Gabriel le Roux born July 25, 1667 at Cour-Cheverney and was baptized in Blois, France July 28, 1669. He was the son of Pierre le Roux (1632 -682) and Anne Bourdon. His parents moved to Pommegorge in 1672 where he was raised with his brother Jean le Roux, until both brothers fled to Delft, Netherlands on 4 November 1686 where they boarded the ship the Voorschooten and set sail to the Cape of Good Hope on the 31 December 1687. He owned the farms La Concorde in Southern Paarl from 1689 to 1695 and then Salomonsvlei in the Klein Drakenstein from 1695 to 1711. He and his brother Jean both drowned in the Berg River or Wildepaardriver in 1711. He was married to Marie Catherine le Febre, from Stellenbosch, daughter of Pierre and Marie le Febre de Grave. The Huguenots who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope at the end of the 17th century, consisted of only a fraction of the large-scale Protestant flight from France after the revocation of the Edict on Nantes in 1685. The Dutch East India Company encouraged the Huguenots to immigrate to the Cape because they shared the same religious beliefs, and also due to the fact that most of them were highly trained craftsmen or experienced farmers. When John Ovington visited the Cape in 1693, he wrote: “Their vineyards have been established over an area of more than seventy five English miles, yet they still have their eyes on large pieces of virgin soil before them. The Huguenots are characterised by their intrinsic pride, diligence and honesty. Although they strove to maintain their own identify at first, they soon intermarried with the other colonists to fully become just South Africans. Within two generations even their home language, French, largely disappeared. Perhaps their most important influence on South Africa, is the fact that they - like their Dutch compatriots - were supporters of Calvinism. In his work Het leven van Johannes Calvijn ("The life of John Calvin") D’Arbez concludes: “Nowhere on earth is the legacy of Calvin stronger than in South Africa, where the spirit of Calvin has not waned due to the influence of the twentieth century, as has been the case, and still is the case, in the countries of Europe”.

Robert Mercer Herd born 1869, was a miner from Britian and arrived in South Africa in the early 1890’s, (it was not until 1886 that the massive wealth of the Witwatersrand would be uncovered which led to the Goldrush and subsequently the Boer War) to seek his fortune. He enlisted with the Railway Pioneer Regiment on the 10 January 1900 to fight in the War after sending his wife Mary (Murie) Herd (whom he married in Johannesburg on the 27 November 1897) and his son Robert Alexander Herd to Port Elizabeth. His only son of four children would later follow his father as a miner, the family settled in the Cornish mining community of Rietfontein that sprang up around the Rietfontein Glod Mine, which eventually became the town of Edenvale and in later years Robert Alexander Herd would be elected as the town Mayor. Robert Mercer Herd’s great grandson (unaware to him at the time)would join the same Regiment(Railway Pioneer Regiment became Witwatersrand Rifles),in a different war eighty three years later in South West Africa.

Johan Godfried Gericke was born in Harkerode, Sachsen, Germany around 1741, he arrived in the Cape Of Good Hope in 1772 and was employed by the V.O.C (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie/ Dutch East India Company) as a Wagon-maker until 1785. His contract to graze his livestock on the loan farm Geelhoute Boom was signed at the Castle in Cape Town on 3 Apr 1788. The farm had previously been abandoned by Gideon van Zeyl. The annual charge was sixteen Ducatond (each worth 72 Stuiwers), the equivalent of twenty four Rijksdaalders. In addition he had to deliver one tenth of his wheat crop to the Castle in Cape Town. He was granted the Quitrent ownership of Geelhoutboom by Lord Charles Henry Somerset on 1 October 1816. The farm covered 1695 morgen originally but with sub-division and selling only about one fifth was in family hands by the turn of the century. He married Barabara Gerber who was 33 years younger than him. He applied on 19 Jan 1829 to Sir Lowry Cole, the then Governor of the Cape, for permission to cut four wagon loads of wood in the Government Forest near George in order to repair and complete his dwelling. He died on the farm at Geelhoutboom on the 21 March1837.

Wilhelm Eduard Schumann (born 1821), lived and worked as a miller in Friedrichswalde, near Stargard, Pommerania, Germany (now Podlesie, Poland), married Emilie Riedel (born 1820). In 1858 they boarded the Johann Cesar (built in Reiherstieg 1852, measured 37.9m long x 8.1m wide) in Hamburg with their five children and immigrated to South Africa and settled in Keiskammahoek. Grey was convinced that German farmers would be more suitable than the military settlers, so he entered into an agreement with J.C. Goddefroy of Hamburg, Germany, for a further immigration scheme. As a result, some 3407 immigrants arrived between 1858 and 1862 and were settled mostly in remote areas. The farms allocated to them were consistently of very poor quality so that it was impossible to survive by farming alone. To survive, the German settlers were therefore forced to work for English farmers in the more fertile regions or to find jobs in the main centres. The new immigrants proved to be hardy and hard-working and, in spite of the many difficulties which they had to face, they survived and created a distinctive life style which adapted their German traditions to the exigencies of their new lives. Franz Wilhelm Eduard Schumann (born 1849), was the eldest of the five children that landed with his family in East London at the end of October 1858 and he eventually settled in Willowmore, located in the Cape Midlands with his wife Emma (nee Flack) who bore him nine children. He was the Chief Constable of the town and a Lieutenant in the Town Guard that was attacked by Boer forces on at least two occasions following the Second Boer invasion of the Cape Colony. The first attack occurred on 19 January 1901; the second on 1 June 1901. Commandant Gideon Scheepers (Boer forces, later he was executed for high treason) led both of these commando attacks, which occurred at a time of unrest, newly-imposed martial law, widespread commando and troop movement. While it is well-known that Willowmore was defended by two local units, the Willowmore Town Guard and the Willowmore District Mounted Troops, other colonial (local and overseas) and British units were also active in the area. Excerpt from a report on the attack on Willowmore made on June 1st 1901. “I may also mention that the inner line of defence of the town on June1st bore the heaviest part of the fighting and it was most able handled by Lieut Schumann of the Town Guard who is also Chief Constable for the town of Willowmore”, R. Diespecker, Commandant, Captain, SAMIF, to the GOC Midlands.

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