Michael O’Grady was born in County Clare, Ireland in 1839, but immigrated to South Africa in the 1860s. He purchased Houtenbek in 1879 for £500. He bought it sight unseen and therefore was unaware that he was buying Mapoch land, which King Nyabêla reported to the magistrate in Lydenburg. Henrique Shepstone, the British Secretary of Native Affairs, visited with Nyabêla in July 1880 to resolve the situation, and with the failure of these negotiations a Mapoch Commission was appointed. The First Boer War and the Mapoch War rendered the points moot, and O’Grady would settle the farm in July 1883, albeit elbow to elbow with poor whites both beyond and within Houtenbek’s western fringe. A few lawsuits secured his borders by 1891.