Kestell is a small

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

farming town in the Free State province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Town 46 km west of

Harrismith Harrismith is a large town in the Free State province of South Africa. It was named for Sir Harry Smith, a 19th-century British governor and high commissioner of the Cape Colony. It is situated by the Wilge River, alongside the N3 highway, ab ...

and east of

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

. The new village was laid out in 1905 on the farms Mooifontein and Driekuil, acquired from Adriaan and Johannes Bezuidenhout. It became a municipality in 1906.

Dutch Reformed Church and town's naming

Dutch_Reformed_Church,_van_Riebeeck_Street,_Kestell

It is named after the Reverend Dr. John Daniel Kestell (1854 - 1941), Anglo-Afrikaner minister of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

from 1894 to 1903, author and cultural leader, who played an important role in the Anglo-Boer War and later helped with the

Bible translations into Afrikaans Early history Arnoldus Pannevis proposed an Afrikaans Bible translation in 1872 in a letter to a newspaper. The translation of the Bible which was used in the Dutch Reformed Church at the time was the Statenbijbel, and Afrikaans was not regar ...

. The Dutch Reformed Church building, designed by famed architect of dozens of churches and the Voortrekker Monument,

Gerard Moerdijk Gerard Leendert Pieter Moerdijk (Zwaershoek farm near Nylstroom, Transvaal, 4 March 1890 – Nylstroom, 29 March 1958), also known as Gerard Moerdyk, was a South African architect best known for designing the Voortrekker Monument in Preto ...

, was inaugurated on 31 March 1928. The township was surveyed and laid out by William Homan in 1905. To prevent jealousy he 'called the long streets after the tall members of the committee and the short streets after the short members.'When the committee insisted that Homan had a street named after him, he selected 'a rough short street' which still bears that name.Memoirs of William Homan

War Battle

It is located southeast from the

Battle of Groenkop In the Battle of Groenkop (Battle of Tweefontein) on 25 December 1901, Head Commandant Christiaan de Wet's Boer commando surprised and defeated a force of Imperial Yeomanry under the command of Major Williams. Background By late 1901, de Wet' ...

-site of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

. The battle took place on 25 December 1901 when General Christiaan De Wet's

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

troops defeated a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

column.

References

External links

Kestell - South Africa
Website managed by Kestell residents Populated places in the Maluti a Phofung Local Municipality Populated places established in 1905 Populated places founded by Afrikaners 1905 establishments in South Africa {{FreeState-geo-stub