Griekwastad

Griekwastad grew around a spring north of the Orange River, in a dry country where dependable water was valuable. The settlement was first known as Klaarwater. Its inhabitants included people of Khoekhoe, San, European and other ancestry who had moved beyond the Cape frontier, bringing together families under leaders including the Kok and Barends.

In the early nineteenth century the London Missionary Society's William Anderson and Cornelius Kramer established a mission in the district. Their first station at Leeuwenkuil was too dry for cultivation, and they moved to the spring at Klaarwater. In 1813 the community adopted the name Griqua and the settlement became Griquatown. Andries Waterboer later emerged as a leading figure there, while other Griqua leaders and their followers established themselves elsewhere.