Kruiskoppie op Saartjiesnek
Hendrik Schoeman
Schoemans Kruis
Saartjiesnek
Hartebeespoortdam
Brits
Kruiskoppie op Saartjiesnek
Monument van vrede en versoening
Witwatersbergreeks suid van Hartbeespoortdam.
X27,55.23 Y25,45.41
Langs R511.
Granietkruis opgerig in 1955 deur familie ter ere van ñ voorvader Generaal Hendrik Schoeman wat misverstaan is.
Saartjiesnek.
Oorsprong van naam nie definitief uitgeklaar nie maar volgens oorlewering was
dit ñ moeilike onbegaanbare nek en slegs die dapper Martiens Jones het dit
gewaag om met sy muile en skotskar die nek aan te durf om groente vir die boere
aan te ry. Al die ander het maar die ompad gery deur ñ poort by die rivier.
Tant Saartjie Mocke, ñ ongeduldige tante, het besluit om nie langer vir
Martiens te wag nie en haar perdekar ingespan en nek aangedurf. In haar haas
het sy nie halfpad gevorder nie toe breek die disselboom. Sy het alles net so
daar gelos en te voet verder gestap. Martiens het later die perdekar gaan
herstel en perde teruggebring. Daarna het nek as Saartjiesnek bekend gestaan.
Die Kruismonument.
Hendrik Schoeman het in 1868 in hierdie omgewing van die Krokodilrivier kom
boer. Hy is verskeie kere deur die ZAR aangestel as vredemaker en
onderhandelaar tussen strydende partye en het veral groot sukses behaal met
Bantoe Stamhoofde. Hy het verskeie pogings aangewend om vrede te bewerkstellig
tussen Boer en Brit gedurende die ABO. Sy pogings is met gemengde gevoelens
ervaar.
Hy en sy seun Johan Schoeman was later van die grootste boere in die omgewing
en van die dorpe soos Meerhof, Ifafi, Kosmos en Schoemansville het hulle
ontstaan aan Schoemans te danke.
Hendrik is oorlede in 1901 in ñ bomontploffing in Pretoria en begrawe in die ou
begraafplaas Pta.
Johan Schoeman het ñ obsessie gehad om sy pa se onderhandelingsvermoë te gedenk
en die miskenning daarvan reg te stel. Hy het in sy boek , “Was hy ñ
verraaier?”, sy pa se balangrike rol in die politiek van ZAR verduidelik
in ñ poging om sy pa se beeld reg te stel.
Hy het hierdie massiewe 4 meter hoë granietkruis gemaak en teen die koppie
opgesleep met ñ span osse. Kersdag 1955 het hy die kruis opgerig op die
opvallende koppie langs Saartjiesnek ter ere van sy pa en ander miskende
vredemakers. (Name van ander uit verlede soos Hess(WWI) en Petain(WWII) word
ook op plaat genoem en Jesus se rol as Vredemaker en Versoener word ook
uitgewys).
Dit dien as Monument van Vrede en Versoening.
Die inskripsie op die plaat lees as volg:
Hierdie simbool van tragedie en triomf,
van oorwinning in neerlaag is opgerig vir Generaal Hendrik Schoeman deur ñ
groep bewonderaars. Wreed is die lot van die siener en vredemaker. Sy eensame
weg voer steeds deur Getsemane na Golgota. Dink aan Hess, aan Petain, aan die
Gekruisigde. Maar tragieser is die lot van die wat sy raad met veragting
verwerp. Opgerig 1955.
Johan Shoeman en heelwat ander Schoemans is aan die voet van die koppie begrawe.
Bron: Kormorant. Hartebeespoort.
Bydraes op Facebook blad:
Pierre Rossouw The case of
General Hendrik Schoeman, whose name is commemorated by the district of
Schoemansville around Hartbeespoort Dam, is revealing.
About sixty years of age at the outbreak of the
war, he caused trouble on Impati mountain at the battle for Dundee, and
departed in high dudgeon for Pretoria where he persuaded Kruger to appoint him
to the command of the Free Staters at Colesberg. Again he interfered to his
side’s disadvantage at a decisive juncture in the war.
After the fall of Pretoria he surrendered to
General French and promised to take no further part in the hostilities. Blandly
he sat on his stoep and watched the skirmish at Silkaatsnek a month later. He
was subsequently arrested by Commandant Coetzee, the victor of that engagement,
for refusing to serve again, this time as an ordinary burgher. He was delivered
to State Attorney Smuts who sent him to Barberton for trial on two counts:
for having taken the oath of neutrality,
and for having discouraged burghers from further
resistance.
The charges were however withdrawn, apparently
under pressure from influential quarters and, in any event, French soon
occupied Barberton, whereupon Schoeman, being found there in the wake of the
retreating Boers, was allowed to return to his farm, only to find it burnt to
the ground. The British had taken his absence as evidence of his disloyalty.
He moved to Pretoria but, a little later, he
seems to have been prevailed upon to act as an intermediary to take messages
from influential Boers in the capital to the fighting burghers in the field,
presumably impressing on the latter the folly of further resistance.
This episode is not altogether clear but, in
company with an English captain, who seems to have been acting as his escort to
Rustenburg, he was again taken captive and incarcerated in Pietersburg for many
months, to be finally brought to trial on a charge of high treason.
On this occasion he was less lucky: the court
upheld the charge, and he was sentenced to death but, on account of some
dispute about the constitution of the tribunal, the sentence was not
immediately enforced, and he was still languishing in the Pietersburg gaol when
the town fell to the British forces.
Released again, he returned to his home in
Pretoria. Alas! his tribulations were in vain for, soon after his homecoming,
he and some friends were blown to smithereens when a lyddite shell, which he
had brought back from Colesberg and which graced his parlour, exploded when it
was used as an ashtray – an occurrence which pious Boers saw as the ‘finger of
God on a traitor’Frik Brits n Enigmatiese verhaal
en konflik tussen hom en van Rensburg wat gelei het tot n burgeroorlog in
Transvaal, n uitsonderlike verhaal. Genl Schoeman was vir n wyle aangehou in
Pietersburg Tronk waar ek werksaam was …..ek het nagelaat om van sy
aanhoudings dokumente afskrifte te maak
