Sammy Marks: the Transvaal’s first industrialist
It was through Marks that the Jewish community secured a free erf on which to build the Synagogue.
PART 33 IN OUR SERIES ON WILLIAM HILLS
If ever a monument was erected to the Transvaal’s first industrialist, the honour should go to Sammy Marks, wrote William Hills.
It was Marks who had the enterprise to open the first distillery, the first preserve and jam works, the first glassworks and the first pottery in the Republic.
“Of course, it may be said that Marks only did this for personal gain, but those who know anything about new industries need not be told that Marks must have lost much more than he ever made,” the founder of the Benoni City Times wrote of his life as a journalist in the early 1900s.
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And this would have been despite the concessions given to Marks, too much criticism, in his effort to introduce industries in Pretoria.
“Personally, I found Mr Marks very likeable, without any of the brag which is so often found in the successful self-made man.”
Hills was tasked with covering the opening of the Pretoria synagogue in 1898.
“At that period there was little if any anti-Semitism in Pretoria and Sammy Marks was a frequent visitor at the presidency,” he wrote.
It was through Marks that the Jewish community secured from the government a free erf on which to build the Synagogue and Marks was greatly interested in its building having donated the bricks and lighting.
“His offices were at the corner of Church Square, not far away from our own, and I remember how astonished I was when first told that the stout little undistinguished looking man, with a black bowler hat pressed down well over his head was so important in the financial world and a friend of the president’s.
“Despite his critics, President Kruger was one of the shrewdest men in the country…. He knew that the Republic must have its own industries if it was to succeed.
“Strangely enough, it was left to him to recognise what Mrs Marks’ own people (the Jewish community) did not seem to realise to the same extent: that insignificant as he might look, the ‘ex-smouser’ (peddler), who started by selling goods from farm to farm was in many ways a real patriot and a far-sighted citizen.”(Article: Carol Stier).
Next: Pretoria loses its lustre
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