THE ARRIVAL IN PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA, OF THE FARRE FAMILY FROM BROCKVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA

On the 5th September 1877 at the Methodist Church, Somerset East August Robert Pfohl (he had apparently Anglicised "Carl") and Susan Mary Farre, daughter of Henry Crawley Farre and Ann (nee Wiltse) Farre, were married by the Reverend Arthur Brigg, the witnesses being Oskar Arndt and Jessie Farre (sister of the bride).

The Farres had emigrated from Brockville, Canada and arrived in Port Elizabeth in late January or early February 1861/1862. Susan Mary was born in Brockville on the 9th July, 1857 and was baptised on the 11th October 1857 in St. Peter's Church, Brockville by the Reverend J. Travers Lewis, who later became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Ontario and one of the prime movers in the first Lambeth Conference in London. The sponsor was Anne Stevenson.

Susan Mary Farre, her brother Frederic Henry Farre and her parents travelled from Canada to New York to wait for the ship that was to take them to South Africa, probably late in 1860/1861 when the St, Lawrence River was frozen at that time of the year.

I do not know when my grandfather met Susan Mary Farre but I am positive that the meeting must have taken place at Somerset East to which town her parents came from Canada. Despite searching the shipping intelligence in the "Argus", the "Cape Government Gazette" (which, at that time, did not publish only Government Notices) and the "Eastern Province Herald", I have not discovered the precise date of their arrival, but my mother said that they arrived either in late January or early February of 1862 and were conveyed by ox wagon of Mr. Robert Mitford Bowker http://www.geni.com/people/The-Hon-Robert-Mitford-Bowker-J-P/6000000003362593106 from Port Elizabeth to Somerset East, after having been brought ashore from the ship in a surf-boat.

Edna Clare Sparkman (nee Robertson) descended from the Pfohls and Farres. 10th September, 1983