The town was built upon the Bothasrust farmstead, which itself was granted to one Lukas Potgieter as compensation for his losing a leg during the First Boer War.

The farm was later sold to Nicolaas Breytenbach, a field cornet during the Second Boer War, after whom the town was named in 1906.

Passenger and freight trains departed and connected in Breyten to Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Witbank, Pretoria and other areas of South Africa.

Breyten continues to be a mining community, with the majority of the population still employed in collieries such as Tselentis and Spitzkop of the Imbawula Group.

Breyten now features a private college called Xtensive ICT Academy, which is centered around information technology training.