In 1901, Mr. J. R. van der Merwe, a school teacher who moved to Humansdorp, recorded tales of Spoorbek from elderly people who still had personal memories of the wizard who died 56 years earlier in 1845.
Also, in 1917 Mrs. L. Rompel-Koopman interviewed the 86-year-old Mrs. Fick-Landman near Alexandria (born 1831) who told her about Spoorbek's life and referred to him as the “Witte Krag” (White Might).
[6] According to these recollections, Spoorbek was an untidy, kindhearted, eccentric hermit with wild curly hair, a long beard, dressed in black clothes in rags, had a verminous appearance, and rode a white horse.
Besides being a stonecutter and miller, Spoorbek was a great traveller who did various jobs for the settlers, including healing the sick and protecting people and their property with his magical powers.
[6] The Xhosa warriors repeatedly thrust flaming pieces of wood into the thatch roof of the schoolhouse, but it did not catch fire.
He allegedly rode around the house in a circle with his white horse and dragged a long staff on the ground.
In another account, Spoorbek put out a fire in a sheepkraal between Bedford and Adelaïde which smouldered for eight days despite constant rain.
(The people always felt anxious if he was in the house because everyone knew that he had the ability to hear every single word they spoke, even if he was not in the same room.
Spoorbek allegedly prophesied the invention of trains and airplanes, the South African Anglo Boer Wars and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.
Spoorbek told him: "Nee, moe nie - mij paard sal weet as ik hom benodig" (“No, don’t do that – my horse will know when I need him”).
After he had gone, one of the women remarked: "Kijk, die ou vark het sij tabaksak hier vergeet" (“Look, the old pig has forgotten his tobacco pouch”).
Soon afterward, Spoorbek returned to collect his tobacco pouch and embarrassed the woman by repeating her words out loud.
During another incident, a young couple passed Spoorbek in the street, the woman remarked: "Jinne, hier kom die ou towenaar" (“Oh my, here comes the old magician”), and they laughed at him openly.
On the day of their planned wedding, just as the minister started with the service, the bride left the church by the one door and the bridegroom by another.
As Spoorbek left the house he took three fire matches and put them into the thatch roof above the door entrance.
When Mr. Marais made apologies for his wife's rude behavior, Spoorbek replied: "Dit beteken niks, pas net goed op dat sij nie die houtjes wegvat" (It means nothing, just make sure that she never removes the matches).
When they told him that all three matches were burned to ashes, Spoorbek replied: "Ik kan dan niks vir haar doen" (Then I can do nothing for her).
Spoorbek was on good terms with the Voortrekker leaders Karel Landman, Piet Uys and Gert Rainier, who left the Cape Colony with ox wagons in search for a better life in the mainland.
He often told his friends: "Niemand sal heuning uit die nes haal as ik eendag dood is - alles sal onder water wees eendag" (“No one will take honey from that nest when I am dead – everything will be covered with water one day”).
His prophecy became true when the Port-Elizabeth municipality dammed the river during World War II as part of a water scheme.
To others he attributed his powers to a mysterious flower called the Faroblom which blooms only once a year and during one hour of the night.
A girl age 14 (later Mrs. Strydom) allegedly saw Spoorbek's spirit dressed in white going up into the sky during a great thunderstorm.
Though the farm “Spoorbek se Erf” was flooded after the construction of the dam, his grave remained above water level.
He left him a collection of pots, hammers, chisels and augers, a saddle, a table, five shirts and two trousers.
Many people visit Humansdorp and Kareedouw each year in an attempt to trace Spoorbek's legendary history.