The following appeared in THE KOKSTAD ADVERTISER:

"The election of the first Council for the Municipality of Kokstad was held on Monday, February 8, 1892, and the following councillors were elected L.F. Zietsman, T.T. Fryer, O.H. Ellis, J. Barclay, T.S. Baker, E.H. Jellicorsse, C.G. de Bruin, F. Werner, L. Pretorius.

The first meeting of Council was held with Captain O.H. Ellis in the chair."

THOMAS FRYER arrived in South Africa in the 1880s. His father, JOHN FRYER, was born in a small village in Yorkshire and had become a Master Butcher, a profession he taught his son. As John Fryer was illegitimate and his mother, HARRIET FRYER (who was also illegitimate) died young, he must have been quite an achiever - to rise from such humble beginnings.

Tom Fryer's cousin, Jane McGregor, had married Donald McKay. Initially Tom stayed with this couple in MOUNT FRERE. Before his departure from the North of England, Tom Fryer became engaged to CHARLOTTE RODWAY who had been born in South Wales. Charlotte, Tom's mother - Scottish born ANN (WEBSTER) FRYER - and several of his siblings, later joined him in S Africa. The first of seven children, Charlotte Ann Fryer, was born to Tom and Charlotte Fryer in 1888 in Mount Frere.

Tom Fryer and his family later moved to Matatiele, Kokstad and finally Durban. A couple well-loved by children and grandchildren alike. In the 1950s a grandson of Tom and Charlotte Fryer (who had become a pilot) was a Prisoner of War in Korea.

At one time Tom Fryer farmed at 'WELTEVREDE' near Bonny Ridge.