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All you ever wanted to know about the Boksburg Historical Association

We are a group of enthusiastic & dedicated people who are primarily committed to the continuing preservation and dissemination of the history of Boksburg and surrounding areas

This Municipal Seal was used officially by the Boksburg Town Council between 1904 and 1957

Limited stocks are

available of our very interesting & informative book:

The Incredible Saga of

The Boksburg Commando 1899-1902 by George Mills

Please contact us at the e-mail address below for details

VISIT OUR NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES

Please consult our extensive on-line archive of Newsletters from 2000 to 2008 in PDF format. These cover a comprehensive range of subjects, all with an historical perspective, and most involving Boksburg and its environs. Click here to browse the collection or type your search request above. (Note: the Search Engine takes a while to update the latest postings)

Question: What did we use before candles?

Answer: Electricity!

Yes, it is true. There was a power station built at

Brakpan Dam, the Rand Central Electric Works

in 1897. A power line ran from this station across

the veld to E.R.P.M. in Boksburg as early as

1903. But by 1909, East Rand Proprietary Mines

had built their own power station, out near the

Angelo Hotel, off Main Reef Road. So did the

New Kleinfontein Mine, down at Kleinfontein dam

even if the power was 110 volts and 25 cycles

Miners still had to use candles to see under-

ground, even when they took their family to see

the workings, but in 1909 ERPM generated their

own power for winding engines and lighting in

workshops.

Lights on in old Boksburg - By Peter Wood, BHA Researcher

Family History research service available on request

The Boss of Boksburg

Sam (Smooel) Nathanson was the original big gangster & racketeer on the Witwaters-

Rand. With the sales of liquor to Black miners being totally prohibited in the mid 1890’s, he saw his chance to develop a stranglehold on the illicit liquor market that sprang up in Boksburg, as it did elsewhere on the Rand

Central to his strategy for control was to subvert and corrupt State officials like the Mining Commissioner, Public Prosecutor and Magistrate. In 1899 the local press reported:

“You need no concealment in the Boksburg district; the place is a patch of the blackest villainy in the Republic. There is not one single official connected with the supervision, licensing and control of liquor selling, from the highest magistrate to the lower constable, who does not deserve to be cashiered”

Extracts from “New Babylon, New Nineveh” by Charles van Onselen

Cinderella Prison

In 1905 the new British Administration opened the prison. This prison supplied the nearby ERPM mines with prison labour, but soon degenerated into a haven for organized crime

Cinderella Prison served as a nerve centre for the bandit gang of Ninevites, under the leadership of Jan Note, known as Nkosi Nkulu or Great King. He commanded absolute loyalty over thousands of people, both in the Witwatersrand prisons and outside

By the time inmates had served their sentences, they were disgorged onto a reluctant Boksburg. Frequent crime waves occurred - housebreaking, robbery and assault

Various measures were taken over the years to improve the situation and by 1914 the power of the Ninevite leaders was effectively broken, at least until after the First World War

Extracts from “New Babylon, New Nineveh” by Charles van Onselen

STOP PRESS

Please look at the September 2007 Newsletter for the latest information about our pet project, the restoration of the Old East Rand School House. Click here

Brakpan Power Station

A nostalgic view of old Boksburg

Cason Road

Commissioner Street

Cinderella Mine Shaft

We have had numerous requests from readers across the world for information regarding family members who had some connection with Boksburg in bygone years

We do have qualified researchers we can call on, who would be honoured to accede to all these requests. However, research is costly, both in terms of the time it takes as well as the fuel and wear & tear costs incurred in driving to and from various Libraries and Archives

Bear in mind that research efforts typically involve two phases:

· Determining that the data is available to be researched

· Extracting and collating data from the various archives & making it available to the requester

Quite often, records of an individual’s life and times are simply not available any longer, for various technological or administrative reasons. However, it still takes a lot of time (and money) to arrive at that unfortunate conclusion

Therefore, we have developed a scale of fees that comprises two components, namely a base fee that is payable regardless of whether the required information can be obtained or not, and an additional fee for the actual extraction, collation, publication & dissemination of the required information. This information is available on request, once we have details of your requirements

Please click here to contact us