DIE GESKIEDENIS VAN SMITHFEILD END DIE CALEDONRIVIERDISTRIK, 1819-1952 (Signed by Author and With Note)

784pp. Afrikaans text. Hardcover binding with black lettering to spine and front board. With several black and white photographs. Condition: Good-very good. Light rubbing to boards and spine, stains to front board, light shelfwear to top and tail of spine, with small closed tear to top edge. Light yellowing to endpapers, some creasing to bottom corners of some pages. Text and photos are clean. Well bound.

Signed by author on front pastedown and front endpaper, and with note by author on rear pastedown.

‘Smithfield is the third-oldest town in the Free State after Philippolis and Winburg. The town was founded in 1849 by Sir Harry Smith who laid the cornerstone of the new church on the farm Waterval of SC Halse. The farm was 24 km south west of the current town and plots were sold from 1 December 1848. However, the plots did not sell because the people knew that water was scarce in the area. During November of the following year, plots were sold on the farm Rietpoort. Smithfield did not become a municipality until 1948, although the first town council was established in 1860.

There was much fighting in the Smithfield district during the Basotho Wars. In 1855, Moshoeshoe and Sir George Grey held peace negotiations in the town. However, the peace was short-lived; wars followed in 1858, 1865 and 1867.’ (https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield, translated into English using Google Translate)

Size: 4to (25 x 19cm)

Bloemfontein: N.G. Sendingpers, 1955