User:Axxter99/Samuel Cronwright

Samuel Cron Cronwright (District Bedford, Cape Town, January 26 1863 - Rondebosch, 8 September 1936) was a South African public figure, farmer, lawyer, businessman, politician and a biographer of his first wife, Olive Schreiner, whose surname was part of his marriage in February 1894 until four years after her death in 1920 when he became famous as Samuel Cron Cronwright-Schreiner. It was even more unusual then than it is today, but he did so at her request because he shared her beliefs about women's rights and the liberation of women.

Cronwright became a controversial figure over the years because of his biography of his wife, "The Life of Olive Schreiner" (1924), and especially because of the way he selected, edited and cut her letters before publishing them. as well as the publication of some of her works that she explicitly requested in her will should not be published. He has also been accused of having no understanding of his wife's genius. He is described as an emotional person, instead of ' a literary man, and although he was intelligent and many works appeared from his pen, he is seldom considered a writer at all, especially not one with merit. His approach to his wife's writings is also described as "unimaginative" because he constantly wanted to separate facts from fabrications, something she was never set on.

Yet, especially in the first years of their married life, he sacrificed virtually everything to advance her writing career and always remained faithful to her. It therefore seemed for some time that he would be able to bring stability into her life, especially when the certainty of motherhood gave more attractiveness to the marriage. Yet, after barely a year on her rental farm, Krantz Farm in the district Cradock, she could no longer stand it because of her constant asthma attacks and because she wanted silence and seclusion while the farm was teeming with the workers, he gave up the farm which he had built up on his own over nine years so that they could go and live elsewhere. Several critics have suggested over the years that her asthma, which she cites as the main reason for her restlessness, was caused by herself and was the result of a deep-seated emotional instability. No one doubts, however, that the physical suffering she had to endure as a result was genuine.

When, shortly after their departure from the farm, she insisted on living on Kimberley instead of on a rental farm where Cronwright could still pursue the only occupation he knew, he had to give it up to her wish. to obey. A few years later, when he almost qualified as a lawyer in Johannesburg, he had to move again because of her health. According to Schreiner's biographer Vera Buchanan-Gould Olive, with all her peculiarities, was a burden to Cronwright by about 1910 and she claims that at that time he did not show much self-sacrificing devotion and even that he, who was the first man on De Aar] who owned a car was so stingy that he refused to treat her to rides in his car and that she was only allowed to admire it from a distance. Another biographer, Johannes Meintjes, however, argues that although he worked hard on his business, he did not have a problem with her many eccentricities, that it just made him even more fond of her and though she must have put fierce pressure on his nerves, he still cared for her with the greatest patience.

Biographers differ over the last decade of their lives. Some claim that the couple became increasingly estranged from each other until they were virtually estranged from about 1913 until her death in 1920. According to them, the two only reconciled during the last month of her life (in London) before returning to her homeland to die there. Girls, however, write that they constantly love letters.

Origin
Samuel Cron Cronwright's mother, Zipporah Featherstone (January 3 1835, Fort England, Grahamstown - June 8 1912, Muizenberg )'s parents were Lucy Finaughty and Robert Featherstone. Miss. Finaughty, who was partly of Irish descent, was a child of one of the early British Settlers who settled in Lower Albania (between Grahamstown and the sea). She came to South Africa with her parents as a young daughter and was married to Robert Featherstone, the son of an English farmer near Bristol who was a soldier in the British Army. Robert Featherstone was stationed with his division in Grahamstown. After his marriage he left the army and went farmer. His old farm near Grahamstown is still called Featherstone Kloof. Cronwright's mother was born in Grahamstown in 1835 and never traveled outside the Cape Colony all her life.

His father's parents were Rev. John Wright and Margery Cron. They were married in England. Miss. Cron was partly of Scottish descent and her family came from Dumfries. The couple were quite young when they were sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1822, shortly after their marriage, to work among the natives of South Africa. They first lived at Theopolis near Grahamstown for two years and then moved to Griquatown to work under the Griquas and the Bechuanas. Finally, in 1842, they were transferred to Philippolis in the Southern Free State.

Cronwright's father, Samuel Cron Cronwright (1834–1888), was born in Cape Town while his parents traveled there from Griqualand West with the Griqua chief Waterboer to the imperial authority over the one or to speak another matter. Cronwright later wrote that it was remarkable that his grandfather and Olive Schreiner's father, Gottlob, worked at the same mission station at one point.

Youth
Cronwright was born a year after the great drought of 1862 on his father's sheep farm, Gideonshoek, in the Bedford district, and about two years later the family moved to Grahamstown, where his father started a business and ' became a shopkeeper and trader. Later, Samuel Cronwright sr. also actively participated in local politics.

Cronwright received his education in Grahamstown, where he lived from 1866 to 1884, at the Anglican Boys' School. Andrew's College]], where he excelled in various sports and was captain of the first rugby as well as cricket team. This in itself is probably not such a great achievement because the school's number of learners dropped to just 17 in 1882, and it was in danger of closing. It was an achievement that it was named the city in that year, at the time the second largest settlement in the Cape Colony, 's champion athlete. He was also captain of the local rugby team, was crazy about gymnastics and boxing and all kinds of sports and exercises.

According to a biographer of his wife, the painter, writer and amateur historian Johannes Meintjes, Cronwright was an attractive (almost handsome) young man with pitch black hair, strong facial features and beautiful eyes. He was not exceptionally tall with a length of 1.8 & nbsp; m, but was strong built and had great body strength. This athletic young man showed an extraordinary interest in study and was exceptionally intelligent. In the fifth form (today's grade 11) he took St. Won Andrew's Barry Award for best essay, for which the whole school was eligible. At this stage he was completely monolingual in English and would only later learn to speak the "Language" (Afrikaans-Dutch) as a farmer in the district Cradock and develop a greater understanding of the Afrikaners.

None of Cronwright's grandparents visited England again after settling in South Africa. All their children were also born in South Africa. Three of them were buried in Grahamstown and the missionary Wright in Philippolis. Cronwright's father, also Samuel Cron Wright, was 13 years old when he was sent to England to attend school there. He was 17 when he returned to South Africa and never left the country again. After his schooling he first became a businessman and later went farming, during which time he 15 May 1860 in the Anglican Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George in Grahamstown married Miss. Featherstone. He was later mayor of Grahamstown four years in a row and represented Albania twice from 1866 to 1884 in the old Cape Legislative Assembly.

Although the family name was actually Wright, Samuel Cronwright changed his and his family's surname to Cronwright in 1857 after drawing his name up to that point in any case as "Cron wright" with a lower case "w". He retained his two baptismal names, Samuel Cron, and thus his son was also known as Samuel Cron Cronwright, who was the second of his parents' eight children.

After school
Cronwright passed the intermediate BA in the first year it was offered, but due to some financial setback his father experienced, probably a business failure, he had to pursue his university career, who promised to excel. He has St. Andrews left in April 1884 shortly before his final B.A. exam, and then went farming. All he took with him were a few pieces of clothing and almost nothing else. According to Meintjes, however, he could rely on his superior physique, his strength, sharp eyesight, love of firearms and books. He rejected his orthodox Christian upbringing at an early age, probably around the time he had to drop out of school, having previously considered church ministry as a career, and became a Freethinker.

Cronwright spent his first ten months as a farmer on his uncle Robert Featherstone's farm Weltevreden near Pearston in the Graaff-Reinet district. This uncle was a relentless man who made the young student perform inhuman manual labor. After leaving his uncle, Cronwright went to farm on John E. Woods' ostrich farm Krantz Place on the Great Fish River in the Cradock district. It was at the end of 1884 and the 21-year-old farmer was put in charge of the farm, which covered almost 4 & nbsp; 000 & nbsp; ha. This farm included the mountain Buffelskop which would later become famous because Olive, her baby and puppy were reburied there and Cronwright (in 1936) was also laid to rest there. At the time, he was also a columnist on agricultural affairs for the Cradock newspaper "Midland News", although he did not shy away from expressing his opposition to Cecil John Rhodes's policies in that column.