A Young Boer Wife Through War and Hardship
Story Introduction:
The life of Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth Therblanche unfolded during one of the most difficult and uncertain periods in South African history.
Born on 9 February 1878 in Fauresmith in the Orange Free State, Susanna grew up in a farming world already shaped by drought, isolation, political tension, and the growing uncertainty that would eventually lead to war.
She was the daughter of Daniel Johannes Phillipus Therblanche and Hester Jacoba Pitto, members of established Afrikaner farming families living in the interior districts of the Free State.
Very little survives about Susanna’s early childhood, but through later records and family memories a picture slowly begins to emerge of a young frontier woman whose adult life would be marked by continual hardship, movement, and loss.
In June 1898, at only twenty years old, Susanna married Hercules Jacobus McCarthy in the Dutch Reformed Church in Lindley.
Hercules, already twenty-eight, was the son of the Irish immigrant James McCarthy and Catharina Magdalena du Preez. Their marriage brought together two families already shaped by migration across the eastern Cape and Free State frontier districts.
The couple settled on the farm Elandsfontein in the Lindley area, where Hercules built a house for the young family on land belonging to the Geldenhuis family.
At first, their future must have seemed full of promise. Then came the Anglo-Boer War.
When war broke out in October 1899, Hercules joined the Boer forces fighting against the British Empire. Like countless Boer women of the period, Susanna was suddenly left trying to manage family life during a time of uncertainty, shortages, and violence sweeping through the countryside.
Their first child, James Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy, was born on 2 May 1900 during the height of the war.
The conflict soon reached directly into their lives.
On 23 September 1901, British forces reportedly ransacked the farm Elandsfontein, destroying or removing much of the family’s belongings. Later compensation claims submitted by Hercules McCarthy described the extent of the losses suffered during the war years.
Susanna’s father, Daniel Therblanche, supported the claim and acted as a witness for his son-in-law.
Even after the war ended, life remained unsettled.
Their second child, Daniel Johannes Jacobus Philippus McCarthy, was born on 2 March 1902. Later that same year Hercules and Susanna signed a joint will while living in Lindley.
Over the following years the family continued moving through the western Transvaal and Vryburg districts while Hercules worked wherever opportunities could be found. According to family stories, he assisted farmers by blasting water pits using dynamite in the dry western districts around Broedersput and Zeerust.
During these difficult years Susanna continued raising a growing young family under demanding frontier conditions.
Their children were:
- James Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy
- Daniel Johannes Jacobus Philippus McCarthy
- Hercules Jacobus Johannes McCarthy
- Hendrik Gert Ramsbottom McCarthy
- Hester Catharina Jacoba McCarthy
Family stories later connected the unusual middle name “Rautenbach” carried by later McCarthy sons to a tragic accident involving a young Rautenbach man who reportedly died while helping Hercules during blasting work.
Whether every detail can still be historically proven, the story survived through several generations of the family.
Around 1905, while Susanna was raising young children, another family tragedy occurred when Hercules’s mother, Catharina Magdalena McCarthy, died in Vryburg.
After the war the McCarthy family relocated to the Marico district. Very little is known about their experiences there, although family memories suggest these were difficult years marked by financial hardship and constant rebuilding after the destruction of the war. Then tragedy struck once more.
On 29 May 1909, Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth McCarthy died of influenza at Kafferskraal in the Marico district. She was only thirty-one years old. According to later family stories, Hercules struggled deeply to cope with her death. For a period, the children were cared for by neighbours and family friends while he attempted to rebuild his life.
One of the few surviving visual links to this period is a family photograph taken at Zeerust in 1910, shortly after Susanna’s death. The photograph was later identified by family members and became an important surviving memory of the family during those difficult years.
Although her life was short, Susanna lived through some of the harshest years experienced by frontier families in southern Africa:
- the Anglo-Boer War
- destruction of farms and property
- displacement across the interior
- financial hardship
- disease
- and the constant uncertainty of frontier life.
Today, through death certificates, war claims, family photographs, church records, and stories passed down through generations, the life of Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth Therblanche survives once again within the history of the McCarthy family.
Timeline:
| Year | Event |
| 18 Jul 1866 | James McCarthy married Catharina Magdalena du Preez in Humansdorp |
| 28 Mar 1870 | Hercules Jacobus McCarthy born in Humansdorp |
| 9 Feb 1878 | Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth Therblanche born in Fauresmith |
| 21 Jun 1898 | Susanna married Hercules Jacobus McCarthy in the Dutch Reformed Church, Lindley |
| 9 Oct 1899 – 31 May 1902 | Second Anglo-Boer War |
| 1899 | Hercules joined the Boer forces against the British Empire |
| 2 May 1900 | First child, James Daniel Christoffel Benjamin McCarthy, born |
| Jul 1900 | Hercules surrendered during the war |
| Oct 1900 | Hercules rejoined the Boer forces |
| 23 Sep 1901 | British forces ransacked the farm Elandsfontein near Lindley |
| 2 Mar 1902 | 2 Mar 1902 Second child, Daniel Johannes Jacobus Philippus McCarthy, born |
| 22 Sep 1902 | Hercules and Susanna signed a joint will in Lindley |
| 1903 | Compensation claim submitted for losses suffered during the war |
| 1903 | Daniel Therblanche supported the compensation claim as witness |
| 18 Mar 1904 | Third child, Hercules Jacobus Johannes McCarthy, born |
| c.1904 | Family story of the Rautenbach dynamite accident originated |
| 14 Apr 1907 | Fourth child, Hendrik Gert Ramsbottom McCarthy, born |
| 14 Aug 1908 | Fifth child, Hester Catharina Jacoba McCarthy, born |
| 29 May 1909 | Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth McCarthy died of influenza at Kafferskraal, Marico |
| 1910 | Family photograph taken at Zeerust after Susanna’s death |
Documents & Evidence:
Key records and sources discovered during the research include:
- Marriage certificate of Hercules Jacobus McCarthy and Susanna Therblanche
- Death certificate of Susanna Cecilia Stoffelina Elisabeth McCarthy
- Anglo-Boer War compensation claim records
- Joint will signed by Hercules and Susanna in 1902
- National Archives references relating to the Lindley claims
- Family photograph identified by Uncle James McCarthy
- Oral family history preserved through later generations
- Research notes and genealogy records shared by Sandra Gurney
Together these records helped rebuild the outline of Susanna’s life and the difficult years faced by the young McCarthy family during and after the Anglo-Boer War.
Open Questions:
Despite the surviving records, several important questions remain:
- Where exactly was the family home on the farm Elandsfontein?
- What losses were specifically suffered during the British occupation of the area?
- Did additional photographs of Susanna survive within extended family collections?
- What were the family’s movements between Lindley, Vryburg, Zeerust, and Marico during the war years?
- Can further records be found relating to the compensation claim submitted after the war?
- How accurate is the Rautenbach dynamite story as passed through family memory?
- Are there surviving descendants who may still hold letters, documents, or oral stories connected to Susanna and her children?