1 Rooted in Time: Templeman Station
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John (Jack) Edward Rex was both the stationmaster and the storekeeper at Templeman Station, where he displayed his collection of natural and geological curiosities in the early days of The South Western Railway Company. He later moved his family – and his collection – to Eastford, where he often entertained the forester John Phillips. “The Rex family are said to be descendants of George III and Hannah Lightfoot through a morganatic marriage; they were friends of ours... At their comfortable home just outside Knysna village and just over the road from the Lagoon, they had an interesting museum of much local interest to visitors and through which [John] loved to prowl.” (Memoirs of Jeanie Phillips, 1967) James Harry Templeman was born in 1844 in Devonshire in England. He arrived in the Cape Colony in 1848 and attended school in Cape Town. After moving to Knysna he found work with William Groom, Druggist and Apothecary. He moved to the Diamond Fields in Kimberly in 1870, and then in 1874 left to travel the world. In the USA he served in both the army and the navy; he worked as a sheep farmer in New Zealand, and in Australia joined a travelling band. He returned to Knysna in 1880, where he set up as a timber merchant. He acquired a tract of forested land near Diepwalle, “which included ownership of an enormous yellowwood tree, which he later gifted to the Cape Colony. This tree is known today as the King Edward VII Tree.” (Vanishing Knysna by Margaret Parkes & Vicky Williams, 2007) The mills in the main forest some 10 or 12 miles out are well worth a visit. The raw timber straight from the forest is here dealt with, and the manager, Mr. Rex, has a collection of curios gathered in the immediate vicinity, sufficient to establish a small museum—one of the most inter- esting specimens being an elephant's trunk, 7ft. long in an almost perfect state of preservation. Several well-built wooden cottages, occupied by the timber cutters and their families, help to form a picturesque little village in the heartof the lonely forest. JH TEMPLEMAN, ENTREPRENEUR JACK REX, COLLECTOR TEMPLEMAN'S MILL IN THE FOREST BY JE JONES CIRCA 1904 TEMPLEMAN STATION
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Transcript of 1 Rooted in Time: Templeman Station
John (Jack) Edward Rex was both the
stationmaster and the storekeeper at
Templeman Station, where he displayed his
collection of natural and geological
curiosities in the early days of The South
Western Railway Company. He later moved
his family – and his collection – to Eastford,
where he often entertained the forester
John Phillips.
“The Rex family are said to be descendants
of George III and Hannah Lightfoot through
a morganatic marriage; they were friends of
ours... At their comfortable home just
outside Knysna village and just over the
road from the Lagoon, they had an
interesting museum of much local interest
to visitors and through which [John] loved
to prowl.” (Memoirs of Jeanie Phillips, 1967)
James Harry Templeman was born in 1844 in Devonshire in England. He arrived in the Cape Colony in 1848 and attended school in Cape Town. After moving to Knysna he found work with William Groom, Druggist and Apothecary.
He moved to the Diamond Fields in Kimberly in 1870, and then in 1874 left to travel the world. In the USA he served in both the army and the navy; he worked as a sheep farmer in New Zealand, and in Australia joined a travelling band.
He returned to Knysna in 1880, where he set up as a timber merchant. He acquired a tract of forested land near Diepwalle, “which included ownership of an enormous yellowwood tree, which he later gifted to the Cape Colony. This tree is known today as the King Edward VII Tree.” (Vanishing Knysna by Margaret Parkes & Vicky Williams, 2007)
The mills in the main forest some 10 or 12 miles out are well worth a visit. The raw timber straight from the forest is here dealt with, and the manager, Mr. Rex, has a collection of curios gathered in the immediate vicinity, sufficient to establish a small museum—one of the most inter-esting specimens being an elephant's trunk, 7ft. long in an almost perfect state of preservation.
Several well-built wooden cottages, occupied by the timber cutters and their families, help to form a picturesque little village in the heartof the lonely forest.
JH TEMPLEMAN, ENTREPRENEUR JACK REX, COLLECTOR TEMPLEMAN'S MILLIN THE FORESTBY JE JONES CIRCA 1904
TEMPLEMANSTATION
Step onto the wooden platform at the designated spot and look through the clear sign in front of you: you’ll see the outlines of long forgotten buildings.
Imagine the little village at Templeman Station as it once was bustling with the arrival of a group of excited passengers up from the little town of Knysna for a day of picnics and adventure in the forest.
HOW TOPEAK INTOTHE PAST
