At the age of 13 Johannes Petrus Meyer bought 11 hectare of his father’s farm, Elandsfontein (currently Alberton) from his stepfather. He built a house next to the stream ( Alberton stream) close to where the current civic centre is today. After Jan’s marriage to his first wife, Christina Salomina he became a rapport cyclist and travelled quite a bit.
Jan’s wife passed away in 1870 with the birth of their fourth daughter. After her death he decided to start a general store on the Klipriviersberg farm and got married again two years later to Stephina Petonella Botha. Jan built his mansion in 1890. This mansion was never destroyed and was miraculously left untouched during the war.
Jan’s brother, Johan Georg Meyer, took over the farm after Jan’s death. He married Elizabeth Jacoba. General Alberts purchased a part of the farm Elandsfontein from Org and his plan was to split it up and sell it. Germiston also started to rise during this period on the farm Elandsfontein.
As the Meyer family originally came from Prince Albert in the Cape colony, General Alberts decided on the name Alberton.
The first family to settle was the Van der Merwe family 1903. “Tannie Let”, as she was known, was the first midwife in the area. In 1905 at least five families had settled on the properties. Alberton’s first town hall and factory was built in 1918. It wasn’t necessary anymore for the people of Alberton to travel to Germiston by bicycle or donkey cart to go to the local bioscope as movies were shown in the local town hall.
The New Redruth school opened its doors on 11 August 1947. On 8 October 1956 the school changed its name to Laerskool Generaal Alberts. The school had 148 learners and 5 staff members.
The medium of teaching was Afrikaans. In 1994 the school changed from a single medium school to a parallel medium school. The current number of pupils is about 1000 learners.