Fighting and Fun at Nahoon: Fragments of Social History Relating to Nahoon Point and its Surrounds

According to Vernons research, Joseph Sage, a French immigrant, had established the hotel in the late 1800s after working on the Pirie sawmill near Stutterheim. Sage had sufficient savings to also start a steam saw and a flour mill in East London. The hotel had two busy bars as well as a skittle alley. Other mention of the hotel suggests it may have been the origin of some rowdy escapades and was not exactly up-market, even by frontier standards. On Friday, 12 May 1893, proprietor Sage was found murdered from a gunshot to the head. Initially the incident was regarded as a suicide as Sage had business problems and a failing marriage. Police inspector John Palmer Cochrane, however, was sceptical and began to apply serious forensics to the case and ask some awkward questions. Sages daughter Mary, it emerged, had long been romantically involved with Job Derosier, a smooth young Frenchman who had been bailed out by Sage when facing counterfeiting charges on arrival in East London.

Softcover. English. Glenn Hollands. 2016. ISBN: 9780620547581. 80 pp. Good. Book No: 2503595