Rosenbaum, Louie

ROSENBAUM, Louie. Deceased. He pioneered ostrich and citrus farming in Natal. Born in Lithuania in 1877, he came to South Africa in 1893. He fought in the British forces during the Anglo- Boer War and thereafter settled in Grahamstown, where he participated in Jewish communal work and became Chairman of the local Hebrew Congregation for some years. He and Mr. L. H. Lax started the firm of Rosenbaum, Lax & Co., and in 1909, after consultations with the Government of Natal, which was anxious to foster an ostrich feather industry in the Colony, started ostrich farming at Mount St. Bernard. After the ostrich feather slump in 1914, Mr. Rosenbaum farmed lucerne and pioneered the growing of citrus in Natal, he and Mr. Lax starting the Golden Valley Citrus Estate at Muden. After he retired from farming, he founded the township of Gonubie Park, in East East London. He married Ettie Myers, of East London, in 1907, and had a family of three sons and four daughters.