1b KM du Preez (Spouse)

The Frontier Woman Behind the McCarthy Story

Story Introduction:
Long before the McCarthy family settled on the farms and frontier districts of the Orange Free State, the story of Catharina Magdalena du Preez had already begun within the moving world of the old Cape frontier families.
Catharina Magdalena du Preez was born on 17 January 1840 in Riversdale in the Cape Colony. She was the daughter of Hercules Jacobus du Preez and Margaretha Isabella van Zyl, members of two well-established Afrikaner farming families whose roots stretched back into the early Cape settlement.
Like many frontier families of the nineteenth century, the du Preez family did not remain in one place for long. Over generations they moved steadily eastward through the Cape districts, following grazing land, wagon routes, farming opportunities, and the expanding frontier. Their journey passed through places such as Tulbagh, George, Riversdale, the Gamtoos Valley, and eventually Humansdorp in the eastern Cape.
Catharina grew up within this changing frontier world — a world of ox wagons, isolated farms, church gatherings, droughts, long distances, and close-knit farming communities.
One of the more unusual discoveries found during the research was that Catharina was only baptised much later in life. Church records from Humansdorp show that she was baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church on 4 April 1857 at the age of fifteen. The reason for the late baptism remains unknown, although delays were not uncommon among remote frontier families living far from established churches.

By the mid-1860s, Humansdorp had become an important farming district on the eastern frontier. Somewhere within this community, Catharina met a young Irish immigrant named James McCarthy. They married in Humansdorp on 18 July 1866.
Their marriage brought together two very different frontier worlds — an Irish migrant whose origins remain partly hidden in mystery, and an Afrikaner farming family already deeply rooted within the expanding South African interior.
Their first child, Margaretha Isabella McCarthy, was born just one day before the marriage on 17 July 1866. Over the years that followed, Catharina raised a growing family while the McCarthys gradually moved inland along the same routes followed by many eastern Cape farming families of the time.

Their first four children were born in Humansdorp:
• Margaretha Isabella – 17 Jul 1866
• Johan Jeremias – 12 Jul 1868
• Hercules Jacobus – 28 Mar 1870
• Daniel Christoffel Benjamin – 1 Feb 1872

Around the early 1870s the family relocated to the Orange Free State, eventually settling near Ladybrand close to the Basotho border. The move mirrored the wider migration patterns of many eastern Cape farming families searching for grazing land and new opportunities further inland.
Life on the frontier was seldom easy.
Catharina raised her children during years marked by economic hardship, political instability, drought, and war. The family lived through the years surrounding the First Anglo-Boer War, while later generations would experience the devastation of the South African War.

On 30 April 1881, tragedy struck when her husband James McCarthy died on the farm Waterval near Ladybrand at the age of 46.
Catharina was left widowed with several young children. James’s death certificate revealed that the estate was modest, consisting of only £46 and 10 shillings. Yet despite the hardship, Catharina appears never to have remarried. Instead, she continued raising her family across the frontier districts of the interior.
Years later, another important document emerged.

In January 1996, while researching at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints library in Parktown, Johannesburg, I located Catharina’s death certificate. It opened another window into her life and finally confirmed many of the details surrounding the McCarthy family.

The certificate recorded that Catharina Magdalena McCarthy, born du Preez, died as a widow on 16 February 1902 on the farm England in the Vryburg district.
She was 61 years old.
The document also revealed the names and circumstances of many of her surviving children. Some were already married, while others remained difficult to trace. Two sons were notably absent from the document.
One of them, Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy, was later found listed in a small museum booklet in Vryheid among Boer War casualties. He had died on 22 September 1900 at Kromspruit while serving under Commandant A.J. Prinsloo during the Anglo-Boer War.
Another son, Johan Jeremias McCarthy, remains one of the unresolved mysteries within the family history. Despite years of searching, little further trace of him has yet been found.
The estate papers of Catharina Magdalena McCarthy provide a final quiet glimpse into her everyday life. Her possessions were simple: pots, pans, a bed, blankets, tables, and chairs — the ordinary belongings of a frontier farming household.
Her son Hercules Jacobus McCarthy was appointed executor of her estate in May 1905, several years after her death.
Over time, church records, estate papers, death certificates, and family naming patterns slowly helped rebuild the outline of Catharina’s life. One particularly interesting discovery came from comparing the names of her children with those of the du Preez and van Zyl families. Nearly all the names repeated older family names carried through earlier generations, reflecting the strong naming traditions common among Afrikaner frontier families.

What began as a single reference on an old document slowly grew into the story of a remarkable frontier woman whose life stretched from the Cape districts to the far interior of South Africa.
For many years Catharina Magdalena du Preez existed only as a name attached to James McCarthy.
Now, through scattered records and long journeys across South Africa, her own story has also begun to emerge from the past.

Timeline:

Year	Event
1773	Catharina’s grandfather, Hercules Johannes du Preez, born
1 Apr 1807	Hercules Jacobus du Preez, Catharina’s father, born in Tulbagh
1816	Margaretha Isabella van Zyl, Catharina’s mother, born
18 Aug 1833	Hercules Jacobus du Preez married Margaretha Isabella van Zyl in George
17 Jan 1840	Catharina Magdalena du Preez born in Riversdale
1851	Regina Cornelia du Preez, the ninth du Preez child, born in Humansdorp — the first family child recorded there
4 Apr 1857	Catharina baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, Humansdorp, at age 15
1858	Susanna Cornelia Elisabetta du Preez born in Humansdorp
1865–1866	Economic depression affected South Africa
17 Jul 1866	Daughter Margaretha Isabella McCarthy born
18 Jul 1866	Catharina married James McCarthy in Humansdorp
12 Jul 1868	Son Johan Jeremias McCarthy born
27 Sep 1868	Johan Jeremias McCarthy baptised in Humansdorp
27 Sep 1868	Son Hercules Jacobus McCarthy born
12 Jun 1870	Hercules Jacobus McCarthy baptised in Humansdorp
1 Feb 1872	Son Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy born
3 Mar 1872	Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy baptised in Humansdorp
22 Nov 1872	Catharina’s father, Hercules Jacobus du Preez, died at Donkerpoort, Winburg district, Orange Free State
c.1874	Son Theunis Cornelis McCarthy born
16 Dec 1880 – 23 Mar 1881	First Anglo-Boer War
30 Apr 1881	James McCarthy died on the farm Waterval near Ladybrand
21 Jun 1898	Son Hercules Jacobus McCarthy married Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth Therblanche
9 Oct 1899 – 31 May 1902	Second Anglo-Boer War
22 Sep 1900	Son Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy died at Kromspruit, Vryburg district, during the Anglo-Boer War
16 Feb 1902	Catharina Magdalena McCarthy, born du Preez, died on the farm England in the Vryburg district
18 May 1905	Daughter signed Catharina’s death certificate
18 May 1905	Hercules Jacobus McCarthy appointed executor of Catharina’s estate
7 Jun 1906	Estate papers sent to Hercules Jacobus McCarthy

Documents & Evidence:

Key records discovered during the research include:

• Marriage certificate of Catharina Magdalena du Preez and James McCarthy (Humansdorp, 1866)
• Baptism record of Catharina Magdalena du Preez (Humansdorp, 1857)
• Death certificate of James McCarthy (Ladybrand, 1881)
• Death certificate of Catharina Magdalena McCarthy (Vryburg, 1902)
• Estate papers of Catharina Magdalena McCarthy
• Estate papers of James McCarthy
• Baptism records of the McCarthy children
• Dutch Reformed Church registers from Humansdorp
• Boer War casualty records relating to Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy

These records gradually transformed scattered family memory into documented history.

Open Questions:

Despite years of research, several important questions remain unanswered:

• Why was Catharina baptised only at the age of fifteen?
• Where exactly did the McCarthy family live between Humansdorp and Ladybrand?
• What became of Johan Jeremias McCarthy?
• Which children died young and before Catharina’s death certificate was completed?
• Is the Waterval farm visited during the research the correct property connected to the family?
• Can additional church, estate, or farm records still be found in Humansdorp, Ladybrand, or Vryburg?
• Where exactly was James McCarthy buried?
• Are there surviving descendants connected to the missing branches of the family?