Beautifully situated in the Heidelberg Kloof is the Kloof cemetery, the original and oldest cemetery of the town. In fact, the oldest grave goes back to before the town was established. I'd like to take you on a walk through the graves, picking up a specific grave stone here and there.
Heinrich Ueckermann
The town started with Heinrich Ueckermann, he set up the first trading store in what now is the town.
Heinrich Ueckermann
He originated from Germany and named the place after Heidelberg in Germany where he studied (the sources don't reveal what he studied). He arrived in South Africa in 1849, disembarking in Durban. He set up business in Pietermaritzburg and two years later got married to Elizabeth Mary Mason. She bore him 14 children.
After the birth of their first son, they trekked extensively by ox-wagon into the interior as far as the Soutpanberge. It was on this trek that their first daughter was born in 1856 (a personal note: it is always an amazement to me how tough people were in those days that they could trek for months on end and have babies at the same time). On another trek he got to the farm Langlaagte and decided that this was a good place to establish a trading store thus bringing an end to their wanderings.
From the farmers Strydom and Venter...
