Thriving Community
Willowmore was originally established as a trading centre called The Willows in 1864, owned by William Moore. He was a British settler who migrated to the Cape Colony with his wife in 1819.
Willow-Moore came to become a town when Moore and his brother-in-law Frederick Lehmkuhl donated land to the Dutch Reformed Church, and in 1884 the town became a municipality.
The Dutch Reformed congregation was established in 1864, and during the late 19th century the town had a thriving Jewish community made up of traders and business people. A synagogue was built that still stands in the town today.
During the second Anglo-Boer war, the town was attacked twice by boer commandos in 1901. The historical graveyard in Willowmore contains the graves of those who died during the war as well as 13 residents who died during the calamitous Influenza epidemic that swept across South Africa in 1918.