Coal Mine, Vereeniging
Coal was discovered close to the Vaal River in 1878. Marks realised the importance and possibilities thereof and started a company for its exploitation. From this a whole industry and the town of Vereeniging arose.
Eerste Fabrieken, Hatherley, Pretoria.
Marks established the first factories in theTransvaal.
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Samuel Marks was born of Jewish parents in Lithuania in 1844. Due to the persecution of Jews in Russia he grabbed the opportunity to accompany horses to Sheffield in England and then remained behind. Sammy was given a set of knives by his future father-in-law and went on to Cape Town in 1868 to make a living as a peddler, where he was joined by his cousin Isaac Lewis. They became lifelong business partners. With the discovery of diamonds they went to Kimberley. There they became general dealers and later, together with three others, owned a quarter of the diamond claims. When coal was discovered at present day Vereeniging they sold most of their claims and bought the coal-bearing farms on the banks of the Vaal River. The town Vereeniging was named after this coal company. Marks dreamed of creating a second Sheffield on the Vaal...
Cartoon, "The Star", Johannesburg, 12 June 1912.
Sammy received the concession for all the scrap iron and steel from all public enterprises.
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