The Rt Hon. Julius Gottlieb Ferdinand Jeppe, O.B.E. Born in Germany, Julius Jeppe emigrated at the age of 11 to the Transvaal with his parents. In 1870 the family settled in Pretoria, where Julius attended the Pretoria Public School. At the age of 17 he fought in President Burgher’s disastrous expedition against the Pedi chief Sekhukhune.
With the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 the Jeppes moved to Johannesburg, where a syndicate controlled by the family bought a large area of land known as Randjieslaagte, between the present Commissioner Street and Hospital Hill. The land bore no gold, however, and the syndicate, the Ford and Jeppe Estate Company, developed it as a township. This was proclaimed in 1889 as Jeppestown.