Maria Helena Susanna Cope, Greeff

Maria Helena Susanna Hefer is my paternal great grandmother. This biography is long and detailed, as it may be of interest both historically and from a point of human interest. It is a history shared by many South Africans.

Maria is descended from a German soldier, Johann [Carl] Gottlob Gottlieb Hoffer, born in Plauen, Vogtland, Saxony in Germany, in 1746. He emigrated to South Africa in 1776 and settled in Cape Town. He freed a slave girl who is recorded in the 1823 Slave Lodge Census as Johanna Wilhelmina van der Caap [Kaap], a surname given to many slaves in the Cape Colony. Johanna was born in 1776. The surname 'Hoffer' seems to have changed through the next couple of generations until it has become Hefer. The descendants married into families of Dutch and French origin.

Maria Helena Susanna Hefer was born on 15th April 1875 to Gideon Daniel and Adriana Susara Hefer [nee de Bruin] in Bethulie, Orange Free State. She was baptised in Ladybrand on 15 August 1875. Witnesses were HH Fraser, CE Hefer and FB Hefer. Her family is described as "farmers, teachers and preachers".

Maria, an Afrikaner, married William James Cope, a third generation Englishman, who was born on 25 July 1869 [date unconfirmed] in Riversdale, Cape Colony. They were married on 2 June 1896 and settled in the Heidelberg District, on a farm called Witelayfontein, then in the Free State. Their first child, a daughter, Susanna, died as an infant in December 1897. By that time, a second daughter, Beatrice Sarah had been born on 25 September 1897. Their only son, my grandfather, William James Andrew Cope, was born in 1899, date unconfirmed.

William James Cope died of a gunshot wound on 31 January 1899, at age 30, without a will. I am grateful to Sharon Rabie [nee Cope] for providing information from WikiTree, stating that William apparently sided with the Boers in the Second Anglo Boer War, which started officially in August 1899. Maria and her two surviving young children at that time, Beatrice Sarah and William James Andrew, remained on the farm until it was occupied by the British. Maria's elder sister Catharina Elizabeth and her husband Hugh Henry Fraser and their children appear to have been living on the farm with the Copes at that time. As there is a twenty-year age difference between Catharina and Maria, this is an assumption on my part. Catharina Elizabeth married Hugh Henry Fraser on 4 January 1875 and died in 1932 in Johannesburg.

Sharon's record reveals further that William and Maria Cope's farm was confiscated by the British and all stock seized without compensation. His death notice states that William died at "Wogentien", which may have been a German Mission Station near Heidelberg. As the war only broke out officially in August 1899, it is not known whether he was a soldier at that time. Perhaps he was a known Boer sympathiser. The death notice no. 0/15787 appears to have been written phonetically be someone of German descent. He is recorded as "Weljam Jems Cope, age 30 years, 5 months and 6 days, at Wogentien, occupation; "clerk en winkel" [storeman?]. His father was 'A Cope' and his mother's name is illegible but appears to begin with 'A'; he was born in Riversdale, CC and was father to "Biattric [sic] Sara Cope, born 25 September 1897 and Susanna Cope. Possibly William James Andrew had not yet been born.

Although it is unclear as to whether the property was burnt, Maria and at least two of her children were sent to the Turffontein Concentration Camp under the unique ID 47805. According to the National Archives, Pretoria, DBC 71 Johannesburg CR Camp Register Reference No. 71, Page 80, they arrived on 29/02/1901, Tent Number RT965: TH34 Turffontein. Maria is described as the mother of Miss Beatrice Cope and Master William Cope. A separate record shows that Mr Hugh Fraser, described as a "white male, of Transvaal nationality, a mine manager, aged 58" Unique ID 47797, Tent number 965, farm history Witelayfontein, District Heidelberg, was admitted on the same date. He was accompanied by his wife Catharina Elizabeth [Hefer] Fraser and their six children, namely Gideon, Hugh H, Alexandrea, Fred C, Catherine and Maria Fraser.
At that stage, William James Andrew was a baby and his sister Beatrice a very little girl. Turffontein is in the south of Johannesburg, and the camp, known as Johannesburg RC, was situated on the property of the Turffontein racecourse, converted into a Concentration Camp.

These camps had originally been set up by the British Army as refugee camps to provide refuge for civilian families who had been forced to abandon their homes due to the war. However, when Lord Kitchener took command of the British forces in late 1900, he introduced new tactics in an attempt to break the Boer guerrilla campaign and the influx of civilians grew dramatically as a result. According to historian Thomas Pakenham, Kitchener's "Scorched Earth Policy", was 'to flush out guerrillas in a series of systematic drives", and to sweep the county bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children. This clearance of civilians - uprooting a whole nation - would come to dominate the last phase of the war.
An excerpt from "British Concentration Camps of the South African War 1900 - 1902" Describes the Johannesburg Camp as being unusual in that it was the only urban camp in the entire system. Like Pretoria, from the start of the war, Johannesburg had large numbers of refugees who needed help, and these increased when the British troops arrived in SA. Whilst many people were housed in the homes of "the Uitlanders", who had left for the coast, some kind of camp had come into being by December 1900. In the Turffontein camp, most people lived in the grandstands. This proved unhealthy and bell tents were recommended for the inmates.

The "Ladies Committee" was pleasantly impressed by the Johannesburg camp on a visit in September 1901. The quality of the accommodation was better than that of any camp they had previously visited, and the superintendent was regarded as "thoughtful and efficient." The camp had passed into civilian administration in 1901, when A. Noble replaced Captain Snowden.
Noble was faced with responsibility for the town refugees on poor relief in addition to those of the war inmates. However, the camp was run efficiently and, according to the same "Ladies Committee", with compassion. Johannesburg camp was not without its tragedies due to major health concerns, mainly a devastating outbreak of measles, followed by scarlet fever, mumps and whooping cough epidemics. The latter didn't have the tragic outcomes of the measles epidemic as strict isolation kept the worst at bay.

However, poor rations caused dysentery and scurvy due to fresh meat being unfit for human consumption and poor-quality tinned meat. The introduction of a soup kitchen for the children relieved the situation. However, the prevalence of disease, poor accommodation and substandard food caused Emily Hobhouse to complain about conditions at Johannesburg camp. This led Sir Alfred Milner to ask questions in April 1901. That month, many Boer women petitioned Lord Kitchener to allow them to return to their homes, urging that, "in all cases without exception, they have been deprived of the free, fresh, open air, and the healthy nourishment to which they have been accustomed since the days of their birth."
Taken in the context of the recent death of her husband, the violent loss of her home and the inevitable internment of herself, her sister and brother-in-law and their families in the concentration camp, her circumstances must have been traumatising indeed. It must have been a most horrifying experience for a young wife and mother in her twenties.
Maria and her children left the camp due to "not drawing rations", date not specified. The horrific conditions in the camp must have been a contributing factor to the decision.

In a letter bearing the same number, 0/15787, stamped received at The Master's Office on 20 December 1904/ 29 December 1904, Mr Hugh Henry Fraser advises on the death of Mr William James Cope on the 31st of January 1899 at Wogentien, District Heidelberg. He states that he had been elected as Executor of the Estate.
In June of 1899 he had "travelled to Pretoria and handed in account showing the assets and liabilities, but up to the date when the late War broke out in this country nothing was done further in the matter. There was about 160 pounds worth of stock in the Estate at that time, but on the British occupation, every bit of stock etc. in the Estate was taken possession of by them, and although a claim was duly lodged for consideration by the Compensation Committee and duly acknowledged as having been received, nothing has been paid in respect thereof. There is therefore nothing in the estate, as the chance of getting any compensation seems hopeless now.

I should however like to point out to you that when the account was being made out one item was missed, namely 3 stands were bought from Mr Hattie of Vlakfontein for 15 pounds each, by the late Mr Cope, for which he paid 10 pounds on account, and a receipt for this amount has turned up. These stands are worth considerably more at the present day, and the widow proposes to try and dispose of them in order to provide for the two children surviving to some extent, as she is in poor circumstances and has to support them by her own labour.

It is feared that if these stands have to be sold by public auction a very small price will be received, as there is no great demand for them here, and when the balance of the purchase price is paid, cost of transfer, transfer duty, etc - which is estimated by Messrs Frost, Mulligan and Routledge at 85 or 90 pounds, there will be practically nothing left over, as they have been known to be sold by public auction at 25 pounds each. An offer has been received from a local party - i.e., at Vlakfontein - to buy one or two of the stands at 60 pounds, and I hope I may be able to dispose of the three at such a price.
I should therefore like to know: -
1. If you desire a second account framed putting these stands into the Estate.
2. If you will insist on the stands being put up to public auction.
3. If you agree to a sale of these stands by public auction, will you allow a reserve price to be put upon them, say 60 pounds.
Your early reply will oblige,
Your Obedient Servant,
[signed] H.H. Fraser"

It would seem that this appeal fell on deaf ears, and that no relief came Maria's way. Indeed, this may have been the reason why she and her family, along with Hugh and Catharina Fraser and their family, may have had to take refuge at the Johannesburg Concentration Camp.

I have wondered since whether either Beatrice or William [ my Pops] ever knew of it. I never heard the story from my own father, William James Andrew Cope. I remember asking after Pops’ history when I was a teenager and my dad appeared to have no knowledge of it. He had an idea that he was of Irish descent! I discovered these details for the first time in the entry posted by Sharon Rabie - thank you so much, Sharon.

The profile picture of “Ouma Greeff” as we called her, shows her with her daughter Beatrice, her granddaughter Naomi [nee van Niekerk] and a great granddaughter who I never met, assuming she is the daughter of Naomi. I also have a not so clear portrait of Maria, Beatrice Sarah and William James Andrew, my "Pops" Cope, taken around 1907.
Maria remained in Johannesburg and married Frans Petrus Greeff on 8 January 1908. As far as can be ascertained, there were no children from this marriage.

I am the granddaughter of William James Andrew Cope, born in Heidelberg in 1899 and who entered the concentration camp with his sister Beatrice and his mother in 1901. As a small child, I remember my great grandmother in the mid-1950s, living in a rambling, rather run-down house in Leyds St., Braamfontein, with a large conservatory and stables in the yard. My cousins, my sister and I didn't know her very well, but Beatrice, my great aunt, was my godmother, and I remember her very fondly.
Maria died on 28 July 1957. I express grateful thanks to Sharon Rabie, who contacted me after seeing my details via Family Search. I am also grateful to other Geni members who generously assisted me in piecing together the puzzle.

Lynette Deborah Brown [Cope]
January 2022