The Kroghs
Few Afrikaner families are of direct Norwegian ancestry, but one of them are the Kroghs (or, to use the original spelling, the Krogs).
Johannes Christoffel Krog (or Krogh) came from Bergen, the picturesque Norwegian seaport, and settled at the Cape about 1794. Thence he found his way to Swellendam, where he married Hester Maree on August 28 1803.
The Krog family still exists in Norway, one of the most celebrated members being the late Gina Krog, who founded the movement for the enfranchisement of women and for the general grant to give them equal rights. Opening her campaign in 1884, when she was an unknown school-teacher in Oslo (then still called Christiana), she encountered so much opposition that she lost her post. Thanks to Gina Krog, Norwegian women were in 1907 among the first in the world to receive the vote. When she died in 1916 the Prime Minister of Norway led the procession as the first State funeral for a woman ever recorded in that country. She was described as "of queenly carriage, and with a beautiful face, with aristocratically chiselled features. By her death Norway lost her foremost woman and she knows it."
Another distinguished overseas kinsman was August Krogh, the Danish physiologist and one of the leaders in this branch of medicine. As a professor at Hagen he won the coveted Nobel Prize in 1920.
German also boasts of a branch of the family. Among it's nobility the Von Kroghts have been traced back to 1236 AD. How much the spelling has changed is shown by some of the versions like Kroghen, Krough, Krug, Croge, Croghe and Kroghe.
Pioneering on the Old Cape Frontier was Paul Jacobus Krogh, whose son played and important part in the history of the South African Republic. This was Johannes Christoffel Krogh, born at Grahamstown in 1846. Finishing his schooling at the South African College in Cape Town, he came to the Highveld and joined the old Civil Service in 1869. As a Landdrost, he proclaimed the now flourishing town of Standerton in 1879. In 1894 Krogh became Special Commissioner for the Transvaal in Swaziland and after President Kruger left for overseas, General Schalk Burger appointed him a member of the Executive Council of the Republic.
Senator Krogh (as he later became) helped to demarcate the frontier between Mozambique and Swaziland. He signed the treaty of Vereeniging as a delegate, and soon afterwards was appointed to the Native Affairs Commission. General J.B.M. Hertzog regarded Senator Krogh as one of his oldest friends and mentions him repeatedly in his diary of the South African War.
The Krogs (as distinct from the Kroghs) congregated particularly in the district of Alexandria C.P., where the earlier settlers included Coenraad Krog of Lootskloof, C.Krog of Brakfontein, C.Krog of Melkhoutboom, C.F. Krog of Brakfontein, J.C. Krog (J's son) of Jagersfontein, M. Krog, Theunis Krog and sundry others. Nearly all were farmers. P.C.F. Krog later became a member of the original Provincial Council of the Orange Free State after the establishment of Union.
One pioneer of rights for women in South Africa, whose work is specially interesting in view of the parallel with her namesake Gina Krog in Norway, is Dr Grace Krogh. She was born in Grahamstown, the daughter of the late John C. Krog, and, after a spell as a teacher, qualified as a doctor in Scotland. Grace pioneered the movement for Women's Enfranchisement in the Orange Free State, and became the first President of the Johannesburg Branch of the South African League of Women Voters. In every field of civic and social work, and among all races in the city, her name has long been a household word.
