Christian Wilhelm Alheit
Encyclopedia
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Unstrut-Hainich district, and lies along the river Unstrut. Mühlhausen had c. 37,000 inhabitants in 2006.-History:...
, Thüringen
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
- 21 March 1882 Steinthal, Tulbagh
Tulbagh
Tulbagh is a town in the Tulbagh valley and is situated in the Witzenberg Local Municipality, with the valley called "Die Land van Waveren" locally. Closest towns are Wolseley, Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Gouda and Ceres in the Boland district of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.The valley has...
district, was a Rhenish missionary
Rhenish Missionary Society
The Rhenish Missionary Society was one of the largest missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and its first missionaries were ordained and sent off to South Africa by the end of the year.The...
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Alheit arrived in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1842 and worked at mission stations in Tulbagh
Tulbagh
Tulbagh is a town in the Tulbagh valley and is situated in the Witzenberg Local Municipality, with the valley called "Die Land van Waveren" locally. Closest towns are Wolseley, Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Gouda and Ceres in the Boland district of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.The valley has...
(1842-7), Schietfontein
Carnarvon, South Africa
Carnarvon is a small town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Originally established in 1860 as the village of Harmsfontein, it was located within the territory of Schietfontein, the only water source in the area and the site of the Rhenish mission station founded in 1847 by the...
(1847-64), Stellenbosch (1864-73) and Saron (1873-1882).
Between 1864 and 1873 he was head of a boys' hostel in Stellenbosch where a third of the boys were the sons of Rhenish missionaries. Here Alheit showed great aptitude in the teaching of mathematics. Another hostel opened in 1860 and was called the Rhenish Institute for the daughters of Rhenish missionaries. From these schools a Gymnasium developed, which later turned into Victoria College and finally into Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....
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The hamlet of Alheit 28°45′00"S 20°33′00"E on the Orange River
Orange River
The Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
between Kakamas and the Augrabies Falls, is named after him.
Family
On 14 September 1847 in Tulbagh, he married Mathilde Johanna Sanetta Vos (*7 October 1817 Caledon - †12 June 1906 Tulbagh). She was the sister of the missionary Ariel Vos and daughter of the well-known Rev. M. C. Vos. Alheit's only son, Rev. W. A. Alheit of CeresCeres, Western Cape
Ceres is a town with 46,251 inhabitants in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is the administrative centre and largest town of the Witzenberg Local Municipality. Ceres serves as a regional centre for the surrounding towns of Wolseley, Tulbagh, Op-die-Berg and Prince Alfred Hamlet...
, drowned at Jongensklip near Kleinmond
Kleinmond
Kleinmond is a small coastal town in the Overberg region of the Western Cape province, South Africa. It is situated inside a UNESCO-declared Biosphere about 90 km east of Cape Town between Betty's Bay and Hermanus....
. Four of the drowned man's sons became ministers of the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk
Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk
The Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighboring countries, such as Namibia, Swaziland, and parts of Botswana and Zimbabwe...
and the fifth, a teacher of mathematics. One of C. W. Alheit's daughters married the Rhenish missionary, Johann Gerdener. While stationed at Saron, a mission station about 18km northwest of Tulbagh, C. W. Alheit was killed in a horse and cart accident at the farm Steinthal, about 5km east of Tulbagh.
"Alheit" is derived from "Adelheid", a German word for "nobility".