ODENDAAL, Jacobus Daniel ¹

  General Notes:

Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol 1, First edition 1968, Editor in chief: W.J. de Kock

Jacobus Daniël Odendaal, Born Slangrivier, Swellendam, 5 - 5 - 1838
Died Sugarloaf, Harrismith12 - 8 - 1900, Baptist clergyman and farmer, was the son of Dirk Cornelis Odendaal and Maria Elisabeth de Bruin, his wife.
Odendaal was sent to the theological seminary of the N.G. Kerk, Stelllenbosh, to prepare for the ministry. After his first year he refused to return, because he objected to infant baptism.
His family dubbed him "Wederdoper" (Anabaptist) and persecuted him. He was obliged to leave home and settled on Witkop, a farm near Burgersdorp. Here, he was to recall, "I was te generated". On questioning scriptural sanction for infant baptism, he was dismissed from the consistory of the local N.G. Kerk. He then searched for believers of like mind. One night a horse-trader visited him and informed him of Christians such as this in the eastern Cape.
His 200-mole quest was successful; the Rev. C. Hugo Gutsche Baptised him in the Dongqaba river and on 22 - 12 - 1867 he became a member of the German Baptist Church of Kaffraria. His first two converts were D.J. Steyn and Steyn's sister. As they were so far from their main church, it was agreed that Odendaal should be ordained to do mission work among Afrikanders. This was done on 27 - 3 - 1875 in the church at Breidbach (Berlin) by Rev. E.P. Riemer.
Adverse farming conditions compelled Odendaal and five others to trek to the Orange Free State, where they settled on Steyn's farm, Mooiheid, on 4 - 9 - 1876. Later Odendaal moved to his own farm, Sugarloaf.
In 1886 he was ordained an elder of the autonomous Congregation of Sugarloaf, district of Harrismith. Steyn gave about nine acres of land and here they built their first chapel. For years Odendaal was also the church secretary and on 28 - 8 - 1889 President F. W. Reitz appointed him a marriage officer.
After years of adversity the church began to prosper as is indicated by the last statistics (1898) before the Second Anglo-Boer War. The Bantu were not forgotten and it was Odendaal who established the first Bantu Baptist Church.
The village of Cornelia rose round the chapel at Mooiheid. Both are lasting memorials to the founder of the Afrikaans Baptist Church.
In 1859 Odendaal married Susanna Johanna Smalberger, of the farm Boschfontein, Riversdale, and daughter of Johann Wilhelm Smalberger and Johanna Wilhelmina Du Plessis. Their thirteen children included Johann Wilhelm Odendaal, who succeeded his father as a minister. There were three further marriages, Odendaal's last wife surviving him. J. M. B.

Cornelia Baptist Church: minutes of members' meetings, 1887-1948; Ph. Gutsche. Letter to the Baptist church, Cornelia, O.F.S., on the occasion of their jubilee, Apr. 9-13, 1936 (ts.); J. D. Odendaal, Unp. geneal. of the J. D. Odendaal family, n.d.; J. D. Odendaal, Unp. incomplete history of the Afrikaans Baptist Church (ts.); - J. D. ODENDAAL, 'The first Baptist Church in the O.F.S., S.A. Bapt. Handbk., 1888-89; Die Baptiste. Pta., 1957; 'Deur die jare heen', Die Goeie Tyding, Mar. 1961; -D. J. STEYN, 'Chronicles of churches', S.A. Bapt. Handbk., 1893-94; - J. A. HENDRICKS, Baptists in southern Africa. K.W.T., 1959; - J. VAN DER COLFF, Die Baptistekerk in u omgewing ... wat? Pta., 1963.

Jacobus married Catharina Dorothea FROMM. (Catharina Dorothea FROMM died on 20 Oct 1893.)

Jacobus next married Salomina LA GRANGE.

Jacobus next married Wilhelmina Maria ZEPERNICK. (Wilhelmina Maria ZEPERNICK died on 13 Mar 1892.)

Jacobus next married Susanna Johanna SMALBERGER on 12 Dec 1859. (Susanna Johanna SMALBERGER was born on 8 Sep 1842 and died on 17 Feb 1879.)