Marthinus Theunis Steyn
Statepresident of the Oranje Vrijstaat
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On 4 March 1891, Judge M.T. Steyn was sworn in as President of the Orange Free State and took up residence in the Presidency in Bloemfontein. In 1897, he bought a farm south of Bloemfontein. He named this farm, where he and his family could live in peace, "Onze Rust". Onze Rust would become an inseparable part of the Steyns' family life in the years before the Anglo-Boer War. The President undertook various tree planting programmes between 1897 and 1899. The gigantic Eucalyptus trees to the west of the homestead are witnesses to this. After the Jameson invasion (1896), the Free State and the Transvaal concluded a defence treaty and gradually set off on an armed struggle with Britain.
With the collapse of the Bloemfontein Conference (5 June 1899), war between the Transvaal and Britain became inevitable. The Free State was then faced with the choice of honouring or dishonouring the Treaty with the Transvaal. Sunday, 8 October 1899, Pres. Steyn spent the evening at Onze Rust. That evening he declared to his wife "I will fight for freedom and justice." The next day the Transvaal sent an ultimatum to England and on 11 October 1899 the Anglo-Boer War broke out.
By February 1900 the Boer forces were beginning to fall back before the British superior force. At dusk, 12 March 1900, Genl. French's cavalry occupied Onze Rust. The next morning, the day of the fall of Bloemfontein, Lord Roberts and Genl. French had breakfast at Onze Rust. For the rest of the war (Sept 1900 - May 1902) Onze Rust was used by the Dublin Fusiliers as a "remount station". The homestead was occupied by their officers. The struggle for freedom had so damaged the President's health that he went to Europe for medical treatment after the Peace of Vereeniging (31 May 1902). In March 1905 the President returned to Onze Rust with his family. On the eve of the Rebellion of 1914, Generals de la Rey and Christiaan Beyers visited Onze Rust in an unsuccessful attempt to gain the President's support for the Rebellion. The olive tree under which they sat is known today as "The Tree of Conspiracy".
On 28 November 1916 the President died while addressing the Orange Women's Association in Bloemfontein. On Sunday, 3 December 1916, he was laid to rest at the foot of the Women's Monument. Today, five generations of Steyns later, Onze Rust is still a reflection of the splendor, glory and hospitality of the Free State's Republican era.
Onze Rust's forest garden makes you involuntarily look for gnomes and mountain fairies playing hide-and-seek. It's cool and peaceful in the shadows of the tree-lined garden in front of the historic Free State homestead - a fairytale oasis.
The living National Monument - Tree of the Covenant (Wild Olive Tree) is about 480 years old and has survived, together with eucalyptus trees that Pres. MT Steyn planted on Onze Rust before the Boer War.
Furniture, photos, books and kitchenware in the mansion and its living history, are from the time when MT Steyn and his beloved wife, Tibbie, lived on Onze Rust from 1898. It is still today's living things and as much a part of his descendants as breathing.
A rose garden blooms in October in a whitewashed ring wall behind the homestead. A whole field of irises also shows their beauty in October (bulbs available of course).
The original house was enlarged in 1904 to accommodate his family and it was at his insistence that it be run by impoverished farmers. The materials used in the house are therefore of modest quality and some doors and fireplaces are crooked, much to the amusement of the guests.
The house is large and spacious, the furniture from the farm house has been preserved because it was in the Presidency during the war. The bedrooms have copper beds and four-poster beds and the old kitchen's Oregon pine cabinets are still standing.
Everything is still in use today and the house is still inhabited by the Steyn family, including the fifth generation.