page_title: Kestell
section_title: Dutch Reformed Church and town's naming
hierarchical_section_title: Kestell / Dutch Reformed Church and town's naming
caption_attribution_description: This media shows a South African Protected Site with SAHRA file reference 9/2/300/0016.
context_page_description: Kestell is a small maize farming town in the Free State province of South Africa.
  Town 46 km west of Harrismith and 45 kilometres east of Bethlehem. The new village was laid out in 1905 on the farms Mooifontein and Driekuil, acquired from Adriaan and Johannes Bezuidenhout. It became a municipality in 1906.
context_section_description: It is named after the Reverend Dr. John Daniel Kestell (1854 - 1941), minister of the Dutch Reformed Church from 1894 to 1903, author and cultural leader, who played an important role in the Anglo-Boer War and later helped with the Afrikaans Bible translation. The Dutch Reformed Church building, designed by famed architect of dozens of churches and the Voortrekker Monument, Gerard Moerdijk, was inaugurated on 31 March 1928.
  The township was surveyed and laid out by William Homan in 1905.  To prevent jealousy he 'called the long streets after the tall members of the committee and the short streets after the short members.'When the committee insisted that Homan had a street named after him, he selected 'a rough short street' which still bears that name.
caption: The Dutch Reformed church building in Kestell
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