Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

156 lize kriel
will soon become more apparent. Christine died and was buried on
Modimolle. Her husband and their children moved to Spelonken, but
when he could not ‘keep himself free from drink’, the missionaries
took charge of the children. The eldest daughter, Anni, stayed with
Missionary Erdmann Schwellnuss and his family in Vendaland and then
disappeared — apparently she eloped with an Englishman to
‘Bokolanga’. The son, Jan, eventually came to settle in Houtbos, in
the employment of a certain Mr Rudolf Richter. The Beusters assumed
the role of godparents over Christine (Tini), the youngest daughter,
born in 1873. In 1887 she was handed over to the Stech household,
apparently in a mutual agreement between missionaries Beuster and
Stech. Krause made it clear that he was not aware of the actual
reasons for the transfer. According to Krause’s knowledge, Tini was
part of the Stech household until 1890 or 1891, whereafter she went
to her brother Jan in Houtbos. At the time the story of her
‘relationship’ with Stech became known, she was in the service of a
Mr Dewitz in Pietersburg. 9 Having provided this background, Krause
moved on to cite the reports he had received from three of the
missionaries in his synod.
The first one to break the news was missionary FCG (Carl) Knothe from
the station Mphome in Houtbos(berg). During December 1891 he
reported to Krause that Dewitz (at the time the employer of Tini in
Pietersburg) had told Mrs Richter (at the time the employer of Tini’s
brother Jan in Houtbos) who then informed another Berlin Missionary
in the area, Fritz Reuter, who then obviously concurred with Knothe,
that the affair of Mr Stech with Tini was the talk of the town in
Pietersburg. Knothe then recalled that he had seen a highly pregnant
Tini at Blauberg back in 1889, but upon enquiring from Stech, the
latter denied the condition of the girl, then seventeen years old.
Apparently Stech had told Beuster, the godfather of the girl, that the
father was an Austrian man, a certain Fournalla, who had
(conveniently) died in the mean time. According to Stech, Tini and
Fournalla had a relationship while Tini was visiting Houtbos with the
Stech family in 1888. 10
Krause then received a letter from Missionary Herbst of Makgabeng,
Blauberg’s neighbouring station. On his way back home to Makgabeng,
Herbst outspanned in the vicinity of the farmstead of a certain farmer
Van Wyk. 11 The farm was later identified by Tini Fisher herself as
Palmietfontein. 12 It is significant that Herbst found it necessary to
explain to Krause why he was invited into the Van Wyks’ house and
9 EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4225 6-7: O Krause – BMG und Direktor HT
Wangemann, 30 Dezember 1891.
10 As above.
11 EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4225 5: A Herbst – O Krause, Superintendent, 10
Dezember 1891.
12 EA BMG Gegen Stech: BMW 1/4225 56-58: Beilage A, 27 Juli 1892.