Rhemhoogte No. 125
125 on the cadastre · on record 1873–1971 · show on the map
- Farm number
- No. 125
- On the cadastre
- 125, whole farmregistered as RHEMHOOGTE
- District
- Prince Albert
- Modern surveyed area
- 12288.9 ha
Why this farm is here
Abel Albertus Oosthuizen held it. 17 km from Klaarstroom.
Abel Albertus Oosthuizen is on record on this ground directly. No trace needed.
- story A written history names this ground Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
- story A written history names this ground Eighty-one thousand morgen
- story A written history names this ground The war reaches the Koup
- parcel Ground cut out of this farm: Annex Modderdrift (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 3)
- …and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.
Stories
- mentions this farm
Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
From a loan farm on the Zwartberg to eight cadastral parcels: the full documented history of Middelwater No. 169 - Stretch's 1833 survey for Okert Oosthuizen, the twelve-farm grant day of 1841, the 1883 resurvey and the 1884 quitrent to J.D.J. Oosthuysen 'and another', the portions cut off for a spring called Vaste Water and a place called Avondrust, and the 1990 power-line survey whose coordinates finally put the farm on a map.
- mentions this farm
Eighty-one thousand morgen
Frederik Simon 'Oom Frikkie' Oosthuizen died in 1936 holding, by one account, 81,000 morgen around Zwartkraal - about a quarter of all the ground on this map. This project holds not one deed in his name. What the money was probably in, what it was certainly not in, and the one document that would settle it.
- mentions this farm
The war reaches the Koup
The Anglo-Boer War came to these farms twice: up the road from Klaarstroom on 2 February 1901, when a running fight through Die Gang left a Boer of Scheepers's commando dead on Remhoogte; and quietly in 1903, when a woman from Tulbagh married into a Prince Albert family having buried two brothers in Natal thirty-four days apart - two brothers Deneys Reitz very probably names in Commando.
What the record holds, in order
- 1873 document SG diagram verso 861/1873 (verso)
-
1875
document
SG diagram B.876/1875
P.A.Q.2-20
-
1 July 1879
ownership
Abel Albertus Oosthuizen (5 October 1849–22 June 1918)
Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence medium
- 1931 boundary change subdivision: becomes Annex Modderdrift (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 3)
- 1937 boundary change subdivision: becomes Kareemoerhoek (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 4)
-
1948
burial
Barend Cornelius Vry _1 Diedericks
Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
-
1948
burial
Barend Cornelius Vry _2 Diedericks
Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
-
1954
burial
Jan Vreek Visagie
Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125
- 1971 boundary change consolidation: becomes Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 5)
Ground cut out of this farm
- Annex Modderdrift (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 3) 3/125 · 2037.2 ha
- Kareemoerhoek (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 4) 4/125 · 1561.1 ha
- Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 1
- Groot Sleutelfontein (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 2) 2/125 · 381.1 ha
- Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 8 8/125 · 4785.4 ha
- Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 5) 5/125 · 11128.2 ha
- Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 6) 6/125 · 4779.8 ha
- Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 7 7/125 · 5.6 ha
Buried on this ground
- Zwartskraal farm cemetery, Rhemhoogte 125 3 graves recorded
The burials also appear on this farm's timeline above, each at its own date.
Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it
Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.
- N Modderdrift No. 106
- N Trakasdrif (Modderdrift No. 106 Remainder)
- N Modderdrift No. 106 Ptn 4
- N Modderdrift No. 239
- N Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 5)
- NE Annex Modderdrift (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 3)
- NE Klipgat No. 114
- NE Kalkgat (Klipgat No. 114 Ptn 7)
- NE Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 8
- E Rondabel
- E Rondawel (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 1)
- E Visgat (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 2)
- E Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 8
- E Swartskraal (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 6)
- SE Rondabel No. 124 Remainder
- S Middelwater
- S Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 3
- SW Kareemoerhoek (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 4)
- SW Middelwater No. 169 Ptn 1
- SW Reim Hoogte No. 167
- W Groot Sluitel Fontein No. 126
- W Noorsdoringkop (Groot Sluitel Fontein No. 126 Ptn 1)
- W Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127
- W Bloemendal Annex No. 164
- W Groot Sleutelfontein (Rhemhoogte No. 125 Ptn 2)
- NW Kleinbotterkraal (Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 Ptn 1)
Documents
Cadastre
Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel
Research notes
MIDDELWATER'S NORTHERN NEIGHBOUR - the "Remhoogte" on the 1883 Middelwater diagram's north boundary and the 1915 registry map. THREE Remhoogte-named farms exist in the division: this No.125, Reim Hoogte No.167 (Middelwater's WESTERN neighbour, DOC-0070/0071), and Rhemhoogte No.8 in the Gouph (DOC-0083) - never conflate them. Farm diagram B.876/1875 (DOC-0082, part 1 held; part 2 with the data NOT yet held). Granted 1.7.1879, deed P.A.Q.2-20, to "(J.)A.A. Oosthuysen & another" (OWN-000060) - THE OOSTHUIZEN FARM NORTH OF MIDDELWATER. Neighbours per the 1875 face: Groot/Klein Sleutel Fontein, Middel Water, Rondavel, Modderdrift, Zoutwater, Klipgat; Traka River the boundary through it. Whole-farm diagram cancelled vide farm 125/5 (CCT 7856/72). Extent not yet read (on part 2).
[SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] THE AFFAIR AT REMHOOGTE, 2 Feb 1901: the Boers caught the retreating Imperial Yeomanry here; Johannes KleuM (PER-000518) was shot and died in the farmhouse; the owner is given as 'R DU PLESSIS' and his daughter MIEMIE DU PLESSIS, then ten, remembered it. We hold no owner for this farm in 1901. Judy Maguire's 'Prince Albert and the Anglo Boer War: The Affair at Wolwekraal, Remhoogte' (Prince Albert Museum, 2021) is the study of it.
[3 Aug 2026, SRC-207] THE GRANTEES ARE NAMED. Diagram 978/1883 for Portion 1 describes it as "being one-half of the farm RHEMHOOGTE granted to Mess[rs] J AND J A OOSTHUYSEN on the 1st July 1879". This row and OWN-000060 have carried that grant as '(J.)A.A. Oosthuysen & another'. The 'another' is a second OOSTHUYSEN - two men of the same surname took the farm together. [TO VERIFY which J and which J.A.]
[SRC-325, 7 Aug 2026] A FARM CEMETERY IS RECORDED ON THIS GROUND BY eGGSA: 'Rhemhoogte 125, Zwartskraal', Cemetery ID 7838, at -33.175800, 22.541050. Photographs and captions at https://graveswcape.eggsa.org/PRINCE-ALBERT-Rural/Rhemhoogte-125/ - linked, not copied.
[9 Aug 2026] WHY THE PORTIONS OF THIS FARM DO NOT ADD UP, AND HOW FAR THAT GETS US. checks.py reports farm 125's portions summing to 23,654.4 ha against this row's 12,288.9, which is 92.5% over. Reading DOC-0177 removes the largest part of it: GEDEELTE 8 IS GEDEELTE 6 AND GEDEELTE 7 COMPILED INTO ONE FIGURE, 4728,2437 + 4,6475 = 4732,8912 exactly, so about 4,785 ha is in the sum twice. Drop it and the portions come to 18,869.0 ha, still 53.5% over. THE LIKELY REST OF THE ANSWER IS THAT THIS ROW IS THE REMAINDER, NOT THE WHOLE FARM. That is exactly what Klaarstroom No. 178 turned out to be (PAR-000097): its extent_text was the farm before the resurvey and its sg_area_ha was the Remainder the resurvey left, 30% apart. Not proven here. [TO VERIFY] against the original grant extent for Rhemhoogte and the deduction table on B.876/1875 (DOC-0082).
The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.
Open questions
-
match_cadastre.py no longer reproduces the geometry on disk
priority 1 · LEAD-0017
Re-running match_cadastre.py against the current CSVs changes 11 parcels and does not reproduce what is in parcels.csv. Which is right?
What would settle it Deciding per parcel whether the script's match or the hand entry is correct, then either fixing the script's name-matching or recording the hand values as deliberate.
-
Where did Frikkie's money come from
priority 2 · LEAD-0012
What built Frederik Simon OosthuizenM's (PER-000006) 81,000-morgen fortune around Zwartkraal?
What would settle it The 1936 estate inventory - it would list every farm with its purchase deed, date and value, i.e. the whole accumulation history in one document
-
Is Arthur Kleu the painter one of the Kleus of Klueplaas? And is Kleu the same surname as Klue?
priority 3 · LEAD-0125
Frans holds a painting of MEIRINGSPOORT by ARTHUR LIONEL KLEU (1915-2008), a shopkeeper, inherited from his grandfather. Middelwater carries the werf name KLUEPLAAS. Are they one family, and are Kleu and Klue one surname?
What would settle it A common ancestor, or a Kleu/Klue baptism at Prince Albert or Klaarstroom in the nineteenth century that ties either line to the district.
What the record is missing
-
The record stops in 1879 and never resumes
second order · B2 trail-ends
Rhemhoogte No. 125 was worked as far as 1879-07-01, with Abel Albertus OosthuizenH the last owner on record. 147 years follow with nothing. Who held it after that, and is it still one farm?
What would settle it The current title deed traced backwards, each transfer names the one before it, or the Surveyor-General's subdivision diagrams, which are what usually explain a farm going quiet.
Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand,
each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data.
The whole set is on the
questions page.