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Langlaagte Reformed Church
The Langlaagte Reformed Church (originally called Witwatersrand West) was the 28th congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) on the Transvaal and the second in Johannesburg after the Johannesburg Reformed Church (NGK) (1887). The congregation is well known as the spiritual home of the Langlaagte orphanage, later named the Abraham Kriel Children's Home after Rev. Abraham Kriel, who founded it as pastor of Langlaagte.
The Langlaagte Reformed Church existed for 104 years until 1996-97, when it was absorbed by the Vergesig Reformed Church (based in the Brixton Reformed Church building). The Fordsburg Reformed Church (eventually renamed Gold City or Goudstad) had already been absorbed by Langlaagte in 1988, prompting a renaming of the latter to Goudlaagte. Langlaagte restored its original name by the time of its absorption.
The discovery of an outcropping of gold ore in 1886 on Langlaagte Farm, from which a village and later the suburb of Langlaagte North take their names, precipitated a decade of massive immigration that would propel Johannesburg past Cape Town as the largest city in what would become South Africa. Shortly after gold was first found, it became clear that the main vein or reef (the Rand) stretched 50 km from east to west.
The traditional story held that a roving Australian prospector named George Harrison had found the precious metal on said farm, owned by the widow of a Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen, on a Sunday in March 1886. He was said to have sold his claim for 20 rands.
A National Investigation Committee, however, awarded the honor to a P.J. Marais in 1941 after a comprehensive research effort. Two more contenders include Hermanus Johannes van Staden, Ousthuizen's son-in-law, and a Peter Bernardus de Ville.
34 years before the official date, in 1852, J.H. Davis discovered the first gold on the Rand at a farm near Krugersdorp but was forced to keep quiet about it by the South African Republic (ZAR) government of the time. State President of the South African Republic Paul Kruger purchased the three parcels of Langlaagte that Oosthuizen owned in 1886 for settlement and mining claim assignment.
Johannesburg, however, developed from Randjeslaagte Farm. The city was named after Johann Rissik, the acting surveyor-general, and district field cornet Johannes Pieter Meyer.
The city was part of the area served by the Heidelberg Reformed Church (NGK) until it got its own congregation. Landowners had been leaving the Cape Colony for the Highveld since around 1840 to escape British rule. Building on the efforts of the Rev. Abraham Kriel of the Du Toit's Pan Reformed Church, his curate, proponent J.N. Martins, began preaching full-time on the Rand.
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Langlaagte Reformed Church
The Langlaagte Reformed Church (originally called Witwatersrand West) was the 28th congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) on the Transvaal and the second in Johannesburg after the Johannesburg Reformed Church (NGK) (1887). The congregation is well known as the spiritual home of the Langlaagte orphanage, later named the Abraham Kriel Children's Home after Rev. Abraham Kriel, who founded it as pastor of Langlaagte.
The Langlaagte Reformed Church existed for 104 years until 1996-97, when it was absorbed by the Vergesig Reformed Church (based in the Brixton Reformed Church building). The Fordsburg Reformed Church (eventually renamed Gold City or Goudstad) had already been absorbed by Langlaagte in 1988, prompting a renaming of the latter to Goudlaagte. Langlaagte restored its original name by the time of its absorption.
The discovery of an outcropping of gold ore in 1886 on Langlaagte Farm, from which a village and later the suburb of Langlaagte North take their names, precipitated a decade of massive immigration that would propel Johannesburg past Cape Town as the largest city in what would become South Africa. Shortly after gold was first found, it became clear that the main vein or reef (the Rand) stretched 50 km from east to west.
The traditional story held that a roving Australian prospector named George Harrison had found the precious metal on said farm, owned by the widow of a Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen, on a Sunday in March 1886. He was said to have sold his claim for 20 rands.
A National Investigation Committee, however, awarded the honor to a P.J. Marais in 1941 after a comprehensive research effort. Two more contenders include Hermanus Johannes van Staden, Ousthuizen's son-in-law, and a Peter Bernardus de Ville.
34 years before the official date, in 1852, J.H. Davis discovered the first gold on the Rand at a farm near Krugersdorp but was forced to keep quiet about it by the South African Republic (ZAR) government of the time. State President of the South African Republic Paul Kruger purchased the three parcels of Langlaagte that Oosthuizen owned in 1886 for settlement and mining claim assignment.
Johannesburg, however, developed from Randjeslaagte Farm. The city was named after Johann Rissik, the acting surveyor-general, and district field cornet Johannes Pieter Meyer.
The city was part of the area served by the Heidelberg Reformed Church (NGK) until it got its own congregation. Landowners had been leaving the Cape Colony for the Highveld since around 1840 to escape British rule. Building on the efforts of the Rev. Abraham Kriel of the Du Toit's Pan Reformed Church, his curate, proponent J.N. Martins, began preaching full-time on the Rand.