Marquard is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa that serves Winburg in the northwest.
The town of Marquard was established on the farm Varschfontein, which means ‘Fresh Fountain’, in 1905 when the first of 125 plots were sold at record prices for that time.
Ds J J T Marquard, after whom the town is named, was married to a daughter of John Murray, a son of the legendary missionary, Andrew Murray, and he (Marquard) campaigned fiercely for the establishment of the new town.
It is a beautiful little town, set in the South-Eastern Free State and home to a lively and energetic community, which is known for its friendliness. Visitors are always welcome there and the residents take great pride in their well-kept town.
In days gone by, Marquard was fenced in and there was a night-watchman who would guard the four gates at night. There was only one tap to serve the whole town and legend has it that a local clergyman’s horse learned how to open this tap at night to drink from it, but, of course, couldn’t close it, causing the town’s reservoir to run dry. Marquard is one of few towns which still has a working mill, a beautiful old building well worth seeing.
The imposing NG Church was built from sandstone quarried in the district, as was the gabled town hall. The Marquard Hotel, now a boutique hotel, also dates back to the early 1900s.
The town has a colourful history, with tales being told of a stock auction at which a lion was put up for sale, with a fox terrier being added to the lot to increase its value! The biggest annual event in Marquard is the Korannaberg Mountain Bike Race, regarded as one of South Africa’s premier off-road biking events. It is a superb test of the effectiveness of the riders’ training schedule. The track features twists and turns down sandstone rock faces — the very essence of mountain biking.
The largest business in Marquard is Sparta Beef, a family- owned and operated cattle feed-lot and farming concern which has been in the Van Reenen family for over 100 years.
The feedlot started off as a small cattle-feeding facility in the late 1960s, with approximately 30 head of cattle on feed all year round. To date, it has grown to accommodate about 50,000 mixed breeds of cattle, depending on the time of year.
At any given time, it has between 48,000 and 50,000 head of cattle on feed and between 10,000 and 27,000 calves on the farms. Sparta is the largest employer in the Marquard district and one of the largest in the Free State.
In 2009, Marquard won an award for been the cleanest town in South Africa.
