Gert Stephanus (Gert) (Dick) Kok

Son of Hermanus Gerhardus (Maansie) Kok and Martha Johanna Ferreira, Dick walked as a voorlooper with the "Ferreira wagon trek" from Cape Town to Vaalkop in Rhodesia when he was fourteen years old.

His brother (Rex) was left with an uncle in South Africa who was childless, however, they subsequently had their own son, Boetie, and sent word to Dick's mother to come and fetch Rex, which she did despite the hardship this journey caused and shortly after being widowed, she Left the other children with Dick. His father and baby sister (Inez) died of blackwater fever within a year of migrating to Rhodesia and at fifteen years old he had to help his widowed mother and her six other remaining children. The family moved into Vaalkop which later became Enkeldoorn and to earn money he worked at the Emergent Business Men's store and then as a jailor in Gwelo. During the 1893 Matabele war he apparently help keep the Enkeldoorn Laager fighting shoulder to shoulder with men in this square shaped laager made of wagons. There were 180 people in the laager and Dick's sisters ran bare foot carrying ammunition to the men.

At some stage he became known as Gert rather than Dick, although the older members of the family still called him Dick. He walked along the Zambezi to Kazangula after hearing about mines being opened in Northern Rhodesia and wandered for almost a year on foot. In fact Gert was well known for travelling about and bartering with local Africans and farmers from Gatooma to Enkeldoorn and beyond. On one of his travels he was caught because of foot and mouth quarantine and he asked to stayed the night at "Dawn" (Which later became the farm of George Pocock and Gert's sister Katie) Two Jewish brothers lived there and they said he was welcome to stay but that there was only one room and that it was haunted. He said that he didn't mind sleeping with a ghost and went to bed. In the morning the two Jews asked him how he had slept and if he had heard the ghost. He answered that he hadn't slept very well because the owls in the ceiling had kept him awake but he hadn't heard the ghost. The Jews were so grateful that he had solved the mystery of the ghost for them that they gave him some donkeys with which to continue his journey home as his oxen had to be slaughtered because of the disease.

He loved fishing and hunting and kept close contact with his siblings;

Susanna Johanna (1980)

Katrina Susanna (Katie) (1885 - 1918) Mother of Rhoda Grace Pocock who married Gert's Son Baas

Rachel Elizabeth (1988 - 1941)

Hendrik Matheus (Rex) (1890 - 1955)

Eugenie (1892 - 1973)

Hermanus Gerhardus (Maans) (1894 - 1939)

In 1908 he purchased Glenconner farm in the Charter District from the BSA (British South Africa Company - headed up by Cecil John Rhdes) and his sister Eugenie and his mother helped him there where he farmed and lived until his death (as did his mother).

One day he and his brother Rex shot a sable near Namazaan farm and left it there while they went back to get the ox cart to transport it home. When they arrived back two lion were feeding on the kill. They shot the lions and were in the process of skinning them when a travelling trader came along and offered them ten pound for each skin on the proviso that they tell everyone that he had shot the lions. This they gladly did as 20 pound was a lot of money in those days.

He married Polly in 1910 and built her a pole and dagga house. With the help of Willie Steines (Who became his step father after marrying his widowed mother and who was fondly called "Oom Willie" by the family. He is buried on the property) he dug a two and a half mile long channel using only a spirit level and a piece of string to determine the water flow, from the Manese river to provide irrigation for citrus trees and gatova (Shiraz) grapes that he planted from seeds/stock brought out from the Gamtoos valley and the origninal Kok's Se Plaas in South Africa.

They had 5 children;

Hermanus Gerhardus (Baas) (1911 - 1980)

Elizabeth Johanna (Joy) (1913 - 1978)

Gert Stephanus (1927 - 2000)

James Wheeler (Jim) (1929 - 2007)

Iris Mary (1934 - present)

After unsuccessfully trialling wheat he became well known for his white maize that he grew from seeds that he had traded with the local Africans for meat. He originally bought three Afrikaaner cows and one bull but on the first night at Glenconner a lion killed the bull. Determined to get his revenge he rigged up a trap gun and not only killed this particular lion but the method was used quite frequently over the years by himself and his family to get rid of other lions, leopards and wid dogs.

He subsequently bought two adjoining properties Manese Poort A and Manese Poort B so named because of the Manese river which ran along the boundary of these properties. Gert's eldest sons Baas and Gert moved onto the properties when they married. The third son James (Jim) lived on Glenconner. Gert also bought Vlakfontein and Perseverence farms. (Think he gave perseverence to Iris - can someone shed some light on what happened to this property and Vlakfontein?)