Permanent settlement in the district began in 1778. The Van der Walt brothers moved into this area in 1779. One of the brothers, Nicolaas van der Walt, settled on a farm called Driefontein Farm. Van der Walt sold Driefontein Farm to Henning Johannes Hendrik Coetzee in 1836. In turn, he then sold it to his son, Johannes Hendrik Coetzee, in 1852, who sold it to the Dutch Reformed Church.

John Bennie was a Scottish Minister from Glasgow. It had always been his dream to come to Africa. When he did, he worked as a missionary in the Grahamstown area. He was a Xhosa linguist and was the first person to translate the bible into Xhosa. He married a Dutch woman whose parents farmed in the Murraysburg area. In 1853, they started the first coloured school in the Driefontein Homestead. They found that they preferred mission work to teaching and left their son, James Bennie, to continue the school. They then went on to start a coloured church in Middelburg and in Burgersdorp. John Bennie used to travel between the two towns, and on one of these journeys, returning to Middelburg, he had a heart attack just outside Rosmead. His grave can be found in the graveyard in town.

Only the foundations of the old homestead and the graveyard still remains today.

At the end of Naude Street turn left. The road becomes a dirt road and you will pass Middelburg Bowls club on your left. Drive through the avenue of gum trees (planted by British soldiers during the Anglo-Boer war). The mountain on your right is called Ouberg. Drive along this road and stop before the road veers right. The old foundations of the homestead are on your right in the open area.