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The Zeederberg Coach Company was a South African horse-drawn mail and stage coach service operating during the late 1800s and early 1900s, and founded by Christiaan Hendrik Zeederberg (3 May 1860 Pietermaritzburg - 26 October 1907 London), who was of Swedish descent and acquired his experience in transport-riding during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. 〔http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-wild-west-coaches-opened-up-rhodesia.html〕 Cecil John Rhodes said of him that he had done more than any other man to open up Rhodesia. 〔"South Africa's Yesterdays" - Reader's Digest (1981)〕 Roelof Abraham Zeederberg, Christiaan Hendrik's grandfather, arrived in Cape Town in 1798 from Sweden. A vessel carrying a cargo of coffee had been wrecked off the Cape coast, and sensing a business opportunity, Roelof bought the rights to the wreck and salvaged the coffee. The Zeederberg descendants eventually dispersed throughout southern Africa, rendering service in the fields of farming, medicine, commerce, industry and law. 〔http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE/2009-04/1239001231〕 In 1887 Christiaan Hendrik Zeederberg, or 'Doel' Zeederberg as he was known, took on his three brothers Dolf, Louw and Pieter as partners and started the first mail-coach route between Johannesburg and Kimberley. In 1890 they added a service between Pretoria, Pietersburg and the gold rush town of Leydsdorp. In 1890 Cecil Rhodes commissioned Zeederberg to survey potential road links into Rhodesia. This initial reconnaissance took three years of intensive riding and walking between Fort Tuli, Fort Victoria, Salisbury and Broken Hill. The route went to the hotel at Fort Tuli, crossing the Limpopo River by means of a pontoon which the Company had built, and thence via Fort Victoria and Fort Charter to Salisbury. The "Guide to Southern Africa" for 1893, quotes the fare from Tuli to Salisbury as being £15 while the trip took 14 days. This section later expanded to include Umtali and Victoria Falls. During the Matabele Rebellion of 1896 Zeederberg transported supplies for the British troops. During the Boer War mail transport contracts were suspended and the Company's resources placed at the disposal of the British Government - Canadian and Australian troops were conveyed from Marandellas to Bulawayo in order to assist at the relief of Mafeking. 〔http://www.tothevictoriafalls.com/vfpages/devel/railway.html〕 Christiaan Hendrik was married to Hendrika Maria Albasini (1869-1934), a descendant of the trader João Albasini, and daughter of Antonio and Maria Albasini. The couple had children Mildred, Anthony, Thelma Maria x Wallace Wynn Plenderleith, Viola Margery x Whitelaw, Christiaan Hendrik Zeederberg and Allan Vane Zeederberg. 〔http://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000013131211201〕〔http://www.geni.com/people/Thelma-Marie-Plenderleith/6000000013130659400〕 The advent of rail systems and motor cars gradually replaced coach services which even so endured until World War I. At the height of its operations Zeederberg was using coaches made by the American firm of Abbot-Downing, which had space for 12 passengers inside and 6 more clinging to the roof straps. 〔"Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa" v11 (1975)〕 ==See also== *Pioneer Column 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zeederberg Coach Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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