Johannes Petrus Meyer (nickname Jan; 26 June 1842, in Prince Albert, Cape Colony – 2 December 1919, in Johannesburg) was a politician, member of the Volksraad of the South African Republic, mining entrepreneur, and farmer; he is the man for whom Meyerton and Meyersdal (a neighborhood of Alberton) are named.
Meyer played a major role in the discovery of the main vein of gold on the Witwatersrand. As a field cornet, he inspected and surveyed land, giving him the opportunity to study the geological structure of the area and to search for subcrops. G.J. du Plessis found the main vein on Turffontein Farm on Meyer's suggestion. He also founded Meyerskamp, later named Natalkamp, and co-owned the Meyer & Charlton Mine, becoming one of the first Afrikaner mining magnates.
He was the first Volksraad member to represent Johannesburg, from 1887 to 1892. His main focus was the successful effort to grant Johannesburg municipality status. Second, he championed the building of the Delagoa Bay-Pretoria railway to supply the Rand's markets for local and imported agricultural and industrial products. He realized that Delagoa Bay, closer than Durban or Cape Town, would be a better trade destination for miners, merchants, industrialists, and farmers around Johannesburg. Third, he played a role in establishing a Second Volksraad to represent Uitlander (foreigner) interests.
Background and youth
Meyer was the son of Johan George (Org) Meyer and Hester Christiana Elizabeth Mulder. Johan Meyer made the Great Trek as a young bachelor, originally a member of Hendrik Potgieter’s party, and went with them to Ohrigstad. Members of this group are held by tradition to have traveled to the site of the present Alberton South Reformed Church and buried a Voortrekker woman and child who died there where the parsonage is now. Org was probably one of the 11 men who traveled northward to find Louis Tregardt and explore the area. On his return in August 1836, he was just in time to defend the Trekkers from the Matabele at the Battle of Vegkop that October. Apparently, he then returned to Prince Albert, where he married Hester Mulder in 1840, who gave birth to Johannes Petrus (Jan) on 26 June 1842, five months before the foundation of the Prince Albert Reformed Church.
In 1844, two-year-old Jan moved with his parents to Transvaal, where his father had purchased three farms: Elandsfontein (where they lived), Klipriviersberg, and Alwynspoort. The family traveled to the Karoo, and upon their return, Org built a house for a Smit who had settled in Klipriviersberg, pleased to have a neighbor in the sparsely populated area. In 1860, Smit died, after which Org sold Klipriviersberg. Jan, eighteen by then, wanted to buy it but competed with merchants who wanted a shop there since it was on the road from Vereeniging to Pretoria. The young man won with a bid of £500, contributing £200 of his own money but borrowing the rest from an Erasmus who went on to farm in Irene. Jan started a store there and began working as a carter.
In 1855, the whole Meyer family traveled to Prince Albert, but Org died on the way back near Colesberg. The 13-year-old Jan therefore became the family breadwinner, helping them cross rivers and protecting the cattle from wild animals at night, while heavy rains robbed them of firewood. His brother had died in 1851 while crossing the Jukskei River during a storm in an ox-wagon to gather wood. The cattle and servants fled and Jan hid under the wagon.
Jan Meyer married Christina Salmina Meyer (no relation), and, in 1860, they built his first house where the Alberton city hall now stands, on land purchased from his stepfather Abraham Viljoen for £13. His cornfield and fruit trees were irrigated by a ditch from the Natalspruit River. Christina died giving birth to their fourth daughter on 31 July 1870. He remained there until the death of that daughter on 29 August 1871. In 1872, he remarried to the widow Stephina Petronella Botha (née Strydom), with whom he moved to Klipriviersberg. They had a son and four daughters.
His only formal education was at home from his widowed mother, but he showed an aptitude for public life early despite his rough upbringing.
Discovery of gold
After the discovery of gold in Barberton, Meyer came to visit and learned to identify gold-bearing ores. In the 1880s, according to tradition, Meyer found such ores on the Rand and informed the government of them.