The Man Who Made Matjiesfontein

One of South Africa’s great entrepreneurs, James Logan, was also instrumental in making the game of cricket popular throughout the country, writes Graham Jooste.

Born in 1857, in Scotland, James Logan followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the British Railway Company. After a bout of bronchitis the family doctor suggested James should go to a warmer country to recuperate. Anxious to break away from the strict confines of Victorian England, the 18-year-old was happy to comply.

He boarded the Rockhampton bound for Australia. After a violent storm forced her to seek the safety of Simon’s Bay, Logan decided he’d had enough of the sea and walked to Cape Town.

Thanks to his previous experience, he was employed by the Cape Colonial Railways.

In due course, he was made station master of the new Cape Town Station. He was just 20 and the youngest station master in the British Empire at that time. The following year he married Emma Haylett and was appointed district superintendent for the region stretching from Hex River to Prince Albert Road.

The young couple set up home in Touw’s Road. James built a small mineral water and bottling factory and soon had a side-line selling soda water, lemonade and ginger ale to thirsty travellers.

The rail system was expanding and Logan shrewdly calculated that a steam engine would need at least 250 000l of water to cross the arid Karoo en route to the diamond diggings along the Orange River. He also reckoned that Matjiesfontein between Touwsrivier and Laingsburg would be the perfect place for a watering stop.

In 1883, Logan resigned from the Cape Railways and purchased the land around the station. As there were no dining cars on the trains in those days, he opened up a refreshment room. There was water in abundance and soon the fruit orchards on his farm, Tweeside, were bringing in additional income.