Co-author of Benoni history book congratulates City Times

Thoughts on the centennial of the Benoni City Times, by David Thomas, co-author of the history entitled Benoni Son of Sorrow, published in 1968:

Firstly, let me congratulate the Benoni City Times on its amazing feat of surviving and flourishing over 100 years. 

I haven’t lived in Benoni for over 60 years, but on my last visit a year or two ago, I made the front page of the City Times.

I was pictured along with several others in a ceremony at the grave of Benoni pioneers George and Esther Easton, who had founded the Chimes Hotel in about 1888.

I knew that fact from the book on the history of Benoni I had co-authored with Dr Deryck Humphriss in 1968.

On the last day of my stay in South Africa, I had picked up some advanced copies of the BCT with the picture and the story of the cemetery ceremony from its offices. That prompted me somewhat excitedly to ‘phone a Benoni friend to tell her to buy a copy the next morning.

“Oh no, I don’t have to buy it,” she replied. “I get it delivered to me every week.”

That anecdote encapsulates for me the reason for the longevity of the BCT. Just think of the enormous, earth-shaking changes – political, social, technological (print, after all, is just one step up from Egyptian hieroglyphs isn’t it?) – that have swept over Benoni and South Africa and the world, since the founding of the BCT in 1921.

My friend’s weekly reception of her copy of the BCT provides it seems to me an explanation of what has enabled this small, local newspaper (no, not a “local rag” or any of the scabrous variations of its name we conferred on it) to survive for longer than anyone I know or knew.

It’s people like my friend who I would think are drawn from all races (my front-page story was written by a young Indian woman), who remain loyal amid all the change and chance of 21st century South Africa to both the Benoni City Times and their home town of Benoni.

Benoni is the City Times, and the City Times is Benoni.

The story of the Esther Eaton plaque project

Esther was born on St. Helena Island to a descendant of freed slaves, Samuel Henry and his wife Sarah, from Thompson’s Wood.

Esther was considered “coloured” in South Africa.

Despite this, Esther was for many years, the beloved wife of William Eaton from Hull in England.

In 1890 Bill and Esther ran the Chimes Tavern and Hotel on the East Rand Goldfields, near what was to become the town of Benoni in 1907.

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After the Anglo-Boer war, William Eaton sold the Chimes hotel and turned his interests to speculation in mining shares and sporting interests.

The two settled in Westdene where Esther and Bill fostered several children, including Edith Lowe, from Germiston, who was abandoned by her mother at an early age.

‘Mother’ Eaton was a well-known sight in Benoni.

Esther used to drive through town with her foster children in a big black carriage, wearing a feathered hat.

The Eatons made sure that their foster children got the best education possible, but Esther was still unwelcome in some parts of Benoni. However, true injustice came in 1939 when Bill died.

Esther inherited most of his considerable property and she purchased a double grave for Bill and her at Benoni Cemetery.

But Esther could not take the transfer of the two houses that Bill had left her because property in Benoni could only belong to people who were considered “white”.

The house in Lakefield, where Bill had died, had to be sold on auction, while the second house, ‘The Firs’, in Main Road had to be transferred to Esther’s adopted daughter, Edith (Lippiatt) Lowe, who was married.

David Thomas, from Australia, who co-authored Benoni Son of My Sorrow, mentioned at the unveiling that when Esther died, Edith was barred from burying her in the grave next to Bill, which was part of the double stand Esther had bought.

“Instead, Esther was buried in a pauper’s grave in Boksburg,” Thomas said. “Egyptian tombs had the inscription ‘speak my name and I will live again’ and this is what we are doing today.”

The Dean from the St Dunstan’s Cathedral, Simon Aiken, also said a prayer for Esther who was a strong believer at the Anglican Church.

“Esther also left money for the Anglican Church in Benoni when she died,” he said.

“We are here to share in the eternal works of Christ which is to bring love and put to death human restrictions.”

Millett-Clay, Thomas and Peter Wood then unveiled Esther’s plaque on Bill’s grave while several people witnessed the occasion. (Article: Sheina Razack, City Times, May 2018).

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