitfulness), it must have caused quite a stir when Andries Stockenstroom (at that time, lieutenant governor in the Eastern Province) presented her with two farms (9000 Morgan) 1000 Morgan for each son. The farms, “Luipaardsvlei” and “Jachtpoort”, lay in the district of Burghersdorp.

The Names of Anna Susanna’s Nine Sons:

1. Carl Jacobus — born 10 January 1832. Established himself in Jamestown.
2. Johannes Francois — born 17 August 1835. My great-grandfather. Established himself in Rouxville.
3. Diederik Johannes — [born April 1828] Established himself in Burghersdorp.
4. Jan Jacobus — Established himself in Burghersdorp [or Jan Carel — born about 1823 or 1824 in Graaf-Reinet; established himself in Albert on farm “Jagspoort”].
5. Nicolaas Johannes [or Nicolaas Everhardus]— Established himself in Burghersdorp.
6. Petrus Nicolaas — [born April 1840 in Albert district] Established himself in Dordrecht.
7. Everhardus Georg Frederik — Established himself in Rouxville. [Married to Susara Johanna Brits]
8. Stephanus Albertus — Established himself in Rouxville.
9. Jacobus Francois — [born about 1847] Established himself in Rouxville.

Anybody that is Van Pletsen, Van Pletzen or van Pletzen is descended from these nine sons. If one bumps into a Van Pletsen, he’s always from Jamestown, Barkley East, Burghersdorp or Dordrecht’s part of the world in the Free State, or Rouxville, Zastron or Wepener.

Family names that always crop up are Carl Johannes, Johannes Francois, Stephanus, Nicolaas, and Diederik. In a nutshell, the names of Anna Susanna’s nine pioneers!

Old Carl Johannes and his wife later trekked to Rouxville. There he died and is buried on a farm by the name of “Droogfontein”, while Anna Susanna is buried at “Knoffelspruit”.

The oldest son of Carl Johannes (the one we always spoke of as “the old immigrant”) was Carl Jacobus — born 10 Jan 1832. Married Martha Christina Smith of the farm “Wingerd” in Aliwal North.

1. Susanna Lucya — born 1857
2. Carl Jacobus — born 1859
3. Petrus Nicolaas — born 1861
4. Jan Jacobus — born 1863 [Married Hester Catharina Nel, who died 1 Jan 1902, then married Judith Roodt]
5. Anna Susanna — born 1865
6. Martha Christina
7. Erasmus Jacobus
8. Alida Hendrina Margaretha
9. Diederik Johannes — born 1874
10. Stephanus Albertus — born 1876

The second son of “the old immigrant” was Johannes Francois — born 17 August 1835. Married Susanna Lucya Smith, also from the farm “Wingerd” in Aliwal North, and a sister of Carl Jacobus’ wife. He was my great-grandfather.

A portrait of this ancestor hung in my grandfather’s farmhouse at “Cloverley” in Barkley East and there was also one in the entry of his brother Stephanus’ farmhouse at “Workshop” in Wepener.

We always spoke of this bearded, stern-looking old person as the “ou gang Van Pletsen”.

My sister, Dulcie Kroon, of Memel, Orange Free State, also possesses a portrait of him, also interesting because it is of a younger and friendlier man.

My deceased brother Carl’s son Johannes Francois (“Nacht Wacht”, Kokstad) possesses the burial list of the old forefather. Very interesting. A beautiful quill and ink drawing of the coffin lid with the names of the mourners and then, in beautiful “copperplate” handwriting the names of the pallbearers also unbelievably presented.

In any case, two brothers married two sisters. At that time there weren’t as many choices as one has today.

The names of Johannes Francois and Susanna Lucya’s nine children:

1. Carl Johannes, my grandfather, born 22 Feb 1857, died 15 Oct 1938. Married to Frederika Petronella Magdalena Henning, of the farm “Lusthof”, Rouxville.
2. Petrus Nicolaas, Married to Alida Henning, of the farm “Modderpoort”, Jamestown. (This is Ras van Pletsen’s father. He was killed in the war and Ras grew up at the “Workshop” with his Uncle Faan and Aunt Nonnie.)
3. Jan Jacobus, Married Elizabeth Brümmer (commited suicide).
4. Johannes Francois, Married [Susanna Jacoba] Henning, of the farm “Lusthof”, Rouxville. A sister of my grandmother, Frederika.
5. Anna Susanna, Married Phillipus Roux of Zastron.
6. Martha Magdalena Maria, married Oelof Abraham Servaas Vorster of Barkly East. (These were the grandparents of the artist, Anna Vorster.)
7. Susanna Lucya, married Thomas Theron of Cedarville (twin sister of Martha.) Another propensity of the Van Pletsens.
8. Stephanus Jacobus, married Jacoba Katarina Maria Swart (Nonnie) of “Workshop”, Wepener. (Dina, Kokie, Stefaansand Erica’s grandparents.)
9. Alida Hendrina Margaretha, married Jacobus Smith of Wepener.

The “gang Van Pletsen’s” second wife was Frederika Petronella Magadelena Kotze. Her four children:

1. Susanna Jacoba, married to Gert Venter.
2. Jan Nicolaas, married to Johanna van Biljon.
3. Frederika Petronella Magdalena, married to Gert van Biljon.
4. Everhardus Georg, married to Alida Hendrina Margaretha van Pletsen, born 29 September 1900. (Granddaughter of the “emigrant’s” oldest son, Carl Jacobus. Her father was Jan Jacobus, born 1863).

The aforementioned Alida Jendrina van Pletsen (Tant Alie) paid great attention to the Van Pletsen family tree, and when I visited her she had much to tell about all she had heard from her father. According to Tant Alie, the “ou emigrant” was one Carl Joacobus von Plettscher, born 1795 in “Wurtburg near Berlin.” This doesn’t sound very believable to me. The name “Jacobus” is not German, and there isn’t such a place near Berlin – or anywhere else in Germany. Wartburg, yes, and Würzbur, which is not near Berlin. Personally, I have more confidence in Oom Jan Sauer’s experience. He spent weeks sniffing around the Cape Town archives, while Tant Alie’s facts rely on hearsay – and one knows how such stories, in the retelling, become embellished and truncated. I am reminded of Oupa’s retelling of Napoleon’s “spooning” soldiers!

I quote Tant Allie: “Carl Jacobus von Plettscher fought as a volunteer under Napoleon. (I find it difficult to believe that a German aristocrat would willingly relocate to France to fight under the hated Napoleon. Oom Jan Sauer’s story that he came from Brabant, where he perhaps lived for years, and hired on as a mercenary seems more probable.) Further: “He and his mother’s brother, a certain Bender, were both bodyguards for Napoleon, and here I have a champagne flask that he and Napoleon drank out of in Waterloo where they sat together on a large rock.” (I ask you – with tears in my eyes – can you imagine that Napoleon had either the time or the desire to sit on a rock and share a flask with his bodyguards? With no glasses nogal? I don’t.)

She tells more: “After Waterloo he became a sailor and he and Bender arrived as such in South Africa on the same ship as the family Sauer. He later married a Sauer girl.” Again I choose to believe Oupa’s story: that the “ou emigrant” and young Havenga arrived as stowaways; he knew his grandfather well, and the old man no doubt told this story to him many times. When Tant Alie was born in 1900, the “ou emigrant” was already dead twelve years.

She told me that Johannes Francois van Pletsen (the “gang” Van Pletsen’s second son from the “ou emigrant”) was a very rich man and owned 20,000 Morgan – enough to give each of his six sons a large farm. Johannes Francois (No. 4) (Oom Hans) inherited Kalfontein in Rouxville. Jan Nicolaas (Oom Jan) inherited Knoffelspruit in Rouxville.

It’s told that poor Jan gambled the farm away. Other farms that he owned were Hoefontein, Tierhoek, Wonderwater, Klarrwater and Vinkelfontein. Tant Allie told me that “Barkly East’s world had just been cleaned of the kaffirs . . .” when old Johannes Francois (“gang” Van Pletsen) bought a 4,300 Morgan property for his eldest son Carl Johannes (my Grandfather). I was born on the farm Cloverley in 1904 when my father was 24 years old. I know he spent his early childhood there, but I’m not certain where he was born in 1880.

The house, built by my grandfather, still stands to this day. Cloverley is one of many English farm names in Barkley East, the choice of many an English landowner with a love for English literature. (Die boere het hulle bloedweinig aan die poësie van name gesteur. Cloverley was in die omgangstaal gewoonlik Klavervlei en die name uit Tennyson se “Morte d’Arthur” het ook maar sleg daarvan afgekom.) I think of “Kammalot” (Camelot) en “Laaines” (Lyonesse).

Names of Carl Johannes (oldest son of Johannes Francois, the “gang” Van Pletsen), and Frederika Petronella Magdalene Henning’s children:

1. Frederika Petronella Magdalena (Frikkie) married toNicolaas van Zyl (Cedarville Oos Griekwaland).
2. Johannes Francois (Frans) (Born 11 Augustue 1880) – Married to Dina Johanna Crouse (Gebore 21 November 1877) (Graaff Reinet).
3. Carl Johannes married to Maria Magdalena Crouse (Sister to Dina Johanna) (Graaff Reinet).
4. Anna Susanna (Sannie) married to Jan van Zyl (Brother to Nicolaas) (Cedarville).
5. Jacobus (Koot) married to Molly Botha (Barkly Oos).
6. Petrus (Piet) married to Lottie Pietersen (Barkly Oos).
7. Jan Sauer married to Rachel Toerin (Riversdal).
8. Nicolaas (Klaas) married to Marie Jacobs; Chrisie Hertzog; Ann Stander.
9. Stephanus (Faan) married to Ada Gordon (Kaapstad).

Names of Stephanus Jacobus (son of “gang” Van Pletsen) and Jacoba Katarina Maria Swart’s (Nonnie) children:

1. Johannes Francois (Cois) married to Frederika Petronella van Pletsen (Frikkie) (daughter of Johannes Francois (Frans) – Born 1880 and great-granddaughter of Johannes Francois – Born 1835).
2. Stephanus married to Lily Loteryman.

Names of Johannes Francois (Frans) – Born 1880 and Dina Johanna Crouse’s children:

1. Helena Susare (Helen) married to Otto Albrecht Lewald (Berlyn, Duitsland). Born 8 June 1904.
2. Frederika Petronella Magdalene (Frikkie) married toJohannes Francois (Cois) van Pletsen (Grandson of Johannes Francois “gang” van Pletsen). Born 18 October 1905.
3. Carl Johannes married to Joan Kumm, Kokstad.
4. Dina Johanna (Dulcie) married to Gerrit Kroon (Memel, O.V.S.)
5. Reinet Seneschal (René) married to Malcolm Fisher Vincent (Durban).

Names of Carl Johannes and Maria Magdelena Crouse’s children:

1. Carl Johannes.
2. Heloise Helena
3. Jurgen Crouse married to Jeanette Theresia (Tikkie) Smit (Harrismith, O.F.S.)
4. Frederika (Erika) married to Wilhelm Dreyer (Cape Town).
5. Yvonne married to Marthinus Johannes van der Westhuizen (Pretoria).

Names of Helena Susara and Albrecht Lewald’s children:

1. Deanne Seneschal married to Horst Raszat (Heidelberg, Germany).
2. Theo Roon married to Lynn Joanne Kock (Klerksdorp).

Names of Frederika Petronella Magdalena and Johannes Francois van Pletsen’s children:

1. Dina Johanna.
2. Stephanus married to Gretchen Strauss (Wepener).
3. Jacoba (Kokie) married to Herman Thörmahlen (Strand).
4. Erika Ronel married to Piet Heymans.

Names of Carl Johannes and Joan Kumm’s children:

1. Nina married to Johan du Rand.
2. Johannes Francois married to Myrna Rock.

Names of Dina Johanna (Dulcie) en Gerrit Kroon’s children:

1. Gerrit van Pletsen Kroon married to Jeanette de Villiers.
2. Johannes Francois married to Frederika van Schalkwyk (Vlooitjie).
3. Cornelis (Corrie).

Names of Reinet Seneschalen and Malcolm Vincent’s children:

1. Dina-Ann.
2. Linda Jean married to Rodney Penpreaph.
3. Helen Bell.

Names of Jurgen Crouse van Pletsen and Jeanette Theresia Smit’s children:

1. Jeanette Theresia
2. Carl Johannes (Johan).
3. Engela Rietta.
4. Heloise Erika Yvonne.
5. Jurgen Smit.

Name of Frederika (Erika) van Pletsen and Wilhelm Dreyer’s child:

1. Erika.

Names of Yvonne van Pletsen and Martin van der Westhuizen’s children:

1. Marleen.
2. Mattheus Jacobus.
3. Liesel.

Enjoy the read! I hope your minds are not going around the bend with all the Johannes’ Francois’ and Carl Johanesses!

Pretoria, Tvl.
Helen Lewald. (nee Van Pletsen)

January 1974

Epilogue

Please allow me, on behalf of the “Clan”, to thank Helen for the “Van Pletsen Saga.” It’s an interesting narrative and a priceless collection that, had she not committed to paper now, would have been nearly impossible to recreate. Thank you, little niece, for your beautiful gift to us.

Florida, Transvaal
Jurgen van Pletsen

June 1974