North Lake Branch is still relatively new. North Lake itself refers to the North of Lake Naivasha. Therefore, most of its history is the shared with the Naivasha Branch. Please go to the “Naivasha Branch” page for more information on its history.

 

However there is some information on the early settlers of this area:

 

“One of the first was J D Hopcraft. He applied for land on the west side of the lake; its had to be surveyed, and much delay was caused by the loss of the surveyor; he was taken by a python when swimming the Malewa River, and his papers went with him. The Hopcraft homestead consisted of a lion-proof stockade built round a thorn tree to protect the cattle, with a one-roomed shack adjoining for the owners. Its design was copied by most of the new arrivals. Other early comers were H Dobbin and C B Burnell, both  professional well-diggers. Safaris of Kikuyu women used to carry loads of maize, bananas, flour and beans all the way over the Aberdares to sell, to feed the labourers who were taught the use of farms tools.

 

Eburru Mountain was entirely waterless but riddled with steam jets. My father, S F Smithson, discovered that if he led the steam from fumaroles into pipes it condensed, and a fairly good supply of water could be obtained. In recognition of this he was granted a tract of land by the Governor, Sir Percy Girouard.

 

Captain and Mrs. Fey, with their two daughters Nell and Norah and their son Jim, took up land on the South Kinangop plateau, below the foothills of Mount Kinangop, in 1906, and were the first to settle there. They called their farm N’Jibini, now spelt Njabini on maps. They raised cattle, had ostriches for a while and started a sawmill. The timber was sent on ox-wagon 25 miles across the plateau and down the escarpment to the railhead at Naivasha.”

 

-Yuileen Hewett, (”Pioneers Scrapbook, 1980)

 

OTHER BRANCHES