SMITHFIELDThe laying of the foundation stone of a church by Sir Harry Smith, Governor of the Cape Colony, on the farm Waterval in 1848 did little to boost the growth of this town. When erven were placed on the auction block in December 1848, buyers were deterred by the scarcity of water in the area, and in the following year the town was moved to the farm Rietpoort, 24 km northeast of the original site. The Basotho War Memorial in front of the City Hall serves as a reminder of the turbulent frontier wars in which the town also played a role. The Caledon Museum contains a display on the life of Christiaan De Wet, the famed Boer general of the South African War, as well as Grietjie, a ship’s cannon used in the Free State wars against the Basotho, and an 18th-century kitchen. Outside Smithfield is the farm Leeukop, where De Wet was born in 1854, the remains of the Traacha Wool Washing Works, established in 1874, and the farm Beersheba, the site of a former French mission station. |
