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Pieter Wessels.

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Wessels, Pieter Johannes Daniel (1856–1933)

By Passmore Hachalinga

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Passmore Hachalinga, D.Th. (University of South Africa), D.Min. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan), is the director of the Ellen G. White Research and Heritage Centre at Helderberg College of Higher Education in Cape Town, South Africa. Hachalinga previously served as district pastor, school chaplain, department director, conference and union mission administrator in Zambia and Angola, and as vice president/ministerial secretary of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. He has authored one book: Echoes From Table Mountain: Experiences of Seventh-day Adventist Pioneers in the Cape – Adventism’s Gateway into Southern Africa and several published articles and book chapters. 

First Published: January 28, 2020

Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels was a pioneer lay worker.

Early Life

Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels was born on February 14, 1856, at Benaudheidfontein Farm in the diamond mining district of Kimberley on the border between the Cape and Orange Free State provinces. He was the eldest son of an Orange Free State Dutch farmer, Johannes Jacobus Wessels, Sr. (1818-1892), and Anna Elizabeth Botha (1840-1918). Wessels, Sr., had been married twice and had 15 or 16 children.1 Some of Pieter Wessel’s siblings were Johannes (John) Jacobus, Jr., Philip Wouter B., Henry S. P., Francis H., Daniel, Andrew E., Jacoba Johanna, Johanna, and Anna Elizabeth.2

Pieter grew up as a young farmer who owned two farms. Having had little schooling,3 he made his living by supplying milk and vegetables to the diamond mining communities in Kimberley. Early in life, he developed a keen interest in religious concepts. The Wessels family belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church and were members of the Boshof congregation in Kimberley.4 When he was about 14, Pieter’s faith became shaken when he saw many different churches springing up. He thought that either the churches were wrong or the Bible was not truthful.5 Several times, he asked his mother to explain to him, but she did not know. He became troubled when he turned 21, since he had promised that he would serve God when he grew up.

Marriage and Journey of Faith

When Pieter turned 22 in 1878, he married Maria Elizabeth van Zyl (1860-1942), who was 18, and their marriage was blessed with seven children, of whom five (John, Charles, Peter, Susie, and Marie) survived. He had become ill and was under the care of a physician for several years. When he was about 28, he became discouraged over the condition of his health and wondered why he could not get well.6

During the 1880s, an American preacher named Hazenberg made a great stir in South Africa with his strong advocacy of faith-healing.7 He prayed for the sick and taught that what Christ and the apostles did could be done again. When he visited Boshof, Pieter’s brother Philip attended one of the meetings and was given several pieces of literature. Philip handed Pieter a leaflet called, “The Prayer of Faith Will Heal the Sick.”8 At this time, Pieter was experiencing a religious crisis. Many years later, Pieter would reflect on this: “I took my Bible and looked up the texts referred to in the leaflet. I became convinced that if the Bible was God’s word, then the teachings of this man were right.”9 Meanwhile, his health continued to deteriorate, although he kept taking his medicines.

Pieter became seriously ill one day with an inflammation of his lungs after planting cabbages in his garden on a rainy day. Although his wife and his mother wanted to send for the physician, he refused, saying, “if there is a God, and if the Bible is His word, and if He convinces me that it contains the truth by healing me, then I will accept it. But, if, on the other hand, I die, I will do so believing there is no God and no truth in the Bible.”10 Before he went to sleep that night, he prayed, claiming the promises of James 5:14-15. He woke up the following morning feeling refreshed. He told his wife, mother, and father that he had been healed because God had heard his prayer and proved that His word is truth.11 After, he went home and destroyed all his bottles of homoeopathic medicines, thanked God for His healing power, and engaged in deeper Bible studies desiring to know God’s will for him and to rely only on Him.

In early 1885, Pieter asked his brother John, a deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church, why he did not pray for the sick.12 John retorted, “If you are such a Bible man, why do you not keep the Sabbath?” Pieter argued that he did and that he had given up his dairy business because he did not like to send his milk carts to the diamond fields on Sunday. John told Pieter to look at the calendar on the wall and tell him which day was Sunday and which was Saturday. To his shock, Pieter realized that what the Bible taught as the Sabbath is indeed the seventh day of the week.13

Following his careful study of the Bible, Pieter discovered that there had been no change from Sabbath to Sunday and that the seventh-day Sabbath will be observed on the new earth.14 He later consulted the minister of his church, who verified that it had been changed and warned him to not ask such questions and, thus, avoid upsetting the church.15 Six months later, four elders from Pieter’s church visited him to try to stop him from believing this new doctrine. They accused him of having broken the vow he made when he joined their church and threatened that his name would be removed from the church books. After failing to reach an agreement, they left.16 Since he was no longer going to church, his name was removed from the church books. Pieter and his family began to observe the seventh day of the week on November 28, 1885.

About one month after he had begun to observe the Sabbath, he was visited by another member of the Boshof congregation, George J. van Druten, a storekeeper from Alexanderfontein in Kimberley.17 Van Druten had also started keeping the seventh-day Sabbath after he had a Bible study session with an American miner in Beaconsfield, Kimberley, named William Hunt.18 Van Druten informed Pieter that Hunt, the first Seventh-day Adventist in South Africa,19 had explained the truth of the Biblical books Daniel and Revelation.20 Hunt had shared some of his literature with van Druten, and he gave a copy of the “Review and Herald” to Pieter. Pieter did not fully understand the literature, since it was written in English. Nevertheless, he decided to start learning the English language with this literature.21

Arrival of Missionaries to South Africa

Pieter Wessels and George van Druten learned from Hunt that there was a denomination with 30,000 members observing the seventh-day Sabbath in the United States of America (USA). They asked Hunt to write a letter on their behalf to the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan, USA, requesting a Dutch-speaking minister to be sent to South Africa to teach them the new faith and baptize them by immersion.22 They enclosed £50 to help take care of travel expenses.23 The General Conference (GC) received the letter during its 25th annual session at Battle Creek in late 1886. The content of that letter was deemed “the 1886 ‘Macedonian Call’ from South Africa.”24 The GC voted to pledge one fourth of the Sabbath School offerings to pay for transport expenses of missionaries to Africa.25

The first missionary party consisted of a former president of the New England Conference, Pastor Dores A. Robinson, and his wife, Edna; a former president of the North Pacific Conference, Pastor Charles L. Boyd, and his wife, Maud; two colporteurs, George Burleigh and Richard Selden Anthony; and a Bible instructor, Miss Corrie Mace. The GC had recommended a fluent Dutch speaker, B. F. Stureman, to be a part of the missionary team to South Africa, but he was not able to join.26 As this missionary team was being formed, they were unaware that South Africa was an already polarized country racked with severe social, linguistic, and political perplexities, which were going to tax the endurance and even shorten the stay of this team in the African mission field.27

The team set out from New York Harbor in the USA on May 14, 1887, aboard the steamer “Baltic,”28 and, after a brief stop in England, they arrived in Cape Town on July 28, 1887, aboard the “Howard Castle” steamship.29 Pieter had been wondering how he would recognize the team on their arrival. He remembered reading in the “Review and Herald” that Seventh-day Adventists dress modestly. Therefore, he would identify them by the way they would be dressed. Pieter, who waited for almost a month in Cape Town for their arrival, was initially disappointed they had not come with a Dutch minister.30 Nonetheless, he was already learning English, believing God was helping him. This unmet need for a Dutch-speaking minister became a major concern later31 in addition to the already-existing strong prejudice against the Sabbath.32

After meeting the group, they went to Pelgrimsrust (Pilgrim’s Rest) homestead belonging to J. J. Wessels, Sr., in Wellington about 40 kilometers from Cape Town, where they held a brief planning meeting. At that meeting, they decided that Pieter, Boyd, and George Burleigh would go to Kimberley while Robinson, Anthony, Miss Mace, and Mrs. Boyd would remain in Cape Town for pioneering work. In Kimberley, there was already a group of about 47 people waiting to be instructed and baptized,33 with Pieter and his wife among them. Then, in August 1887, the first SDA Church of 21 members was organized at Beaconsfield in Kimberley, where they had the first Holy Communion service.34 By September 27, 1887, Boyd reported that the newly organized church had increased to 26 members.35

Witnessing, Bible Studies, Baptisms, and Tithes

Pieter Wessels worked enthusiastically among the Dutch-speaking community. When his parents heard that he had become a Sabbath keeper, they summoned him to their farm at Wellington near Cape Town. There, through Bible study, he led his parents and some of his brothers to accept the Sabbath truth.36 Gert J. G. Schultz, a Methodist lay preacher and Pieter’s brother-in-law, visited him in Beaconsfield to challenge him on the Sabbath issue, but he was also convinced about the Sabbath truth after studying the Bible with Pieter.37 Pieter also witnessed to and baptized another farmer in Kimberley named Johannes Nicholas de Beer.38

The Adventist message spread to the Eastern Cape through the conversion of David Fletcher Tarr and Albert Davies, farmers and transport riders from the Grahamstown area, who began to keep the Sabbath after having Bible studies with Pieter Wessels.39 These were the first English-speaking people to accept the Sabbath truth in South Africa.40 Richard Moko, the first black African minister to be ordained in the SDA Church, also spread the gospel message to black Africans and mixed-race (Coloured) people in the Eastern Cape.41

As the membership of the SDA Church grew in Cape Town more than it did in Kimberley, the Wessels and Schultz families sold their properties to move permanently to the Cape Town area.42 Thus, in 1888, Pieter Wessels moved to Wellington near Cape Town. There, he was elected and ordained as the first elder of the second organized church in South Africa located on Roeland Street.43 To ensure that the work among the Dutch-speaking community was given special attention, Pieter was granted a ministerial license in 1890, which made him a member of the church’s work force.44 From 1891-1892, several children of the Wessels family attended Battle Creek College.45

Rich diamond deposits were discovered on J. J. Wessels’s Benaudheidfontein Farm in Kimberley. The “title to the Wessels’s farm was originally granted by the [Orange] Free State. By the laws of this State, all minerals belong to the owners of the farms [in] which they are found.”46 The Wessels family exercised their state law right when they sold the farm for £253,460 to the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company on December 28, 1891.47 Soon after, Pieter’s father died at Wellington on February 27, 1892, leaving his wealth in the care of his wife and children.48 The Wessels family contributed the majority of tithes and offerings that supported the South African church in its early years.49 Thus, during its prosperous years between 1892-1897, the SDA South Africa Conference was able to send a tithe of tithes to the GC.50

Matabeleland Mission Station

On January 2, 1892, Asa Theron Robinson, brother of Dores A. Robinson, arrived in Cape Town aboard the steamship, “Tartar,” and was welcomed by Pieter Wessels and N. H. Druillard.51 Robinson came to replace Boyd, who had left on permanent return to the USA via England on January 6, 1891. During the organization of the South African Mission into a conference on December 4, 1892, Robinson was elected conference president.52 Pieter actively participated in the church’s business sessions in such activities as offering prayer, translating into Dutch, and serving on the conference’s executive committee.53 At this same session, a vote was taken for Pieter, his wife, his brother John, and his brother-in-law Schultz to attend the 1893 GC Session in Battle Creek, Michigan, USA.54

While attending the GC Session, the Wessels brothers reported free grants of government land up north in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), that would be suitable for establishing mission stations among the natives. To support this initiative, Pieter and John Wessels donated £3,000 to this new mission project.55 Early in 1894, Pieter Wessels and A.T. Robinson visited Cecil John Rhodes, prime minister of Cape Colony and chair of the charter company responsible for those land grants. The purpose of the visit was to request a land grant to establish an industrial school to teach the Matebele people in Rhodesia the different kinds of skills they would need to work in industries.56 While they explained their plans, Rhodes wrote a letter for them to take to Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, who had been Pieter’s family physician in Kimberley and was Rhodes’s representative in Bulawayo.

On Sunday evening of May 6, 1894, Pieter led a team of self-supporting workers in delivering the letter that Cecil Rhodes had written.57 After presenting the letter to Dr. Jameson in Bulawayo, they were granted 12,000 acres of land where they would build Solusi Mission, the first SDA mission station to be established among the non-Christian people in the world. When they finished marking the farmland, they sent a telegram to Pastor Robinson in Cape Town which read, “All well. Location secured.”58 The Wessels brothers temporarily settled near the mission station, and other workers settled in different locations to embark on their different tasks.59

Views on Faith-Healing and Church Conflict

Pieter’s participation in church work reached its highest point in 1895 during the third session of the South Africa Conference, at which he was elected conference vice president.60 Pieter continued to serve the church in various responsibilities, although his ministerial license was withdrawn in 1896. Towards the end of the 1890s, he received several letters from Ellen White, who was in Australia at the time, giving him spiritual encouragement and warning him against his extreme views on faith-healing.61

Dr. Anthony of Claremont Sanitarium described some of Pieter’s extreme views as follows: “He has told me repeatedly that all our Sanitariums are a standing denial of faith – that we should banish all human instrumentalities for the alleviation of pain and restoration of health, as these things are in the hands of God, and we must seek Him as our physician. He wholly ignores water treatment and says that no Seventh-day Adventist should use them. He is one of those who takes an extreme position on the subject of faith-healing.”62

By mid-1899, Pieter replaced his brother John as business manager of the Claremont Sanitarium when John left to Australia. After the end of the Boer War in 1902, Pieter’s influence in the SDA Church in South Africa declined. The country experienced an economic depression soon after the war, which made the Wessels family’s properties lose value. A conflict between the Wessels family and the church arose due to the family’s desire to have greater control of the Sanitarium to ensure that it made more profits. When the family made legal threats, the church surrendered the Sanitarium to the family.63

Contribution and Legacy

Pieter Wessels made a huge contribution toward the establishment of the SDA Church in Southern Africa. The generous financial contribution made by the Wessels family in the early stages of the Church’s history was timely and significant. Pieter worked hard to evangelize his family and the southern Africa region. Among those close to him that he helped join the Church were his father, mother, siblings, brother-in-law Gert D. J. Schultz, David Fletcher Tarr, Albert Davies, and his wife. He also led H. J. Edmed, J. A. Commin, E. Ingle, Dirk de Beer, D. C. Theunissen, and many others to the SDA Church.

Pieter’s friendship with Cecil John Rhodes and Dr. Leander Starr Jameson opened the way for the establishment of the Solusi Mission in Bulawayo. By the 1920s, the SDA Church had grown extensive enough to be organized into the African Division, much of which now constitutes the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. The division territory encompassed the southern half of the African continent, an area measuring 4,914,765 square miles (7,909,548 square km).64

Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels died on February 13, 1933, at Retreat, Cape Town, at age 77 and was buried at Plumstead Cemetery.65 He was survived by his wife, three sons, two daughters, and 14 grandchildren. The funeral service was conducted by Pastor J. F. Wright assisted by Elder Hurlow. In 1981, the Helderberg College of Higher Education inaugurated the Pieter Wessels Library in honor of his commitment and contribution to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Sources

Boyd, Charles L. “Sabbath-keepers in Africa.” ARH, October 11, 1887.

Boyd, Charles L. “South Africa.” ARH, November 8, 1887.

Boyd, Charles L. “South Africa.” ARH, January 24, 1888.

Crocombe, Jeff. “Hubertus Elffers (1858-1931) and the Dutch-speaking Tensions in the Developing South African Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Paper presented at the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians meetings, Washington Adventist University, 2010.

Devine, Lester. “Diamonds Are Forever.” Adventist Mission. Accessed N/A. https://record.adventistchurch.com/2014/02/13/diamonds-are-forever/.

Durand, Eugene F. “The Story of a Story: 2.” ARH, February 21, 1985.

Ellen G. White Encyclopedia. Hagerstown, Maryland: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2013. s.v. “Wessels, Johannes Jacobus, Sr.”

Haskell, Stephen N. “Across the Atlantic Ocean.” ARH, June 14, 1887.

Ogouma, Tony, et. al. “A Brief History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa: 1869-1920.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IOSR-JHSS). Vol. 22. Issue 8. Ver. VI. August 2017.

Mafani, Hlanga. “Richard Moko and Other African Pioneers of Seventh-day Adventism in the Cape.” From Genesis to Germination. Author. 2011.

Pantalone, Antonio. “An Appraisal of the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa: A Missiological Evaluation.” MTh thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996.

Pantalone, Antonio. “The Afrikaanse Konferensie (1968-1974) and its Significance to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa.” PhD diss., University of Durban-Westville, 1999.

“Proceedings of the South African Mission,” ARH, January 17, 1893.

Robinson, Asa Theron. “South Africa.” ARH, February 23, 1892.

Robinson, Dores A. “South Africa.” ARH, January 3, 1888.

Robinson, Virgil. Third Angel Over Africa. Unpublished manuscript: Takoma Park, MD, 1954.

Robison, J. I. “Pieter Wessels Obituary.” Africa Division Outlook, March 1, 1933.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Second revised edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996.

Stevenson, Jr., E. J. “A History of the Claremont Sanitarium, South Africa (1897-1905).” A paper presented in partial fulfillment of the SDA History course to the Church and Ministry department, Andrews University, November 23, 1972.

Swanepoel, L. Francis. “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa.” MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972.

Wessels, Pieter Johannes Daniel. Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives. Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.

Williams, Gardener F. The Diamond Mines of South Africa: Some Account of their Rise and Development. Cambridge Library Collection: Cambridge University, 2011.

Notes

  1. Virgil Robinson, Third Angel Over Africa (unpublished manuscript: Takoma Park, MD, 1954), 2.

  2. Ellen G. White Encyclopedia (2013), s.v. “Wessels, Johannes Jacobus, Sr.”

  3. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.

  4. Ibid., 1.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid., 2.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid., 3.

  12. Ibid. Another version of the story says that Pieter asked John whether they should leave the wind-mill running on Sabbath (Sunday). John is said to have responded that if he wanted to observe the Sabbath more strictly he should observe Saturday since that is the Sabbath according to the commandments (see L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA Thesis. (University of South Africa, 1972), 5.

  13. Wessels, “Early Experiences,” 3-4.

  14. Ibid., 4.

  15. Ibid., 5.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Antonio Pantalone, “An Appraisal of the Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa: A Missiological Evaluation” (MTh thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996), 45.

  18. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), 5822.

  19. Tony Ogouma, et al., “A Brief History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa: 1869-1920,” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IOSR-JHSS), vol. 22, issue 8, ver. VI (August 2017), Adventist University of Africa, Kenya: August 2017, 44-50.

  20. Antonio Pantalone, “An Appraisal of the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa: A Missiological Evaluation” (MTh thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996), 44.

  21. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.; and Antonio Pantalone, “An Appraisal of the Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa: A Missiological Evaluation” (MTh thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996), 47.

  22. V. Robinson, 4.

  23. Ibid., 8. Pieter sent another donation of fifty pounds to the General Conference for sending more missionaries to other needy places (See Charles L. Boyd, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, January 24, 1888, 12).

  24. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), 5822.; and Tony Ogouma, et al., “A Brief History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa: 1869-1920,” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IOSR-JHSS), vol. 22, issue 8, ver. VI (August 2017), Adventist University of Africa, Kenya: August 2017, 46.

  25. V. Robinson, 6.

  26. Jeff Crocombe, “Hubertus Elffers (1858-1931) and the Dutch-Speaking Tensions in the Developing South African Seventh-day Adventist Church” (Paper presented at the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians meetings, Washington Adventist University, 2010).

  27. Antonio Pantalone, “The Afrikaanse Konferensie (1968-1974) and its Significance to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (PhD diss., University of Durban-Westville, 1999), 38.

  28. Stephen N. Haskell, “Across the Atlantic Ocean,” Review and Herald, June 14, 1887, 384.

  29. Dores A. Robinson, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, January 3, 1888, 11.

  30. Antonio Pantalone, “An Appraisal of the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Mission in South Africa: A Missiological Evaluation” (MTh thesis, University of Durban Westville, 1996), 151. Pantalone observes that when Pieter Wessels and George Van Druten wrote a letter in 1886 to Battle Creek in America, the Adventist Church had not yet reached Holland, and there were no trained Dutch ministers available.

  31. Antonio Pantalone, “The Afrikaanse Konferensie (1968-1974) and its Significance to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (PhD diss., University of Durban-Westville, 1999), 40. The need for a Dutch worker and for literature in the Dutch language was raised at the church’s third General Meeting in Cape Town in December 1890.

  32. Dores A. Robinson, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, January 3, 1888, 11.

  33. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924. Pieter estimated the number of people waiting to be baptized to have been ten or twelve; See also Pantalone, “An Appraisal,” 49.

  34. Charles L. Boyd, “Sabbath-keepers in Africa,” Review and Herald, October 11, 1887, 634.

  35. Charles L. Boyd, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, November 8, 1887, 699.

  36. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.; and V. Robinson, 5.

  37. V. Robinson, 13.

  38. Ibid., 15.; Wessels is reported to have also baptized Gert de Beers in a dam (Swanepoel, “The Origins and Early History,” 102).

  39. Ibid., 16-17.

  40. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), 5822.

  41. Hlanga Mafani, “Richard Moko and Other African Pioneers of Seventh-day Adventism in the Cape,” From Genesis to Germination, author, 2011, 31.

  42. L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 54.

  43. Charles L. Boyd, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, January 24, 1888, 60; and V. Robinson, 9.

  44. L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 20.

  45. E.J. Stevenson, Jr., “A History of the Claremont Sanitarium, South Africa (1897-1905)” (A paper presented in partial fulfillment of the SDA History course to the Church and Ministry department, Andrews University, 1972), 1.

  46. Gardener F. Williams, The Diamond Mines of South Africa: Some Account of their Rise and Development, Cambridge Library Collection: Cambridge University, 2011, 346.

  47. Some sources indicate the price at which the farm was sold to have been 35,000 pounds, or others 350,000 pounds (See Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), 5822.; and Devine, “Diamonds Are Forever,” Adventist Mission, accessed date N/A, https://record.adventistchurch.com/2014/02/13/diamonds-are-forever/.

  48. V. Robinson, 20.

  49. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.; and V. Robinson, 21.

  50. V. Robinson, 22.

  51. Asa Theron Robinson, “South Africa,” Review and Herald, February 23, 1892, 122.

  52. “Proceedings of the South African Mission,” Review and Herald, January 17, 1893, 43-45; and V. Robinson, 23.

  53. Ibid.; “Proceedings of the South African Mission,” 44; and V. Robinson, 26.

  54. “Proceedings of the South African Mission,” Review and Herald, 45; and V. Robinson, 23.

  55. Pieter Johannes Daniel Wessels, Early Experiences of Mr. P. J. D. Wessels. Document File No. DF 506. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College of Higher Education. November 17, 1924.; and L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 39, 66.

  56. V. Robinson, 33-34.

  57. Ibid., 32, 33.

  58. Ibid., 34.

  59. Ibid. Swanepoel indicates that the initial plan was to establish the mission station in Mashonaland, but when the missionary party discovered arable land among the Matebele people, they abandoned the desire to proceed further north to the Mashonaland (1972: 69).

  60. L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 42.

  61. Eugene F. Durand, “The Story of a Story: 2,” ARH, February 21, 1985, 18. (Durand indicates that Ellen White wrote 16 letters to Pieter Wessels.

  62. Richard Selden Anthony, “Letter from R.S. Anthony, Claremont Medical and Surgical Sanitarium,” May 23, 1899. Ellen G. White Research Centre archives, Helderberg College, DF 3000-C.

  63. L. Francois Swanepoel, “The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa” (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1972), 91.

  64. V. Robinson, 20.

  65. J. I. Robison, “Pieter Wessels Obituary,” Africa Division Outlook, March 1, 1933, 7.

×

Hachalinga, Passmore. "Wessels, Pieter Johannes Daniel (1856–1933)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 28, 2020. Accessed February 11, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=ACDF.

Hachalinga, Passmore. "Wessels, Pieter Johannes Daniel (1856–1933)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 28, 2020. Date of access February 11, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=ACDF.

Hachalinga, Passmore (2020, January 28). Wessels, Pieter Johannes Daniel (1856–1933). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 11, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=ACDF.