Pacaltsdorp
(prior to 1910)
The settlement of Hooge Kraal was established in 1813 as a station of the London Missionary Society (LMS). In 1818 its name was changed to Pacaltsdorp, in honour of the Rev Carl Pacalt, the first missionary to serve there. John Campbell, Director of the LMS, who was instrumental in seconding the Rev Pacalt to Hooge Kraal, visited there in 1819 and reported that: "In no part of the colony did I observe a greater alteration or improvement than at the (Khoikhoi) town of Hooge Kraal, now called Pacaltsdorp ... Soon after (March 1813) Mr Pacalt, a pious, disinterested, and active Missionary from the London Society, commenced a mission to this people, and continued with them till his death ... On revisiting this kraal in 1819 ... I found the settlement surrounded by a wall, six feet in height, five feet thick at the bottom, and tapering to the top, the whole length being 6,767 feet. Enclosures for securing their cattle in the night-time were surrounded by walls of the same construction ... Their gardens contained peach, apricot and fig trees, potatoes, pumpkins, water- melons, cabbages, beans, peas, Indian corn ..."
In 1822 the Reverend William Anderson joined the mission, and both he and his family continued to play a leading role in the affairs of the village for more than a century. The 1875 census indicated that Pacaltsdorp mission station had a population of 495. In 1891 this number had risen to 632, but by 1904 it had dropped to 571.
Prepared by Franco Frescura.
