Transvaal Cemeteries

Principal town of the district of that name on the national road from Kimberley and 245 km south-west of Johannesburg. Wolmaransstad is on the branch railway from Maquassi to Coligny, which was built in 1927. After the discovery of diamonds in 1871 the main road from Kimberley to Johannesburg passed over the farms Rooderand and Vlakfontein, on which Wolmaransstad was established. In 1876 the brothers W. and T. S. Leask opened a store there and a small community was formed. In 1884 the Volksraad approved of the establishment of a town. The first plots were surveyed in 1888 and on 16 Feb. 1891 the town was proclaimed and named after Jacobus M. A. Wolmarans, member of the Executive Council.