Alois Hugo Nellmapius 5 May 1847 - 27 July 1893, was a South African businessman, industrialist and pioneer conservationist.

Life and career

Born in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, he was raised in Vienna, trained as an engineer in Holland and arrived in South Africa on board the ship Nathan in 1873 - one of his fellow passengers was John X. Merriman

John X. Merriman

John Xavier Merriman was the last prime minister of the Cape Colony before the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.-Early life:...

, later Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. This was the year that gold was first found in the ZAR

ZAR

ZAR may refer to:* South African rand, ISO 4217 currency code* South African Republic, * Zairean Airlines, Democratic Republic of the Congo ICAO code...

. He was successful at gold mining near Pilgrim's Rest

Pilgrim's Rest

Pilgrim’s Rest is a small town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa which has been declared a national monument. After it was officially declared a gold field in September 1873, it suddenly grew to 1,500 inhabitants searching for alluvial gold. Towards the end of the 19th century claims were...

 in the Eastern Transvaal, and managed to obtain the first transport concession to Delagoa Bay in 1875. He constructed what is now known as the Nellmapius Road, from Mac-Mac and the goldfields, crossing the Crocodile River at Nellmapius Drift near Hectorspruit

Hectorspruit

Hectorspruit is a small farming town situated between Kaapmuiden and Komatipoort on a southern tributary of the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The farms in the region produce sugarcane, subtropical fruit and vegetables. The town and stream is named after a dog belonging to S de Kock,...

 to Matalha Poort in Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

. For these services he was granted 4 farms. Nellmapius made and lost several fortunes in his lifetime and was a close friend of Paul Kruger

Paul Kruger

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger , better known as Paul Kruger and affectionately known as Uncle Paul was State President of the South African Republic...

,there is a plaque in the National Kruger Park commemorating this very thing. He was the first digger on the Transvaal goldfields to make use of dynamite.

Nellmapius served in the Sekhukhune Wars and the Mapoch campaign. He established Irene

Irene, Gauteng

Irene is a small township south of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.-Prehistoric inhabitants:Stone arrowheads and tools, discovered in the Hennops River bed and dating back many years prove that people have been living in the area for a very long time....

 Estate (named after his daughter) near Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

 and bought a number of farms on the Hennops River. He employed horticulturists Richard Wills Adlam, who had been the Curator of the Pietermaritzburg

Pietermaritzburg

Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838, and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its "purist" Zulu name is umGungundlovu, and this is the name used for the district municipality...

 Botanical Garden, and his successor, Hans Fuchs. Under their management and with a temperate climate, ample water and fertile soil, they transformed the land into an extensive flower, fruit and vegetable garden of world renown. Flora Shaw of "The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

" of London, visited the Irene Estate in 1892 and was astounded at the scale of the farm and gardens: "With the exception of cherries, gooseberries and currants, all European fruits flourish well. Throughout the estate the water courses, which divided the fields, were bordered by hedges of quince, pear, apple, plum and peach...acres of roses, violets and ornamental plants surrounded the house..."

Kruger House, situated in Church Street West, Pretoria, and built in a Victorian veranda style, was designed by Tom Claridge, one of Pretoria’s first architects and was erected on the instructions of Nellmapius.

He also owned the Pretoria newspaper De Pers. Due to lack of funds he lost a Government manufacturing contract at Eerste Fabrieken to Sammy Marks

Sammy Marks

Samuel Marks better known as Sammy Marks 1843 - 18 February 1920, was a South African industrialist and financier.-Life history:Born the son of a Jewish tailor in 1843/44 at Neustadt-Sugind , in Lithuania, Russia and endowed with integrity, courage, astonishing business acumen and immense vitality...

. His first enterprise was the Hatherley Distillery that produced gin and whisky on the farm Hatherley, opened by President Kruger on 6 June 1883 and named Volkshoop. He started the first gunpowder factory in South Africa and the Irene Lime Works. On the death of Nellmapius, Marks took over his concessions for the distillery, canning fruit and a ceramics factory.Still to this day as come up the stairs to the second floor of the Sammy Marks Museum you will see a portrait of Alois hanging there.

Nellmapius often entertained in grand style at Irene and a frequent guest was Transvaal president, Paul Kruger. Arnold Theiler

Arnold Theiler

Sir Arnold Theiler Pour le Mérite] is considered to be the father of veterinary science in South Africa. He was born in Frick, Canton Aargau, Switzerland. He received his higher education, and later qualified as a veterinarian, in Zurich...

's first employment in South Africa was with Nellmapius. He married Johanna Corlydia Hoffman in 1882, and lived at the Irene Estate until his death in 1893, he was buried in the 'Golden Acres Cemetery' in Church street in Pretoria where Paul Kruger and many others of that time were buried.

Books

• The Tycoon & The President: The life and times of Alois Hugo Nellmapius, 1847-1893 - Helga Kaye (Macmillan, South Africa 1978) ISBN 978-0-86954-073-2