Ventersburg is a small town in the
Lejweleputswa District Municipality of the
Free State province in
South Africa, 148 km north of
Bloemfontein.
History
It was established on the farm Kromfontein which was owned by PA Venter who died in
1857
Events January–March
* January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, ''Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen.
* January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating.
* Janua ...
. His son allowed a Reform Church to be established on the farm in
1864
Events
January–March
* January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song " ...
and by 1871, the first plots of the original farm were sold. Ventersburg was declared on 6 May 1873. The Dutch Reform Church was built in Ventersburg in
1891
Events
January–March
* January 1
** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany.
** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence.
**Germany takes formal possession of its new Africa ...
but it was burnt down in 1900 by the British forces during the
Boer War. The church was later re-built in 1912.
Law and government
Government
In
1903
Events January
* January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
* January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...
, Ventersburg became a municipality. On 5 December 2000 it was incorporated into the
Matjhabeng Local Municipality along with the city of
Welkom and the towns of
Allanridge,
Hennenman,
Odendaalsrus, and
Virginia.
Under
apartheid, many black residents lived outside Ventersburg in ''Mmamahabane'', an extra-municipal township. The location has since been expanded into a second district, Tswelangpele.
References
Populated places in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality
Populated places founded by Afrikaners
Populated places established in 1873
1873 establishments in the Orange Free State
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