Anna Catharina Erasmus

Anna Catharina (born Trichardt) Erasmus was married to the third owner of Rietvlej farm, Stephanus, Petrus “Swart lawaai” Erasmus. She was the daughter of Carolus ( Carel ) Johannes Trichardt, the son of the Voortrekker leader, Louis Trichardt. Stephanus and Anna Catharina lived in a big homestead on the northern half of Rietvlej farm with their three sons. Their first son died as an infant and was buried to the west of the Rietvlej farm homestead. The second son, Daniël Elardus, born in 1876, died on the 2nd of Sept 1908, aged 32, of malaria, on one of their bushveld farms. The third son, Carolus Johannes Trichardt, born on 21 Dec 1877, died on the 7th of August 1896, during a shooting accident on their farm “Rooikuil” in the Pretoria district.

Anna Catharina died on 30 Oct 1904 and was buried next to her infant son, “kleine zoontjie”, on the farm Rietvlej. When the Rietvlei dam was built in 1930, the Erasmus family gave permission for the headstones of these two graves, which were damaged by construction activities, to be placed on the dam wall. The graves were later covered with water when the dam wall was completed in 1934.

Ref: RIETVLEI NATURE RESERVE - A Historic Summary by Deon Storm