On 2 May 1846 Nort and the 18-year-old Annie were married by a magistrate in Franschhoek. Upon their arrival back in Villiersdorp, father-in-law De Villiers finally consented to the marriage, but insisted that male offspring should get the name De Villiers as well. Hence the merger of the Huguenot name De Villiers with the German-Dutch Graaff that would distinguish later generations.
At a time when large families were the order of the day, five sons and four daughters were born from the marriage of Nort and Annie,8 who went to live a simple life at Wolfhuiskloof, about four kilometres from Villiersdorp. The sixth of the nine children, David Pieter de Villiers Graaff, was born on 30 March 1859. He and his eldest brother, Pieter Hendrik de Villiers Graaff (born in 1848), acquired the middle name of De Villiers – but not the other three Graaff brothers, Johannes Jacobus Arnoldus (Jan or John, 1854), Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck (Kobie or Koos, 1863) and Pieter Christiaan (1866).
The name De Villiers would continue in the case of David Graaff’s three sons, De Villiers, David Pieter de Villiers and Johannes (Jannie) de Villiers Graaff. His eldest son, De Villiers Graaff, who became leader of the opposition in the South African Parliament, also had the eldest grandson, David de Villiers Graaff, the third baronet, baptised thus. The tradition has been continued since the eldest great-grandson was also named De Villiers Graaff.
Nort, who eventually worked as a blacksmith in Villiersdorp, was not a wealthy man. He became known as a tooth drawer. Teeth were drawn without sedation, but if help was brought along to hold the unfortunate patient down in a haystack while the “dentist” dealt with the matter at hand, a discount would apparently be given.9
The area’s remoteness, which had to make do without good roads and public transport, contributed to the meagre existence of most people. Poor in material terms, many, however, had a wealth of children, recounted Cobus le Roux, in his 80s.10 Due to a shortage of labour, many children had to start working at a very young age, like Le Roux’s ancestors. His father, Awie le Roux, grew up a poor farm boy, also the child of a bywoner like the Graaff brothers on Wolfkloof. “Together with the Graaffies their day’s work consisted of herding cattle and pigs. Every day’s work was undertaken with a cape made of a grain bag as protection against the rain and cold, and wholemeal bread with moskonfyt (grape syrup) to eat.”11 Cobus le Roux’s father told him that Dawie Graaff, as he was called then, used a large black pig as his mount.
Limited education was offered by travelling schoolmasters. Little Dawie Graaff initially went to school in Villiersdorp in an old coach house set up as a school for younger children. It was probably a church school that the Dutch-speakers founded in 1866 in opposition to the English school in town, and Dawie was one of around 15 pupils who were taught by a certain Mr. Hartley.12 Apparently he was bright, and old inhabitants of Villiersdorp believe he might have passed standard 3 (equivalent to grade five), or thereabouts.
Cobus le Roux emphasised that, although the children had limited educational opportunities in terms of schooling, they received a thorough education at home: “The atmosphere in the parental homes was truly Christian, and life-shaping Bible texts graced the walls. Family worship was a regular affair. Strict admonitions and punishment were the order of the day. Immoral behaviour was not tolerated. Respect for older people and subjection to authority were generally applicable rules. The people stood together and supported one another in times of need and tribulation and when an animal was butchered, people from the whole neighbourhood got a meat packet. Trustworthiness in word and deed, industriousness and honesty were generally applicable rules. Due to this approach to life, children were equipped from a young age to reach unheard-of highs in life, which also, and especially, was the case with the Graaff and Le Roux families.”13
The references to the Graaffs and Le Rouxs were later corroborated. Awie le Roux had to “spend [his] life almost illiterate… only being able to write his name, but at least he could also read fluently”, according to his son, Cobus. Notwithstanding, in 1934 he bought Bo-Radyn, where he had worked as bywoner, at an auction. When the auctioneer doubted Awie’s creditworthiness, approval had to be obtained from Standard Bank in Worcester. The bank replied to the effect that two such farms could be sold to him.14
And as far as the “Graaffies” were concerned, David Graaff would become known as a highly successful businessman and politician, a man of stature who would eventually become the great benefactor of Villiersdorp. In 1870 the erstwhile herdboy’s later fame was still waiting in the distant future.
CHAPTER 3
A young boy off to the city
Deliverance for the young David Graaff from his fairly desperate circumstances on Wolfhuiskloof, where his father was eking out a meagre existence as a farmhand, came when he was 11 years old. A relative, Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck, paid a visit to the family at Villiersdorp.
The visit supposedly occurred thanks to young Dawie’s mother, Anna Elizabeth Graaff. Although he loved the farm life in the picturesque region, Nort could not make a proper living. He tried his hand at viticulture and growing fruit, but the markets for both crashed, and his losses were compounded by drought. The children had to look on while their father struggled to pay a mortgage, until eventually, prematurely aged, he was forced to leave the management of his affairs in his wife’s hands.1
This farmer’s wife was up to the task and it resulted in the arrival of Combrinck, called an oudoom (old uncle) by the family, at Wolfhuiskloof with its tough conditions. Combrinck, a wealthy butcher from Cape Town, was a half-brother of Nort’s. Combrinck’s mother, Johanna Catharina Elizabeth, née Uys, was related to the Voortrekker leader Piet Uys. She was first married to Johannes Jacobus Graaff, and from that marriage five children were born, three sons and two daughters, of whom Norbertus (born on 15 July 1823) was the youngest. From her second marriage, to Petrus Arnoldus Combrinck, three children were born, of which Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck (born on 31 May 1828) was the eldest.2
Combrinck was apparently held in high esteem by the Graaffs. The references to an oudoom presumably resulted from the family tie. One of Annie and Nort’s sons, Kobie, later Sir Jacobus, was named after him: Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck Graaff, younger brother of Dawie. Combrinck was the godfather of the seven-year-old Kobie.
Combrinck arrived at Wolfhuiskloof one afternoon after school. The custom was that the boys would help with the farm work after school, and that afternoon it was young Dawie’s turn to look after the pigs and stop them from going into the garden. However, during this hot afternoon he had fallen asleep under a fig tree. Next thing he knew he was being shaken awake violently while his father was shouting, “Dawie, Dawie, here you are sleeping and the pigs are in the garden!”
Combrinck, who had seen the whole commotion, took pity on the young farm lad, whose ears may well have been boxed, and immediately asked whether he could take him to Cape Town to have him educated properly.3 An additional motivation may have been that he was looking for a relative who could help him in his business and who could perhaps manage it eventually so that he could have more time available to enter public life.4
The Graaff sons, who had to help their father, had to work hard, and although “the brothers did not benefit from more than the normal primary education of the time, that did not prevent all three of them reaching the top of the social ladder. They were naturally gifted, David not least of the three,” Die Burger reported later.5
Little Dawie also greatly impressed other people. After his death, a political opponent, Prof. H.E.S. Fremantle, wrote:
“When he was a boy, Graaff impressed everyone with eyes to see. I remember the Rev. D.S. Botha, afterwards Moderator of the Dutch Church of the Cape Province, who was at Villiersdorp 60 years ago, telling me how young Graaff impressed him. He had been sent with a message. There was something about him that arrested Mr Botha’s attention, something in the precise way he delivered the message, and something altogether intangible, but Mr Botha marked the boy from that day on.”6
Combrinck certainly made the right choice, and Dawie left for Cape Town with him. The circumstances of his move to the city were described by the author Janie Malherbe, who was well acquainted with the conditions in Villiersdorp, where her father-in-law,