Proclamation as Magisterial District On 23 February 1898, Bethal was proclaimed as Magisterial District and on 15 March of the same year the proclamation took effect. Bethal Magisterial District was made up of farms from Standerton, Middelburg and Ermelo. Bethal Magisterial District covers an area of 1270 sq. miles. Further the District boasted of having 750 voting citizens. To service the new Magisterial District, within one year after proclamation, commencement with establishment of a Magistrate Office, a postal and telegraph office, prison, powder magazine and chief of prison’s home. Mr S J Clerq was appointed as a resident justice of peace in 1890. By the end of nineteenth century, Bethal boasted with already standing 45 buildings, while others were taking shape. The main buildings were the Post and telegraph office, the Dutch Reformed Church and three shops. However, Bethal was completely destroyed during the second Freedom War. . Standerton was the nearest railway station since Bethal – Town to the end of the century 1895. Mail was delivered Mondays and Thursdays. The stagecoach that travel via, Trichardsfontein to Bethal, serve as a passenger coach. With regard to water supply inhabitants had to be self-sufficient, consequences of that was that wells were found in most plots. Commandant Johannes Petrus la Grange Lombard, Bethal’s first representative in the House of Assembly, from 1896 to 1899 – the outbreak of the Freedom War. This is the house on plot 105, which was offered for ₤ 1 250 (R2 500) as post and telegraph office, to the Zuid-Afrikaansche Government. This offer was refused. The house stands on the present site of Volks furniture and belonged to Victor Simon and Co. 12
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