TOPIC:

Jacob Bergman

Private, Middleton Town Guard - Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal to 6 Pte. J. Bergman, Middleton T.G.

Jacob (Yacov) Bergman was born Jacob Gochin in 1873 in Papile, Lithuania (near the Latvian border), the son of Philip Bergman and his wife Alia born Goldfuss. Just after 1892 the Gochin cousins – Joseph, Jacob and Abraham - decided to leave their country of birth and seek greener pastures for themselves and their families in South Africa where, rumour had it, there was money to be made.

In around 1896, Joseph and Jacob Gochin made what was at that time a very hazardous journey by ox-cart over the Drakensberg mountain range and decided to temporarily settle in the Transvaal Republic (specifically in the district of Heidelberg, some seventy miles south of Johannesburg). It transpired that there they made, at least from a genealogical point of view, a momentous decision. They bought a general dealer's business in the town that was already established and trading under the name "Bergman se Winkel", which translates to "Bergman's Shop"

Joseph and Jacob spent only a few years in Heidelberg before the outbreak of the 2nd Anglo Boer War in October 1899. But when the war started and knowing that most of the family had recently arrived and settled in Port Elizabeth in the eastern Cape they and Abraham decided to avoid the untenable prospect of finding that they were fighting for the Boers against family conscripted on the British side. They therefore packed their possessions and themselves headed for the Cape Colony – specifically Middleton, near Cradock.

By this time it was perhaps inevitable that the two would thereafter themselves become known as the Bergman Brothers. When entering the Cape it was pointed out to the authorities that these Jews from the north were the Bergman brothers from Heidelberg – for ease of conducting business there they had already assumed the name, officially registering themselves under the surname Bergman.

Jacob (Gochin) Bergman and his brother Joseph and cousin Abe (Piel) Perl enlisted in the newly created Town Guard in the tiny town of Middelton, not far from the farming community of Cradock, located on the Fish River. To this day the town consists of a hotel, one or two stores and a railway siding – not much different from what it was in Victorian times. During their spell as soldiers from July 1901 to July 1902, a famous photograph of the three, resplendent in their Army uniforms and carrying .303 Lee Enfield rifles, was taken. This photo is on display at Beit Hatefusoth, the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv.


Jacob is seated in the middle

Being in Middleton provided a useful opportunity to investigate the prospects of settling in the area after the war ended but, inevitably, after the conclusion of hostilities in 1902 the town was found to be too small to sustain any meaningful business enterprise and the cousins split up heading back to either Port Elizabeth or Uitenhage.

In the case of Jacob Bergman he started farming in the Uitenhage area in about 1918 which is also where he joined the Wolwefontein Town Guard – a home defence body who whose services were not required in World War I. Jacob later became the first President of the Raleigh Street Schul in Port Elizabeth. He also married Ita Mina (Minnie) Goldfuss who bore him a number of children.

Jacob Bergman passed away at 3 Billson Street, Uitenhage on 12 November 1938 at the age of 64. He had been the proprietor of Bergman’s Produce, a limited liability company with its head office in Port Elizabeth at the time of his death.

Rendering Error in layout Message/Item: fopen(http://open.api.ebay.com/shopping?callname=GetSingleItem&appid=DavidBig-ABW-PRD-5bff6a2ad-934180e3&siteid=3&responseencoding=JSON&ItemID=382386761439&version=889&trackingid=djb023&trackingpartnercode=9): failed to open stream: Connection refused. Please enable debug mode for more information.

Looks like a very fancy uniform for what you expect a Town Guard to wear...…

Mike

Death notice for a Josef Bergman in 1908. Age, occupation and location seems to fit. Interesting to see that he was married to a Perl.

So Komadaga would actually be Kammadagga which is south of Middleton, I take it that it's Town Guard would be part of the Middleton Town Guard?