Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter

1866 - 1929  (63 years)

• Name	Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter
  Birth	8 Feb 1866	Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa   [1]
  Christening	4 Mar 1866	Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa   [1]
  Gender	Male
  _UID	35F39C519047442AA7F70DE75561929CD022
  Death	6 Dec 1929	Aberdeen Hotel, Rabie Street, Aberdeen, Eastern Cape, South Africa   [2]
  Notes	Thomas was baptised the son of John Hobday Minter and Anna Maria Adriana Ackerman. The witnesses at the baptism were Thomas Wyatt Minter and Jane Agatha Minter, thought to have been John Hobday Minter's brother and his (second) wife. Thomas's baptismal record doesn't include 'Wyatt' but he seems to have acquired 'Wyatt' later in life, as shown in the following extract from Chapter 1, "Winburg - the town and the district" of a document appearing on the University of Pretoria's website. Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter of Rietgat found the first diamond on the farm Kaalvallei, 8 km north of present-day Virginia. He and his father, John Minter, had half-share options on the farm. Because they could not afford the services of a mining engineer, the land surveyor Gustav Baumann laid out the underground works for them. The company established on Kaalvallei and the adjoining farm, Driefontein, owned by John Dale Lace, was called the OFS and Transvaal Diamond Mine (also known as the Kaalvallei and Lace Mine), with George Henry Alexander as manager and Hendrik Schalk Theron as mining engineer. This company was bought by Sir JB Robinson in about 1896 for £180,000. (A footnote to the sum of £180,000 reads 'Viljoen E.H., Virginia 1892-1980: Van Spoorweghalte tot Mynboudorp [From railway siding to mining town] p. 143. Although much progressive farming relied on mining finance, Tom Minter, who got £30 000 for his share in the farm Rietgat and invested £4,000 in a steam plough with which he confidently expected to raise 30,000 bags of wheat a year, ended up bankrupt; see Timothy Keegan, The Dynamics of Rural Accumulation in South Africa, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 28:4 (October 1986), p. 637.) The mine refered to in the above passage is probably the one which became known as the Samada Mine, Welkom, Witwatersrand, also known as the Kaalvallei Mine. An account of Thomas ("Tom") Minter's involvement in the "Diamond Mine Drama" is in Chapter XIV of "The Lost Republic - The biography of a Land-Surveyor" written by Gustav Baumann and Elfrieda Bright and published by Faber & Faber in 1940. Death certificate gives cause of death as "Suicide caused by cyanide poisoning"
  Person ID	I1264	Folkestone, Kent
  Last Modified	28 Apr 2020

  
  

  Father	John Hobday Minter,   b. 13 Dec 1842, South Africa d. 4 Jan 1906, Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa (Age 63 years)
  Mother	Anna Maria Adriana ACKERMAN,   b. 22 Sep 1844, South Africa d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	4 Apr 1864	Heidleberg, Free State, South Africa   [1]
  	Half of the page on which this marriage is recorded has been torn off but sufficient survives to see the names, ages and signatures of both parties. Erica Minter has sent me a copy of the marriage certificate. It shows that when they married John was 21, a bachelor, and Anna was 19, a spinster.
  Family ID	F544	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Alice Maude BRADSHAW,   b. Abt 1866   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	4 Aug 1887	Kimberley, South Africa   [3, 4]
  	Both 'of Beaconsfield'.
  Marital status	Divorced
  Family ID	F433	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 May 2020

  
  

  Family 2	Alice Laura CARROLL,   b. Abt 1877, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa d. 31 Jan 1926, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa (Age ~ 49 years)
  Marriage	6 Feb 1898	Winburg, Free State, South Africa   [5]
  	Details supplied by Erica Gwynne Minter: Name: Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter Gender: Male Age: 32 Marital status: Geskei [Divorced] Record Type: Marriage Birth Date: abt 1866 Place of Origin: Winburg Marriage Date: 6 Feb 1898 Marriage Place: Free State, South Africa Church: Winburg Spouse: Alice Laura Carroll Occupation: Veeboer [Livestock] Religion: Nederduits Gereformeerde [Dutch Reformed] Collection: Free State: Marriages, 1838-1940
  Children	1. Cecil John Rhodes Minter,   b. 8 Apr 1898, Port Elizabeth, South Africa d. 10 May 1960, Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Age 62 years)   2. Wyatt Leonard Minter,   b. 1900, South Africa d. 1960, South Africa (Age 60 years)   3. Francis Fitzherbert "Percy" Minter,   b. 6 Jan 1900, South Africa d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F622	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	20 Jan 2020

  
  

• Documents » Slide Show		Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter born 1866 Chapter from The Lost Republic - The biography of a Land-surveyor
  		Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter 1866 - 1929 1887 marriage certificate
  		Thomas Leonard Wyatt Minter 1866 - 1929 Death certificate

  
  

• Sources

  [S207] South Africa, Free State Dutch Reformed Church Records, 1848-1956 at findmypast, July 2014. [S288] Death certificate at familysearch.org. [S108] http://www.genealogyworld.net/ellen/anne/Kmbly%20HANC%201-1-16-1-2.htm, no. 134. (Reliability: 3). [S33] Marriage certificate (copy), supplied by Erica Minter. (Reliability: 3). [S272] Erica Glynne Minter, including her Ancestry.com tree, January 2020 and later.