Henry Isaac Venable
VENABLE, Henry Isaac. American missionary born in Shelby county (Kentucky) on 20th June 1811 and died in Paris (Illinois) on 22nd May 1878. With his wife, Martha, he was among the first group of six couples sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to South Africa in 1834, sailing from Boston on the brig Burlington on 3rd December and arriving at the Cape on 6th February. 1835. With Daniel Lindley and Alexander Wilson and their wives, the Venables first established a station in Mzilikazi’s territory at Mosega, near modern Zeerust. They were there for only a few months before virtually all of them became seriously ill and Wilson’s wife died. When the Voortrekkers broke Mzilikazi’s power at Mosega, the missionaries returned with the Boer commando and eventually rejoined the other missionaries near Durban. In Sept. 1837 Venable and George Champion established a second station at Dingaan’s military kraal Hlangezwe. Here they worked for only five months before the murder of Piet Retief and his men drove them away. They were forced to leave Natal with the other missionaries and wait in Cape Town for the end of hostilities. In Jan. 1839 the Venables returned to America. Venable is remembered chiefly because, with the Owen family, he was one of the few people to view the scene of the massacre, only a day after it had occurred. He and Champion gave vivid descriptions of what they had witnessed. Written by R. W. SALES . Acknowledgement: Standard Encyclopedia of South Africa. Nasou Via Afrika