Mrs. Carnegie's Grave At Inyati
THIS is the grave of Mrs. Mary Margaret Carnegie in the little
cemetery at Hope Fountain, the long-established station of the
London Missionary Society near Bulawayo.
It is an important memorial to Rhodesians not only because of the
outstanding character of Mrs. Carnegie herself, but because of
the circumstances of her birth.
She was born at Inyati in 1862, the third European female child to
be born In what is now Rhodesia.
At that time, three years after the founding of the station there,
there were three missionary families living at Inyati, the Moffats,
Thomas's and Sykes's—all honourable names in Rhodesian history.
Livingstone Moffat, born in April, 1860, was the first
Rhodesian-born child; and David Thomas the second, born in July of
that year.
Three, girls were born at Inyati in 1862; Mary Meta Moffat in March,
Annie Thomas in April, and Mary Margaret Sykes (later Mrs.
Carnegie) in December.
Annie Thomas lived only two months, but the other two lived on and
happily through the crowded years of Rhodesia's early growth.
In their families are now growing up the fourth generation of
colonial-born Rhodesians. Mrs. Carnegie,, lived for many years at
Hope 'Fountain, loved and respected by pioneers and Natives alike.
Amongst her many capabilities, she was an excellent Sindebele
linguist.
With her husband she translated books into Sindebele which are still
in use, particularly " Pilgrim's Progress."
She died in December, 1940.
End
Source- The Rhodesia Herald (Newspaper) Thursday February 19, 1953
made available by Ray Thorne (RhAF)
Ray also made this
available to ORAFs.
Page 1 of this book reads:-
CHAPTER ONE
THE BEGINNING OF WHITE SETTLEMENT
On Monday, the 26th December, 1859, six wagons out spanned in the Inyati Valley. Their occupants were William Sykes, John S. Moffat and Thomas Morgan Thomas and their wives who, under the leadership of Dr. Robert Moffat, had come to establish a mission among the Matabele, having been sent out from England for that purpose by the London Missionary Society. They had gathered at Cape Town in July 1858, and had journeyed first to Kuruman, the headquarters of Dr Robert Moffat, where they arrived in December of that year. From thence they trekked to the then unknown country of the Matabele with two years' supply of stores. Much of their journey took them through deep sand and they knew what it was to be without water for days at a time. For four months they plodded on in burning heat until at length they reached the Matabele outposts, buoyed up by the expectation of a warm welcome from the Matabele King, Mzilikazi, who had taken the trouble to send them a message in the early stages of their journey—'The king longs exceedingly to look on the face of Mtjete (Moffat) again'. When lung sickness broke out among their cattle as they neared Matabeleland, they sent a message forward to the king asking him for clean oxen to enable them to complete their journey. These the King sent in the shape of a regiment of his soldiers who in spanned themselves and dragged the wagons
CHAPTER ONE
THE BEGINNING OF WHITE SETTLEMENT
On Monday, the 26th December, 1859, six wagons out spanned in the Inyati Valley. Their occupants were William Sykes, John S. Moffat and Thomas Morgan Thomas and their wives who, under the leadership of Dr. Robert Moffat, had come to establish a mission among the Matabele, having been sent out from England for that purpose by the London Missionary Society. They had gathered at Cape Town in July 1858, and had journeyed first to Kuruman, the headquarters of Dr Robert Moffat, where they arrived in December of that year. From thence they trekked to the then unknown country of the Matabele with two years' supply of stores. Much of their journey took them through deep sand and they knew what it was to be without water for days at a time. For four months they plodded on in burning heat until at length they reached the Matabele outposts, buoyed up by the expectation of a warm welcome from the Matabele King, Mzilikazi, who had taken the trouble to send them a message in the early stages of their journey—'The king longs exceedingly to look on the face of Mtjete (Moffat) again'. When lung sickness broke out among their cattle as they neared Matabeleland, they sent a message forward to the king asking him for clean oxen to enable them to complete their journey. These the King sent in the shape of a regiment of his soldiers who in spanned themselves and dragged the wagons
Thanks to Ray for sharing this information with ORAFs - many a time the question as to who were the first born in Rhodesia has arisen - finally, an answer.
Comments are
always welcome, please mail them to Eddy Norris at orafs11@gmail.com
(Please
visit our previous posts and archives
Labels: Carnegie, Inyati, Moffat. Thomas, Sykes
posted by Rhodesia Remembered @ 20:50
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Syd Polwarth Writes:-
I had thought, perhaps wrongly in light of the article or perhaps it was Sby and not S.R. that it was a Miss Pascoe who became one of our teachers at P.E. as Mrs Hosking.
Her children included Vince who married Celia van Buren, Brian van Buren's sister whose family farmed somewhere in the Eastern Districts perhaps Rusape.
I think Tom Pascoe of Crowborough Estates just beyond Warren Hills was a brother and two of his sons were Ronnie, who married Anne Fischer from Headlands and Peter who were also at PE in their day.
Ronnie is or was still in Harare at Easter this year
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home