Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-09-23
1856.
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY
OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN,


OF :
OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN. F.:
''.'' .'......''
That is all, but to this day when the
wagons halt by the roadside YOU will
frequently see the sturdy Dutch farm
ers drop their whips or lay aside
their rifles II make their way rever-
entity TO the little shrine. Then they
uncover their heads and utter the
prayer they have known from their
childhood.
20 Lord, deliver our dear ines from
the spear of the Kaffir.'
But for many years after the massa-
ere the old settlement itself was
summed by the Beers as a place of i'll
omen and bitter memory.
At last old Dirk Joubert. whose wife
and four children were asleep in the
little cemetery, returned, as he said,
10 end his days on the spot where his
heart and his hopes were already bur
led. The mans possessions consisted
OF a Few COWS, a span of ken. two or
three horses, a wagon and a rifle. He
was a stern, unbending kind Of a man,
who worked hard and said little, but
every once in a while a kind word or
a kind deed escaped him, and then his
neighbors would say, Leave old Dork
alone, he has a good heart"
Of course he loved his little daugh-
ter, Norma, his only child and COM
panion, who had escaped in a miracu-
lous way from the massacre, and after
a while even the Kaffirs pitied the old
man and the little girl who was moth
erless.
However, old Dirk stuck to the farm
and his daughter grew up and, with
bare head and bare feet, did the work
of a man. So when Norma was Is
years of age she was strong and
healthy and brave. Her father had
taught her to read and write, to handle
a rifle, to mount the widest of the
horses, to chop wood and to hoe corn.
In fact, they had to fight for existence
in a new country.
The old a had many friends and
they often tried to persuade him to
return to the Highveldt and live with
them, but in truth he was broken
hearted and refused to move an inch.
| Afterward, when he found out what
! his child could do, he became proud as
well as stubborn.
Nobody called Norma beautiful, and
yet there was something in her face
that made you look and then wonder
and afterward when you knew her his
tory you discovered that it was a face
to be worshipped. At least the young
Beers thought so, as they watched her
grow up to ~womanhood and brave the
storms and the terrors of the wilder
ness with single-hearted devotion TO
her old father.
Those who have never been COM
PEELED to feed and to clothe them
selves by means of a rifle can have no
idea what existence cost in the early
days when the farmers first trekked
northward and commenced to dispute
for the right of way with the Kaffirs
and animals.
In course of time old Dirk began to
fail. He still went hunting at times,
but often returned empty handed, so
more and more it fell to Norma to
provide.
One night some of her fathers cat
tie broke away and the next day word
came that the Kaffirs were holding
them at a Kraal some five miles away.
So Norma set out to bring them back.
She had heard that there was a party
of foreigners hunting in the neighbour
hood. They were Americans or Eng
lish, she didn't know which, and she
didn't care. She hated foreigners sim
ply because her father did.
However, she secured the cattle and
was returning slowly ~homeward, when
fhn ra,Nprf Of Hrno rt,,c ,noa1la1 thn For
eigners to her mind.
Wishing to avoid them she took to
a Katiir path which led through a dried
up swamp over which the reeds had
grown thick and high.
Her precautions, however, were in
vain. AS she rode out from among
the reeds she found herself in plain
view of the wagons of the hunters.
At a glance she could see that one of
the foreigners had n water-buck at
bay among the reeds and was calling
for assistance. Another mar with a
white helmet on his head was scram-
bling down the rocky bank that skirt
ed the swamp.
He was about half way down when
Norma was Mortified to see a large
tiger cat spring from its lair and
alight square on the mans head and
shoulders. Down the bank they rolled
together, the man yelling for help,
while the growls of the tiger were half
smothered, as, with snap after snap,
it tried to bury its muZzle and jaws in
the flesh of its victim. They landed
almost at the feet OF Norma. In the
scramble the cat lost its grip, fell off
TO one side and was squirming and
doubling up for another spring when a
bullet from Norma's rife pierced its
brain.
The wounded man was Claude Nor
cross, and his friend, who FASTENED to
his assistance. was Robert Dearborn,
Americans, both of them.
Norma. understood her duty, in spite
{ her fathers dislike to foreigners. AS
the mans injuries were very serious
she invited the party over to the farm
house. There they remained for over
three months, and when Claude had
recovered his friend Dearborn told
him hat he owed his life to Norma's
skill and devotion.
As for Claude, his gratitude was
boundless, and his admiration for the
girl was so sincere and outspoken that
after he was gone Norma missed him
dreadfully, and once in a while took
refuge in tears.
In 1875 old Dirk Joubert died, and
was gathered TO his wife and children
in the little cemetery.
Some well-to-do relations living in
Pretoria took charge of Norma, and,
of course, from this time on a great
change came over her life. However,
she made such good use of her time
and opportunities that when Claude
met her about two years later, on his