Pretoria, 1 Febr. 1954

To my children and grandchildren. 1

Now that Oupa de Veer is 80 years old I wish to tell you about my youth and subsequent life.

My father, who was born in Alkmaar in Holland in 1827, was one of a family of 14 children, of whom only one died young. His name was Jacob, or as I often heard him referred to as Oom Jaques (Sjaak).

The only one of my of my grandparents that I knew was Grootma de Veer, a dignified old lady of over the 80 years, who wore a black lace bonnet and always sat knitting in a large high-backed armchair. She was very fond of us and lived with her two daughters, one of whom was a widow, called tante Trui = Gertruida, who was a cheerful and jolly old woman.

Father was Captain of the Christina Maria, a three-masted sailing ship that sailed as a freighter from Holland to India, and Japan. He was married and his first wife, who sailed with him, died during the journey from China to Holland at the Cape of Good Hope, but she was buried in Alkmaar. There were no children from this marriage.

My Mother’s name was Johanna Christina Maria Catherina Aveling and was born on 10 October 1840 in . In 1848, when she was 8 years old the whole Aveling family left for Java and lived in Soeroebaya. At 19 years of age she was married there to Mr. Feltkamp. Out of this marriage a daughter, Dora and a son, Johan, were born. Shortly after the birth of her son her husband died from cholera and my mother and her two children returned to her parent’s home in Soerabaya.

Her father was harbourmaster there and when my father’s ship lay in the harbour he often visited the old Mr Aveling and thus met the young widow Feltkamp, whom he later married. In that time the captain’s wives were always allowed to accompany them on the voyage. After having sailed for about 30 years father decided to bid the sea farewell and return to Holland. On the return journey, whilst the ship lay in the harbour of Amoy (China), my eldest sister was born. She was registered in Batavia and was named after the ship “Christina Maria”. She was christened in Alkmaar (Holland). The two Feltkamp children naturally accompanied them as well as the youngest brother of my mother, Willem Aveling who was then about 15 years old. He was due to complete his high school studies in Alkmaar to complete his final exams (matric). I know his name was Willem because mother told me that he made a kite for little Johan Feltkamp and they flew it from the ship. The line broke and little Johan cried out “there it goes Wimpie, there it goes”. After his matric Willem went back to his parents in Soerabaya and my mother heard very little from him. Many years later she wrote to her brother Chris, what then, had become of Willem? And the answer came “With Willem all is well, he has a good job. He is married and already has eight children. Mother always remained in correspondence with the family in Java, but she (herself) never went back.

1 This manuscript has been translated from the original handwritten Dutch documents; every attempt has been made to retain the original writing style and grammar. On the return journey to Holland a stop was made at Cape Town and mother asked how long it would still take to reach Texel, an island at the northern point of Holland. Father’s answer was “If the wind is favourable, within 60 days. But the wind was unfavourable and the journey via Brazil took 120 days. Father settled in Alkmaar and later got the post of harbour master. On 4th January 1873 a second daughter was born who was named after father’s three sisters, namely Judith, Gertruida, Johanna. On 1 February of the following year (1 Feb 1874) I was born and was named after Grandfather de Veer, namely Johannes. Two and a half years later on 18 July 1877 another son was born, who was given the name Jacob, after his father.

Two years later, on Ascension Day, 30 May, 1879 another daughter was born, who was named Elizabeth, I think after my grandmother on mother’s side.

In those days we resided in a fine house on the Old in Alkmaar and behind it was a large garden with fruit trees. One of these was a mulberry, with branches not far from the ground and in which my brother and I often climbed and out of which Jacob once fell. Each of the children had their own garden in which they were allowed to plant and sow.

I was well into my third year when I was taken by (hand of) the nurse-maid to the kindergarten. I was apparently a really active child. The school started at 9 am to 12 noon, and in the afternoon from 2 to 4 o’clock. Some children remained there from 12 to 2 and were given a tuck box with bread and a small bottle of milk and I was also one of those who stayed over. At four o’clock the nursemaid came to fetch me again. At six years I went to the “big” School where I stayed till standard six. In class 4 we started with French lessons. I was about 7 years old when I was playing outside and saw that, in the canal in front of the door, not far from the side, rafts made from round beams were moored. It was cold and I was wearing a winter coat. I sprang onto the raft and luckily grabbed the mooring rope. My feet slipped out off the round slippery beams and I ended up in the water. There was nobody in the neighbourhood who saw me. I tried all I could to get my feet on the slippery beams, which I eventually managed with great difficulty as the winter coat was heavy with water and with a lot of struggling I reached the top of the canal wall and the house where I rang the bell to be let in. The servant girl opened the door and there I stood dripping and shivering on the marble floor of the passage. My mother got a big fright. The servant girl undressed me there and mother brought dry clothes. The vapour (steam) billowed from my body. I was (completely) washed and put to bed for the rest of the day.

I was often allowed to go walking with my sister Dora and her friend, our cousin Katrien, who lived next door to us. We went outside the city to family who stayed on a farm. To get there we had to cross the Northern Holland canal and over a floating called the “” and past a corn mill2. Not far from the mill lay a large pile of mud that had been dredged from the canal. The heap was about 10 feet high and the outer crust had dried out a bit. On top of the heap lay something shiny and I walked to the top to fetch it. Suddenly I sank through the thin dry crust and only my head stuck out. That day I had put on a new suit and would have been 6 years. When my sister looked back Jantje had suddenly disappeared and when I shouted they saw my head sticking out of the mud-. With difficulty my sister and my cousin pulled me out of the slimy mass. We finally reached the farm where I

2 Comment in margin not legible due to the binding. was undressed and washed and given a suit of clothes from one of the children to wear. I do not remember if I was given punishment.

My stepsister Dora later studied to become a teacher and eventually left for Java as governess with a family. A few years later she was married to Mr Louis Waller-Diemont, the owner of a sugar factory in Pakis Palti in Japara. I wrote to her once in a while. As far as I know they had four children amongst whom also a Dora. We never saw her again. She often sent us boxes of delicacies such as jam and bottled (preserved) fruit and requirements for “rijst tafel”. Her mother in law, who came to visit them, got cholera and Dora looked after her until she was fully recovered. Then Dora got cholera from which she died a few days later.

Regarding her brother, Johan, he wished to become an officer in the army. After he completed his service and was discharged he was appointed as an official and telegraphist at the Netherlands Railway in Haarlem. In 1890 he applied for a job at the Netherlands South African Railway Company (N.Z.A.S.M.) and was placed at Elandsfontein, now Germiston. In 1892 he was appointed as and Trade Manager where he served until 1901 when the British Military took over the railway and he was sent back to Holland where he died in 1912.

Now I go back to 1880 when we had to move to a much smaller house. I did not know the reason for this because I was only 7 years old. Later, when we were older mother told us that father had lost all his money by being too trusting and we had also lost mother’s inheritance. The piano and all the lovely furniture was sold, because, as explained to us, there was no room for them in that small house. The smaller house stood on the boundary of the town and the historical fortifications for defence opposite the house were demolished and removed and later a park was made there so we had no neighbours.

We always played in that park because the garden behind the house was the size of a decent room ~16x24 feet. We lived there until 1912 when our last sister3 married and mother moved into a home for elderly ladies.

I went to high school and later to the French school and evening school where I got my diplomas and after that I went to the Normaal School.

My ambition was to become a sailor, just like father, and dad promised me that I would be allowed to undertake a voyage as ship’s boy with a friend of his, Captain Bakker who plied the route from Rotterdam to South America. Nothing came of it because when Captain Bakker came back from Rio de Janiro mutiny broke out and one of the mutineers wanted to throw the Captain overboard upon which the Captain shot the mutineer dead. On arrival in Rotterdam the authorities had to investigate the matter and Captain Bakker could not leave. Since my parents had lost all their money they had to live off the meagre salary that father got as harbourmaster. Dora and her husband and later also Johan sent money each month so that the 5 de Veer children got a decent upbringing.

In 1890 there was a major flu epidemic in the whole of Europe. Father had never been ill and when he contracted the flu he kept on working, through wind and weather and he died in

3 Oma Post the beginning of February from double pneumonia. I had just turned 16. Whilst studying I tried to earn something as dad’s salary stopped and mother did not get a pension. A few years later my brother in law, Louis Waller-Diemont from Java wrote and asked if I would like to come to his factory. I would first have to go to the Mechanical school at Helvoetsluis for a few years to get my diploma. At the same time a letter from my stepbrother, Johan, from Johannesburg arrived asking if I would like to come to the Transvaal where I could obtain employment at the railway, however, I would first have to qualify as a telegraphist. Father was a Freemason and a friend of his was director of the telegraphy office in Alkmaar and he taught me telegraphy at his office in Waaggebouw in Alkmaar. My mother left me the choice which job I wanted. She could tell me all about Java but nothing about the Transvaal so in 1893 I travelled from Rotterdam to Cape Town on the “Anglian” of the Union company, a journey which took a whole month. My brother Johan paid for the fare and my outfit. Mother brought me to Rotterdam where we lodged with an Uncle and Aunt of hers. Before my departure she made me promise her one thing and that was that I would never go to a place where I would not consider it safe to bring my mother and sisters. I promised her that and have never regretted it. Nowadays I often think about a poem in which a young child asks his grandfather why it is that he is always happy and healthy and not scared of death. The last lines of the poem are: “When I was young, my boy, I thought about my God, and in my old age my God thinks about me”.

Now about my journey to the Transvaal. I had made one sea voyage on the Zuiderzee from to Harlingen in Friesland but had never been on an ocean. What I had thought would be a huge ship, I heard later, that the “Anglian” was a freighter of some 6000 tons which took on passengers as well. Our first of call was Antwerp where the ship lay for 3 days for loading. I took advantage of this to visit my Aunt and Uncle Stoel as I knew they lived in the Deurne . I got onto a tram which displayed Deurne Street and asked the conductor to put me off there. As I did not know the house number I went to a greengrocer shop named “In the Potato” and asked the lady behind the counter if she knew where Mr. Stoel lived, but she could not tell me. I went to other shops and asked but nobody could help me. I then asked the son of a shop owner to take me to the police station and they gave me the address and the boy took me there. It was at the other end of the Deurne Street, which is about half a mile long. He stayed with me until the door was opened by my cousin who recognised me immediately. I gave the boy all the Belgian small change I had been given by the Tram conductor and thanked him and he was very grateful. I went inside where the family sat at and so, after, exchanging greetings joined them for lunch. I told my uncle that my case was not on board and he immediately sent a telegram to Rotterdam and speedily the reply came that all my baggage was in the hold and I would get it in Cape Town. Aunt and Uncle then bought me two sets of underclothes, a few shirts, socks and hankies and a small suitcase so that I had sufficient clothes for the journey. I stayed with them for 3 days and they showed me Antwerp and . I had a lovely time with them and often have fond memories. On the evening of the third day my uncle took me to the ship and when we came to the docks he said there is the Anglian. I then said “But uncle that can’t be the ship because when I left it was so high that I almost slipped down the gangplank and now it is so far down”. Uncle laughed and told me that the ship came in on high tide and now it was low tide. The difference in water level in the Schelde was then 14 feet and sometimes even more. The family wished me a good journey and I went directly to bed. When I woke up in the morning we were already in the English Channel where the sea was reasonably calm. I shared the cabin with two young Germans who were also going to Cape Town. There were also a few other Hollanders on board with the same destination. The next port of call was Lisbon. After a few days, early one morning, I noticed that the ship was sailing very quietly. I quickly dressed and went on to find that we were sailing up the Tagus whose estuary is very wide. Far in the distance we could see the houses of Lisbon which is built on a high hill on top of which is the palace of the king. To our amazement we stayed in the middle of the near Lisbon. When I asked one of the officers if we were not going into the harbour he drew my attention to the top of the mast where there was a large yellow flag, a sign of quarantine, indicating that we were not allowed near the town or ashore. We thus only had a distant view of Lisbon with all its pretty white buildings. I asked the officer what the cause was and he said that the ship came from Hamburg where there had been an outbreak of cholera.

In the distance a tugboat came, towing four barges. Two of these boats carried drinking water for our ship and the other two, coal, luggage and a few passengers.

I mentioned to my three travelling companions that possibly the crew of the barges had fruit or something else on board for sale. I spoke to them in English but they shook their heads and said “No comprehend Anglesa” or something like that. I drew a picture of a bunch of grapes and a bottle on a piece of paper and then they understood and laughing, pointed to the grapes and said “Si – Santa Rosa” and to the bottle “Si - Vino, vino blanco; vino tinto”, in other words white wine and red wine. Then they pointed to a black spot on the river in the direction of the town. This spot turned out to be a rowing boat in which sat an old man without legs. When he was close by I called out “Santo Rosa, vino blanco, vino tinto”. He counted how many of us there were and held up four fingers, upon which I shouted “Yes” and held up four fingers. He rowed away and we looked at each other and said” I wonder if he will bring anything”. After an hour and a half he was back with four baskets with handles, full of lovely grapes on top of which lay a bottle of white and a bottle of red wine. We gestured how much we had to pay and he said four times eighteen; “two shillings”. He threw a line to us and we pulled up the baskets one by one. We then wrapped four two shilling pieces in a piece of paper and let it down on the line. He opened the wrapping, counted the money and raised his hand as if in greeting and called out something that sounded like “Buenos”, and “Salute” and rowed away. In each basket were more than ten pounds of grapes and two bottles of wine. In the evening the Anglian steamed out of the Tagus to continue the journey to Las Palmas and Tenerife of which the peak is 12 000 feet high and sticks out way above the clouds.

When the ship came on the open ocean the wind had got up. I went to bed early and tried to go to sleep, but the ship began to pitch and roll so badly that I had to hold on tightly to prevent being flung out of my bunk. Because my bunk lay transverse to the ship I was, so to say, on my feet one moment and on my head the next. This is naturally fatal for one’s stomach nerves and I was relieved to be able to go on deck when morning broke. I took a good grip on the rails and one moment was peering into the sky, the next into the foaming water. That day I had no appetite and the odour of food reaching your nose from the kitchen made you nauseous. It was like that for most of the passengers and the seating at the table for lunch was very sparse. On top of this, all the cabins faced onto the dining room with the result that the smell of food was prevalent everywhere. This continued for two days until the ship returned to its normal motion and the passengers came to life again. A few days later, in the morning, we were woken by a loud rumbling noise which repeated itself regularly. I quickly dressed and went on deck to see what was going on. I could see practically nothing as we were in a thick fog and the rumbling noise came from the foghorn that was repeated every half minute. I asked the officers, in my weak conversational English, how long the mist would last and he led me to understand that this was not mist but a dark dust. I found this unbelievable. Who has ever heard of dust out at sea. He took my hand and wiped it over the wooden rail of the bulwarks, and yes, it was covered in sandy dust. He told me that we were sailing west of the Sahara where a hefty sandstorm had been blowing for several days and the wind was blowing the sand over the Atlantic Ocean on which we were sailing4. The whole ship was full of dust which penetrated everywhere. During the day we also got a few grasshoppers on board, the biggest I had ever seen, with brown bodies and wings and long thin legs complete with a large amount of spikes. These had come along with the sandstorm. Most of them fell into the sea to become prey of the fishes. Within a few days the ship was through the storm and we sailed towards then Canary Islands in fine calm weather. In the early morning Tenerife appeared in the distance, like a dark cloud on the horizon that slowly became clearer and sharper. We stayed in the bay and it was not long before several rowing boats arrived and swarmed around the ship. The rowers had all sorts of things for sale, especially embroidered clothes, baskets of fruit, beads etc. However they were not allowed on board and we were requested to keep the doors and portholes of the cabins closed as long as we were in the bay. That gave us a high opinion of the islanders. I have forgotten to mention that we had two cows on board, which were kept in a large cage where they could also lie down. The cages had openings just under the roof through which the occupants could look out and these could be covered in bad weather with canvas which was rolled up to the top. The cows supplied us daily with milk for our coffee and we also got a little for our porridge at breakfast, but the milk was not of good quality. More barges arrived with water, vegetables and fruit and I saw, for the first time in my life, bananas and beautiful red tomatoes. Baskets full were brought on board. I could not resist the temptation to taste such a beautiful red fruit and took a big bite of one. It was like a smack in the face. Such a beautiful red fruit, with such a nasty sour taste. I threw the rest of it overboard with the resolution never to try them ever again. I also tasted one of the bananas which appealed to me, but I took a green one and it tasted as if you had bitten into a piece of soap. I deposited the rest of it into the sea as well. One of the officers who must have seen the distaste in my face came to me, picked a nice yellow one from the bunch and laughingly gave it to me, and really it tasted nice. I asked the officer where we would stop next and he showed me a blue cloud in the distance, hardly visible on the horizon. It was the island of Las Palmas. In the meantime more and more coal was loaded until the bunkers were full. Even on deck partitions were put up where coal was stored and around 12:00 midday we left the bay of Tenerife. We threw coins overboard and the boys in the rowing boats jumped into the sea and dived down after them. One could see them swimming deep down in the clear water to get one of the coins which did not fall down like a stone but zigzagged through the blue water. After 4 hours of sailing we reached Las Palmas which became clearer and rose like green forested mountain on the eastern horizon. There a few more passengers came on board and once again a large mass of vegetables and fruit as well as a dozen oxen. These were not as large as our Friesian beasts and were a yellowish colour. They had large withers and their noses and knees were very dark in colour and they were fat. Later we found out that they would be slaughtered and were the livestock to supply the ship with fresh meat. We went ashore to explore a bit. The were paved with

4 See photos: Dust over Atlantic as one can still see in some of the old villages of Holland and the streets were very steep. Nowhere did we see with horses. The only we saw was a type of sled pulled by oxen which not only transported goods but also people. We saw a lot of fruit trees and vineyards. The inhabitants were very dark skinned. It also started to get much warmer. After having bought some fruit we went back on board and in the evening the ship left on its further journey to Cape Town. That was going to be the next stop where we would arrive in the next 14 to 16 days.

Every morning, except Sundays, an ox was slaughtered on deck and the innards were thrown overboard which the sharks attacked. The butcher, who also severed as cook, cut the meat into pieces which were hung in the pantry and immediately afterwards the sailors came to wash the decks. We did not see many ships passing by. It became warmer and was good calm weather. Sometimes the sails were hoisted if the wind was favourable to give the ship more speed. We spent our time reading, playing games or making music and singing. Sometimes flying fish came past, a few of which landed on the ship. It was also entertaining to see the schools of dolphins leaping out of the water. It appeared as if one of them was the foreman or leader. If he leapt out of the water dozens of others would follow his example and there were lots of big ones amongst them. The sailors called them the farmer with his pigs, probably because their mouths looked like the snout of a pig. We often sat on the prow in the evening. The Germans then brought their musical instruments and played all sorts of tunes of which we Hollanders also knew many.

The closer we came to the Cape the colder it became so that we wore our warm coats when on deck. One of the officers told us that the ship was in the cold Benguela current which opposed the progress. The bathwater was also very cold and at the bath house there was always an urn of fresh water to rinse ourselves with. We were always warned to be thrifty with the drinking water. We started to long for the end of the journey which had already taken more than four weeks. Eventually, one evening, Table Mountain came into sight. It was lovely to see land again and the town with its hundreds of lights. It was, however too late for the ship to dock and the anchor was thrown out into the bay. Early next morning we were on deck and watched the anchor being hoisted and slowly we steamed to the wharf where we were moored. There were not many people on the quay because the Anglian was only a freighter of the “Union Company”. On the quay was Aunt Sofie, my sister in law, to come and fetch me. There I stood on the African soil on 30 October 1893. The luggage was quickly unloaded and immediately put on the goods train to Johannesburg whilst we travelled by Hanson cab to the Hotel Amos, the owner of which was an aristocratic old gentleman with a long grey beard. He was a scot who had been living in Cape Town for years and could also speak some Afrikaans. At school I had learnt French, English and German but I soon found out that school English is very different from conversational English. On the ship I always asked the crew “Will you speak slowly please” which they always did, so that I could understand them more easily and so I learnt quite a lot of English whilst on board, even from two young girls who threw rings of rope to a white ring painted on deck. One of the children missed and the other one said “Never mind”, which I did not understand. I knew what “never” meant and what “mind” was, so I went to my cabin to consult my dictionary to find out that it meant “it does not matter”.

In the hotel I always had to sit next to the old gentleman Amos and we spoke about the journey, he wanted to know all about it. In English, naturally and when I got stuck he always helped or corrected me. We stayed in Cape Town for 14 days where everything was strange and new to me such as the Malayans with their strange dress. I did find it pleasant that they all spoke a quaint Dutch and I did not have much difficulty in understanding them. Then there were the veiled women and all the flower sellers with their colourful beauty in the Adderly Street. The high Table Mountain made a special impression on me with Lion’s Head, that sugarloaf to the right of it and the wooden in the bay. We also visited the old Company gardens and the castle. “You are now going to Johannesburg” Mr Amos said to me.”Yes” I replied,” but after six years I get leave and will then return to the Cape to make a trip to Holland”. Mr Amos laughed and said “Yes you think so, but I tell you, Africa is a mousetrap, you know when you are in it but you don’t know if you will ever get out of it”. Although I could not believe that I did experience it. The first time I would see Cape Town and the sea again was in the summer holiday of 1912 and a year later we made our first journey on leave to Holland, thus twenty years after my arrival. The Journey to Johannesburg

When we told Mr. Amos that we would be leaving the following evening he said “I will prepare a basket of food for the journey”. A dining salon did not yet exist then. We had a compartment for ourselves and even our own blankets as bedding was not supplied. It was naturally strange for me to sleep in a train. The following morning, at Matjiesfontein, the train stopped for half an hour and the passengers had time to disembark and get breakfast at the station restaurant. We opened our basket and that contained a few dozen sandwiches, a roasted chicken, six hard-boiled eggs and some fruit so we had more than enough to keep us alive for two days on the train. We could get coffee, tea and lemonade at most of the stations where the train stopped long enough to fill up with water and coal. At every station coloureds would come from the local farms to sell bottles of milk and fruit. We also had reading material and plenty to talk about. Aunt Sofie told me that when she arrived in East London a few years earlier there was no harbour there yet and so the passengers had to climb into a big basket they could just see out of. The basket was then hoisted and swung overboard to be placed on a tugboat which lay alongside the ship. Due to the swell the tugboat drifted away from the ship and suddenly the people in the basket found themselves up to their waists in water before there was time to pull the basket up again. The Karoo was full of flowers and green because it had rained well a few weeks earlier. The Three Sisters attracted my attention but for the rest I found the journey very monotonous over these extended plains where you saw nothing else but hills in the distance. After the third night we arrived in Johannesburg at six o’clock in the morning where Brother Johan was waiting for us. The luggage we had forwarded earlier had already arrived and been taken home. There was a platform at Johannesburg but no station. The main station was Braamfontein and the next station was “School” named after the Marist Brothers School there. Later this station was re- named Jeppe after Mr. Carl Jeppe who owned a lot of property and, I believe, was a member of the Volksraad of the Transvaal. In Vereeniging all the luggage was inspected as this was the border station between the Free State and the Transvaal. When my brother Johan came to the Transvaal the railway through the Free State was not completed yet and the end of the line was at Kimberley, from where he and his luggage, and twenty others were transported by a wagon in-spanned with mules. At night time they slept at farms along the way, where they could buy food and some prepared their own food on open fires in three legged pots they had brought with them. There were also people who, due too a lack of money, completed the journey from Kimberley to Johannesburg on foot carrying their baggage on their backs.

Johannesburg

The station at which we arrived was called “Park” after the recently completed Joubert Park close by, named after General Piet Joubert. The whole Transvaal railway system was made up of the Nederlandse Zuid-Afrikaanse Spoorweg Maatzchapy, NZASM, the Rand Tram from Krugersdorp to Springs and the newly built “ Zuiderlijn” (Southern line) from Vereeniging to Pretoria with the crossing point at “ Elandsfontein”, now called Germiston. Near the station of Braamfontein the railways had built buildings for the officials and there were also administrative buildings at the workplaces of the NZASM. My stepbrother lived in one of the stone buildings and was then Assistant Manager of Movement and Commercial Affairs. Later administrative buildings and directors residences were built in Pretoria which still (1954) exist, although greatly increased. Johan’s boss was Mr. Van Stipriaan Luicius, a man of more than 6 feet, who was very friendly. Later an assistant for the outside service was appointed. That was Mr. Kloek, a good friend of brother Johan. The first day of my stay in Johannesburg we visited friends of Johan and Sofie, the family van Bruggen. Mr. was teacher, and as far as I know Head of the “Spes Bona” school which was behind the Park Station. Later we visited the family van Bruggen often, they also had young children (1893).

As far as I can remember the only brick building was the Market building on the Market Plain. In this building one could buy vegetables and fruit and on Saturday evenings there was music and the musicians sat on a high balcony in the building. All the other buildings were (constructed of) and corrugated iron sheets, even the shops that surrounded the Market plain. Above the roofs of the houses one could see, in the distance, the hoists of some of the goldmines as well as the white mine dumps of the crushed banquet reef from which, I believe, the gold was extracted by means of a mixture of mercury and . This procedure left quite a bit of gold behind in the waste and was later replaced by the more efficient cyanide process. The name “Banquet” for the gold reef comes from the similarity of the reef to the Dutch type of cake of the same name. The nearest goldmine to the town was the “Ferreira” and because the mine was on the ridge above the ground the production costs were low and the dividends exceptionally high, I believe about 50% per year. Between Elandsfontein (Germiston) and Johannesburg there were mines right next to the railway. I remember the names of a few, such as Jumpers, Simmer and Jack, George Goch etc.

Saturday evenings was a party evening for Johannesburg and surroundings. Then one could see thousands of people on the streets and the shops and Bars did a roaring trade as a multitude of miners of the surroundings also streamed into the town. Everybody did their weekly shopping and thousands of pounds were earned (spent). The main language one heard was English and if you heard Dutch you turned around to see which acquaintance it was. The population consisted of a mix of nations, amongst which there were many fortune hunters. The shop owners were not very polite as the following story will show. My sister-in-law always bought meat at the “Leadenhall Meat Market” in the Pritchard Street not far from the hotel “Zum Deutscher Kaizer” where one could hear the beer drinking German community celebrate every Saturday evening from blocks away. My sister-in-law bought about £1.10 worth of meat and sausage and wanted about one shilling worth of soup meat. The butcher cut a piece of meat full of blood from the neck of the beast. My sister-in-law said no, that is so full of blood I don’t want it. The answer was “ Don’t you want it, well then you get nothing. Leave the shop please” and we could leave the shop without meat.

Sometimes whole spans of oxen from farmers who had out spanned outside the town, used to find their way to the butchers, who were allowed to slaughter their beasts without supervision.

In those times there were no tarred streets and especially in August the wind would blow strongly and huge dust clouds would whirl around. All doors of the shops were then closed and a board displayed saying “Come In! Closed on account of the dust”. Aunt Sofie gave me a large enamel bowl for my room and I wanted to get a water jug as well. One day, when walking through town I saw such a jug in Henwood’s display window. My spoken English was then still very poor. I entered the shop and queried the price of the jug and gestured to the salesman that the jug was in the window. After a few words the salesman became cross and said” Leave the shop please” and I could depart without the desired jug.

The NZASM appointed me as station clerk at Roodepoort and my Station Master was called Merkens. Roodepoort was twelve miles from Johannesburg and eight miles from Krugersdorp and there were eight trains per day. The passenger coaches had long benches. First class had benches made of three ply yellow wood with little holes just like the old chair seats and the second class had seats of slats. The baggage wagon was a closed truck made of corrugated galvanised iron plates with a sliding door on each side, secured with a padlock. The baggage cars were called The Tin Box. The price of a first class return ticket from Pretoria to Johannesburg was 18/61 which was very cheap because the stagecoach or by “cab” cost five pounds. At Halfway House new horses were in-spanned.

The main goods transported along the Rand consisted of coal for the gold mines. The coal was packed in bags of 200lbs each and 100 bags per truck. On a goods train there was no baggage truck and the conductor simply climbed onto the last truck and sat on the coal bags. On this line there were only two stations, namely Maraisburg and Roodepoort. Langlaagte, Luipaardsvlei and Witpoortjie were only halts. A goods train from Johannesburg to Krugersdorp consisted of only thirteen small trucks loaded with coal. Two were destined for Maraisburg which were unhooked there, two for Roodepoort and the remaining nine for Luipaardsvlei and Krugersdorp, because the locomotive could not pull more than nine loaded trucks up the steep hill to Luipaardsvlei. Here the coal destined for a French company, the “Champs d’or” mine, a French company, was thrown off the trucks so you can imagine what the conductor looked like from the coal dust, especially when it was hot weather and he was soaked in sweat. The empty bags were then sent back to the coal mines in Boksburg, Brakpan and Springs.

The Roodepoort station consisted of a restaurant/cafe where one could also buy liquor, an office where tickets were sold and where the telegraph equipment was situated and a room with a kitchen without a stove. The Station Master had the room and my abode was the kitchen, where my bed stood, the large chest with my clothes served as wash stand, and there was a small folding table.

The manager of the restaurant was Mr Busansky who also rented other restaurant/cafes along the line and his clerk/barman was called Miller, both Russian Jews who had fled their fatherland and as Miller told me in his broken Dutch, “hulle had die grens gesteel”. In Holland I had learnt telegraphy and after three months the telegraphy supervisor came to give me an exam which I passed. The Station Master had told me earlier to take the examiner to the restaurant after the exam to toast the good result. The Station Master naturally accompanied us and I received an increase in salary. Together with the Station Master I had to shunt trains, sell tickets, and make out letters of conveyance for parcels and goods. There was not much shunting apart from two or three times per week when the coal trucks had to be pushed onto the siding and to collect and couple the empty trucks to the train. If a truck from the Cape railways had to be coupled it had to be placed to the end of the train because the vacuum braking system of the Cape railways was different from the ZASM. At the end of the siding was a wooden buffer block with a big heap of sand behind it. Once I pushed a truck of coal onto the siding too hard and it rode over the buffer and the heap of sand and came to rest some six feet further on, luckily without tipping over. I was paralyzed with fright and asked the train driver what to do. He said “leave it there until all the coal is unloaded. I will bring a long chain from Braamfontein when I return tomorrow morning and we would pull the empty truck back onto the line using some sleepers for the truck to ride on. The Ganger would help with his kaffers2”, which is what happened. The Ganger, Mr van Zanten, was an elderly Hollander who was sent from an orphanage in Holland to South Africa with a number of other boys. He lived not far from the station and was a pleasant boss. His wife had died and his daughter did the housework. In the neighbourhood of the station there were no houses. Opposite the station was the blacksmith shop of Mr. Jooste. It was a building of wood and corrugated iron sheets. I often went there to talk with him and to potter around. Mr. Jooste lived on

1 Eighteen shillings and six pence

2 Acceptable term in 1954! the farm of his father-in-law, Mr Hamman, near Florida. Mr Hamman had two sons over six feet long. The eldest had carts and ox-wagons and did all the work for the Kimberly-Roodepoort mine and the youngest was a teacher. On Sundays I sometimes took a walk to their farm for a chat. They also had a garden full of fruit trees. It was two miles away and at the crossing over the railway line was the Bar and shop of Mr. Geddes who also ran the post office. Half a mile in the direction of Krugersdorp lived Mr. Penny He ran all the transport for the “Princess” mine which was visible directly opposite the station, on the horizon. Mrs. Penny catered for us and in the mornings, afternoons and evenings and we sent the boy to fetch the meal. A mile further on from Penny was the shop of Mr. Wilson which also had a bar attached and where the blacks could also buy a drink. All the groceries and barrels of liquor came from the Cape. I often chatted to the shop’s clerk and asked him how it was possible to sell the blacks a fairly large glass of brandy for sixpence. He gave me the recipe. Take one barrel of Cape liquor, add 4 barrels of water. Place a roll of tobacco into each new barrel and add half a pound of cayenne pepper to improve the strength. The cost of a sixpenny glass of drink was then less than half a penny and thus there was a sweet profit. Half a mile further was a where I often went swimming. One day the barman Miller from the stations restaurant came along. I was quickly undressed and dived off the dam wall into the deep water. I did not know Miller could not swim. He presumably thought the water was not deep and jumped in. I heard splashing and shouting and saw that he was sinking. In a moment I was with him. He suddenly grabbed me by both arms and we both sank to the bottom. With difficulty I managed to wriggle an arm free and gave him a hard blow on his chest with my elbow. Then he let me go and I swam to the side with him where he recovered and climbed on top of me so that I sank. When I came up again he was on the shivering with fright. We dressed and on the way back to the station he got his speech back. He told me that he had seen all his family in Russia and had said goodbye to them. When we were home he hugged me tearfully and said I had saved his life. He never went swimming with me again.

One day Mr. Penny asked me if I would like to visit the “Princes” mine one evening. I agreed immediately. In the evening he came to fetch me in a cart with two horses and loaded with machinery which he had to deliver there. First we visited the plant where the ore was crushed. It was a deafening noise. The ore fell into narrow iron troughs into which numerous stampers went up and down. In the troughs a regulated stream of water flowed and exited similar to milk in consistency. The white water flowed into shallow troughs inclined slightly downwards so that the water drained into a trench which led to tanks where it was stored and a white mud remained. The mud was mixed with a mixture of mercury and zinc to extract the gold. The troughs were covered with a grey ribbed type of velvet and when the white water flowed slowly over it a lot of the gold dust was trapped in the ribs of the velvet. Later the mercury and zinc method was replaced by the more efficient cyanide process. Years later the mine dumps were profitably re-worked with the cyanide process to recover the gold left behind. After this we went below, I believe some 2000 feet, to view the underground processes. We were given candles, which were made from red wax. That was to prevent theft of the candles. Other mines used orange, yellow or blue coloured candles. At the end of the holes were made into the banquet reef by blacks with long steel drills which they hit with hammers whilst the drills were regularly turned. This generated a lot of dust which causes phthisis. Nowadays the drilling is done by with compressed air whilst the drills are hollow and water flows through it continuously and no dust forms. When all the holes have been drilled to the correct depth, whites filled them with dynamite to which long fuses were connected and later ignited when everybody was at a safe distance. The furthest fuses were the longest to give the person lighting them time to get away safely. All the explosions were counted and when all had exploded the foreman gave the order to push the tipper cars closer in order to load the pieces of ore which had been blasted loose and take it to the hoist where it was brought to the surface to be crushed in the stamping battery. Naturally nowadays the process is much simpler, safer and faster and without the dangerous dust. We thanked the foreman and we drove homewards and I thanked Mr. Penny for his willingness to take me along for the interesting and educational evening.

At Roodepoort the locomotives could get water from a big tank which was regularly filled up by the Ganger’s blacks. One day the stoker forgot to hook up the chain to the valve of the outlet pipe on its hook. When on the following morning, it was Sunday, a lovely sunny day, the first passenger train from Krugersdorp to Johannesburg, with all its windows open, steamed into the station the lantern arm caught the chain of the outlet pipe and pulled the valve open and the water poured into the passing train through the open windows onto the seated passengers. This caused great consternation. I walked directly to the Gangers house to fetch towels etc. and his daughters came to help dry the passengers and seats of the wagons. Luckily the passengers did not take the incident seriously. Because of this the train was delayed for half an hour during which time most of the male passengers went to the bar to recover from the shock. The matter was not reported. In any case I never heard anything about it again. On Sundays there were no goods trains and only a passenger train in the morning and evening. When the morning train had left the Station Master and I decided to have a bath. Since there was no bathroom we walked, in our birthday suits, to the water pipe for the locomotives which was situated between the two main lines in front of the station, opened the taps and refreshed ourselves with a lovely shower. There was no-one to see us. What a difference to the present (1954) now that Roodepoort is a fully built town with the station more or less in the centre. One day the sky was suddenly covered by a cloud which completely blotted out the sun. It was a swarm of locusts which settled on the neighbourhood covering everything, including the railway lines. The passenger train from Johannesburg was just pulling in and due to the slippery lines began to run back. The Locomotive driver did his best to brake but it did not help. At a more level section of the line not far from the Florida halt the train came to a rest. All the passengers were asked to disembark and help spread sand on the rails so that the train could slowly complete the uphill section of the line to Roodepoort.

Once every fourteen days, on Saturday evenings there was an extra train, named the Opera train. This train left Johannesburg in the evening at half past eleven after the various theatres had ended to give the people-mostly miners a chance to return to Maraisburg, Roodepoort, Luipaardsvlei and Krugersdorp. The Opera train then returned 2 hours later as an extra empty train back to Braamfontein. The following Saturday evening the train went from Braamfontein to Springs.

One evening the train to Roodepoort did not arrive till two o’clock in the night. I asked the Locomotive driver what had happened. At the there was an unusual noise at the loco. The driver stopped the train to see what it was and the stoker oiled all the parts. The passengers got out to see what was wrong and asked if there was time to go to Geddes’ bar close by for a drink and for security took the driver and the conductor along for a treat. After a few drinks they began to play billiards and when this was finished returned to the train where the envious stoker stood waiting. He was given a bottle of beer for his trouble and then they continued. When I asked the loco driver how he explained the one and a half hour delay he said “Oh, as a small malfunction on the locomotive which we managed to fix”. Once I was shunting two coal trucks for Roodepoort. On replacing to the rest of the train a stone came between the rails of the points and when I looked again three trucks had rolled off the line onto the platform in front of the station. In those days there were no raised platforms. I got the fright of my life and thought “Now there is naturally a few pounds fine for me”. I asked the loco driver what we should do and he said “leave it to me”. He reversed the train past the points and the trucks rolled back onto the line. He said go quickly to the Ganger and tell him that on three or four rails all the nuts from the bolts of the footplates are broken. Now that malfunction was quickly fixed. The points themselves had not suffered much and could be used without repair. Naturally nothing of this was reported.

When I had a Saturday afternoon free I went by train to Johannesburg but used to keep my Service cap on and told the conductor I was travelling without a ticket. He would answer “you are obviously going to Johannesburg on business”. I would return with the opera train, on which the stationmasters and clerks of Maraisburg and Roodepoort travelled to have a few pots of beer with the Krugersdorp Station Mmaster. The barman was woken to deal with the situation. Later we returned with the empty opera train to our various stations. The conductor, Loco driver and stoker were naturally part of the party. I had not been in Roodepoort long when I got a letter from the Government to report to the Magistrate in Krugersdorp to be sworn in as a “special constable” in order to be able to arrest a person on my station. There was no salary attached to this particular Governmental Post. I was thus also a member of the Transvaal republic police force. I never had the honour of taking somebody into custody.

The third person of our staff was a black man. It was his job to keep the rooms and office clean and also the area around the toilets. He slept with the Ganger’s blacks. The boy also had to polish the points with graphite every day and special notice of this was taken during inspections. My job also entailed inspection of the distant signals and if there was a fault or something loose to immediately report this telegraphically to the supervisor in Braamfontein , who would come with the next train to fix everything.

I found my first Christmas and New Year in the middle of summer rather unusual. It was completely different from Holland with the warm hearth and snow and frost outside. In the winter it could become bitterly cold in Roodepoort. In front of the station on the opposite of the railway line a large rectangular hole had been dug. The soil had been used to raise the terrain at the station. The hole was regularly full of water and covered in ice and once was so strong that I could stand on it. I thought, if only I had brought my skates from Holland. In the summer heavy weather with hard rain could also occur. I remember that one day a goods train stood at the door during such a thunder storm. The conductor wanted to wait until the storm was over before continuing because, as I have already mentioned, there was no baggage truck for the conductors on the goods trains. We stood talking in the office whose double glass doors were standing open. Suddenly there was a bright flash of lightning which struck the telegraph and from there a stream of fire passed us, through the open door to hit the buffer of the nearest truck with a thunderclap. Luckily no one stood in the doorway and we got away with only a big fright. It was a narrow escape.

The signal system of the ZASM was such that if the arm on the signal was horizontal it indicated unsafe. If it was raised to an angle of 45 degrees upwards it was safe for trains to enter. At the Cape railways it was the other way round, if it was safe the arm was horizontal and at unsafe it was raised. Mention of the difference was made but it was never changed. What did the dumb Hollanders know about signal systems? In England it was like this, wasn’t it?; thus it remained so in the Cape. There was nothing wrong with it.

The distant signals were served by handles from the platform, just like the signals on the main line.

Once it occurred at a station in the Cape that the steel wire which operated a distant signal broke and so the arm dropped and came to rest in the horizontal position and thus to “safe”. The result was that two trains collided and great damage was caused. This resulted in the whole signal system in the Cape being changed to the ZASM system. With the vacuum braking system it was the same. In the ZASM system if a truck joint broke by accident then the vacuum pipes of the whole train jerked loose and the brakes came on bringing the whole train to a standstill. With the Cape system it was the opposite so that if a connection broke on the way the loco driver did not notice anything and would carry on with the front section of the train whilst the broken rearward section was left behind. This system was later also changed to the ZASM system. After a year I was transferred to Johannesburg Braamfontein as parcel and baggage clerk. At the place where now the giant Johannesburg station stands and was known as Park station, was then only a halt at which a wood and iron shelter stood under which the travellers could shelter during rainy weather. Anyone boarding there had to buy a ticket from the conductor. It often occurred that mine workers would stand next to the line late on Saturday afternoons, between Germiston and Johannesburg, to get a ride on the coal trains to town. They gave the loco driver a sign to travel slowly so that they could climb onto the coal trucks. The reward for the conductor and loco driver was a bottle of whiskey because the conductor who sat on the last coal truck naturally did not sell tickets because goods trains did not transport passengers.

And now we get to my residence in Johannesburg and Braamfontein. My Service in Johannesburg / Braamfontein

In the beginning of 1895 I was transferred to Johannesburg – Braamfontein, as clerk in the parcels and baggage section. The first year I resided in the home of my step brother and sister-in-law Sophie. Before I came to South Africa they had a baby who died young and now that she was expecting again and it was decided that she would go to Holland to her parents, who lived in Middelburg, for the birth. There a daughter was born, who also died shortly after birth. Sophie returned to South Africa where she stayed until 1901 and they both returned to Holland for good.

When she left for Holland for the confinement I got a room in a building complex for bachelors, this was situated closer to the station. In each of the bachelor’s buildings there were 8 rooms, four in the front and four at the back, with a large veranda on each side. Each occupant had to supply his own furniture and keep the room clean. Further along from the bachelor’s rooms / single quarters were the buildings for families. In the first of these lived the family Hartog. Mr. Hartog was storeman for the ZASM rail and works and with them I obtained board. There were another 8 boarders, all of them railway employees. The family had four children, two sons and two daughters. The eldest son was my age and worked as telegraphist at Braamfontein station. The next two were daughters, Alida and Mathilda, nicknamed Alie and Tillie and the youngest was a son Johan. The girls and Johan still went to school. We often had convivial evenings with games and discussions. It was really homely. Between the first four or five rows of family residences and the single quarters was the recreational clubhouse where many of the officials went to eat. In the evenings there was often entertainment and amongst others you could get a game of draughts, chess, cards or billiards but there was no family spirit.

The hours of service at the station were long but that was the case at all stations. At the head office one had fixed hours from 8 o’clock in the morning till 5 in the afternoon with an hour lunch-break in between. On the station you had contact with the public. It was much busier than at Roodepoort. I had two loading clerks to assist me and a few blacks. All trains from the Cape arrived and departed from there. Every Monday the gold despatches to England from the different banks in Johannesburg arrived. The bars of gold were packed in crates each some 60 to 80 pounds in weight. The crates were sturdily made and tightly screwed shut. On each screw was a lacquer seal and also on the seams of the crates and this seal was in a countersunk hole and not readily accessible. We naturally had to check that on receipt of the crates the seals were not damaged. The baggage wagon of the Cape train was then placed near the office to ease loading. In the baggage wagon there was an area containing a safe. The whole section was closed off with bars and inside this the armed guards accompanied the gold. After the gold was loaded, just before the departure of the train, the wagon was locked and the key given to the chief conductor. The gold section was not opened again until arrival at the docks in Cape Town, at the berth place of the Mail boat. The guards had plenty of food and primuses on which to cook. When loading we had to be careful not to break the seals although there was often an official from the bank in attendance who had a seal with him in case something broke. The biggest despatch I ever had was a consignment of 120 crates. One time a crate of gold arrived from Pilgrims Rest, for despatch. The Station Master was not there to lock the crate in the safe in his office. I waited there till eleven o’clock that evening but he did not arrive. I put the crate behind the counter and threw a few bags over it plus the rubbish from the waste paper baskets and locked the office. Nobody except the conductor and I knew about the crate and the conductor had finished his shift and gone home. Early the following morning I was at the office and found everything in order. As soon as the stationmaster arrived I took the crate to his office to be locked in the safe until the following Monday.

The water shortage in Johannesburg.

In 1894-5 it was very dry. Most people in Johannesburg were dependent on wells or tanks for their drinking and household water. Where the new “morning market” is situated near Fordsburg there were a few brickworks and there were deep holes where the clay had been excavated. At the bottom of these excavations wells had been dug where the brick makers could get their water. Because there was now such a shortage of water the brick makers drove around with donkey carts filled with barrels of water which they sold for 2/6 per bucket.

Between the houses and the workplace there were four large galvanised tanks on a tall scaffolding which supplied the houses of the officials with water. These tanks were regularly filled by a steam pump at the works where there was a deep well. Under the tanks were four compartments where one could take a shower. I wanted to go there one day and told the loading clerk that I would be back soon and walked to the bathrooms armed with towel and soap. After having undressed I ran a little water over my body and covered myself thoroughly with soap. The water was quite warm which surprised me somewhat. When I was covered in lather I pulled the chain to rinse myself off but got not a drop of water. The tank was empty. I opened the door and looked to see if there was anybody there and tried for water in the other three bathrooms. But no, all four tanks were empty. I was compelled to rub off the soap and dress and go back to the office where I had to sit and write with that sticky feeling. The water merchants did not come every day so every evening, before I went home, I bought a bottle of soda water from the refreshment bar which served as my wash water and it had to last till the next evening. The taps at the corner of the single quarters had run dry long ago.

Some Sundays when I was off duty I would go with Uncle Johan and Aunt Sophie to the family Lubbers. Mr. Lubbers was an advocate. He told us about the Chinaman he had to defend in the court. The Chinaman had borrowed money from a countryman of his, who wanted it back now. His client had maintained that he had paid back the money honestly. There was no receipt thus no evidence that it had happened. Mr. Lubbers had enquired around what law was in force in China for such a matter. The Judge asked the plaintiff to swear that he had not received the money, which he agreed to directly, knowing full well that such an oath was not valid in China. Mr. Lubbers had made provisions. At the back of the court his clerk had a closed basket containing a live rooster. The advocate asked the judge if he could administer the oath and this was allowed. The clerk came closer, Mr. Lubbers took the rooster and cut off its head and said to the plaintiff “Swear by the rooster that you did not receive the money”. But he did not want to do that and shouted out repeatedly No! No! No!; and became very perturbed. The Judge realised that the money had been repaid and sentenced the untruthful Chinaman to a large fine and the costs of the defence. Mr. Lubbers laughed us as he told us”I earned fifty pounds and that Sunday we had a rooster in the pot”.

The Suburb, Braamfontein.

Round about this time stands were sold in Braamfontein, which was a long stony hill. The price was £15 per stand of 100 feet deep and 50 feet along the street. £15 was a whole month’s salary. Who would buy such a small stony piece of ground, and that on the to the graveyard? Many of the railway officials shared this opinion and many of them did not have £15 to spare because they visited the “bar” too often. I did not buy either. My step brother told me that a number of officials and other prominent businessmen had rented a large piece of ground to plant trees on. After seven years these could be felled and used as mine props. With the expansion of the mines there was a tremendous demand for poles. He had also bought a few shares and thought it was a safe investment. He advised me to buy a few. They were shares of £100- fifty pounds cash and then £5 per month till the full share price was paid. Now that did not look to bad and the prospect looked good because when the trees were felled after seven years the shares would be worth approximately £500 or more. Thus I also bought a share and was just in time because the offer was fully subscribed. I had just paid three months when an official from railroads and works came to me and asked if I wanted to sell my share. He offered £75, so £10 profit. I thought a small profit is a good profit. The £10 was quickly earned. I sold my share and heard later that the whole company came to nothing.

I was not always so lucky. A colleague, whom I knew well, sometimes went to the horse races at Turfontein. He told me that a jockey had given him a tip that a certain horse would win. He was going to bet £10 and advised me to place a bet on that horse. The odds were 10 to one. I did not have more than £15 0n me and gave this to him. He was convinced he would go home that night with £200 and be able to give me £150 as well. Could we let that chance pass us by? In the evening friend “Wolf” came back “platzak”. The horse had lost and we had lost our money. I never went to the races and never again took part in such matters in spite of many offers.

I had not been placed at the Braamfontein station for very long when, one afternoon, there was a terrible storm which increased in violence and moved in the direction of Krugersdorp. Later there was a report that the passenger train that was on the way to Krugersdorp was blown off the track at the Florida halt. All the carriages lay next to the track and were badly damaged. Only the locomotive and the coupled baggage wagon (tin box) still stood on the track. The waiting shelter, an open fronted awning, lay more than a thousand yards further crumpled against a hill. A rescue train was hastily assembled to fetch the dead and injured but it took a long time before help came because the conductor had to walk from Florida station to Maraisburg, 2 miles, to telegraph Braamfontein to let them know. The rescue train came past Braamfontein and carried on to Park station where ambulances stood ready to transport the dead and injured to the . The railway line was already repaired that night and the damaged coaches brought to the workshops in Braamfontein. I do not remember how many casualties there were. Later on it happened again that such a tornado moved in that direction but in those old days the townships of Florida and Roodepoort did not exist, nor did the other established suburbs that are there now.

When we were free on a Sunday and wanted to go somewhere a “cab” was hired and with that we rode to “Orange Grove” far outside the town. There was a Cafe there where one could get beer etc. and next to a stream were several orange and other trees and we could picnic there the whole day as it was green there. There were other picnic places like “Sans Sauci” and “Aukland Park” which were rather busy on holidays.

The family Hartog, where I also had my meals, and all the boarders spent a whole day picnicking at Witpoortje. Everything was prepared in advance and we left on the first train of the morning. There were twenty of us plus two black servants. One carried a giant three-legged pot on his head, filled with stew and meat and the other a trunk with sandwiches etc. There was also a large kettle to make coffee and tea and, of course, tinned milk. Everybody had a mug with him, a spoon and a pocket knife. We got off at the Witpoort halt and went to the kloof. After having walked a few hundred yards we came to a place where a spring came out of the ground and formed a nice stream which we had to jump over several times as we followed the path. This stream was the origin of the Limpopo River. After walking for an hour or two we came to the waterfall. There we stopped. Everybody helped to fetch wood. The blacks made a fire and coffee was made and everybody sat with a mug of coffee and a sandwich in hand. After that we went exploring to the edge of the waterfall and some of us climbed down via rocks and shrubs to the pool formed at the base of the waterfall from which a small clear river flowed to the present Hartebeestpoort dam to become the Limpopo or Crocodile River. Several hours later when we were all safely together again the stew was warmed and we saw to it that the blacks would not have a heavy load to carry back. We arrived back home singing but exhausted.

And so life continued peacefully until 1895 when the eastern line, the first connection to the Transvaal that did not pass over English territory, was completed. There were great festivities and each official was given a silver watch as a present. (The big bosses naturally a gold watch) and a bronze medal which had the flying railway wheel on one side and on the other side the bust of President Kruger and an inscription to commemorate the great occasion. Everybody was allowed to travel for free on the newly opened line for a week. At Bronkhorstspruit the President screwed the last joints together and the line was declared open. Great use was made of the free travel by the general public who had never seen a train and were used to travelling by coach or ox wagon. Between Waterval Boven and Waterval Onder a tunnel had been built. This section of the line was rather steep due to the sudden change from the Highveld to the Lowveld and so on the steepest section and in the tunnel a rack and pinion line had been installed with special locomotives to pull the trains that came from Lorenço Marques to the top. There were two Rack & Pinion locomotives named the Driekleur and Vierkleur. Just outside the exit from the tunnel the line made a sharp turn as there was a deep valley on the left hand side into which the water of the Elands River fell. The tunnel is no longer in use since the railway line zig zags down to the lowveld now. In the same year the connection to Durban was also completed and the station where the connection with that line and the Vereeniging-Johannesburg line connection occurred was called “Aansluting”. Nowadays it is called “Union”.

And so the December month of the year 1895 approached when the Jameson Raid took place.

When it became known that an enemy force with cannons etc. had crossed the western border of the Transvaal everything in Johannesburg was a state of consternation. A large number of Englishmen, who had been secretly informed of the invasion, gathered together on horseback and on foot at the most important points to merge with the invaders and to overthrow the Transvaal Government and take over control. The invaders had cut all telegraph lines to prevent their arrival being made known. They, however, made the fatal mistake of forgetting about the line from Rustenburg and over this telegraphic line the news that a large force had crossed the western border with cannons and was on the way to Johannesburg was flashed to Pretoria . The Government called up as many as possible of the citizens and commanders to stop the foreign troops and overpower and catch the enemy. The volunteers of the NZASM were called on to take over the duties of the police force because the whole police force of the town had been called on to join the burger force to prevent the enemy force from reaching Johannesburg. I myself was called on to do night duty. During the day it was very busy due to the thousands of people fleeing Johannesburg and the departing trains to Natal and the Cape were overfull. We were thus very busy booking baggage before departure of such a train. Cape bogie carriages travelled on the line from Johannesburg to Vereeniging but on the line to Natal a train consisted of short carriages without bogie chassis because these were not necessary as the ZASM railways did not have sharp bends anywhere. At Charlestown, the first station just over the Natal border, the Natal railway officials did not transfer the passengers to their own bogie carriages but let the ZASM train continue to Newcastle in spite of the greater distance between wheels of the carriages not being taken into account for the sharp bends of the Natal railways. At the first sharp bend the ZASM carriages left the tracks and fell over causing an enormous train accident with many dead and wounded.

Near Doornkop, between Krugersdorp and Johannesburg the Boer forces and the Jameson gang clashed. The Boer Commandant sent a burger with a white flag and a letter to Jameson requesting him to surrender but this was refused. Jameson was now so close to his goal – Johannesburg where he knew there were thousands of Englishmen who would come to his aid when he arrived there that he did not consider handing himself over and opened fire on the Boer commandos who answered his fire immediately and sowed death and destruction amongst the troops of Jameson. Because so many of his soldiers were killed in an instant and before his cannons could be deployed he wanted to raise a white flag. However, nowhere could they find a white cloth so in desperation he tore the white apron from a black maid from a nearby hut and waved that.

The Boer commando ceased firing and Jameson and his band surrendered unconditionally and were taken around Johannesburg to the prison in Pretoria. The “Reformers” who had formed a committee to take over the new government were also arrested. Their houses were surrounded and guards placed so that nobody could go in or out. I was placed with twenty others to guard the house of the family Hammond, a millionaire mine magnate and an American. We were given tents and the home telephone line was cut off at the house to prevent any between them and the outside world. However, the people were very friendly towards us and their children of about six years old were often in the tents to talk to us. Later on Mr Hammond was allowed to go riding with his family once per day in a carriage with two horses and accompanied by two armed guards. With our rifles with us, one of us sat in the driving box and the other in the carriage with the family. This nice life did not continue for very long. One morning we got the order to take Mr. Hammond along with a number of “Reform Committee” members as prisoners to Pretoria by train and that we would accompany them to the central prison. We spent the day in Pretoria and had a meal at the Fountain Hotel in Pretorius Street as guests of the Government. I believe it is now the South African Party club. We did justice to the meal because all the young men had hearty appetites. With the last train we returned to Johannesburg and our jobs at the NZASM. Later I wrote a letter to the Commander of the Transvaal volunteer Corps at Johannesburg, upon which I got a letter stating that my service to the Corps and the Republic during the Jameson raid would not be forgotten and that I had served 13 days and three nights. I still have the letter.

The personal tax during this period in the Republic was eighteen shillings and sixpence per year but many people did not bother about it because the population was not registered apart from the burghers who had voting rights. After three years of residence in the country one could apply for citizenship of the Republic and then received voting rights. The English, however, wanted to get voting rights as soon as they entered the Transvaal and this caused much agitation. The government of the Republic realised that if this happened the land would be swamped with English citizens and soon the government would be in English hands. To prevent this, a law was passed by the Volksraad that nobody could become a Republican citizen unless he could prove that he had been in the country for seven years. This naturally caused an outcry amongst the English community. In order to encourage as many as possible to pay the tax (18/6) the Volksraad hatched a plan. Namely, a section of the Transvaal was declared a gold area and this was divided into claims. Everybody had a right to such a claim and so these would be raffled. Everybody could take part provided you could produce a tax receipt. But you had to appear that day in person. It was impossible for me to go and asked my loading clerk “Bruwer” if he could try and get me registered to take part in the claim raffle and gave him my tax receipt. There were thousands of people to be registered and a large police force was present to maintain order and to ensure nobody reached the counter twice. Everybody had to stand in the queue and the police kept a watchful eye. When Bruwer returned in the afternoon he had also registered my name, as printed on my tax receipt. I asked him how he had accomplished this and he said that before he joined the queue he had paid attention to what was happening. He saw that as each person reached the counter they had a wax crayon mark surreptitiously placed on their back. If a marked person came a second time he was instantly recognised and sent away with a strong warning not to come again as he would then be arrested. “But how did you register my name then” I asked. “Well’’, he said, “When I registered myself I wore my overcoat on which I got a mark without me noticing it. And when I went with your receipt I gave my overcoat to a friend to hold and got a mark on the back of my jacket. Nobody was allowed to come to the registration counter without a jacket on. Well, probably due to the dishonesty, neither of us drew a gold claim. Such a claim could be sold very profitably.

The members of the “Reform Committee” were court marshalled in Pretoria and were all sentenced to death. The sentence was later changed to a heavy fine for each of the reformers. I believe five thousand pounds each.

Every year millions of pounds of gold were sent to England and so the country gradually became poorer. The government of the republic decided to impose an export tax of five percent on the gold. How great the indignation of the English community. This was a scandal, theft. Meetings were held to protest and there were petitions with thousands of signatures, many of them forced, were sent to Queen Victoria with the request to stop this unrighteousness, this theft of Her Majesty’s money. The newspapers were full of cartoons of President Kruger and the government. I remember one cartoon showing the President wearing an apron and cutting a slice of ham on which large letters showed “5%”. But after the Boer war when the English government of the Transvaal imposed a fifty percent tax on the goldmines not one of the mine magnates and their henchmen opened their mouths. After the Boer war I spoke to many of the English who longed for the good times of the government of “Oom Paul”.

On Wednesday morning, February 27th my friend Dirk de Bruin, who was loading clerk at the new goods station “Kazerne”, visited me and we agreed to go to his parent’s home at four o’clock when we came off duty where we would spend a convivial evening. I worked as goods clerk in the baggage and parcels office at Braamfontein station. His parents lived in Doornfontein and Dirk was the eldest of four children. His father worked as a cake maker and decorator in the bakery of the Quinn Company. I had been there several times and it was always very pleasant there. Around 12 o’clock Dirk came past again and said that we could not go that afternoon as he would not be finished with his duty. The Kazerne chief loading clerk told him to unload seven trucks of dynamite which would be sent directly to the various goldmines by mule trains. As usual I was at Braamfontein station at two o’clock when I saw a huge black column of smoke rising from behind the locomotive shed, followed by a violent bang. I thought that a gunpowder store, which stood on the ridge of the hill opposite the Braamfontein station, behind the graveyard had blown up. All the windows of the carriages were broken as well as the station and in the telegraph room the whole ceiling had come down. Luckily at the front it got caught on the open door. All the staff ran outside. Suddenly someone called out “It’s from the dynamite and lumber yard”. Everybody hurried there. We saw great devastation. The wood and corrugated iron walls of the locomotive shed were flattened and the roof hung down. Of the seven trucks of dynamite there was nothing to be seen and on the site where they had stood was a gigantic hole 300 yards long and 30 yards wide and the rails stuck into the air like big snakes. Thick wooden beams of some 60 foot long, also destined for the goldmines, were flung away like matches and had totally obliterated several wood and corrugated iron houses. The office of the goods clerk was also flattened. It was also made of wood and corrugated iron. The clerk who crawled out from underneath it was not badly injured. His face was full of blood from the shards of glass from the window which had cut his face. We brought him to the station for treatment and I went back to the site of the disaster to help and to see what had become of my friend Dirk. I looked everywhere and asked everybody if they had seen him but it was all in vain. In the meantime the ambulance had arrived and also a few doctors and everybody helped to get the injured and the bodies to the hospital. I also went to the hospital to see if my friend Dirk was possibly there and later I heard that a few of the injured had been taken to one of the mine in the vicinity, but he was not there either. Together with his family we enquired after him but in vain. According to the Locomotive driver and the shunter, Dirk was on top of one of the trucks loading cases of dynamite onto a wagon inspanned with mules. Until today not a trace of him has been found. The following day I helped to load some coffins with body parts of people lying all around but the head of Dirk was not amongst them. Dirk’s parents were almost inconsolable but resigned themselves to their loss with the thought “It was the will of the Heavenly Father and what he does is good. He has a reason for everything”.

In the Wanderers hall corpses lay next to each other, covered with sheets for identification, all women and children, including a couple of pregnant women. There was also a young boy of some eight years and it looked as if he was asleep. There was no injury to be seen on him. I picked up his head and saw a small triangular hole next to his ear where a piece of iron had penetrated to his brain. He was probably killed instantly. When the explosion took place all the men were at their work stations so that only women and children were killed.

Not long after this I was transferred from Braamfontein station to Elandsfontein, now called Germiston. All single officials lived in blocks of rooms of the ZASM and I shared my room with Sam Klinkert. One morning - I had been on night shift – a few of my friends and I planned to go the Johannesburg for shopping and Klinkert wanted to join us. I woke him but he did not want to get up. It was the middle of winter and the grass was white with frost. The others came into the room to see if we were ready and when they saw that Klinkert was still in bed they took him with blankets and all and carried him into the veld and put him down on the frost covered grass. During much laughter he got up, gathered his blankets together and went to sleep again and when we returned from Johannesburg around twelve o’clock he was still sleeping. We all boarded at Mrs. Vergers. Her husband also worked for the railways.

One of our friends Lenijse had a small white fox terrier and with this dog we planned a prank. Whilst his boss was at work we caught the dog and wet him and began to work on him with indelible pencil. On his head and around his eyes circles were made as well as on his body and rings around his legs and tail so that he looked like a small zebra. Once he was dry we took him to the station where he jumped up to his boss. But he did not recognise the animal and chased him away every time it jumped up at him. He saw us laughing and then understood we had tackled his dog. Just after this a passenger train arrived and many travellers looked at the strange monstrosity and a few wanted to steal him. When it rained later the indelible pencil leached and the dog became a light purple animal.

Not long after this I was transferred as assistant station manager near Meijerton and I got a red cap with a light blue band instead of a blue uniform cap. Meijerton was a small place. There was only a small station, a shop and the residence of the railway supervisor and that of the Ganger and further in the distance a few farm houses of the farmers from the area. There had to be day and night shift because trains also ran during the night. The station master was a pleasant and friendly fellow, a Fries from Leeuwarden. He was married but there were no children. I had a room to myself and boarded with them. He suggested that we would share the duty from 12 noon to 12 midnight but I said:”You are married, you take the day shift and I will take the night shift. This was accepted and I started at 8 in the evening till 8 in the morning. After breakfast I slept until 3 o’clock and we had tea and then around 4 we had lunch. After this I worked a bit in the garden or rode one of the boss’ horses to the farms in the area to make acquaintance with the neighbours. There was not much to do on the station. Now and then an occasional traveller and a few parcels and goods for the shop. At 8 in the evening when I came on duty we ate together in the office and the boss and his wife would stay reading or knitting. At 10 o’clock Mrs supplied sandwiches and tea for me for the night and they went to their room whilst I did the books and cash register and filled in all the forms in connection with the arrival and departure of trains, completed the parcels and goods statements and wrote up everything in the prescribed books. At seven o’clock the boss arrived and checked and signed everything. The pieces went into the trunk and the money into a sealed leather bag. At half past 9 the train from the Cape arrived with which everything was sent to the head office in Pretoria. After that we both had breakfast in the office and the boss took over duty and I could go to sleep.

I had brought a small baboon from Johannesburg who was tied to a tall steel pole in the back garden. On top of the pole was a sort of platform where “Jacob”, that was the baboon’s name, preferred to sit. I had also made a box for him where he slept at night under some sacks. The animal was very tame and I taught him several tricks such as jumping and sitting on an upturned bottle with my cap on and holding a pipe in his mouth. I always gave him a reward for performing his tricks. He liked lemonade a lot. One day I put some mielie kernels into a lemonade bottle to see what he would do to get them out. He tried to reach them and was surprised that he could not. After several luckless attempts he threw the bottle upwards several times until it fell on a rock and broke and he could eat the kernels. We got a lot of pleasure from Jacob’s antics. Sometimes I tied his hands behind his back so that he was forced to walk upright but he did not like that much. We could always come to him to stroke him. One day there was a young pupil conductor on a train that stopped at the station for 15 minutes to let another train pass because there was only one line between Johannesburg and Vereeniging. The young person enjoyed teasing the monkey and throwing stones at it. I warned him that if the monkey broke free it would bite him. One day the youth came too close to the circle, because Jacob was scared and stood on the opposite side. When the monkey saw this it flew to him like a flash and grabbed him by his pants and ripped them open from bottom to top. We heard his screams and ran to help, however he soon escaped without being bitten “As you sow, so shall you reap”. He never teased the monkey again. We mocked the young man. The boss’ wife took pity on him and gave him some pins to keep his pants together because there was no time to do anything else as the train had to leave. One pitch dark night I heard the monkey make funny noises. I went out to the back garden and saw something big and black moving about ten paces away. Sometimes it went back and then it looked like it took a big jump towards me. I called “who is there” but got no answer. I went backwards to my room where there was a stout knobkerrie. I took this with me and called again to the black apparition to answer otherwise I would hit him. At that moment the thing jumped towards me again and I hit out it with all my strength and the knobkerrie made contact. Although there was a dull thud the knobkerrie did not meet much resistance and I grabbed the thing around the body. And then I had to laugh. I thought that somebody wanted to have a practical joke to frighten me but it was not so. What I had hit so hard was the black apron of the boss’ wife, hanging on the washing line, forgotten to be brought inside in the evening. The wash line was a little slack and was held up in the middle by a long stick. With each gust of wind the apron, stick and line was blown forward with a jerk and would then settle back again.

In September 1896 I was transferred to Pretoria. Pretoria to the Boer war

In September 1896 I was transferred to Pretoria. There I met Mr. Trouw who was the loading clerk at the station in the parcels and luggage department. Mr Swierstra was the head of the section and I was responsible for outgoing parcels and baggage. I asked Mr. Trouw if he could get a room in the vicinity of the station for me. He said that he had an empty room and if I wanted to I could eat with them as well. Now, that suited me and I was accepted in their home as if I was their child. Trouw and his wife had two children, a boy and a girl. My laundry was also taken care of and my clothes mended so I could not have wished for more. We normally had the same shift. The early shift was from 6 o’clock in the morning until 12 o’clock with half an hour at 8 o’clock for breakfast and then from 1 o’clock till 7 o’clock in the evening. The late shift was from half past 8 till half past 12 and in the afternoon from 3 o’clock till 11 o’clock when the last train left. Yes, we had long hours working at the station compared to now. One Sunday every 14 days we were free and I never had long leave, nor sick leave. Pretoria was a small town then and the last building in Church Street East was Meintje’s mill (presently the bakery of the de Loor Company). Church street west ended at Potgieter Street and further on next to the stream was a tannery (Presently the Princess Christian Home is there). On the west side of the stream was the cemetery and further on open veld. A few years later the railway line was extended to Pietersburg and a was built over Potgieter Street and half a mile further a station was built which became known in Pretoria as the Pietersburg station. The line did not belong to the NZASM (Nederlandse Zuid Afrikaanse Spoorweg Maatschapy), in short called NZASM, but another company.

Mr. Trouw lived in the last house in Skinner Street west where it now stops in a at the Princesses Park. From the Skinner street we walked to the station crossing the veld to Visagie Street up to the jail (now the Mint building) and then from the corner of the Schubart street diagonally across the veld to the station. Around the old jail a thick stone wall had been built and on top of this was a lot of broken glass to prevent the convicts from escaping. One morning, when we went to the station at quarter to six, the whole area was surrounded by armed police on horseback. We enquired what was going on and were given the answer that six murderers were to be hung and if we went to the other side of the street and stood on the big rock we would be able to see them being hung. From there we could see the gallows, the murderers coming with a bag over their head. The noose was placed around the neck and suddenly they fell down and we saw nothing more than a moving rope. Pretoria was a quiet town. Sometimes the Hollands Male Choir presented a concert and the Society “Onze Taal” a play. These were given in the “Reck” theatre next to the old Netherlands bank on Church Square. In front of the theatre were two big oak trees under which an auction was usually held on Saturday mornings. South of Church Square was the Raadsaal of the Republic and in the centre of the square stood the “Oude Kerk”. The square was the property of the church and every three months, at communion, it was filled with hundreds of wagons and tents of the people coming for communion from far and wide and the place came to life. Once or twice a week the post coach from Kimberly, Potchefstroom or Pietersburg arrived and when it entered Church Street the driver blew a lusty tune on his horn and people came to the post office to see if there were any letters. Where the Palace of Justice stands now was a lodge and where the Reserve Bank and Old Mutual building stands was a tea room. On the corner of Church Street and Church Square where the Barclays bank is now was a bar called “Hole in the wall” and opposite it was a wooden and corrugated iron building, the furniture shop of Harvey and Greenacre. On the corner of the square opposite the post office was the beer hall of Max Stadtler and next to it, in Church Street west, the barber shop of the old gentleman Adelaar. When one came from the station to Church Square the first house in the Market Street (now Paul Kruger Street) was where the Land bank is now. It was a house with a grass roof and later became the home of the YMCA. Next to the streets were water furrows with running water to irrigate the gardens and next to the properties were hedges of roses. The home of General Piet Joubert was in the Visagie Street where the Voortrekker hall is now. Every house stood on a large piece of ground in which a vegetable garden was laid. What is now Boom Street was a wilderness. In 1896 there were no houses there. On the corner of the Market and Pretorius Street was Martindale’s thatched roof fruit shop. In Pretorius Street, where the Polly’s Hotel is now, was the Transvaal hotel, also with a thatched roof.

Where the shops of Johnstone and Woolworths are now was the shop of Cairncross and Tillen where kitchenware and porcelain was sold and next to it where the African Arcade is a wood and iron shop called Calcutta House stood a bit deeper into the stand. I believe it belonged to a British Indian. The shop of Mr. Beckett was already there, though it was not a tall building. At the front of the Beckett’s building were the shops of Haarhoff and Bosser. The market building had already been erected and inside was, amongst others the shop of Groeneveld and Miolée. They sold guns and ammunition etc. There was a big fire there and thousands of rounds of ammunition etc. exploded. The shop of John Jack also existed but the owner at that time was Bourke & Company who also had a shop on the corner of Church and Koch Streets. Further on opposite the market square was the ammunition and gun factory of Kynoch and on the roof at the front a lightning conductor was erected. The building still stands and is used by the British Indian, Allewin. On the other corner of Church and Du Toit streets, where the Technical College is now, a double storey building was built for owner of the President Theatre, Mr. Reck.

Where the Boerstra bakery stands on the corner of Schoeman and Schubart Streets and the surroundings was a marshland full of reeds where they boys shot birds. There were also three mills which were driven by water wheels. One was in Berea Park, the second in Church Street where the bakery of van Loor is now. That was the mill belonging to Meintjes, who also owned a large piece of ground in the neighbourhood where the Union Buildings are now. The third mill belonged to Mr. Ockerese and it was in Daspoort. Eastwards from the Meintjes mill in Church Street, along the road to Middelburg there were no houses until you got to Silverton. There was a small hotel next to the road belonging to Mr. Mundt, a German. Later, at Eerste Fabriken, a brandy distillery was erected by Mr. Sammy Marks who was in the good books of President Kruger. On the South-Eastern end of Church Square where the Standard Bank is now was the “Boerewinkel”.

The road to the north, to Warmbaths and Pietersburg, went through Derdepoort, next to the Zoutpansberg road which still exists, and not through Wonderpoort as at present. Through the poort, next to the Apies river was only a cattle trail. Later the railway line to Pietersburg was laid through it. When Pretoria expanded to the east small stands were sold in what is now Sunnyside, and a horse drawn tram went from the station, to Market street , Church Street and Du Toit Street to the end of Esselen Street where the tram stalls were. A small wooden bridge was built over the Apies river at the beginning of Esselen Street which the tram used. The train coaches were open on the sides and the coachman was Mr. Van der Bank.

One day a well know school friend from Alkmaar appeared in front of me at the station, Frederik van der Veen. This was in 1897. He had been appointed as cook in the hotel directly opposite the station. We visited each other often and remained friends until his death. When I went to the station early in the morning I always looked him up in the kitchen and there was always a hot cup of coffee and a glass of milk waiting for me. Later he became cook in the Fountains Hotel in Pretorius Street- now the ZA Party club. If we had a birthday or other festive occasion he always came home with me and baked a tart and cake because Mr. Trouw had a large brick oven behind the house. The wooden ceiling in the kitchen was painted brown and had become very black due to the smoke. One evening he baked a few more tarts and said, “ I will show you something pretty on the ceiling and he threw probably one hundred balls of dough up to the ceiling which stuck there. The following morning Mr Trouw came to my room and said “ I don’t know what happened in the kitchen last night but hanging from the ceiling there are about a hundred white mushrooms I don’t understand how they got there because last night I did not see anything”. All the balls of dough had risen and now hung from the ceiling as big white mushrooms. If there was a birthday Freek always brought half a dozen bottles of wine. He had a barrel of wine in the kitchen to make various wine sauces for the hotel menu and there was usually some left over. Mr Piet Pretorius, nicknamed Oom Piet Karba, lived two stands away from us, in the Skinner street and I often went there for a chat. I asked him how he got the nickname and he told me that when he was young and went anywhere on horseback he always took a couple of bottles of wine with him. On occasion the bottles would bump into each other and break so he would take a karba (= a bottle in a basket) on the back of his horse. Old President Marthinus Wessel Pretorius often visited Oom Piet as well and with this old gent I often chatted about the good old times. Oom Piet Karba was storekeeper at the Government guns and ammunition magazine. I often visited Major Kroon, the head of the State artillery. He lived at the artillery camp in Potgieter Street where the viaduct for the railway line to Pietersburg was built later. One evening whilst sitting on the veranda with oom Piet Karba he showed me a revolver of an interesting make. It was a mauser which could fire 12 bullets one after the other. The weapon was in a wooden holster and when one fixed it to the back of the butt of the gun it formed a short gun. Oom Piet put in twelve bullets and said “Jannie do you see that white rock on the other side of the street” and he took aim. I said “Oom Piet you must not shoot because people and children could come past and you may hit them”. But he fired though the shots did not go off because there was no powder in them. Oom Piet laughed because he knew they were duds.

Then came the Kaffer war of Malaboch in the Zoutpansburg district and many burgers on standby from the district of Pretoria were called up to go on commando. They came by train to Pretoria and disembarked to make use of the coffee room and left all their baggage in the train which, a bit later, was moved a bit. When they noticed the train moving a number of them stormed out of the coffee room and waved their arms shouting “ Ho Hanno! Hanno! (=Whoa now) as if they wanted to stop the oxen in front of the wagon. We re-assured them that the train was not leaving and would stop a bit further on and they could calmly drink their coffee and have something to eat. Later there was also trouble with the Swazi Chief Boeno and once again large commandos of burgers were sent there to re- establish order. In those days Swaziland fell under governance of the South African Republic, just like the districts of and Vrijheid. The capital of these districts was then called Marthinus Wesselstroom, later changed to Wakkerstroom.

In the early days, when there was no railway connection between Kimberly and Johannesburg a post coach rode between the two places. In Kimberly horse races were regularly run and large amounts of money were bet. In Johannesburg many people also took part in the betting and up until an hour before the coach with the results arrived one could still place money on the “winning horses” at the “Turfclub”. This went well for a long time until certain wise-guys hatched a plan to win large sums of money easily. As soon as the results of the races in Kimberly were known they wrote it in a letter, bound it to the legs of homing pigeons which then flew to Johannesburg. The owners of the pigeons then placed large bets on the winners and after a few days they could fetch their winnings. I don’t know how long this procedure continued, but often the case with this money was “Zo gewonnen zo geronnen”.1

The streets in Johannesburg were not tarred in those days. In the summer these were often mudpools and in winter, when the wind blew they could not be seen due to the dustclouds. The shop doors were then closed and a sign “Come in, closed on account of the dust” displayed. The shoe polishers (only whites) then had a comfortable existence and had their routine customers, especially from the stock exchange (share market “between the chains”2). If these people had made a good deal on the exchange they were not stingy giving a good tip to the shoe polishers, although with these it was a rule that if it was dusty their throats had to be rinsed and if it was cold the internals of their bodies had to be warmed. A few, who were wiser, saved their money and later even became home owners. One of these shoe polishers had taught his dog to stand on bystander’s shoes with muddy paws and presented his boss with work when he called out “ A shine Sir?” because with dirty shoes the gentleman could not go to the exchange or office. All newspaper sellers, all white, made good sales by advocating their newspapers vocally and waving them in the direction of the passersby. There was also a newspaper reporting on the exchange, shares and stock market and was called “The £.s.d.”. On about the sale of this newspaper the following is recounted.

A farmer from the bushveldt came to Johannesburg for the first time with his ox wagon to sell his wares. Once he had completed his business with the market he decided to take a walk through the town and on coming home accounted for his experiences when asked about things in the big town. One of the things I noticed in Johannesburg, he narrated, was that everybody knows each other and when they see a stranger he gets sworn at. With me it was the same. I was just walking in one of the main streets when one of the passers by pointed to me with a rolled up piece of paper in his hand. He obviously saw that I was a stranger and shouted out so loudly, that they could hear him three streets away, “Wie de hel is die” but the old Oom had naturally not heard correctly because the newspaper seller had shouted “Read the £. s. D.”. The opinion that this old Oom formed of Johannesburg was not flattering and he found that some of the inhabitants were very rude to strangers. I think I have already related that, after the dynamite explosion I was transferred to Elandsfontein (now Germiston) and after three months transferred to Meyerton as assistant station master and from there to baggage and parcel service at Pretoria station, where Mr Trouw and Mr van Booven were loading clerks. I had the outgoing section and Mr Nannen Swierstra had the incoming section.

One day on the train from Johannesburg a basket with a cat arrived. Let us say a basket opened in the baggage wagon and the cat jumped out of the train. What to do now? “Oh” said Mr. Trouw, “we have a remedy for that”. The stations blacks were sent out on the streets to catch a new inhabitant for the basket and very quickly returned with a cat, which only had one eye, and it was put in the cage. The next morning a maid came to ask if a basket with a cat for her madam had arrived. Yes, it was here. She signed acknowledging receipt and the basket was given to her after it had been given a good shaking so that the wooden peg keeping the lid closed was only just in place. The maid was only just outside when the lid opened and the cat charged out and ran away. She called for help to catch the cat and we set three blacks to help her, but the cat was already far away. Still, a little later

1 According to Dutch\English Dictionary: What comes by the wind goes by the water. “Easy come, easy go”.

2 In Johannesburg, Simmond street between Market and Commissioner streets was cordoned off with chains during stock exchange business hours. the blacks came back with another cat they had caught and this was placed in the basket and the lid securely fastened with the peg. We never found out if madam was satisfied with her cat.

In 1898 there were extensive celebrations in Pretoria to celebrate the crowning of Queen Wilhelmina. There were parades with floats, each one depicting something from the Netherlands history. I remember one of the floats which was manned by some thirty Batavians dressed, back and front, in sheepskins. On their heads they had cow horns and they had spears in their hands. One of the floats was rather tall and nobody had taken the electric wires crossing the road for the lights. When the float came to such a place one of the “Batavians” jumped off and with a long pole with a crosspiece held up the electric wire so that the float could pass. Burgerspark was prepared as a fairground with all kinds of stalls and tents and everywhere there was music and entertainment. Ladies in all sorts of national costumes of the Netherlands provinces helped and served and there was all and sundry for sale. There was also a Dutch fritters stall, where a fat Dutch farmer’s wife, wearing a gold casque3, sat on stage behind a large fritter pan over a wood fire. She wore a white starched apron and next to her was a large copper pot with batter. In the tent good use was made of her confectionary. The fountain in the park squirted all the colours of the rainbow. There were also tents where all sorts of things were auctioned and the auctioneer quoted with all sorts of witticisms and jokes. Every employee of the ZASM who could possibly be missed was given a few hours leave per day to go to the fairground, so that everybody could get a chance to enjoy the festivities. In the evenings there were performances in the big tent in the park and everything was then beautifully illuminated. The festivities took a whole week and then the normal life returned to Pretoria. There was not much entertainment for the public in those days. From the Dutch side there was the dramatic society “Onze Taal” and the Dutch male choir and later the Dramatic Club “Amicitia”, a gymnastic club and a fencing club “De Vrye Wapensbroeders” who gave recitals now and then in the President Theatre of Mr. Beck on the Church Square next to the old Netherlands Bank. In front of Mr Reck's Café stood two large oak trees under which auctions were held every Saturday and all sorts of things, including houses, farms and stands.

A statue of President Kruger was also to be erected there. The statue itself as well as the four old armed Boers, made by the sculptor van Wouw, was on the way to Pretoria from Italy via Loroenço Marques. The base of the statue had already been completed on church Square between the church and the Post Office, in line with Church Street and right opposite the Raadsaal.

I worked as goods clerk at the Railway in the department parcels and baggage (outgoing traffic). My co workers were Just de la Paisēre, for short called “Jut” because his signature looked like that, and Bernstein, of German descent, both jolly fellows and good friends. Because there was also night duty there were three loading clerks. Mr.’s Van Boven, Trouw and Ruesink, also jovial fellows. Mr. Trouw, with whom I lodged at the end of the Skinner Street West, was married and had two children, a girl called Corrie of 8 years and a son Theodorus aged 4 and I was “Oom Jan de Veer”, or as the sometimes called me “Uncle long neck”. Mr van Boven told me that in June his wife and four children would arrive from Holland and that he had rented a house in the skinner street at the St Andries street. Mr Ruesink was single and later arranged for his wife to come from Holland and we were at his wedding. He had rented a house in the Scheiding Street near the station. Mid June the family van Booven arrived, it consisted of a son and three daughters, the Mother and Grandmother on the father’s side namely Willem, the oldest, 16 years, Johanna 15 years, Petronella 11 years and Marietje 6 years and Opoe, 70 years. It was a convivial group and often, when we were free, we went

3 Casque is Dictionary’s translation. A golden Dutch bonnet with ear covers. there to chat and sing because there was a piano and the eldest daughter could play it well. At the station was also a section for incoming parcels and baggage, where Mr Swierstra was the head, called “Nanne” for short. His clerks were Mr. Steward, an Englishman and Mr. Sarchy, a Russian who was related to the wife of the director Mr. Plate. He was called “Saartje”. He could speak a little Dutch and was thin and small of stature and was also a nice fellow and somewhat poetically inclined. The hours of duty for the clerks was from 6 in the morning till 11 at night, in other words until the last train had departed. There always had to be one of the clerks on duty to receive parcels etc. which could arrive in the baggage wagon of the goods train. One evening a drunken man was run over and killed and was laid down in the store room or received goods. “Saartje” was on duty and Mr. Trouw, the first till 11 o’clock and the second to 8 o’clock. When Mr. Trouw wanted to leave and said to “Saartje” “You will look after the rest “Saartje” flung himself, half crying, around his neck and said “No Mr. Trouw, you must not go, I am frightened to stay alone with this chap”. Mr. Trouw laughed and said “He won’t do you any harm as he is dead as a worm”. “Saartje” was probably nervous for the rest of the evening. He was exceptionally good at mental arithmetic. He got me to write down ten numbers of 4 digits each and within ten counts wrote down the correct answer at the bottom of the list. He was a kind and generous boy. What became of him I don’t know, because in October 1899 the Boer war broke out and, as a “burger” of the republic, I was called up to go on commando. My friend Freek van der Veen had already been sent to Natal with many other Hollanders. He took part in the battles at Elandslaagte, was speared by a lance a couple of times, captured and sent to Saint Helena. I went with the Pretoria commando to the Free State and then on to Colesburg in the Cape colony to do battle with the English troops, I believe under General Whitaker. I served under General Schoeman and later under General Lemmer and Grobler. Our battlefield was from Bethulie on the Orange River, Naauwpoort, Colesburg and Arundel etc. in the Cape Colony. As a 16 year old burger, Willem van Boven was also called up, and arrived in Natal where he took part in the siege of Ladysmith. Later he was sent to Pretoria, sick with gastric fever from which he recovered. Following this he returned to his original occupation as photographer until 1909 when he went to Australia where he still is (1954).

Colesburg

There were fifteen of us under Veldcornet Marais and Corporal Conradie. We were often sent to dangerous places to block the English or protect the position. Our Veldcornet was originally from the Cape Colony and so he knew the area in which we were fighting. In our small commando were some good shots. We did not have uniforms and when we were called up each of us had to see to it that we had good shoes and clothes as well as a horse, saddle and bridle and food for four days. We travelled by train via Vereeniging and Bloemfontein to Donkerpoort in the South of the Free State where we joined several other Commandos. There was a large camp there as well as a contingent of Germans. They always worked together and had all sorts of things with them which we had forgotten or never thought of, from a pancake flipper to a coffee grinder. They roasted the coffee themselves. We were also given sheep to slaughter and we had to cut up the meat ourselves and braai it. We gathered in groups of six to see to the food and had a three legged pot and a few kettles to make coffee and from the commissariat we received food which we had to cook ourselves, such as mieliemeel, boeremeel1, rice salt etc. and also tobacco. Since matches were scarce and could get wet, each of us had a tinderbox, flint and steel. One day we saw the Germans towing a steel railway sleeper. The holes had been sealed with bolts. I was curious to see what they planned to do. The sleeper was placed hollow side up on some rocks. Then a large wood fire was made underneath and a young slaughtered sheep placed in the long pan and roasted in its entirety. That evening there was party with music and song. We remained about another week at the camp in Donkerpoort whilst many more burgers from the north arrived. There were no tents and each group had to fend for themselves for better or for worse. The first day we acquired a tarpaulin from one of the railway trucks and used it to make a tent using some fence poles and rocks. We copied this from the Germans. Then we brought all our goods and chattels and slept.

One morning the order was given to pack three days’ food in our rucksacks which we had made ourselves. I also took a towel, my raincoat and blanket and we rode away on horseback. All our clothes and supplies were left behind as we thought we would return to that camp but it was not the case and I never saw my baggage again. We rode in a group of some 250 men to the bridge over the Orange River where we camped that night and it was the first time I slept under the stars. My saddle, shoes and jacket formed my pillow and I covered myself with my blanket, raincoat and towel. After daybreak the following morning, after coffee and rusks it was saddle up, and we crossed the bridge and were thus on English territory in the Cape Colony. There were already a host of burgers laagered there. We continued to the town of Colesburg, which is situated in a fairly narrow mountain kloof, where some tents had been erected for us on the boarder of the town under the escarpment. The 25 ratings were divided into two sections, one under Veldcornet Marais and the other under Corporal Conradie. Our section had to go to the furthest outposts every evening to stand watch at the end of the , where the plains outside the town’s limits started, and in the not too far off distance the “Coleskop” rose like an enormous sugarloaf with rows of krantzes, one above the other, on our side. The other side was sloping terrain via which one could climb to the top. The British troops lay in ridges some two or three thousand yards further on. One day we noticed that the English had occupied Coleskop and installed cannons and hand maxim guns so that they could bring our stations, some 300 yards further on, under fire. We were, however protected by ridges taller than man-height on which we had built stone fortifications with small loopholes. The English had also made loopholes on the kranzes on top of the hill. However, Coleskop lay west of our position, which lay lower, and in the evening, after sunset, we could see blue sky through the loopholes. When a loophole suddenly

1 Coarse flour or bread flour went dark we knew that someone was standing there and we supplied a full broadside. The 12 of us had to take turns, two at a time, to stand guard for 3 hours after which we were relieved and could go to sleep until called again. When going on guard at night I took my blankets with me to the top and placed them under an overhanging rock just before daybreak. With this was also a sheepskin with thick wool that I used as a mattress on the ground. The person who slaughtered a sheep was allowed to keep the pelt and thus I had earned mine. When I came back to guard duty in the evening my sheepskin was gone, taken by somebody doing guard duty during the day and I had to slaughter another sheep to get a new pelt because everybody abhorred slaughtering. I took the skin with me that evening and so slept nicely that night. The next morning, when we were relieved I did not put the skin with my blankets but threw it as far up the mountain ridge as I could where it remained until the evening because nobody dared to climb up the 20 paces during the day in full view of the English soldiers on Coleskop for of being shot. So I continued every morning and in the evening when it was dark I would fetch it again in safety. I had made a sleeping bag out of my blankets and my jacket and shoes served as my pillow. One evening, whilst we harassed the enemy and they returned fire as heavily, I felt a prick on the thick part of my thigh. I rolled up my pants and underpants and saw a small spot of blood which I rubbed away with a spot of saliva and as it did not hurt I did not think about it again. A few days later it began to fester and when it made a head I pinched and popped it. A lot of pus came out and also a small lead pellet, which I kept for quite a long time. Subsequently the wound healed rapidly and I was never bothered by it again. At night, when it was dark, my friend and I sat on guard outside the fortifications. They had warned us not to speak loudly and especially not to light a pipe because then the enemy would shoot at us. We were so close to Coleskop that we could clearly hear orders of the English and when the guard was changed. I believe we were not more than 300 yards from each other although there was a deep valley between our positions. In the morning we were relieved whilst it was still dark because, to get too our outpost, we had to go around a ridge for about 20 yards in full view of the English on Coleskop. The corporal had warned us to go fast, one at a time, as we would risk being hit, however it went well all the time. One evening we got re-enforcements from a group of young Freestaters who had just arrived. We were standing safely behind the ridge when the enemy began heavy fire on us and the bullets flew over our heads with screeching violence, especially when one ricocheted off the rocks. The Freestaters immediately fell to the ground and were amazed that we stayed standing as they did not realize that the bullets could not possibly hit us and when you heard the whine the bullet was already more than 500 yards past you. One of the burgers, an elderly man with a long beard went to fetch water. When he came back through the kloof to our fortifications, he did not know that the enemy occupied Coleskop and was shot dead there. The Veldcornet immediately let the Red Cross know to go and fetch the body and they arrived in the afternoon with a large Red Cross flag but they came under such violent fire that they could not take the corpse away. It remained lying there for more than 14 days until Commandant Grobbler and his men won a ridge called “Basterds Nek” and when that was in our possession our burgers could fire on the English position behind Coleskop, resulting in the enemy having to abandon the positions on and behind Coleskop at night and in great hurry. A couple of my mates and I went to their deserted fortifications and found a chaotic assortment of things the enemy had left behind in their hasty flight, including guns, ammunition, blankets, broken or destroyed rubbish and also half a dozen graves of casualties. I took a little pot, sewn inside a bag and in it was a biscuit tin which Queen Victoria had sent to the English soldiers for Christmas and which the soldier probably wanted to send home as a keepsake. I kept this tin and later gave it to our first daughter, Johanna, who still has it. Since we were still on duty at night our Veldcornet sometimes gave us permission to visit our friends further along the ridge. To get there we had to cross a gap in the ridge and there the enemy on Coleskop could fire on us. The Veldcornet warned us to cross this opening very fast and one by one since the pass was covered by a maxim gun and bullets flew around. It was a distance of some 100 yards but we did not let this deter us. When I was almost at the end I waved my hat in the direction of the enemy, although dust from the bullets billowed up from the sand far from me, and ran as fast as I could to the protection of the opposite ridge. Later we were transferred to another fortification towards the railway line to de Aar at Plewman siding. The enemy lay in a long ridge some 200 yards from us. They got supplies from the Plewman siding railway halt which was some 2500 yards from our position. Trains of supplies regularly arrived for them. One night a few of our burgers went close to the station and loosened the fish plates and bolts of the sleepers. When the next train of supplies arrived at night, pushed by the locomotive, the back wagons slid in between the rails and the locomotive could not pull the loaded train back. In the attempt the buffer of the truck connected to the locomotive broke and the burgers closest to the train started firing on the soldiers who were trying to repair the damage with wire from the signals. The loco driver drove away as the burgers tried to shoot holes in the water tank. Later he came back with a locomotive that was totally covered with thick cables to protect the tank and boiler. The two trucks closest to the loco and the one with the broken buffer were heavily loaded with hay for the horses and covered with tarpaulins. Luckily Commandant Schoeman, for lack of a cannon, had a sent Nordenfeldt Bom maxim to the closest fortifications and this commenced firing on the English who were busy with repairs to attach the truck back to the loco and due to this the fodder in the two trucks nearest to the loco caught fire. The fire spread so quickly that it became impossible to come near the burning trucks and it was not long before the English, who were still being shot at, rapidly retreated in the direction of de Aar. That evening the ten of us made plans to go to the train to see what was available there but in the morning only three rolled up because the English had set up a cannon on the next ridge and were shooting on anything that moved in the direction of the train in the plain. A number of Boers were already ahead of us and when the cannon fired you couldn’t see anybody because they all fell to the ground. As soon as the firing stopped there was movement in the veldt towards the train, which stood on a raised section of the rail. The people who came back from the train loaded with booty were not concerned about the shooting and calmly walked back to the safety of our ridge. When the three of us came to the train we saw that the reason for their brave behaviour. On the other side of the train, which was standing on a dyke, there was a chaotic array of material. The doors of the trucks had been opened and the contents, boxes, barrels, parcels had been thrown out into the open. The scene was as if the shelves of goods of a giant grocery store had been thrown out on the ground. Broken cases of tinned food etc. lay scattered everywhere. A truck loaded with potatoes and vegetables looked like the horn of plenty from which the potatoes streamed onto the ground. There were several drums of rum of which the lids stood open. That was thus the reason for the bravery of the laden soldiers on their way back. In our commando was an Irishman and he was busy opening a case of corned beef. We thought he was treating himself to some meat because he was greedily opening a tin. But, instead of eating the meat he threw the contents away and used the tin as a mug to scoop rum from the vat and sat on the ground with his back to the vat to be as comfortable as possible whilst he spoilt himself. Later he opened a case of “Klinkers” (dry rusks) and cut open a tin with a knife, threw away the contents and scooped it half full of rum to take it to our campsite behind the ridge about 2000 yards from the train. In the surroundings six men lay in drunken stupor. Later, on the orders of the Commandant the vats of rum were chopped open and the contents poured out on the ground. The three of us sought a light case and filled it with all sorts of tinned food and carried it on our rifles, one in front and one at the back whilst number three walked behind us with loaded gun and also relieved us from time to time with the carrying of the booty. The English had noticed that it was useless to waste so much ammunition on persons who walked here and there on the wide open plains and stopped firing the cannons. About 100 yards ahead of us walked the Irishman, swaying somewhat with his large tin half full of rum on his shoulders and singing whilst walking towards the ridge of our lager. In the sunshine we noticed that there was a thin trickle of rum leaking out of the tin, onto his back and dripped onto the ground. There was a small hole from a nail in the bottom of the tin which he had not noticed. He was unaware of the situation and when we eventually arrived safely at our campsite he boasted to the other burgers that he had a supply of rum sufficient for a few days. You can imagine what happened when he took the tin off his shoulders and noticed that there was hardly a cupful left and his jacket was soaked in rum. The world was too small, the way he carried on and we laughed ourselves silly and advised him to suck his jacket. Our Commandant gave orders to load the whole contents of the train onto wagons, in-spanned with eight mules each, and then to be transported safely to Springfontein in the Free State and for more than a week ten wagons were required to carry away the contents of the train. The trucks with fodder carried on burning for six days and nights. In the train there were also cases of brandy and champagne, probably destined for the officers and also cases of cakes and firewood. The rum was naturally for the troops. At night we had to stand guard again at the foot of the ridge whilst the flames of the burning trucks lit up the surroundings. I was on duty from eleven till one o’clock in the morning together with the Veldcornet and a few other burgers. That was the evening of 31 December 1899 and so I celebrated the changing of the century standing guard, on the wide open planes, 2000 yards from the Plewman siding near Colesburg.

Later we went with our Veldcornet to another position and that was at Plewman. There was nobody there and we let our horses gorge themselves on oats which lay in the stables in the wagon house. Behind the house was a little ridge on which the cattle kraal stood and 500 yards further on from the kraal after level terrain was a very high ridge where Veldcornet Bam lay with his troops. That night we slept comfortably under cover but in the morning English scouts on horseback were in the vicinity of the farmhouse. It wasn’t long before a large contingent of English troops arrived at the house and the Veldcornet said we must go to the ridge behind the kraal wall because that offered the best cover, also for the horses. When the English were about 2000 yards away they spread apart and in the centre 2 cannons came into view, which they aimed at the kraal. The Veldcornet said “Guys, we can’t stay here because they will shoot us flat, so ride as fast as possible to the hill where veldt cornet Bam lies with his men. There we will be safe, but ride far apart”. The last were Veldcornet Marais and I. Fifty yards ahead of me rode my friend Frans Somers and about 30 yards from him a shell landed, however the soft sand prevented it from exploding. Frans lay flat along the neck of his horse and hit it with a switch and kicked it with his heels to spur it on. The scene was so comical that I burst out laughing and forgot to spur my own horse on. When the English launched more shells I thought it advisable to go sideways into a donga where the enemy could not see me. I got off my horse and tried to lead it behind the hill where Veldcornet Bam and his burgers lay. My horse did not want to be led and refused to go a step further in the donga so I was forced to lead it out again and mount it in full view of the English and ride it to the hill where our Veldcornet stood waiting with the words “That was by the skin of your teeth Veertje, but you are safely here now.” Not one of us was wounded this time. When the enemy came closer to shell the hill with cannons, Veldcornet Bam let them come nearer to about one thousand yards and then opened fire on the English who stood in a clump around the cannons. They understood that they were too close to the Boer position and also that we had no cannons. They pulled back after a few shots.

We did not have much food and the Veldcornet and corporal Conradie went scouting on horseback and came back a few hours later with a sack of apples which they had picked on a deserted farm. Then some sheep came past of which we shot some and thus had some provisions again and began to cut them up. The Veldcornet sat by his own fire, something he never did because we always ate together. I told him that it would be nice if we had some salt with the meat. He had, however, gone to collect wood and bushes and made a fire with these. I cut a forked stick for him and stuck a piece of meat on it, with some fat from the stomach, and braaied it for him. When his fire had burnt out he said “Guys, the ash from my fire is salt, spread some of it on your meat.” He grew up in this area and knew where the salt bush grew. He had collected it and burnt it so that we could have salt with our meat. He looked after us very well and was very fond of his little Dutchman.

On another occasion the burgers captured an English camp. The soldiers were still sleeping and when shots were fired from the ridge just above the camp they all took flight, some dressed only in their vests. There was no stopping them, even though the officer shouted that it was only one man who stood on that ridge shooting because with each shot somebody was wounded. They ran like rabbits to the neck of a ridge some two miles further on. They naturally did not realise that the selfsame ridge was occupied by our burgers so that they all were taken prisoner without resistance. It was a section of the Wiltshire regiment and they were provisionally imprisoned in the farmhouse. We asked the Veldcornet if we could go and see the first new prisoners, which he found acceptable. We had no uniforms because the Boers did not have these. We spoke to the Tommies and gave them some of our tobacco and matches, and I also gave a pipe. Then they asked us “But where are the Boers”. I then said “But we are the Boers”, upon which they laughed heartily, how could this possibly be, you are making jokes. You are white and speak English. In England they had been told that they were going to fight black barbarians with long beards. Nearby stood General Schoeman’s tent and the tent of the English officers who had also been taken prisoner and were on parole. We went to greet the general and asked if he had any coffee left. “Yes guys, take some, there is enough”, was his answer. Later we heard that the English officers had said that they understood why the Boers were so happy in the struggle. It was, they told our general, because he had so many officers who just came into his tent, shook his hand and drank coffee with him. “But those were not officers” said the general, “Those are my burgers, my troops, my soldiers”. Now this the English did not understand at all. A normal soldier just did not enter the tent of a general. That was an impossibility. Later we went to the captured camp where there was a large supply of food and treated ourselves to fruit and even raw onions as we had not seen vegetables for a long time. We filled our pockets and shirts with them for padkos.

On another occasion, when we had had very little food for a couple of days, we came to a farm where there were ripe prickly pears. We dismounted and started to pick as many of the prickly fruit as we could and eat it. The Veldcornet showed us how to impale it on a sharp stick and cut it open on the ground or on a stone and then carefully take the fruit out of the peel without touching the fine thorns which stuck in your skin and were very difficult to remove. He also advised us not to eat too many of them but we were still green Hollanders and did not understand why. The following morning we found out why when we sat in row to do our business. The pips formed a plug which no amount of pushing could move, so that fingernails had to be used and that process took another half hour. In future we were much more careful eating that sort of fruit due to the painful consequences.

One day we were given orders to move further south, closer to an English stronghold and to keep watch there. At night we lay in pairs of scouts, flat on the ground some 200 yards apart. It could be that our spies would return from the enemy positions and before we went on guard the Veldcornet would whisper the password to us. It would always be words that the English would have difficulty in pronouncing such as “achthonderd en tachtig” or “acth en tachtig magere paarden” or “vurige vuren” and similar. Later we understood why we had all been sent to the front lines. Namely, Kimberly had fallen and General Cronje had surrendered at Paardeberg in the Orange Free State so that the English could move to Bloemfontein, which was already occupied by them. Our cannons and war supplies had to be brought to the north to our main forces for safety and so we had to restrict and delay the English as much as possible in their advance by shooting at them from an extended front. After some ten days we got the order that we could also pull back to the northern side of the Orange River, which we did slowly. In the region of Norvalspont we were given permission to sleep the whole night as another commando would take over the watch. We sought a lovely level sandy sleeping place as we were tired. We picked a lot of leaves and thin branches from the trees and made a thick mattress. Just before dark we crept under our blankets. Now we could have a peaceful night. We had only been lying a few hours when it started to rain and it was not long before we noticed that the area where we lay was getting vey wet and the water came up higher and higher. We had made our beds in the sandy course of a stream which came down from the mountains and was dry. We sprang up to rescue our goods and chattels and guns and bring them to safety on higher ground. In the dark, hard rain and rocks it was quite difficult. Here we sat in groups, soaking wet and using out blankets as tents over our heads. The rain kept on and so we still sat at daybreak when the Veldcornet gave the order to saddle up. It was a problem to get hold of the horses and there was no chance to make a fire as all the wood was wet. Thus we went on our way on empty stomachs. We had to cross the Orange River on the rail bridge, which was to be blown up when all the Boer forces were on the other side, to block and delay the enemy in their advance to the Free State. The bridge at Bethuli was also destroyed. The terrain on the Cape colony is fairly mountainous but in the Free State there are only large hills and on the banks of the river the ground is fairly level with dongas winding towards the Orange River. Our group had to keep watch from one of the deepest dongas as close as possible to the river to see if the enemy was on the other side. The horses grazed behind the hills, safe from enemy bullets. Then the horses came from their safe position to the path to the river to drink. We sprang out of our donga to stop the horses because the English started to shoot at them from the other side of the river. With difficulty we managed to drive the horses back to safety behind the hills and jumped as quickly as possible into the donga out of sight of the still shooting enemy. Burger Nagtegaal told us that when he stopped the horses a locust or something had flown into his face, at least that is what it felt like. We looked at him and said “But man, you have been wounded”. A Lee Matford bullet had entered through his cheek, just under his eyes and out the other side. We also saw that burger Stols had a wound on his neck, something he had not even noticed. Hr rubbed his hand along the area and saw it was covered in blood. We dressed the wounds as best we could and one of our youngest burgers was sent crawling through the grass to the Veldcornet to report this, so that the men from the Red Cross come and take the men to the hospital. After an hour they arrived with a large flag with a big red cross on it above their heads. However they could not reach us because they came under such heavy fire from across the river that they had to go back. Only when it was dark could our wounded friends be taken to hospital. I did not see them again and cannot say if their wounds healed or if they are still alive. The following day we were relieved and were given food and we could go and sleep in a farmhouse but we chose to lie down outside in the open air. I used this occasion to write a letter to my mother in Holland. That was Donkerpoort on 7th May 1900 and here I let the contents follow, written on foolscap paper I got from the magistrate’s office in Colesburg which has the watermark on it and on one page “Colony of the Cape of Good Hope” and on another page the Coat of Arms of the Colony. Letter to Mother

I used this occasion to write a letter to my mother in Holland. That was Donkerpoort on 7th May 1900 and here I let the contents follow, written on foolscap paper I got from the magistrate’s office in Colesburg which has the watermark on it and on one page “Colony of the Cape of Good Hope” and on another page the Coat of Arms of the Colony.

Dear Ma, Your letter of 12 January, which I received in good order, was forwarded to me by Mr. Trouw and again brought me good news from you. At the same time I received a letter from Jacob, but imagine my surprise when I saw it came from Pretoria and so Japie was thus there. I would have liked to fly to Pretoria but the wings did not want to grow so I had to be content with my surprise and joy. He wrote that he would come to me as soon as he could. So I can do nothing else but wait till he comes even though the hours that must pass creep by so slowly. I also received a letter from Trouw. He wrote that Jacob was now taller than me so he has grown up somewhat. I am very keen to see him again. Trouw sent you two x £4 and I asked him to send you another £4.

Towards the end of April I should be home myself to see to matters. I hope the war will be behind us by then. When peace has been declared I may come over then if I can get leave from the Company and Japie has a job. Otherwise I will wait until next year but then I will definitely come. We will, however, see how it goes. I thank you for the good wishes for my birthday. Yes Ma, the day passed quietly, very quietly. I was in the veldt with the other guys and we were in the open air, without tents. I can fully understand that this gave you got a big fright but you have nothing to be concerned about it. The whole Boer laager has been withdrawn to the borders of the Orange Free State so that I am once again at Donkerpoort in the OFS. Address my mail in the usual manner to Pretoria and it will eventually end up in my hands. Christine and daughter are thus well. I am certainly glad to hear that. How proud she and Alt will be and my mother no less on the grandchild named after her. Jacob has not arrived here yet, but I expect him at any moment. What tales he will have to tell when we are finally together. That will be endless chatter. It is a good thing that he came now because after the war many positions will become available and it will be first come first served. The best thing is that he joins the Burger forces, just like me, and then he gains the right to citizenship of the Transvaal and that will help him a lot with getting a job. If he does not get in with the Company he can always try the Government and I don’t doubt there will be something or other. I will write to Reverend Bouvin when I have time. I believe he will also be pleased to hear from me. Jacob wrote that he would go to Johannesburg first and let me know the result of his visit but I have not received any letter and so know nothing yet. I will keep this letter here until Jacob arrives. Then I will have some material to fill this long letter. I purposefully took such a large piece of paper because it is from the Cape Government, which you can see from the watermark. On the one sheet is the Coat of Arms of the Cape and on the other sheet is printed: Colony of Cape of Good Hope”. I will insert this letter in a Cape envelope so that you will have the whole lot together. It is a rarity. Included in the letter from Trouw was a note from Freek van der Veen from Simons Town. He wrote quite cheerfully but was looking forward to the end of his imprisonment. He has been in the hands of the enemy for five months now and wrote that he had received a letter from you and it seems he was very happy with it. I wrote a long letter back to him. You naturally have to be very careful when writing as the letters are subject to severe censorship and if there is anything in it which should not be written he does not get it. I sent that letter to Trouw in Pretoria and charged him with sending it as I can’t send it from “Field Service” or free post and I don’t have postage stamps here. Now, Mother, I leave it here for today because my news up till now is finished. Later when Jacob is here I will write again. Till a few days time then. Your loving son, Jan.

8 March 1900.

We drew up a list to be allowed to go to Pretoria on leave some time. It is about time because we have been on the road since 29th October 1899 and a leave of 14 days is a pleasant relief. If only it will be allowed soon. Everybody signed their names at the bottom.

Up to today I have heard nothing from Japie, but I hope to get a letter from him at the next post. You will be puzzled that I am writing this letter in ink whilst all the other letters were scribbled in pencil. Yes Mother, at present I am sitting very elegantly on a chair at a table in a room of a farm which the farmer has let us use temporarily. Last night I could have slept in a room, but I chose to lie down outside as I found it stuffy inside. If it was really stuffy or that it was strange to sleep in a house I don’t know, but I found it much nicer outside. I am cooking a pot of rice for my breakfast because the rusks we have had until now are finished. Yesterday afternoon they blew up the bridge over the Orange River to prevent the enemy from entering the Free State.1 It is a great pity, not only for the but also for the money it cost. The cost of building amounted to £240 000. No small amount. Yes Mother, the war causes great expense and destruction. This morning I heard that one of the burgers lying by the river was wounded by the English. The ambulance could not reach him as the enemy put them under heavy fire in spite of them having a flag with a big red cross with them. Isn’t it a shame on the British Nation who are so full of “Righteousness” and “Justice” that they do such things without the officers, who were undoubtedly there, and under whose supervision this occurred, stopping the shooting and prohibiting it. Last night I received a letter from Jacob, from Pretoria, dated 5th March 00. He has been posted to guard the railway line between Pretoria and Elandsfontein. He appears to be alright as he wrote cheerfully. It is a pity that he cannot come here, but there you are, I must accept and be satisfied. We have done our best to get leave but there is no chance of it in the first month and I will have to wait and postpone my curiosity although I am longing to talk to him. I heard from him that he has also been sworn in as Burger. That is incredibly good and will be to his advantage later. He has also made himself available to the Company. There he will now also have good prospects once the war is over. It is very quiet here and we are still in the same place. From Johan I don’t hear anything and Jacob does not write anything about it to me either. The costs to Japie are nil because his food etc. he gets from the Government. I hope the war will soon be over because I am longing to be able to go to Pretoria. We have been on the road for 5 months now and never had leave. I would have liked Japie to be here as he would have seen something unusual, namely a large number of ostriches, all tame, walking around freely. They are so tame that they do not run away when we approach. This afternoon our photograph was taken. When I am in Pretoria and they came out well I will send you one. Most are on horseback, but because I don’t have a horse am on foot, but very heroic I may say.

Pretoria 9 April 1900

What is this now, you will say. Pretoria, so Jantje is there now. Yes Mother, well after having been on commando for five months I am back at last and on leave, but let me tell you. The last addition to this letter was at Donkerpoort, on the farm “Zoetfontein”. From there we left on 8th March at four o’clock in the afternoon with our two wagons. The horsemen remained behind to keep the enemy occupied and as I had no horse I went with the wagons2. After a trek of 20 days along the border of

1 See Chapter 7 for further narration & description

2 See Chapter 7. Horse got shot. Basutoland we eventually came to the place of our destination and this was near Kroonstad. It was a colossal wagon train, consisting of 900 to 1000 wagons in-spanned with oxen or mules so you can imagine how long the trek was since, in front of each wagon, were 8 to 10 mules or 12 to 16 oxen. After spending two days in Kroonstad the married men were given leave and the day after the un- wedded. That was naturally heavenly hey, especially since I had the prospect of seeing Japie again. We left Kroonstad at one o’clock and I arrived at 3 o’clock in the morning at Rietfontein where I got out and enquired about Japie from the Stationmaster. He told me that Japie was sleeping in the waiting room. I went there and, since I had no matches, had to wait for the lantern of the Stationmaster. Though, how it happened, I don’t know. Japie woke up. He must have had a premonition that I was there because he came out of the waiting room in his underpants. I recognised him immediately but he had to look at me in the light since I had a beard like a Grenadier. That we did not sleep that night you can fully understand. The following day, coincidently the day of his leave, we went to Pretoria together where we spent a few sociable days. This evening he left again for Rietfontein. He was eager to accompany me back to the front but I thought it was better for him to stay where he was. (At the line watches). There he got food and clothing and was not in danger. I have requested that I don’t have to go to the front again but can come to Japie at Rietfontein, which will probably be accorded me. He was so keen that I came to him and stayed with him. In short, I will see how it turns out. I would like it if we were together. Now Mother I will leave it at that. In the hope that this will find you in the best circumstances, I remain, after greetings to all with a hug, as always. Your loving son Jan.

Pretoria to end of war

Now I will tell how it went further with us.

We heard that Kimberly had fallen and that General Cronje surrendered at Paardeberg in the Free State so that the road to Bloemfontein, the Capital of the Free State, lay open for the enemy. Bloemfontein was then also taken without resistance and so we were in the South, so to say, cut off from the main Boer force. Our Veldcornet force, with others, had been given orders to harass and delay the enemy as much as possible to give our artillery and Commissariat time to come back over the Orange River after which the at Norvalspont and Bethuli were to be destroyed. We thus remained behind for more than two weeks without many provisions, which were soon finished. Luckily General Schoeman sent a flock of sheep to the whole Front of which we could shoot as many as we required. Including the Veldcornet there were 26 of us so we slaughtered thirteen sheep because we were hungry after three days of hardly anything to eat. Thus we recovered from our misfortune. The left over meat was packed into saddlebags. Now we could retreat slowly to the northern side of the Orange River where we could come together again and join with the other commandos. There my horse was shot dead1 and I was forced to join the wagon train to the North. We did not know if the enemy had penetrated further east so it was decided to travel as close as possible to the border of Basutoland and the wagons went in the direction of Weppener. The horsemen rode ahead scouting and reporting to the Commandant. Because the train consisted of some 50 wagons, in spanned with mules and oxen, one can understand that the trek moved very slowly. Every three to four hours the animals had to be out spanned to allow them to rest, drink and forage, and we also got chance to cook a pot of pap and braai the meat we had left over. The worst thing was a lack of firewood as the Free State is very bare and the Karoo bushes burns out very quickly. It was also strictly forbidden to use the wooden fence poles. Concerning the fencing there, there were only stone pillars and here and there an iron post. Three of us remained behind one afternoon at a gate made of poles and barbed wire. When the wagons were out of sight we began to unwind the wire with our bare hands which was rather hard. We had no tools. When we had the wires half loose we heard hoof beats in the distance and we went and sat resting on some rocks not far from the gate until the horsemen came past and it unbelievably it was our Commandant, with the Sergeant and Corporal. We greeted them and asked where our commando would out span. That would be at the dam of the next farm about six miles further on. When the horsemen were out of sight we continued with our work until we had the poles loose and we had to walk almost two hours with these until we reached our mates. We arrived there when it was already dark and we could see from the fires where we had to go. Our mates had already cooked pap but it looked so black that we did not eat any of it. The following morning we noticed that we were not far from the dam where our mates had got muddy water for the pap. The burgers had washed there and the cattle had drunk there and some were washing their clothes which were full of lice there. At the top end of the dam was a stream with clear water which came from a higher fountain and there we got water for the pap and drinking water. We also got new vests as the old ones were worn out, dirty and full of lice. I took a bath in the dam and left my old underwear there and put on my new one which I had laid down five yards away on some rocks. Some of our mates who did not get new vests boiled their clothes in the pots to get rid of the livestock. We chopped our poles and packed these in sacks which were placed amongst the other goods on the wagon and closely guarded because there were pirates on the coast who also had need of firewood. At each farm we passed the owners joined us with their wagons loaded with their possessions, so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy and be sent to the concentration camps so

1 See letter to Mother

1

that the whole trek eventually consisted of more than a thousand wagons. The Free State artillery was stationed at Weppener and there I met my old ZASM friends with whom I had worked on the railway in Johannesburg, at Braamfontein in 1895 and 96. They were the Gunners Bruwer and Koen. They were glad to see me and I had to spend the two days we stood there eating with them because the gunners still had plenty of everything. Now there I did my best as far as eating was concerned. They asked me to join them but I did not because I could not abandon my Veldcornet and friends and they understood this. When we got to the Caledon River on the border of Basutoland we naturally went swimming and washing our clothes and I went to the other side with some of my mates. Now we could say that we had been in Basutoland and then we travelled to the north. One day our scouts brought news that the British forces had moved to the east from Bloemfontein and occupied the town of Tabanchu. It was thus advisable that our trek also had to move further east so as not to come into contact with the enemy. So we moved all along the border of Basutoland until we came to Brands drift. The drift was deep and muddy. We were through with the first fifty wagons. Sometimes the wagons had to be in spanned with three teams of mules and oxen to pull the wagons which were submersed to the bottom planks in the mud and with each wagon the situation got worse. But a Boer makes a plan. The family that lived nearby were also leaving with all their possessions. They had a shed full of oats. The heads were cut off and fed to the oxen and mules and hundreds of sheaves were laid neatly next to each other in the drift which then formed a sort of floor over which the wagons could pass the drift. When some fifty or more wagons had passed and the oats floor had become too deep new layers were packed on top to form a new floor and so all the wagons reached the other side and moved in the direction of Ladybrandt. There was still a danger ahead and that was the possibility that the enemy had occupied Modderpoort. This pass is a narrow way through a fairly high range of mountains and if this was occupied by the British forces the whole trek would have fallen into enemy hands. But luck favoured us and we arrived safely in the region of Clocolaan. So it went further to the Northwest until we arrived in Kroonstad after a trek of twenty one days and joined the main Boer laager. Since no news of the trek had reached the outside world the whole trek was regarded missing and many thought we were dead or made prisoners of war by the English. Because the enemy continually made progress further to the North we were forced to fight a retreat action over the Vaal River and further. I met my brother Jacob in Rietfontein (now Elandsfontein) and the last fight I took part in was at Donkerhoek East of Pretoria. Since some of us did not have horses our Commandant advised us to go on foot to Pretoria as we would hold up the other troops on horseback and hinder then in their movement. We buried our guns at the railway bridge at Eerste Fabrieken and arrived in Pretoria in the evening. The family Trouw, with whom I lived, were astonished to see me when I appeared as a bandit, with a big beard. The first thing I did was to have a lovely bath and put on clean clothes whilst the old clothes were placed in a bucket and covered with boiling water to murder the accompanying goggas. I slept in my own bed for the first time in all those months but it was so unusual that I got up and lay down on the floor where I fell asleep in moments. When Mrs. Trouw brought me tea in the morning she was surprised to find me lying on the floor. I had found out that everybody in Pretoria had to have a pass. Mr. Trouw had a pass issued by the NZASM ( Railways Company). I thus also went there with my brother Jacob for whom I also requested a pass. I told the official that we had just come back from commando and Jacob also got a pass as a previous railways official even though he had never been with the railways. At the end of 1899 he came to the Transvaal with a German boat, the Admiraal, via Lourenço Marques and on his passport it stated that he came as agriculturist. He told us that he had a pleasant journey amongst all those Germans who made music on deck in the evenings and sang many songs he also knew. Two Germans, he told us, had a disagreement that could only be solved with a duel. The Captain agreed to allow this on condition that he could choose the weapons and would present these to them himself. The duel was to take place at 6 o’clock on the afterdeck. The seconds had been chosen and passengers had got up 2

early to witness the shooting party. When everything was ready and the duellists were just waiting the get their weapons from the Captain, he let each of these be given a bucket of sea water and gave the command “Fire”. Both came together sopping wet, with the buckets over their heads and shook hands during the thunderous applause and cheering of the bystanders who spontaneously broke into a song of peace.

Jaap went directly to the house of Mr. Cornelius Trouw in Skinner Street. Later he got work in the cigar and tobacco shop of Mr. Boukamp, in Pretorius Street, not far from the Transvaal Hotel, later Polley’s hotel. That building was totally demolished in 1957 to make space for the new offices of the police force. Jacob had a room in the shop of Mr. Boukamp. Mr van Helden also had a room there on the street side where he had his Tailoring business and that is how we came to meet him. At the front door of each house there had to be a list of all the occupants and those who slept there at night. Mr. Trouw and I had taken over flour from people who had to leave the country as they were considered undesirable outlanders. At their house was an oven and we decided to use the flour to make bread and sell it as the necessities for life were starting to become scarce. Where we could we also bought chickens, pigs etc. which we slaughtered behind the house and sold the meat. Later we rented the empty shop at the corner of Skinner and Potgieter Street and bought a cart with two ponies with which we went to the market in the mornings. There we bought mielies, corn, kaffercorn etc. to sell in the shop. We also had mielies and corn milled at the mill of Mr. Meintjes near the Lion Bridge in Church Street where the bakery of Mr. van Loor was established later. The mill was driven by the water of the Apies River which was brought from Schoeman Street in a furrow over the Walker Spruit. From there it ran in a furrow next to Beatrix Street and on the corner of Church Street it ran in a canal built of stone to the waterwheel of the mill. In Berea Park and at Daspoort there were similar mills. The one by Daspoort belonged to Mr. Ockerse after whom the Ockerse Street is named. Later we also sold groceries etc. Once we got a large supply of Dutch salad oil, I believe some 500 bottles. Later there was a great demand for this since lard and butter were hardly obtainable. We also obtained a large supply of matches at one shilling per pack which we sold later for 2/6 per pack as they were scarce. The English authorities very quickly drew up lists with the maximum prices for all articles, and one of these was matches, which we had to sell for 6d per pack. This was naturally not acceptable so we stopped selling matches. If there were then strangers in the shop I would quietly go out the back with a few packets of matches in my hands and would then enter through the front door as a customer. Matches were not available anywhere and sometimes they were sold for one shilling per box on the black market. When the other customers saw my matches they immediately asked me where I had got them. I would say “I got them from a friend in town and paid 2/6 per packet”. Immediately they asked if they could buy them from me. They would give 3/- 2 per pack. I then “bought” a tin of milk and disappeared from the shop so that they could not say that they got the matches from the owner of the shop and he could get fined. That is how we got rid of all the matches without loss, just in time too, before a large consignment was imported which could be sold for 6d per pack. Later we also took over a mineral water bottling plant from an acquaintance of ours and enlarged the store room behind the shop and set up a factory there. Everything naturally had to be done by hand. Later we bought a “Petter” paraffin motor and generator with which we could get electric light in the shop and extended the electrical supply to the house next to the shop where Granny and Oubaas van Boven lived. In the evening at 10 o’clock the motor was stopped and the lights went out. Apart from the motor driving the lemonade plant and making light, we also milled coffee with it. The war was not yet over and we had to be inside by 10 o’clock. Outside Pretoria, which was completely surrounded by wire, the Boer commandos lay at Schurweberg. Sometimes

2 Three shillings.

3

Boers came into the town at night and sought shelter with us as Mr. Trouw’s house was on the corner of Skinner Street and Parklane and thus the first house on the border of town. These friends then brought letters for delivery in Pretoria and took back clothes, salt, mielie meel etc to the outside. The following night they would slip out through the fence to their commandos. That went well for a long time until we were betrayed. One got the death penalty for aiding and hiding the enemy. One evening Fanie Sobers came to us at the shop. He was an old commando friend of mine and had also worked at ZASM (Railways) in Pretoria with us before the war. He took me apart and asked if by any chance there were Boers from outside with us. I said “Yes, eight”. “Well”, he said, “See that they get away as fast as possible because they are going to search your house tonight. I asked him how he knew that and he said “I have tried to join the Railways again and have been appointed with the Railways police. We have to be on duty in town tonight because all the policemen are required to conduct the search and surround the houses, and your house is on the list”. I went home immediately to warn the people and within half an hour they were gone. Some of them, we found out later, could only get back to their commandos four days later because of the moonlight. After locking the shop at seven o’clock I went to the family van Boven and came home just before ten o’clock. After talking for a bit I went to bed but because my brother was also sleeping over with us that night he also put his name on the list of people living in that house. The list always had to hang by the front door so that the police could see that everybody was present. I was in my night clothes about to get into bed when there was violent knocking at the door and a shouted command “Open in the name of the Queen”. I opened the door and got a loaded revolver pointed at my face whilst 3 or 4 soldiers rushed past me to occupy all the rooms. I was taken outside by a soldier who spoke Afrikaans and who was also armed with a revolver. Not much later my brother Jaap was also escorted outside, also in his pyjamas. I asked our guard who had given them the right to hold up peaceful burgers in the middle of the night and his answer was “Ask that of the officers inside”. Directly I walked to the house and my guard did not know whether to stay outside or follow me. In the meantime Mr. Trouw had also been brought outside onto the pavement. Before going to bed he had gone to the privy outside from where they had fetched him before he had time to pull up his pants properly. When I was inside I asked one of the officers to show me the order that they could come and raid us in the middle of the night and his answer was “I am the warrant”. It was the Provost Marshal himself. I asked him if I could go to my room to dress myself, which was permitted and then I was accompanied outside to Jaap and Mr. Trouw. We thought that when the search was over and nothing incriminating had been found we could go back to bed, but it was not so. We were taken to prison where everything was taken from us, pocket knives, money etc. and were given a blanket each and locked up together in a cell which was pitch dark and had a floor. I found it was three paces wide and four paces long. We spread two blankets on the floor and covered ourselves with the third and used our jackets and shoes as pillows. We took turns to sleep in the middle to keep warm because it was cold in the cell. But we were still young. We slept well and I still said “Well, here we are safe; we will not be stolen here”. Light was already showing through the bars above the door when we awoke. We quickly dressed ourselves and then banged on the door to be allowed out to wash and see to our needs. The answer was “Wait”. We heard voices outside and Jaap held me so that I could look through the bars above the door to see who was talking. “What do you see?” Jaap asked. I said there were a lot of our friends, Japie Wesseling, the brothers Gramans, Meyer, Fokkema etc. and they are washing themselves under the tap. Immediately Jaap let me down because he also wanted to look to see who all had been taken prisoner with us. Later we also got a chance to wash and were then locked up again. About an hour later the cell door opened again and we were given a few pieces of bread and one of the warders carried a big kettle of black coffee in one hand and an enamel mug on a chain in the other. We were allowed one mug of coffee each but the warder held the chain all the time. Maybe he was scared we would use it as a weapon if were to have it free in our hands. In the afternoon we 4

were given bread and coffee again and mielie pap. Quickly the taking into custody of so many “Hollanders” was reported to the Netherlands ambassador who saw to it that we were released from the cells and placed in a prisoner of war camp on the slope of the hill overlooking the zoo where the large lion cages are, where the animals can move freely amongst the trees in their natural surroundings without being able to escape. We were brought to the bottom, totally isolated, in a sort of wood and iron stable which had no floor nor tables or benches so we sat on our spread out blankets to eat. We lay our bedding in a row next to each other in the stable. There was only a door in the stable but no windows and one small electric light.

There were 25 of us. In the mornings we were given a loaf of bread between four of us and were given a piece of raw meat which we washed under the tap and fetched a pot from the chef whose kitchen also stood isolated. He then added water and salt and put it on the fire and at 12 o’clock we could fetch the “Soup” which we ate with the bread from the morning. The chef also cooked for the men and officers of the camp. He was an Irishman and I often went to talk to him. His wage as soldier was one shilling per day and a sort of allowance for his wife and children at home. I saw how he roasted meat and made a stew from potatoes carrots, onions and lard. I asked for whom that was and he said “The officers mess”. I said that we would also like to have that and put half a crown in his hand, an unknown fortune. In the afternoon we also got a pot of “Officers mess”. I told my mates that I had agreed with the chef that we would get such a pot of food every afternoon and agreed with them that we would give him 3d each per day at the end of the week, because when we were brought from the prison to the concentration camp we were given our money back. When the week had gone by and the cook had brought the pot of food, I asked him to hold his hands up and deposited £1.11.3 in silver coins in them. He could hardly believe that all this money was for him and that he would get something like that from us every week. He also sometimes brought us a tin of jam etc. which he probably pilfered from the officers’ mess, and we got plenty of meat with our food. We also asked him to buy cigars for us at the military canteen. He said that they cost 8/- per box of 100. I gave him 10/- and a few hours later we were in possession of 100 Flor de Dindigul cigars and I let him keep the 2/- change. He also brought a pack of cards for us. There was only one electric light in the stable. We gave the sergeant a handful of cigars and asked him if he could not install a few more lights for us. No, he could not do that. He did have cable and fittings which he gave us. Now the Gramans brothers were electricians and they saw to the installation of more light. The sergeant could not supply us with globes. There were a few long buildings in our camp where the normal prisoners of war were kept till there were enough to be sent overseas. In these buildings, where we were not allowed to go, there were two rows of electric lights as each building was divided by a wooden partition. I arranged with Mr. Trouw that we would go there before the lights came on. I would sit on his shoulders and remove every fourth globe until we had eight. No sooner said than done and when it was dark and the lights came on there was a sea of light in out stable, to the amazement of the sergeant. But we still did not have a table and benches so that we had to sit on a blanket on the ground to play cards. One day a large packing case was brought into the camp and this was found to contain tin canteens each with a lid and handle, destined for the English soldiers. I asked if we could have the empty packing case to make a table and benches. No, he could not do that. We would have to ask the camp commander the following day. That Jaap did the following morning, when we stood in formation for inspection. The commandant came and stood in front of us and asked “Any complaints?”. Upon which Jaap saluted and took two paces forward and stood to attention and said “Yes Sir”. He explained that there were no tables or benches in our abode and that a large packing case had arrived and if we could have it for a table at which we could sit at to eat. This was permitted. Then we gave the sergeant a handful of cigars and asked him to lend us a hammer to take the packing case apart. No, he did not have a hammer but he did have a giant pair of pliers and could we use that.

5

Yes, that worked well and we could also pull out the nails with it. We carefully took the case apart and the cleats were used to make the legs and the lid for the top. On the beams of the corrugated iron 1 which were 1 /2 foot above the floor planks were fixed to make the benches and in the evenings we could sit at the table to play cards. We had the pliers in our possession for ten days when I brought it back to the sergeant with some cigars and our thanks and then I asked him if he if he had slept well the last nights. Surprised he asked “Why” I said “You lent us the pliers with which we - the captives – could have opened the whole camp and all escaped”. He went white as a sheet and I re-assured him that nothing had happened and that we had no plan to escape and he could convince himself that the whole fence was till in order. We had not been in the camp long when we were called up and told to stand in line. 20 soldiers with loaded guns with bayonets marched us to the Raadsaal of the republic to appear before the English Military Court on the charge of treason. There were three traitors who had given us away because they would have been shot themselves if they had not, these were Kuiper, Kok and a certain Schaap who had all been in the house with us and whom we had only supplied with clothes and food and with whom we had also smuggled out our hidden guns and ammunition to the Boers at Schurweberg at Pretoria. The Military Court, who considered us as Snipers, asked us if we understood English otherwise we would be supplied with interpreter. Naturally nobody understood English so one was supplied and we had double the time to consider the answer we would give to the questions the officers of the Court asked. Everything was naturally written down. I made the mistake of answering, in English, the question directed to me without waiting for the interpreter. There was also an acquaintance of ours, Jan Hagen, a farmer who had a farm just outside of Pretoria, and who apparently also had something else on his slate. Japie Wesseling was asked if he knew Jan Hagen, on which he asked “You mean that farmer”. “No” was the answer “he is not a Boer”. Wesseling then understood he had spoken too soon and said “No I don’t know him”. When we were back in our camp on the Daspoort hill I immediately said to my mates “Remember well what you have declared and imprint it in your head because we will appear before the court several more times and answer more questions and all answers will be compared. And that is what transpired. Once we were even taken to the Raadsaal for interrogation in the middle of the night. We remained caught in that camp for more than two months and sometimes protested loudly as we were not aware of any guilt. Near us Kok and Kuiper were also heard and they related all, how they came from the Boer lines to the occupied Pretoria and had been in our house and received clothes and food from us to take back to the Boer forces at Schurweberg. We could spit on them but were not allowed to say anything. One morning an English officer arrived. We were all called together and he informed us of the sentences. “Johannes de Veer and Tienus Olie, against you there was only one witness so you are free from the benefit of the doubt”. The others Jacob de Veer, Jacob Wesseling, J Gramans, Cornelius Trouw, W Gramans, Johan van Walbeek, J Fokkema, W. Rahder, W Meyer, J. Otto ( I have forgotten the other names) “You are all sentenced to be shot. Johan Walbeck put his hands in his pockets and said very cold-bloodedly “That’s alright”. There was a pause and then the officer continued “But Lord Kitchener has changed your sentences to imprisonment”. Jacob de Veer 2 years, W. Rahder 3 years, J Wesseling 4 years, J and W. Gramans, J van Walbeck, J Fokkema, W. Meyer 5 years, O Trouw 7 years and Otto 15 years with hard labour. Poor Otto was only 16 years old. But his sentence had a background history because he was under suspicion of murder. I knew this history and will relate it now. Young Otto and his friend were in Pretoria when the English arrived and had a permit to remain in the town. They decided later to flee outside and join the Boer forces at Schurweberg and joining the enemy of the English or helping them in any manner carried the death penalty. As long as they were with the Boer forces and stayed out of the hands of the English they were thus safe. But the English detectives soon found out that they had disappeared from Pretoria and they were sought everywhere until someone betrayed them but telling that they had joined the Boer forces. On a Friday night they arrived by us at home and would leave again the following night to Schurweberg. Saturday 6

evening they left just when it was dark. At that time the shops were allowed to remain open until 10 o’clock. In the vicinity of Boom Street they decided to buy some sweets at one of the shops and when they entered the shop they saw the two detectives who were looking for them. These did not want to take them prisoner in the shop because they knew that the two fugitives were also armed and arresting them in the shop would result in a shoot out. So they let them go outside and when they were in Bloed Street Otto and his friend decided to flee into gardens on either side of the street to escape from their followers. No sooner said than done. Pretoria’s streets were badly lit in those days, only on the corners of the streets had arc lights of which some did not burn and in that part of Pretoria there were few houses and the erfs were overgrown with bushes. Young Otto went to the right in the direction of Boom Street running more than half a block through the bushes and remained lying there for more than an hour in the dark until he thought it was safe to flee further. When he had only walked for a short way along Boom Street he felt a hand on his and heard a voice say “In the name of the Queen, you are my prisoner”, upon which Otto said “In the name of the President” and shot the detective in the chest. He fell and Otto made his getaway. After half an hour he came to our shop on the corner of Potgieter and Skinner Streets and told us what had happened. We advised him to leave Pretoria as soon as possible because his life depended on it. Later we heard that he and his friend had made it safely to the Boer commando at Schurweberg. The following morning (Sunday) there was great turmoil in Pretoria. Early in the morning a detective named Moodie was found in Boom Street with a bullet in his chest He was still alive but died later without regaining consciousness. Later, in a skirmish, Otto’s friend (I have forgotten his name) was killed at Schurweberg and Otto was taken prisoner and sentenced to death with our group, which sentence was changed to 15 years as they did not know who had shot detective Moodie, he or his friend although the suspicion rested on him.

Mr. Olie (Teunis) and I heard later that our friends and a number of other “bandits” were repairing and building streets with pick and shovels and were marched back to the prison in Visagie Street (where the Mint building is now). So at 5 o’clock we went to Visagie Street and yes, there we saw the procession “bandits” arriving. We waited until our friends were near us and said “Well guys, how is it going” Upon which Jaap de Veer and Mr. Trouw replied “ it’s alright, we will come through it” Later we heard that, because they had spoken to passers by they were punished with one week’s solitary confinement with only a mug of rice water per day. They were not allowed to have visitors or receive or write letters and get no library books on Sundays. At last I could visit Jaap in the prison. I was let into a room, which was divided in two by a beam, and a guard stood with a gun on the other side. Jaap came inside and we stood with outstretched arms to shake hands. With a shout the guard ran towards us and told us that shaking hands was not allowed. They were probably scared that a visitor could pass a firearm or something else into the hands of the prisoner. Anyway, when I visited Jaap the next time there was a double railing 5 feet apart the armed guard walked in-between these so that there was no chance of shaking hands. I had also found out where the “bandits” were working on the streets and gestured to me with a finger in the mouth and making chewing motions that they wanted chewing tobacco. I bought a few slabs compressed tobacco and cut it into dice sized cubes and arranged with friend Olie to bring it to our friends. We made plans to do it in a manner that the guards would not notice. There was a pile of gravel on the chopped up road. We were both on bicycle. Olie would ride into the heap of gravel with his bicycle and let himself fall. He would then argue with the guard and whilst his back was turned to the prisoners I would throw handfuls of pieces of tobacco to the bandits. It succeeded and whilst friend Olie was dusting his pants every “bandit” had a chew behind his molars. It looked like you had thrown a handful of breadcrumbs into a pond of ducks. When the guard turned back all the “bandits” were back at work again. Still it appears he noticed something, since, as we later heard, at arrival at the prison the prisoners had to strip naked and

7

stand with outstretched arms and even open their mouths to ensure there was nothing in there and then bend with legs wide apart to see if nothing was hidden in their rear. But everything went all right.

Later we heard that all prisoners with sentences of more than three years were sent to Bermuda and Jaap and Rahder to the fort (prison) in Johannesburg. Of those sent overseas we heard nothing further other than that Fokkema died on board and that Smorenburg tried to escape. I did regularly get letters from my old school friend Freek van der Veen who was wounded at the battle of Elandsfontein and taken prisoner and sent to St Helena and came back to Pretoria after the treaty of Vereeniging.

8

End of war to Honeymoon

I regularly heard from Jaap and Rahder and how it went with them in Johannesburg. There they were at least treated humanely which was not the case in the prison in Pretoria. When brother Jaap was released from the prison in Johannesburg he told me about his experiences there. In the beginning they all wore prisoner’s clothing with the traditional chicken footprints and a number on the back, sent to a stone quarry to cut stones which were later used for extending the prison. Jaap chiselled his name into a large stone and that stone was probably built into the new section. One day they were being inspected by the Head of the prison. They stood in a row and the Head asked “Any complaints?” Jaap, who had been in the army in Holland, took two steps forward, stood to attention and put his hand to his cap and said “Yes Sir”. The Head enquired about his complaint and Jaap asked if he could have a mattress as he had to sleep on the cement floor of his cell. “How much left of your sentence?” asked the Head. “Eighteen Months, Sir” Jaap answered. “No, for such a short time it is not necessary” was the answer. The next morning, just before they were to go to the quarry, Jaap got the order to stay behind and go to the office of the Director. Oh yes, thought Jaap, I will probably get punished for my rudeness. He knocked on the door and on the words “Come in” opened the door and remained standing to attention with his hand to his cap. He was invited inside in a friendly manner and shown a chair and the Director started talking to him because he had read his record. Jaap told him everything, how it happened. On this the Director said “Do you want another job de Veer?” on which Jaap answered “I would be very pleased, Sir!” he was appointed to oversee the black prisoners who were busy whitewashing the walls and when that was finished he was appointed as stores clerk. He wrote, "Now I am in charge of all mattresses and have sent two to my cell and I now sleep soft and high". Rahder became ill, probably caught a cold, and went to hospital. When he was better he was appointed hospital clerk and so he also had it good. One of the jobs Jaap had to do was to keep the office of the Director clean. That normally happened at half past seven in the morning and the boss always arrived at nine. Now Jaap was a lover of smoking but tobacco was naturally forbidden wares there. When he was finished with the office one morning, there was a newspaper lying on the desk. This was also forbidden wares. Well now, the boss will not arrive before nine o’clock so I can quickly look in the newspaper and the temptation was too great as there were also cigarettes and matches lying on the table. He sat down on the chair of the boss, reading and lit a cigarette. Not much later the boss came in Jaap told us. I almost went lame with fright but jumped up with my hand to my cap. The boss said “Well de Veer, any news in the paper?” Upon which Jaap answered “Not much Sir” where upon the boss turned around and walked away. Jaap thought, well, that mouse will have a tail, but nothing further happened. The boss was a noble person. After a year Jaap was released getting six months reduction in sentence due to good behaviour. Friend Rahder was also released not much later and went back to Holland. Jaap joined us as help in the shop and was married a few years later. He had two daughters. Dora, named after our stepsister, Dora Feltman, who went back to Java in 1888, her birth land, and died there from cholera shortly from after having nursed her mother in law back to health, also from cholera. There were a few children from that marriage and we exchanged letters for a long time with her husband Louis Waller-Diemont, who still always supported Ma (Grootma) with money. The second daughter of Jaap and tante Jantje was Bertha, who I think was named after tante Jantje’s deceased father. Dora de Veer married George Jackson who was also born in South Africa and whose parents came from Scotland and Bertha married Arie Ruyssenaers, a son of an old friend of ours who was also taken prisoner of war at Elandslaagte in Natal and sent to St Helena. All our friends who were sentenced to death, also those sent to Burma as well as a few hundred other political criminals were released at the coronation of King Edward VII so none of them except for brother Jaap served his full sentence. As far as I know they have all died, except for me (1957). In 1945 at the at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Delagoa bay railway line friend Rahder came from Holland and we met again, after all those years, in good health.

But now I must regress to the time were all in the “Rest Camp” above the zoo. From there we could see far onto the road that came from Pretoria. As I have mentioned I often came to the family van Boven as the father and I had worked together for years, as well as Mr. Trouw and Mr. Swierstra, at the Pretoria station. I became well acquainted with their oldest daughter Johanna whom I married after the Boer war in September (27) 1902. When Mrs. Van Boven heard that we were in the “Rest Camp” Johanna asked the authorities for a permit to visit us and this was given. She then came by bicycle and we could see her from far off. When one of my friends saw her coming he would call ”Jan, your girlfriend is coming”. She would always bring something for us, sometimes a few pounds of roasted steak or a home-made raisin loaf or cake. Then she was allowed to talk to me for five minutes in the office of the sergeant, and in English, and in his presence. I always gave him a few cigars and because of this he would go and stand outside and left us alone, after five minutes to call “Time is up” and we parted. We were always glad when Johanna came because she always brought titbits along.

When I was taken prisoner I had my slippers on and they began to wear badly. One morning I saw that the cook had a new pair of shoes. I asked him if he could also get me such a pair. He said that he would like to sell this pair as his other pair was still good and asked if eight shillings was too much. I grabbed the offer and gave him the money. He wanted to take them off there and then but I found that too dangerous, under everybody’s eyes. I told him to give them the following morning when he brought the coffee. I was still asleep when he kicked me against my feet before coffee, and said “Please sir, here are the boots” and gave them to me, perfectly polished. They fitted me perfectly and I walked for years in that pair of military boots and later sold them to a black man for ten shillings.

On the corner of Potgieter and Skinner Streets, where our shop was, there was an English soldier on guard duty day and night. It was often very hot and we called him inside for a glass of lemonade or a cup of tea or coffee and sometimes gave him a cigar. At that time the shop had to be closed at seven o’clock in the evening and we had to be inside by 10 o’clock. Those who were on the streets later were then taken prisoner and sent to jail. After closing the shop I often went to the van Boven family who also lived in the Skinner Street, but close to St Andries Street. I went there quasi to play a game of chess with the old man, but actually to meet Johanna and then I naturally stood talking as long as possible with her when I had to go back and she let me out. It was usually around ten o’clock when I went. One evening it had got a bit late again and the clock struck ten as I left. I walked as fast as possible and in the shadows of the trees to get home and got as far as Potgieter Street when I heard a voice “Halt who goes there”. I got a big fright as I was so close to home and now could be taken prisoner. Running away would not help as the guard would shoot. I thus called out “Friend” and the answer was “Advance friend and give me the countersign”. What could I do but walk to him and let myself be taken prisoner. But when I moved out of the shadows into the light of the arc lamps he recognised me. It was luckily one of the guards who had also done guard duty on the corner outside the shop and he said. Oh, it’s you Mr. De Veer, come and I guide you home. I could have hugged him. He brought me home and I gave him some cigars which I always carried with me in case of need. English soldiers often came into the shop to buy something because it was the nearest shop to the military barracks higher up in the Potgieter Street, the previous artillery barracks of the Republic. I always used to chat to them. I asked one of them where he had fought and he told me that his regiment had been in the vicinity of Colesberg for a long time. He told me that they had occupied Coleskop that stood alone on the plain, not far from a mountain ridge with a kloof where Colesberg lay and that he had been stationed at the foot of Coleskop with a maxim gun to shoot at anything that wanted to go to the other side of the kloof. I asked him that when people ran as fast as they could to the other side and he shot if there was sometimes one who waved his hat at him. He looked at me with disbelief and said “How do you know?” “Well”, I said, “I was that person”. He looked at me, shook my hand and said “Well, friend, let us thank God that we are both alive and well because on the side of the Boers at Colesberg were many sharpshooters and many a head that showed above the wall of the bulwarks was hit, especially at twilight”. Because Coleskop lay west of us we could easily see anything that stuck out above the bulwarks of moved behind the loopholes against the clear, bright sky and we had good marksmen on our side.

All letters very strictly censored. I wrote to my mother in Holland regularly. One day the Boers at Schurweberg attacked at night and they penetrated to the Pretoria station and set fire to piles of hay, oats and horse fodder and I had written that in one of my letters. It was not long before I had to appear before the magistrate to defend myself. As I was one of the participants of a treason trial I thought I would get a jail sentence and had warned the families Trouw and van Boven accordingly. But apparently the magistrate did not have the records of that case and I got away with a warning and I was told not to write anything I heard from others, which had relevance to the war, in my letters. In future I was much more careful about what I wrote in my letters. Not long after that one of the English soldiers who had often stood guard opposite the shop told me he was going back home on leave. I asked him if he would take a letter for me to my mother in Holland and if he would post it for me from England. I knew that the English soldiers were very keen on Kruger coins but these were already very scarce. We sometimes got one in the shop. When the soldier came to say goodbye to us I gave him the letter and as souvenirs a Kruger sixpence and two Kruger tickeys with which he was very satisfied. I realised, from subsequent letters from Holland, that they received the letter in good order, but were puzzled how I wrote letters from England. In my later letters, after censorship was discontinued, I explained everything.

After the fall of Pretoria the Boers did not have a Commissariat anymore so they could not get any food, clothing, but most importantly, ammunition. In a skirmish heavily wounded Boers were left in the hands of the English and the lightly wounded taken along as far as possible. The dead and wounded English were relived of their guns, ammunition, shoes etc. because these were things the Boers needed most. Everywhere on the lands were mielies or other food and for meat they shot game of which there was still plenty in the bushveld. If soldiers were taken prisoner their clothes and especially shoes were taken and they were sent back to the English lines where they would get replacements. Saddles and bridles were welcome booty. In this manner there were many Boers who were armed with Lee Metford guns and ammunition as their Mauser ammunition was depleted, and they also wore Khaki pants and shoes.

There was also a story doing the rounds of a young Boer boy who was with the Commando at Schurweberg. He was sent to see if he could get a few horses from the English, which were grazing in the plains under supervision of a couple soldiers. When the English came near a donga where he had hidden himself he jumped out and shouted “Hands up Khaki!” The guards, thinking that there was a Boer commando in the donga, threw their guns on the ground and surrendered. He let them walk ahead to the lager of the Boers, who were already coming towards them and caught the horses and picked up the guns. The Commandant was surprised that the boy had caught two soldiers upon which he answered “Commandant, I surrounded them”. The soldiers had found it better to surrender rather than possibly be shot as they knew they would be sent back again. The Boers had some more clothes, shoes, guns and ammunition and two horses as well. Regarding the jackets, these were rid of all badges and regalia before they were taken into use, as it was rumoured that any Boer who was captured wearing an English uniform would be shot. Just before the English occupied Pretoria President Kruger moved to Middelburg (Transvaal) with the Transvaal Government, and later further east to Machadadorp, Waterval Boven and Komatiepoort to remain out of the hands of the enemy. The young Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands sent the Dutch warship, Gelderland, to Lorenço Marques on which the President was brought safely to Holland. Outside Delagoa Bay there were a few English Warships and it was known to the Captains of these ships that the President was on board of the Gelderland. As soon as the Gelderland was in the Indian Ocean, outside the Portuguese area, the Captain of one of the English warships fired a cannon shot, the shell falling just in front of the bow of the Gelderland, as a sign to turn and surrender. As an answer the Captain of the Gelderland then fired a shell in front of the bow of one of the English ships to show he was ready to fight. The English found it better to let the Gelderland go unhindered and so the President arrived safely in Holland where he was greeted with much enthusiasm. The plan was for the President to go to to meet the Kaiser and to ask him to take steps to end the war, but when the President arrived in Germany he was told that the Kaiser could not see him as he wanted to go out hunting with his entourage. So the President came back from his journey with his mission unaccomplished, he had expected so much from this trip, with the hope to end the Boer war and the needless bloodletting in the uneven contest. The French and Hollanders sent ambulances, bandages and medicines to the Boers, as well as clothes, supplies and money. Because President Kruger had tried all sorts of methods to end the war he became ill and the Netherlands Government arranged for him to go to a warmer climate in , in Clarenz where he died after a prolonged stay. The house in Clarentz where the President lived out his last years and died was bought by the Union and declared a museum and monument as a part of the Transvaal.

Since all Boer prisoners of war were taken away to St Helena, Ceylon, British India or Burma the Boer army shrank and the situation became more desperate. Because the women and children were taken from the farms and placed in camps, their houses and possessions burnt before them, their cattle and other livestock shot or taken away the whole Free State and Transvaal became wastelands. Since the Boer families were not used to be caged together all sorts of contagious diseases broke out which carried 29 000 women and children to the grave. That is why the Boer Generals decided, after three years of unequal struggle, to make peace and surrender rather than the whole Boer nation be exterminated. So, on 31 May 1902 peace was signed at Vereeniging, the place where, in 1892, the Transvaal and Orange Free State railway lines were united.

Another episode of my commando life was that when we fought in the Cape colony, and did not have to do guard duty in the evening, we often slept in a harvested cornfield. Not long after lying down together we were surrounded by some young ostriches which also went to sleep with their heads towards us. There was no possibility of shaving so it was not long before we each had a beard and for cutting hair a knife was used due to lack of scissors.

When the Boer commandos in the Transvaal were brought under control General Smuts and a few other Boer Generals decided to occupy the Cape Colony with their burgers and disturb the peace there. Because of this many English soldiers were withdrawn from the Transvaal to capture the Boer forces, something they did not succeed in as the Boers could move on very quickly and also received support, food and horse feed from sympathising Afrikaans farmers in the Cape Colony whilst many of those from the “Colony” joined them, something earning the death penalty since they were English subjects. They destroyed English property and came as far as Port Elizabeth where one of the Boers was killed and was buried near Port Elizabeth. The whole description of the raid in the “Colony” is in the book written by Tielman Roos. It is a very interesting book. The family van Boven lived in the Skinner Street at the St Andries Street in a behind the residence of Dr. Machol. Their son Willem was a photographer who worked for the photographer Nissen in Pretoria, after he came back ill from the Commando at Ladysmith, and also did touch up work on negatives for the photographers Bouer and Munro and earned good money. Later he wanted to set up a photographic studio for himself and when a house on a half acre plot became vacant across the street (Skinner) they decided to rent it and build a photographic studio next to the house. Mother van Boven and her daughter Jo earned money from cleaning rooms above the shop of Tilanus and van Griethuisen and did needlework for the linen shop of bros. Bischoff in the Markt Street, now Paul Kruger Street and also for private people and Willem earned, while Grandmother (Opoe) did the housework. Later Nellie also earned a bit as lady companion to Ms Griethuizen. Thus the money came together for the material for a photographic studio for Willem. It was built of wood, corrugated iron and glass. In front was the reception room and at the back the studio with glass roof and side, separated from the reception room with heavy red curtains. Behind the studio was the workroom with basins and a dark room for the development of the negatives etc. The business went well. Oubaas van Boven even built a bathroom of wood and corrugated iron onto the house and got a written agreement that in the event of moving house he could take down everything he had built and take it with him. Not long after that the owner died and the sons decided to sell the house. Many people came to look and after the auction a certain Mr. Munro came to tell them that he had bought the property and they could stay if they paid £25 rent per month for the house and studio instead of £6:10:-or else they had to leave at the end of the month. Then Oubaas showed him the agreement that the studio and built on bathroom was his property and that with any possible house moving he could take it down and remove it, whilst Mr. Munro thought he had bought everything. It was mid August and the new owner said that they had to be out by the end of the month and that he would consider anything that stood on the stand after 12 o’clock on 1 September as his property. What to do now? There was not a house to be had anywhere and the days went by. All friends helped to take down the studio and the neighbours who heard about the situation gave permission to store the material on their property. On 1 September 1902 everything was broken down and by 12 o’clock all the household effects were on the street and the Dutch flag waved in front of the house. However they still did not have a place to stay. Luckily it was good weather and as a last resort Mrs. Van Boven went to Mr. Tievers who had a room in, and looked after the Brabantse shoe shop of the family be Bruyn, which was closed because they had been declared undesirable aliens, taken over the border by the English and gone back to Holland. She explained the situation and he gave them permission to use the unused part of the house and to store the excess furniture in the stable behind the house for as long as they did not have a house. With the help of many friends the whole estate was brought and by 5 o’clock everything was under roof. The furniture was divided between the two rooms and passage and the mattresses placed on the floor so that the whole family, mother Opoe and the four children could sleep. Luckily there was also a large room complete with coal stove and all for their use and a supply of wood and coal so that food could be cooked. The Oubaas cried when he saw all that he had worked and saved so hard for lying on the ground. It was a difficult time and the earnings of Willem and Oubaas stood still, but at least they still had shelter.

Ma and I were married in that house on 27 September 1902 by Ds Bosman who came to the house for the occasion. Mr. Sievers gave up his room for the function. That Saturday evening there was a great celebration behind the Ceres bakery in the Skinner Street. Our Friends had seen to it that the erf was covered with tarpaulins and a scene set up with flags hanging everywhere. For the occasion tables and chairs had been set, on the stage was our piano, and music was made with flutes, violins and mouth organs1. Provision was also made for plenty of food, drink and smoking requirements. There was also provision of plenty of food and drink.

There were plays, recitals and dancing continued throughout. The evening flew by. The bridal pair had been given part of a house, occupied by our “Partner “in the shop, Mr. Heymann, and my brother Jaap, which we went to at two o’clock in the morning, whilst the friends carried on the party until daybreak. We, Ma and I, were due to depart to Waaikraal after a few days, where Oubaas was busy building at the new shop. We had rented the ground from the owner of the farm, Uncle Dawid van Dijk, a very good old man. He, his wife, son and daughter, eight years of age, had already been repatriated there by the English and lived in tents next to their broken down home. The other three sons were not yet back from their prisoner of war detention in Ceylon and British India. Luckily, after a month, a house became vacant next to the shop in Potgieter Street which the van Boven family could move into and behind which Oubaas rebuilt the photographic studio. In front, on the street he built a showcase with black velvet inside where Willem could display his best photos, it was lit up at night with electric light. Later the Oubaas had work building the museum in Boom street and built a shop and bakery for the v d Veen family and van Erkel at Gezina.

After a few days we left with a loaded ox wagon, in spanned with six mules, to Waaikraal, 52 miles from Pretoria. We had a good Black driver with us who helped with in and out-spanning. We left early that morning and out-spanned at 1 o’clock at Kafferspruit to let the animals drink and graze, whilst we made coffee and ate some of our food for the road. After a few hours we in-spanned again and we drove through to Bapsfontein where we out-spanned at the burnt out houses where we would spend the night, Ma, her youngest sister Marie, who was eight years old, who came with us, as well as the daughter of Oom David van Dijk, Rita, who was also eight years old. The boy slept on the wagon and we underneath and the mules were tied to the wheels and were given a generous helping of cut oats. As there was a cold wind blowing we took some of the corrugated iron sheets lying around and place these between the wheels of the wagon to stop the wind and crept together under the wool. We had laid a big canvas on the ground and only woke up at sunup. Quickly released the mules to graze and drink, and pick up and load the bedding. Fire made and water for coffee boiled, ate a bit and then onwards to Waaikraal where we arrived at three in the afternoon. Oubaas was busy putting on the roof. A room, kitchen and store room were ready so that we could offload the most necessary furniture and put the beds together and the rest was stored in the tent in which the Oubaas slept. I also unloaded the stove, a wedding present from my “partner”, Mr Heyman, who later married Ma’s younger sister Nellie. We also had a few bags of coal and wood and we also used dried cattle dung. That was our honeymoon.

1 Could have been concertinas or piano accordion Waaikraal

When the shop and house were completed and all the household effects were inside, the temporary hut on the stand was converted to a stable. The front veranda was in front of the whole building. Half the front section was the shop, and the other half the sitting room and bedroom. The rear section behind the sitting room and bedroom was a veranda and further on, next to it, was a kitchen, a bedroom and a store room. Store room Bedroom Kitchen Veranda

Shop Lounge Bedroom

Front Veranda

Because we also had the Waaikraal “Post Office” many people came for post and then bought whatever they needed. About 100 paces from the shop was the drift through the Bronkhorst spruit and the road from Bronkhorstspruit to Balmoral Station. The first was 15 miles away, the second 25 miles. I had to fetch the post twice per week from the Balmoral post office and did that by bicycle. Slowly I got to know the inner which were 5 miles shorter than the main road which went via the Holfontein coal mine. I then went to the farms along the way to collect their letters and, if there was something for them, to take it back. For the postal service I got £1 per month and £2:10 for 1 delivery, thus £3:10 per month and another 2 /2% for the sale of postage stamps. When they required £5: stamps I paid £4:17:6. The shop went fairly well. I also bartered for eggs, chewing tobacco, mielies and chickens which we sent to Pretoria for sale in the shop there. From the Pretoria shop I received all the trade goods I needed and sent the cash receipts to them when we required goods. We had a cart (two wheels) and in-spanned four mules. We always out-spanned once when we went to Pretoria (52 miles) to let the animals rest, drink and graze. With the cart we travelled at roughly six miles per hour thus four hours riding, one hour out span, always by Kafferspruit where there was clear drinking water and plenty of green grass, There we made coffee and ate a little. I always took my “kafferboy”, “Kaalkop”, whom I sometimes sent to Balmoral with the postbag. He would leave at 4 o’clock in the morning and came back at 4 o’clock and then the people were already standing waiting for their letters. Oubaas had also built a “kleinhuisje” for us at the back of the stand, just inside the fence. The black women, who specially came to buy beads, asked Ma what the little building was for and Ma said “Just go and have a look”. I had put a bucket there and it was half full. When they came back they delivered their verdict with disgust and abhorrence and said “Gha!” and spat on the ground and said “does Madam collect the stuff?”

We sold anything groceries, blankets, shirts pants, wool, needle and thread as well as “yarn goods” such as German boleros with stars and figurines, which was in great demand for women and girls clothes. Also socks and shoes and Dutch patent medicines. Sometimes black men and women came complaining of headaches to ask if I had medicine = muti = for it. Then I prepared a large glass of water and put a packet of Epsom salts in it under the counter and then added some sugar in front of them and a few drops of cochenille for the pretty red colour. Then I added a teaspoon fruit salts so that it bubbled vigorously and then they had to drink it quickly. They paid sixpence for it. When they came back the following day I asked how the headache was, and the answer was that it was gone but “Auk, my Baas, maninje skytiele!” With passing of time the prisoners of war came back and the houses were re-built. The Boers got wagons and donkeys on credit from the English repatriation. The lands were ploughed and Oom David asked to borrow our mules and harnesses for a few days to plough a few acres. There were about ten apricot trees in full bloom and the fruit of one of these was destined for Jan and Jo. Nobody else was allowed to pick from this tree. Just across the drift lived family Muller whose two sons were still in prisoner of war camps and who arrived back a few months later. Their house had also been destroyed. Further on was the farm Rooipoort where the family Roos lived. Oom Piet and aunt Bella had four sons and three daughters. The oldest daughter was about equally as old as Ma. When they came for letters and required something from the shop the girls often came along and Ma played something for them on the piano. They always came on foot because it was not far. Their home was not destroyed as it had been used by the English as headquarters and lookout post as a few feet apart were two very high blue gum trees with vertical trunks. Rungs had been nailed to these so that there was a giant ladder right next to the house as lookout post. We often went there and were always welcome there, as at Oom David van Wijk. Higher up, on the Bronkhorstspruit, on the farm “Witklip bank” Oom Naas Prinslo and his wife lived where the shop used to be. Old Oom Beytel also lived there with his son Freek and servant woman Annie. We sometimes went there to visit when the shop was closed. Bordering on the farm Rooipoort was the farm “Zorgvlied” where the family Jochem Prinslo lived. They had a son and daughter of some 9 to 10 years old. He was called “Rich Oom Jochem”. They were also very nice people whom we also visited at times. They had a teacher for the children, a daughter of the teacher Boneschans who lived in Pretoria. One day ma stood at the drift scouring pans when the wife of Oom Jochem came in a carriage in-spanned with two roan horses to come to the shop. In the middle of the drift the horses stopped and refused to go further, no matter how much they were encouraged. The Aunt climbed down and asked Ma to fetch help, but Ma said “Let me try”. She climbed onto the cart, picked up the reins and cracked the whip. The horses went into full gallop over the slippery drift and came to a halt just in front of the shop. A few moments later Aunt also arrived. Ma invited her inside and made coffee whilst Aunt praised Ma and did her shopping. Not long after that the teacher died from gastric fever when she was on holiday at home with her father. Later the whole family came to visit us and Oom Jochem asked us if we did not want to come and stay with him on Zorgvlied. I could then teach the children whilst Ma could teach them to play the piano and handcrafts. But how do you do this when you have a shop and a post office. Later Oom Heyman imported a mill from America. It looked like a giant coffee mill and in the round chamber at the top you could put a 200 pound bag of mielies or corn and at the bottom, between the legs was a waterproof bag into which the flour fell. On the mill was a long pole to which two horses or mules were hitched. From the bridle of the inner horse was a stick which was fixed to the front end of the pole so that the horses or mules were forced to walk in a circle. To stop the horses getting dizzy and falling down we bound a folded cloth over their eyes so that they could not see they were walking in a circle. In three quarters of an hour we could mill a 200 pound bag of mielies or corn and the animals could rest for a while. The mielies were first broken by setting the mill coarse and it was milled fine the second time. Ma sometimes used to take some of the freshly ground fine meel to make porridge and it tasted nice because it was cooked in milk. From the freshly milled corn Ma sometimes took a little to bake bread. Occasionally, whilst I went to the Balmoral post office by bicycle Ma would have milled 8 bags of mielies or corn that day and at the same time looked after the shop and done the housework. With the cart, together with the mill, old Opoe, who was then 72 years old, came to have a holiday with us and then stayed through thick and thin until she died when she had just turned 80 years old. The flowers which were destined for her birthday were put on her grave. But that was eight years later1 and Jopie was then five years old. The shop went fairly well and on

1 Back in Pretoria Sundays we went visiting to one of the neighbours but we always brought something to eat. One day we were again visiting Oom Piet and Aunt Bella Roos. Oom Piet had ploughed the lands which lay down towards the Kafferspruit and the corn was coming up nicely. But when it got drier Oom Piet had to irrigate but did not succeed. When we arrived Oom Piet vented his feelings that he could not get water on his lands with the words “The verd.... English are drinking all my water”. Now this was something we did not understand since the English soldiers had been gone for months. What was going on? After their absence, for almost three years, from the farm, the men to the war and the women and children to the camps the canal that took water from the Kafferspruit was not used. The dam in the river was broken and at the house the canal was wide and there were nice willows and other trees on the banks of the canal. The Tommies had also made benches under the trees from sawn tree stumps and also a rough table set into the ground on poles. That made a lovely resting and sleeping place. There it was cool in the summer and sheltered in the winter. During a skirmish a couple of Tommies were killed and the best place to bury them, so their mates thought, was under the green weeping willows, at the place where they had often sat sociably. A deep grave was dug, of some 7 feet and they were laid to rest in it. Now the under layer of the lands down the hill from the Kafferspruit was gravel with a six foot layer of arable soil on top of it. All went well, the lands were ploughed and sown with corn and oats and the seedlings grew well until it became dry and the lands had to be irrigated. The dam in the Kafferspruit was repaired as well as the canal in several places. Oom Piet turned the water on and a nice stream flowed but it could not reach the lands because at a certain point under the willow trees the stream did not go further and disappeared into the ground. This dumbfounded Oom Piet. Not a drop of water reached the lands. He searched everywhere to see where the water disappeared to. It had to go somewhere and appear again. The he noticed that by the Kafferspruit , close to the side, a few strong fountains had appeared which had never been there before. Later he also found a wooden cross in the shrubs under the willow trees with a few names on it. Then he realised that there must be a grave in the canal in which English soldiers were buried. The water flowed into the grave and under the lands back to the spruit. That is why he said “The English are drinking all my water. We made a plan to prevent this by bending a 12 foot galvanised iron sheet into a semicircle and laying it over the “bad place” so that the water could reach the other side safely and be directed onto the lands. Later we heard that Oom Piet and his sons had laid a ditch over this “bad place” as the corrugated iron sheet sometimes played up by moving from position. One Sunday, also at Oom Piet and Aunt Bella, who was a very fat lady, and Oom Piet was very skinny, when it began to rain hard. I decided to go back to the shop alone before the Kafferspruit became too full. Ma would stay there and sleep, and be brought the following day. I came through the spruit, which was already quite full, safely and the following morning at nine o’clock Ma was brought with the horse cart. She had not been home long before she did not feel well and had pressure on her stomach. I asked if she had breakfasted, yes, she had, “but it was probably the seven cups of coffee I drank before breakfast”. When it was all out she felt better and said “I will never drink coffee on an empty stomach again”. Yes, when we were at the neighbours we were always overloaded with good intentions, something that was not always nice. Oom David and a remedy for everything and could fix anything. In Pretoria they had forgotten to grease the axles of the wagon carrying the mill and on the way one of these ran hot and the bush of the wheel burnt onto the axle. This was not noticed and when they arrived at the farm a big hole had been worn in the hub of the wheel. Now that was a bad situation because how could we fix it? I thought the whole wheel would have to be taken apart to insert a new hub in it. Oom David said “leave it to me, I will fix it”, which he did. The wheel was taken off the wagon and the bush remained stuck on the axle. Oom David took some oil and diluted it with paraffin and smeared it on the axle at the bush. A little each time for a few days he said, and don’t let the sun shine on it. After a few days Oom David knocked a bit on and around the bush with a hammer and it came loose. The hole in the hub was too big for the bush but even for that Oom David had a remedy. He put the bush in the middle of the hole and filled the space around it with a certain type of wood. When the bush was solidly stuck he hit wedges in all around it until he couldn’t add any more. Now the bush would not come loose again or turn in the hub because there are wings on the bush. I was thankful that the wagon was in order again and asked Oom what I owed him and he laughed and said “No Jannie, nothing, we are here on earth to help each other and you helped me first by lending me your mules and harnesses to plough so that we could get some food in the ground to live from”. I had forgotten that already. That is not the only time Oom David helped us. One day when we had been to Bronkhorstspruit station to go and fetch goods for the shop with the wagon, which had arrived by train, the wagon got stuck in the drift near the shop. The mules could not pull it up due to the slippery muddy slope of the drift and it began to rain. I went to Oom David for help. He came with six oxen and a long chain from the ox-wagon. The mules were out-spanned and fed and the chain fitted to the eye of the beam. Because the oxen now stood on the bank they pulled the wagon out easily but when the wagon was at the shop one of the rear oxen got a fright and gave a jerk sideways causing the beam to break off close to the wagon. Now we were in greater trouble but Oom David said “It is nothing Jannie, I will fix it”. I could not see how, but it was done with pieces of flat iron which were bolted to the beam and for safety round bars were fixed on either side of the beam and the wagon so that two triangles were formed. “Now it will never break again Jannie” he said.

Wagon

Round bars

Disselboom

At the shop we also had the Post Office “Waaikraal” and so were also Postmaster. The Government 1 paid £1:10 per month and 2 /2% for the sale of postage stamps. We had to fetch the post ourselves from Balmoral Station and that was a distance of some 30 miles. I usually did that by bicycle, leaving at 5 o’clock in the morning and would get home at 3 or 4 o’clock. The people would be waiting for their letters and would then also buy something from the shop. In those days there was little money amongst the farmer community. One day I went by cart, in-spanned with four mules, to Bronkhorstspruit to get goods which had been sent from Pretoria and little David, who was 10 years old , was to go along. Not far from the station we came to the main transport road from Pretoria to Middelburg – formerly called “Nazareth”. The battle of Bronkhorstpruit between the Boers and the English under General Anstruther took place in 1881. On either side of the road were the graves of the fallen English and Boers, surrounded by a three foot stone wall. I stopped there to let the mules rest. Inside the kraal around the English graves stood a peach tree, full of fruit. I picked a handful and wanted to give David some but he definitely did not want to eat any. “Doesn’t Oom Jan know the peach tree stands on the grave of English?” he asked. David also came along to Pretoria once and at the Lion Bridge in Church Street was a large shed, for storage of timber, standing on poles 4 foot above the ground. When he saw that he said “Oom Jan, does Amsterdam look like that. He thought that the inhabitants of Amsterdam lived in buildings on piles above the water. I told him how it actually was.

Ma was not yet confirmed when we married. I spoke about it to Oom David van Dijk because in three months there would be confirmation at the church at Witfontein. Oom David was elder and held confirmation classes for some of the youngsters. The whole family went by ox-wagon and my little cart to Witfontein. Ds van Belkom led the service. The church was made of wood and corrugated iron and still standing but all the woodwork of the walls had been stripped by the enemy and also the whole floor. Only the pulpit was still there. The benches were also gone so all churchgoers had to bring a folding chair, bench, box or stone to sit on. Thus went the first confirmation service after the Boer war. Outside, at the wagons the black servants were busy making fires because after the service food was to be prepared. That same evening we rode back to Waaikraal so that we could sleep in our own beds.

Shortly afterwards the Department at Waaikraal decided to build a school as there were some 30 children of school-going age in the vicinity of Waaikraal. A few ox-wagons arrived with a large Marquee tent, a few smaller tents and a wood and corrugated iron building which had to serve as kitchen for the teacher and his wife, who would also give lessons. They were Scottish people who naturally did not understand a word of Dutch but they quickly learned to help themselves. In the concentration camps the children had picked up a little English so that the lessons soon went smoother. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander, the teacher and his wife, were nice people. He was a consumptive and came to South Africa for his health. They did not have children but were very fond of them and had a lot of patience with them. It was rather difficult for them in the beginning due to the lack of educational material. I still remember how he gave lessons about tea, where and how it grew and was processed. After the lesson he asked the children where tea came from. Nobody could answer but eventually a small girl put up her finger and Mr. Alexander was pleased that at least one child had learnt something. However, the answer came “From Oom Jan, at the shop”.

Not far from Waaikraal was the farm “Zorgvlied”, belonging to Oom Jochem Prinslo. The family often came to the shop to collect the post and at the same time do shopping. Coffee was made and we chatted and Ma would play the piano. Sometimes we went to Zorgvlied to visit and we were always welcome. Oom Jochem was a well to do farmer. Before the Boer war he had shot elephant. In his house was a pair of enormous tusks. He said I should try and pick one up. I tried but I could only lift it a few inches off the ground. They had a governess for the children’s education, a boy and a girl. She was Miss Boneschans, the daughter of the head teacher in Pretoria. She later died from gastric fever and when Oom Jochem came to the shop he asked me if I could teach his children and then Ma could teach them to play the piano and handcrafts. We could naturally not take this on as we owned the shop and could not just leave it. Since there was so little money in circulation amongst the Boer population the shop was not as profitable as we had expected. Sometimes, when I went by bicycle to Balmoral to fetch the post farmers would come and bring bags of corn or mielies to be milled and Ma would have her hands full. Sometimes she would mill 8 bags of grain at 2/6 per bag and that would bring a pound into the drawer. During the Christmas holidays Oom Willem van Boven, Oom Jaap, Aunt Jaantje, the brothers van Schaik, Mina v Wermeskerken and her brother came by bicycle to visit us and stayed a few days. They brought food and in the shop there were enough blankets to sleep under. Then we visited the neighbours or swam in the Bronkhorstspruit. The evenings were social gatherings, Ma played the piano and we sang along. Ma’s grandmother had also come with the cart in-spanned with four mules and she stayed with us until her death eight years later.

When I went to Pretoria (52 miles) by bicycle to take money away or to order goods, I usually stayed over for the night and went back early the following morning. About four miles from the shop I had to cross the “Witrand” and from there I could see the shop. I then signalled with a small mirror and Ma signalled back that she had seen me. When I arrived at home the food was ready. Old Opoe was very happy on the farm. It was very peaceful there. When we had lost so many horses and mules due to horse sickness and there was not one left of the eight, Oom Heyman, my “partner” who ran the shop in Pretoria, decided to sell the farm shop and soon there was a buyer. This was Mr. Edelstein, who also had a shop in Pretoria. He arranged everything with Oom Heyman and the wife of Mr. Edelstein came by ox-wagon from Pretoria. The wagon of Oom David van Dijk, the farmer from Waaikraal, had taken our household goods to Pretoria and Ma, Opoe and Aunt Marie sat on top of the load together with a case with a pig, a dog and a cat. There was a canvas over the top but it gave little protection, and if that wasn’t enough, it started to rain. In the evening they came close to Pretoria and could see the lights of the town but Oom David decided to out-span and let the donkeys rest and feed and only ride to Pretoria the next day. There was little chance of sleeping that night. At daybreak it was in-spanned and they arrived at the shop at nine o’clock. All the household goods were stored in the corner of the stoep of the shop and covered with a canvas and the donkeys left to graze in the veld at the end of Skinner Street. I remained behind with the cart and two horses to follow with the rest as soon as the shop had been handed over to the buyer. Her husband and nephew would come by train to Bronkhorstspruit station and from there with the ox-wagon of our neighbour, Mr. Muller. This happened two days later. It had rained hard these days and the spruit was full so that nothing could get through to the other side where the shop was. The two big sons of our neighbour, who were on the other side of the spruit, were good swimmers and came to our side. They would try to get the nephew of Mr. Edelstein over the spruit with two pieces of rope knotted together. One end was tied to the waist of his nephew, who said he could swim, because he had learned this whilst serving in the army in Germany. The two Muller boys warned him to go through the water slowly until they got the knot in their hands on the other side, and then swam through the river and told him to come slowly until they had the knot in their hands, since they had made the knot at the bad end of the rope and did not trust it. However, instead of coming slowly he flew into the water like a madman before they had the knot. He was carried away by the strong current and the rope broke at the knot. The last I saw of him was when he tumbled over and over in the torrent and disappeared. This was on a Saturday in the beginning of February1904. A few days later, when the river had subsided, his body was found about a mile lower down, caught on a fence in the river. Edelstein came through the river with the ox- wagon himself a few hours later when the water level had gone down and took over the shop. I rode to Pretoria that same day and arrived there in the evening. Ma and the others were worried that I stayed away so long as Pretoria had also had such bad weather. Ma had rented half a house in the Skinner Street next to the shop, consisting of a dining room and a bedroom on either side, one in which we slept and one for old Opoe. From the dining room one came into the kitchen and from there into the garden. We lived there for three months. Then the house in Potgieter Street, next to the shop became free and there you, Jopie, was born on 21 December 1904. Ma helped in the shop and the evening before your birth she had cleaned the display cabinets of the shop so that everything would look nice for the Christmas season. You were born at nine o’clock and by half past nine you were asleep in the pram on the stoep. The daughter of the owner of the shop came at eleven o’clock to buy something. Ma always served her and she asked after her. I brought her to the house and there you lay in the arms of your mother, a small doll of 5lbs with black hair and dark eyes. Miss O’Driscoll could not believe that Ma had served her the previous day in the shop. Pretoria

Shortly after the peace of Vereeniging we had bought two stands on auction at Rietfontein and these were half paid up. Luckily my step brother Johan Feltkamp, who was also at the ZASM, paid me back the hundred pounds I had lent him to build on the veranda to his house, so that I could pay off the two stands and take out transfer in Ma’s name. Six weeks later Mr. Heyman wanted to marry Tante Nel and since, according to him, there was not enough profit from the shop, I would leave the firm and be paid out if the income would allow it. We then moved to friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. de Vries in Gezina, who let us have a room and the veranda in their recently built house. Their son, Jan, who had also worked at ZASM, was a good friend of mine and he helped his father building houses. Old Opoe wanted to go with us at all costs. The furniture we could not accommodate was put in the rooms of the de Vries family, and I tried to get other work. That succeeded in Johannesburg where I got work in March 1905. I had applied for work as a clerk in the head office of the education department of the Transvaal and was asked if I would start in a position as Dutch teacher in several schools in Pretoria, starting on 1 May 1905 on a salary of £150 per year. I grabbed it and, as I had been in the Normaal school in Holland before I came to the Transvaal, it was not difficult to stand in front of the class. I studied further and soon got my certificate as a teacher for the and after a few years also my diploma for all other school subjects, in English, and was given a permanent post in Pretoria North. After six months of service I applied for a building loan of £300 and asked Mr. de Vries if he would build a house for us consisting of two rooms of 14x16 feet. And next to these a passage of 6x28 feet, with a bend in the middle and behind the dining room a kitchen of 10x10 feet. The front room served as bedroom. It had a window in the east side and in the front two opening glass doors. The lounge and dining room had two sash windows on the east side, with a door to the kitchen and also one to the passage, just like the bedroom. The front door had two side lights and at the end of the passage was a double glass door. I had no money to have the house painted so I had to do it myself when I came back from school and on Saturdays. The walls were cream white in colour except for those of the lounge, which we had papered. Arches had been built in for new doors in the outside wall of the passage, in case extensions were to be made in that direction later. The rooms were 13 feet high from floor to ceiling, which was made of steel with patterns, which I also painted white. But now I also forget to mention that water was required for the building, so I had to dig a well. I took two blacks and set out a peg, 60 feet from the front and 40 feet from the side. This was the centre of the well, which had to be six feet wide. They soon had the first five feet out and then they reached soft stone, which blistered and powdered when it was exposed to air. They could easily get the stone out with pick and shovel. The evening of the second day I went to look again and the well was nine feet deep. The blacks said that the water came so fast now that they could not stay ahead and now they wanted to stop. I paid them 14/6 for their work and they were very 1 satisfied as the wage then was 2/6 per day. The water rose to 2 /2 feet and was used to build the 1 house. If the well had almost been drained empty it rose back to 2 /2 feet again after an hour. There was only one house in the vicinity at that time and it stood on the other side of the square and the family Silbereisen, who came from Australia, lived there. The father had a bicycle shop in Market Street (now Paul Kruger Street). They had two small children. On the Pretoria side of Rietfontein was a shopkeeper who sold all sorts of second hand building material, which he in turn had bought in bulk from the British defence force, who sold all surplus material obtained from demolitions. There I bought iron fence posts and barbed wire and smooth wire for our fence. The two stands were 240 by 260 feet and the ground was fairly level. I dropped the poles and wire on the ground where the grass and flowers stood some two foot high and on Saturdays Ma, I and baby went there to hit the poles in. We first put in the thick square gate and corner posts, which I had tarred for protection from ants, and stretched a wire from corner to corner. Then I placed a wooden peg every 12 feet where the iron posts had to be put in. The baby slept between the grass and the purple flowers and now we could begin with the work. Using the wheelbarrow I put a pole next to each peg. I stood in the wheelbarrow with the heavy sledge hammer and Ma held the pole. Within a month the whole fence was completed and the wires spanned. Oubaas de Vries, his son and a black began to build. First trenches were dug till they reached the gravel – two feet deep. Then, according to the Dutch method, a three inch layer of sand and on top of this four hard blue were laid in the trenches so that the foundation was 27 inches wide at the bottom. Then the following layers were a little narrower until the foundation was fourteen inches wide at the top above the ground. Tarred paper was laid on top of this and from this the walls of the house rose. In those days concrete foundations were unknown and after all these years there are no cracks as is the case with many houses in Rietfontein and Gezina. After six months we could move into our own house. We had to pay £7 per month mortgage. I still gave extra lessons in the evenings in the back room to boys who were out of school and already working and Ma gave Music and handcraft lessons. As we did not have a toilet yet I had made a framework out of laths placed at the back of the stand and fixed it to the ground with wire. Old bags were nailed to it, a seat made and a door with sack cloth at the front. A large paraffin tin was put inside and the toilet was completed at no cost. Then the garden was laid out and holes dug for the trees. Two rows as windbreak on the southern side and one row on the eastern and western sides. The toilet bucket was emptied in each of the holes every Saturday evening and covered with a thin layer of soil. No wonder the trees grew luxuriantly. We bought the trees from the department at 8/- per hundred. There would be twenty in half a paraffin tin. We also ordered fruit trees from the Cape Province, apples, apricots, plums, peaches, early middle and late so that we had a plentiful supply of fruit for the whole summer. We also tried grafting peaches and plums on an apricot tree so that we got three types of fruit off one tree. In the winter holidays Mr van Rijn and I and a few other Dutch teachers attended a course at the agricultural school in Potchefstroom where we learned a lot about gardening, poultry and farming which were of great value later on. The well, which was surrounded with chicken mesh and always closed off with a gate, was about twelve feet from the house. One day somebody had left the gate open. Jopie, who was then two years old, was walking in the garden. Ma missed her and went to look and saw her standing on the edge of the well. She did not know what to do and suddenly got an inspiration. She went down on her haunches, stuck her hands up as if holding something and called “look what I have here”. Jopie turned around and came to her. Ma took her in her arms and closed the gate of the well. If she had stormed to Jopie she might have taken a step further and fallen into the well and there was nobody nearby to help. When we had saved some money, the mortgage had been paid up, and every year I got an increase in salary, we bought second hand material at “Chaimberlain” and closed in the open gap between the kitchen and the end of the passage with glass and put in a floor with thick wooden planks which came from the demolition of the English cantonment. I tarred the floor beams and the bottom of the planks twice and so we got a glass dining room of eleven by thirteen feet with double glass doors at the kitchen. The windows were three feet from the ground and the bottom section was also of wood. At the same time I made a on which pots of plants and flowers stood and it looked very pretty. We had a kitchen side board and sink but the water had to be carried in, and the dirty water ran into a bucket underneath it and had to be regularly emptied. This was later also altered. A seven foot high installation was made from sturdy square beams which were painted and a 100 gallon tank placed on top of it and from the bottom of the tank a pipe through the wall was connected to a tap above the sink. A round pump = “semi rotary” was bolted to the installation with a pipe to the top of the tank, through the lid. The bottom pipe was connected to the pump, and with an elbow, laid ten feet to the well and with a bend put into the well which was only twelve feet deep and often contained six to seven feet water. Then, to see if the system worked. Yes. Indeed. Whilst pumping one could hear the water streaming into the tank and it took 700 strokes of the pump to fill the tank. An outlet to take the dirty water outside was also made with a cement and brick ditch to the end of the stand, away from the well, where it ran into the veld. Again there was an improvement. A plan was made to enclose the well. A six foot wide iron tank was purchased at Chaimberlain and it was placed with the bottom upwards into the well so that it stuck out by a foot. A lid was made in the bottom with a pair of hinges and a second hand pump was set up so that water could also be pumped outside. We still did not have a bath and used a galvanised iron tub in the kitchen. One Saturday I again went to the market by bicycle to buy potatoes, which I brought home in a bag on the handlebars of the bicycle. When I came home without a load on the bicycle Ma asked where the potatoes were I said “There they come with the horse and cart”. But instead of a bag of potatoes there was a wood and corrugated iron toilet on the cart which I had bought at the flea market in Pretoria for one pound. It cost a half crown to have it brought home and that was all the money I had. Again, an improvement but without potatoes, which we could get at Chamberlain or in Mr. Collinet’s shop, where we always bought what we required. We bought everything cash. Every year the well was cleaned and dug a foot deeper so that eventually it was 19 feet deep. Even in the driest years we always had water and could help the neighbours whose well had dried up. Further improvements were a workshop with a wooden floor, next to the toilet in which we later put an iron bath with legs, but we had to carry the water to fill it if we wanted to take a family bath. I had seen to the of the water. Behind the workshop=bathroom I built a roof and underneath it a work bench was built. Close to it a chicken coop was built with an undercover scratching pen in which straw and dry grass was thrown as well as the chicken feed, so that the chickens had to work and scratch for their food. That kept them healthy. I learnt all that at the agricultural school in Potchefstroom. A big chicken run was also built so that they had plenty of room to run around in the shade of the now fully grown trees.

1 On 15 January 1911 a beautiful daughter was born. She weighed 4 /2 lbs and although she was fine boned she was plump and round. Jopie was then six years old. We were with Granny at the railway camp and Granny was a midwife. When Dr. Osborne came everything was over and little Miekie was already asleep in her cot. Jopie was also allowed to come in then. I picked up the little one and told Jopie “Hold up your arms and here is your little sister to bring up”. She was allowed to lay her little sister down in her cot herself. The little one was breast fed and grew like cabbage. The friends and neighbours who came to look were amazed at how small she was. Jopie walked when she was a year old but Miekie was quicker and walked at nine months and could walk underneath the table.

But before I go on I want to go back two years. Ma’s grandmother was still with us and shared with us through thick and thin. After the difficult years when I left the partnership of the shop our existence gradually improved. Old Opoe made herself useful, regardless of her age, by carrying out small tasks in the household. She helped by washing pots and cleaning potatoes and vegetables and did mending and darning and was always cheerful and satisfied. She always saw things on the bright side. We liked her very much. She became ill a few weeks before her 80th birthday. We called for the doctor and he diagnosed appendicitis. He was too afraid to operate due to her age. He gave medicine and said we should take care of her. She died a few days before her 80th birthday. Before I went to sleep I went to her to say goodnight and we spoke a bit. Ten minutes later Ma came to tell me she had gone. Opoe had also said goodnight to Ma and opened her eyes as if she saw someone and softly called “Antje”. That was the name of her only daughter who died in Amsterdam in 1879 at 18 years of age. Would the daughter have been waiting for her, and would she have seen her? We don’t know. She went peacefully to sleep and the flowers we ordered for her birthday were put on her grave. She left a big void in our household. We often think of her and Jopie, who was only five years old then could still remember her well. As the family had grown by a daughter we thought of enlarging the house a bit and decided to do it in the most economical manner. We had a ten foot wide veranda built at the front and side of the house and at the end at the kitchen we built a bedroom some twelve feet deep. We could enter the room from the kitchen and a double glass door was built and a window put in the outside wall. That is where our two daughters slept. In the summer holiday we decided to go to Cape Town for a month with the family van Rijn. We booked rooms in the Surrey lodge hotel at Three Anchor Bay. It was high up on Signal Hill and on the main street. In front of the hotel was a tennis court and a garden and from the front veranda one had a lovely view over the lower part of Three Anchor Bay and the sea. It was the first time that I was at the sea again since stepping ashore in Cape Town in 1893. One day Mr. van Rijn and I went to town to hire a boat and row out to a ship that lay in the bay. The Malay from whom we hired the boat warned us not to go too far. I would row out there and Mr. van Rijn would row back. Within ten minutes we were at the ship and went around it. Now Mr. van Rijn took over the oars and although he did his best we hardly moved forward. Then we each took an oar and rowed with all our might and it took almost two hours to reach the jetty again. The South Easter had come up and now we understood why the Malay had warned us not to go too far. Another day we climbed Lions Head together. Just in front of the first chain was a small cave with dripping water. At the bottom of the cave a gallon jar without a bottom had been cemented in and it was always full of lovely cool clean water where we quenched our thirst. I suggested going on to the top but Mr. van Rijn did not dare to climb up the krantz via the chain so I went alone. Higher up was another steep krantz which had to be climbed via another chain. Eventually I was at the top at the flagpole where I met another climber. What a beautiful view from there. On the west side was Three Anchor Bay, Sea Point and a small beach. On the east side the high perpendicular wall of Table Mountain. After half an hour I climbed down again to where my friend waited and together we descended. Another day we went to Rondebosch. The children came along. Jopie was then seven and Miekie, in the pram, almost a year. We visited Groote Schuur, the beautiful house of the Prime Minister, in the front facade of which a plaque was inserted representing the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape in 1652. We did not pay attention to Miekie who had wriggled loose and suddenly lay on the ground next to the pram. Luckily she did not hurt herself and did not cry either. Later we decided to take a trip on the sea together on the steamer “de Magnet” around Robben Island. In the beginning all went well. The weather was good and all the passengers chatted happily. Ma had Miekie on her lap, and Tante Marie van Rijn the young Cora. The folklore was that a breast-fed baby would never get seasick. Ma had Miekie in her arms and the boat began to dance on the waves. I walked to the bow with Jopie and when we got back there was little conversation amongst the now pale passengers. When we got back to Ma she was holding the baby above her head and smiling at her. She had just been breastfed and one, two, three she spouted and Ma got the whole lot in her face. Tante Marie and her baby sat on a bench right at the back of the ship and she didn’t dare to look at the sea as she was starting to feel nauseas. She stared pointedly downwards to the mat under her feet where a fox terrier lay. It was still a young dog. Suddenly it also became too much for it and it vomited on Tante Marie’s shoes. Then, naturally, the fat was in the fire and the lovely life began. Whereas, in the beginning there was singing and chatter and jokes, one now heard a totally different sound. Oom v. Rijn got it badly as well but the children held their own quite well and everybody was glad when we approached the jetty in calmer waters. For the rest we had a lovely holiday in the Cape.

Three times a week I gave an evening class, even one at the prison in Potgieter Street to give the English-speaking wardens lessons in Dutch. My salary was then £20 per month plus £8 for the evening classes. We decided to undertake a journey to Holland as I had six months paid leave. Once a year we got a concession ticket on the train and for the boat I got 10% discount because I was in the governmental service, and a further 10% for a return ticket, so that, for the four of us, it cost just over £80 to travel third class from the Cape to Amsterdam. We left Pretoria in the beginning of July and went by one of the boats of the Union Castle line where we had a roomy cabin. Tante Ruis also came and overall we had good weather and a pleasant journey. At Alkmaar Tante Bets and Uncle Dirk and his children stood waiting at the station to fetch us. Twenty years earlier Tante Bets, as a girl of 13, had accompanied me to the station and now she stood at the train with her husband and children to fetch us. It seemed unreal to me in the beginning. Grandmother had booked rooms for us with a friend who had a bookshop and we stayed there for four months. We visited Tante Juut, who lived in Amsterdam, where we stayed for a few weeks and also Tante Christine who lived in Leerdam where Oom Johan was Tax Collector. Oom Kees Spaan worked for the railways, as did Oom Dirk Post. Ma and I often cycled in the district of Alkmaar and visited all the nice places of my youth such as Bergen, School, Egmond Binnen, Egmond a/d Hoef, Egmond aan Zee, Heito, Limmen, Koedijk, Broek op Langendijk etc. The cheese market every Friday was a great attraction. The children also went there, especially around 12 o’clock. Then the chimes in the clock tower would play for an hour and with each stroke of the bell the horses of the carousel would run to each other with levelled lances and the horn-blower would blow with each stroke of the clock. When Miekie woke at night and heard the clock strike she would ask “Do the horses also run at night?” In December we came back with the “Dover Castle”. During our stay in Holland we had beautiful weather. When we left Rotterdam with the Batavier to cross to England the cattle still grazed in the fields, some cows, however, with covers on their backs. The children would have liked to see snow and within a week of our departure, Holland was transformed to a white world. By then we were in the vicinity of the Canary Islands. In Rietfontein we had chickens, doves, tortoises, hedgehogs, white mice and also a dog. It was an Irish setter with red-brown hair. I had made a cart and Ma made a harness out of broad straps for the dog and then Rory was in-spanned and one of the children climbed into the cart. I held onto the backrest of the cart so that the dog could not walk too fast. One day I let the cart go near the house where the road turned. The dog started to run to the house and where the road turned the cart turned over and Jopie ended up on top of the bag of vegetables in the road. In future I was more careful. When we 1/ th were married 12 2 years on 27 March 1915 we had a celebration at home. In our absence our friends had decorated the whole house with flags and flowers and we were amazed at the display when we entered. It was a very pleasant evening and we only got to bed at three o’clock. Just before the visitors arrived there was a heavy rainstorm and since there were no built roads yet they were full of red mud so one can imagine what the house looked like. The following day it took us more than three hours to get the floors clean again, however, the celebration was a success. There were recitals, music and dancing and everybody enjoyed themselves. Jopie and Miekie had learnt a poem for our anniversary which they recited nicely. The exotic trees had become thick and the branches were low so that the children could climb in them. Jannie and Willie Heyman often came to us to play and also enjoyed climbing and the big swing. I made it from four 21 foot firing pipes from locomotives which I bought from Chaimberlain. The top beam was also a thick iron pipe with two strong hooks through it. The thick plank of the swing hung from four strong chains, so that everything was very strong. They had much fun from the high swing. Later I put a small windmill on top of it, with a long triangular tail. We also had an airgun and at times the tail of the windmill was often a target. We also had doves, chickens, white mice, tortoises, hedgehogs etc. The doves were so tame that when they were flying around and we whistled at them they would come and sit on our outstretched arms and take food from our hands. The chickens were also very tame. When one was broody we put her on 13 eggs and when they hatched we took the chicks away and hand reared them and gave the hen, which stayed sitting patiently, another lot of eggs to hatch out. At the agricultural school I had learnt how to make a “wooden mother” to keep the chicks warm at night. This consisted of a small wooden box. Nails were put in the top corners and holes drilled along the top edge. Then a wooden frame was made and placed on top so that it rested on the nails and a thin gunny bag spread over it so that it hung to about two inches from the bottom. Sheep’s wool was placed in this bag. A sliding door was made in the box so that a large chick could pass through it. This door was made of a galvanized iron sheet with a small hole in the top which could then be pulled up with a piece of string. Newspaper was laid in the bottom of the box and covered with a layer of clean sand. When the chicks went into the box at night they kept each other warm under cover of the wool and in this way they grew up comfortably and healthy and were placed with the other fowls. In order that the chicks got enough food when the fowls were fed, a frame was made from chicken wire. This was placed on four bricks so that the chicks could easily get under it but not the fowls and their feed was placed under this wire. In order to have eggs when they were scarce and expensive, Feb – June, we had been taught at Potchefstroom to give them as little food as possible in the beginning of December. They then stopped laying and within 14 days were moulting so that the cage was filled with old feathers. When they were in moult the fowls had to get as much oil containing seed, such as sunflower seed, as possible. Such seed stimulates the growth of new feathers. When they were well covered with new feathers, about mid February, they had to get as much power food as possible, such as finely crushed bone, ground meat, fishmeal, bran, yellow mielies, kaffercorn etc. Then they started to lay again whilst other fowls were in moult and, as winter was approaching, they would begin to lay towards the end of July.

In 1911, when Miekie was born, part of the farm “Zaaihoek”, in the district Middelburg, 16 miles north of Witbank was sold. Together with Mr. van Rijn, also a teacher, we bought the farm of 350 morgen1 for £600. That piece of ground was called Grootfontein . However, we did not have that much money so we went to the Landbank for a loan of £300. The manager asked us if we had a life policy as a loan on the policy was much cheaper than one from the Landbank since they would have to send somebody to the farm to value it and with the survey it would cost £40. This was good advice since proof of the loan was indicated on our policies and it only cost a revenue stamp of 2/6. The farm was then paid up directly. We went there in the holiday and found a black chief (Kameel) living there with his (extended) family. We told him that they could continue living there. The chief lived in an old farmhouse that had been burnt down in the Boer war and had been repaired with a layer of old corrugated iron and other households lived in grass huts. The farmhouse consisted of six rooms, three at the front and three at the back, with earth floors. In front of the house was an irrigation dam and lower down was a garden and sowing lands. The dam was filled by a clear stream of water coming out of two fountains, originating on the farm, and which ran strongly in winter and summer. Behind the house, against a ridge was a cattle pen and on the ridge was a stone building which we later converted into stables for the horses. In the garden was a host of peach and apple trees and on the partition of the lands was a row of oak and bluegum trees. The boundary was a wall of packed rocks. At the bottom of the lands was the Klipspruit (Brugspruit), which also formed the boundary of Grootfontein. On the other side of the Klipspruit was another section of the farm Zaaihoek which belonged to Mr. Meyer who lived on the Highveld. On that section about twelve black households farmed (they were more or less solely in charge). Once per year Mr. Meyer came with ox-wagons to fetch his portion of the harvest. That was about one hundred to one hundred and twenty bags of corn. Apart from that Mr. Meyer never came there and the blacks could do as they liked. To the West and across the Klipspruit, about a mile away, were our closest neighbours, the family Hendrik Bekker and, to the South, the family Tys Pretoorius, whose son lived on the farm Hartebeest fontein valley?2 near Witbank and not far from that his eldest brother Nols who was an

1 Unit of measure approximately 2 acres. The amount of land ploughed in one morning (Morgen in Dutch & German)

2 He was not sure of the name Elder. Not far, on the opposite side of the spruit, lived the brother-in-law of old Mr. Pretorius, Andries Oosthuizen. Those were our closest neighbours and good neighbours they were. Zaaihoek

Our plan was to make as many improvements to the farm as possible so that we could retire there on pension and build some comfortable houses there. During every school holiday the whole family and a large number of friends went picnicking there with for a few weeks or longer and we took tents with us. These were pitched in a forest of wattle and poplar trees. Kameel would fetch us from Witbank station with an ox-wagon. Those who had brought bicycles rode ahead to prepare the campsite. Then everything would be in order when the wagon arrived and everything could be unloaded quickly and put in its place. In the meantime the blacks had cut grass to fill the ticking1 of the mattresses so that we could sleep in the evening. As much wood as possible was collected to make fire. The first time we camped there it rained the whole night and in the morning everything was wet. We could not make fire with the wet wood. Early in the morning a black woman came past and saw how we were struggling with the fire. She went to her work at the old Pretorius family and an hour later she was back with a large dish on her head and under the cloth there were two loaves of bread and a cooked leg of mutton. She gave them to us with the words “The old lady gives it to us because she knows we cannot make fire in the wet conditions”. The maid had told her we were camped out there. We had not even met our neighbours yet. Later we went there to meet and thank them and, as can be imagined, it became a staunch friendship. Later we also became acquainted with the other neighbours, the family Bekker lived on the opposite side of the Klipspruit, also on a portion of the farm Rooipoort2, who also became good friends and supported you with word and deed.

Later we bought wood and corrugated iron from the old gentleman Breek, the father-in-law of my friend and partner van Rhijn and built a 16 x 24 foot room with it, a door on each side but without windows, and so we had a permanent and dry house in the bush. Shelves were built in to store the cups, plates and some primuses etc. so that we did not have to bring them from Pretoria in future. A long table was also placed in the centre and benches made for each side. Two storm lanterns hung above the table and there was a third with which to go outside in the evening. Every summer and winter holiday we went to the farm to picnic and make improvements to the dam and water furrows, the road and fields and friends came along regularly.

We planted 200 orange trees and also some peach, apricot and plum trees and along the boundary wall a hedge of grafted quinces and some exotic trees. From our picnic site we often went camping with the ox-wagon or hiked to the junction of the Klipspruit, which had clear water, and Olifants River to fish, and naturally swim in the clear, five foot deep, water of the Klipspruit. Fish were bountiful as one day we caught 52 sizable fish between us. At the confluence Mr. Goodwin, the manager of one of the coal mines at Witbank- to whom that piece of land belonged, had built a giant rondavel out of stone, some 24 foot in diameter, with a door and two windows in it. Centre, as a table, was a giant round reel of a mine cable at least six foot in diameter. Under the top he had built in cupboards with gauze doors to store provisions. The door was always unlocked and we had permission to use the rondavel. There was also a rowing boat in the Klipspruit, locked with a chain to an iron post in the ground. The rowing boat was about 15 feet long and the oars lay in the rondavel on the rafters. The Olifants River was about 200 feet wide there and fairly deep and on the other side were fairly high mountains housing many baboons which one could hear shouting early in the morning. They often rolled stones from the mountain. Once a group of us, Father and Mother Breek, six children and the family Scholden with four children had again gone to the Olifants River to spend a few days

1 A strong , closely woven cotton or linen fabric specifically for mattress coverings or awnings.

2 Not to be confused with the farm at Waaikraal. picnicking and fishing. Several people suggested taking the boat and go sailing, but it was chained and locked. Someone then had the thought to pull the fence pole out of the ground and load it, chain and all, into the boat. So said, so done. The oars were fetched and we went along, singing and rowing. There were 12 persons in the boat, large and small and we enjoyed our boat trip whilst we relieved each other with rowing. Sometimes we went into a bay where another stream joined the river and looked on the shore how it was there and probed to see if the fish were biting there. After a few hours we came back singing. The fish were naturally cleaned and fried. In the evening we often used to sit around a fire under the trees and sing. Once the family Hartman came along and brought their friend Victor Pohl, who could play the violin beautifully. He sometimes gave a whole violin concert outside, under the trees, interspersed with us singing. There was also swimming every morning in the clear water of the Klipspruit, nowhere deeper than five feet and with a hard bottom. The water of the Olifants was always vaal and we never swam in it. For the picnic we had brought everything with us, to the extent of some live chickens which ran around loose and got enough left overs to eat and could fend for themselves with ants and grass hoppers etc. When the meat supplies ran low a chicken was slaughtered now and then. Someone came upon the idea to make a fish-trap out of chicken wire and branches to try and catch fish. We put some chicken entrails in it and fixed it to a long line and threw it into the Olifants River. After two days we fetched it and there were two large eels in it. Aunt Nettie and Oom Jan Breek were taking them out of the trap and one bit her on her finger, in the afternoon we ate lovely fried eel.

One day a couple of parents from the area came to visit us and asked if there was a possibility of starting a school on the farm as the nearest school was twelve miles away and there was no possibility of sending their children there every day. A letter was sent to the Education Department in Pretoria and permission was given provided there would be 25 children to start with and we provided a school building which, if satisfactory, would be taken over by the Education Department with four or five morgen of land. Well, there were 25 children to start with so it was decided to build a school. Mr. van Rhijn’s father-in-law, Mr. Breek, who was a carpenter and builder, would take on the job. There would be at least two classrooms each large enough for 60 children, a wide veranda the length of the two classrooms, with hooks for their hats and coats, and at the end of the veranda some hand basins with taps connected to a tank which collected rainwater from the roof. The walls were from cut stone. On the corners Mr. Breek placed white, hard sandstone blocks, alternating wide and narrow pieces so that the building looked attractive. The same was done at the windows and the lintels and sills were also made of the hard sandstone. The floors were wood and the partition between the rooms was made of doors which could be folded together to both sides and thus form a large hall. The floor of the veranda, which was 18 inches above ground level, was made of concrete. All woodwork, inside and out, was painted white. When it was completed Mr. Hendrik Bekker, who had been elected chairman of the school committee, let the Middelburg School Board know that all was in order and the members of the board could come and have a look. When these gentlemen arrived on Mr. Bekker’s farm they went directly to a long barn built of raw bricks with a thatched roof and a cattle dung floor and asked if this was the school building . Mr. Bekker laughed and said “No gentlemen that is not the school building, but do you see that large stone building on the hill across the Klipriver? That is our new school”. They then went there together and could not believe their eyes. The classrooms were 12 feet high, the walls whitewashed and the windows on both sides opened high. Only the school furniture was outstanding. Unanimously they declared that for miles around there was not such a modern and solid school building to be found. It was one of the nicest school buildings in the district. Thus Mr. Breek got praise for his work. The furniture for 100 pupils would be sent as soon as possible and an advertisement would be placed in the School papers for a new head teacher of the new “Zaaihoek” school. Mr van Rhijn, who was a teacher at the Twist street School in Johannesburg, a school with more than a thousand pupils, applied for the post and was appointed. We immediately arranged to build a large stone barn in the fields, as temporary housing for him. The barn lay at the base of a low ridge that was covered with trees and behind the house was a water furrow which took the excess water from the dam to the fields and further on to the Klipspruit.

After the school holiday in 1915 the school started. Mr. van Rhijn was there with his three children and the other 25 children were present with their parents, but the desks, blackboards and other educational equipment had not arrived yet. However, Mr. van Rhijn had a solution. There were still a number of gangplanks and other building material left over and from these, using some crates and drums, he made the benches for the pupils to sit on. In the first few days all lessons were oral. He brought all the pencils he could find from home and cut them into small pieces to hand out to the older children. He also brought all the writing paper he had. Some planks were planed and painted black to make the blackboard and the letters, numbers and words written on it and they had to use their seats as desks to copy the work. During this period he took the children outside and, in the shade of the trees, levelled some building sand with a broom and wrote letters, numbers and small words in the sand with a stick which the children had to repeat and copy with a stick in the sand. Thus was the beginning of the Zaaihoek School until, after 3 weeks, proper school furniture and educational equipment arrived. The children learnt and the number of pupils grew until, after a few years, there were 36 children, the number at which an assistant teacher could be requested. I had then been a teacher at Pretoria North School for fourteen years. When the open post at the Zaaihoek School was advertised I was appointed and had to start there in September 1918. In October the influenza epidemic broke out in Pretoria and we just escaped it. I had put our house in Rietfontein up for sale but there were so many houses empty in Pretoria that no buyers came. It stood on two erves sized 220 x 234 Cape Feet. I did not want to let it as you don’t know sort of people you get in who don’t pay rent and might ruin the property. We eventually got an offer of £525 cash and we sold it for that. On the farm Mr. van Rhijn had repaired the old house that Kaptein had used and the walls whitewashed so that it now looked quite good. It however had a low flat roof and consisted of a lounge with a bedroom on each side, without doors in the openings. Only the large bedroom had a window. Even in the lounge there was no window so when the double front door was closed it was pitch dark inside. At the back there were also three small rooms. The middle one was our dining room, left the kitchen with a hearth and chimney and to the right a store room. All the floors where made of plain earth. In the whole house there were no doors in the openings. There were only three outer doors and these were made of box planks. In the small dining room there was a small window. We later made windows which could be opened in the kitchen and the small bedroom. This was quite difficult because the walls of the house were made of fine compressed clay and were almost three feet thick. Oom Willie Pretorius helped me make a square hole through the wall. With a long hand drill we made a hole in it and then pushed a piece of barbed wire through it and fixed a stick to each end. One stood inside and the other outside and we sawed through the clay with the barbed wire until we had a nice square hole that was just large enough for the opening window frame. Later we had blacks build a broad veranda at the back.

In order to get as many pupils as possible for the new school we made a plan. It was at the time when horse-drawn busses were being replaced with motor busses. I bought two of the old horse busses and brought them to the farm. In the middle we made a broad bench so that each bus could seat 30 children. Then we sent each bus, in-spanned with six oxen and a black as driver and supervisor, to fetch those children who stayed far away in the mornings and take them back again in the afternoon. One bus went to Grootvlei and the other to Makibiesberg. The Government paid £25 for each bus every three months for transporting the children. When everything went well we sold the busses to the farmers of the farms mentioned, who could then look after their children’s transport with their own oxen and then got a steady income of £25 every three months. They were very grateful to us for this. The result was that with passing of time we had 89 children in the school. Mr. van Rhijn had, in his four classes, i.e. Stds 3, 4, 5 and 6, thirty children and I had in Sub Stds 1 and 2 and Stds 1 and 2, 59 children. It was actually far too much and gave us hands full of work, but we combined as many lessons as possible that could be combined such as languages, reading, history, geography, singing and bible lessons. We had success with our work as each year the children were promoted by the inspector. The Klipspruit (Brugspruit) ran between the farms Grootvlei and Rooipoort and in the rainy season it could become full and deep. Mr. Breek, the father-in-law of Mr. van Rhijn, who built the school, then also built a over the river. The middle section was 30 feet long and two feet wide and stood on tall thick tarred poles about 15 feet above the river. At each end he made a sloping bridge of some 25 feet long as that section of the spruit also became flooded at high water. So the children could reach the other side dry-footed. On the sloping sections were no handrails, only on the high section. The school building cost us almost £900 and the Education Department only paid £3 rent per month for it. A shopkeeper on a farm near Witbank got £5 per month for a stable with an earthen floor and thatched roof with space for only 25 children and still considered this far too little. We had, however, been promised that the Education Department would take over the school for £1000 but this never happened. Our daughter Johanna, having spent a year at school, had to take her final Std VI exams in Witbank. That week she was at the home of the family Coetsee in Witbank and she passed with distinction. Now she had to go to high school, East End High School, in Pretoria. We asked Oma and Opa van Boven who lived in the railway camp in Pretoria, if she could stay with them and they agreed. Later the youngest, Miekie, would follow the same route and we would remain behind alone on the farm and make all sorts of improvements – for whom? For Mr. van Rhijn it was different. Apart from two daughters he also had a son, whom he wanted to train as a farmer. We decided to sell our share of the farm and return to Pretoria so that our children would have a home there, and that is what happened.

But before I go on I want to relate a funny story. We had only had the farm for a short while and were having a picnic there again during the summer holiday when we found a small waterfall of about four foot high, about 20 yards lower down were a few places only a few feet deep with a hard bottom. From the waterfall the water flowed over a large rock plate to a hole that was a few feet deep. Over the rock plate the water ran 6 to 8 inches deep. Mr van Rhijn and I were in the deeper section with the older children and Ma was washing Miekie, who was about nine months old, at the waterfall. Due to the slipperiness of the soap Miekie slid out of her hands and floated down the stream. Ma shouted in agitation “Jan, Jan, there goes the child” and there she came floating along to us. We grabbed her and put her on the grass near the other children who were playing in the deeper section. During an unguarded moment she crawled to the deeper section and fell in. We quickly got her on dry ground and kept our eye on her from then on. When the children were bigger and we were living on the farm permanently and Miekie was also going to school we found a nicer swimming spot just below the fields. It was a deep hole full of clear water about 500 yards long and 30 feet deep. Through the clear water you could see the tree stumps lying on the bottom. A little lower the water ran past rocks which stuck out above it so that one could cross dry footed to the other side. On the other side, next to the water, was a rock some ten feet high and further upstream, from the base of this rock was a large flat slab of rock about eight feet wide and under four feet of water. From the side one could walk on it. Past ten feet the water suddenly became deeper, to twenty feet. About three feet of this ledge, in the deep section was a round rock about five feet under water and when I stood on it, on my toes, only my head stuck out above the water. One day when we went swimming again Miekie, who was about six years old, stood on the rock above the swimming place. The rock went vertically into the water. I stood on the rock and stretched my arms out and called to Miekie “Jump”, and she jumped. I caught her in my arms as she plunged into the water. I brought her to the shallow ledge and said “Now we are going to swim and you sit on my back”. This went well but she climbed higher and higher up my back as I sank deeper into the water and she kept her arms tightly around my neck. I told her to bend her fingers and hook them over my shoulders and lie flat and kick with her legs in the water. Then it went better and we swam a long distance before we returned to the shallow water and the other bathers. That was her first swimming lesson and soon she could swim alone. Jopie could swim already in shallow water but she did not dare to go into the deep water. In the summer holidays we always had nieces, nephews and friends come and lodge with us on the farm, amongst others Jannie and Willie Heymans. Willie was a few years younger than Jopie and he was a good swimmer. I often swam with him to the end of the deep water hole and stayed resting at the shallow end before swimming back. I asked Jopie if she would swim with us to the other side of the deep water. She would swim between Willie and me and if she got tired Willie and I would stick out an arm and give her a hand to hold onto whilst swimming with the other. So said, so done. She was now satisfied that nothing could happen and without our help she reached the other side. Then she overcame her fear and often swam over the deep water to the other side. I remember when I was small that I was in the same situation and did not dare go into deep water although I could swim. I made a plan with other boys of my age. We went to the butcher and bought two inflated pigs bladders for a penny each. They were tightly tied shut. The bladders were fixed to a belt with a buckle and this belt tied under our arms. The bladders kept us up and so we swam across the wide and deep canal and our fear of deep water was also past. Our parents naturally knew nothing about our secret swim.

Now I continue with our transfer to Pretoria as the new occupants, Mr and Mrs. Malan of Witbank, took over the farm Grootvlei, section Zaaihoek. Under the oak trees we had built a large room from rocks, thatched and with windows and a door and whitewashed inside. Mr Malan asked if he could send his cattle which arrived a few days later. I had always kept the stables clean and thrown the manure onto a heap next to the building. The oats stubble was also put on the heap. The horses also got salt in the manger. There were about two wagon loads of manure, destined to be spread over the fields. The manure naturally also contained some salt. When Mr. Malan’s oxen arrived on the farm they soon noticed that the manure tasted salty and within 14 days the whole mountain of manure had been eaten. They fought to get to it. Pretoria to end1

There was no list of vacancies for teaching posts so a week later I went to Pretoria to enquire. I spoke to the secretary of Education, whom I knew, and he said that there were two posts, both at English medium schools where I would have to give a Dutch class. One was at Roberts Heights and the other at Daspoort. I could choose and chose the latter since the road to Robert's heights was up a steep hill and the one to Daspoort more level. Then I tried to get a house in Pretoria. First I went to our old house in Rietfontein which we had sold two years before for £525 but they wanted £1000 for it. All property had gone up in price due to the return of the military forces. This was in the beginning of 1920. At Rietfontein there was no electric light or water supply and I decided to see if I could not get something better for that price in Pretoria. That succeeded because Grannie had delivered a baby at Mr and Mrs. Beauchamp, who lived in the Bloed Street. Mr. Beauchamp said that his neighbour wanted to sell his house. I went there to have a look. The house was well maintained and did not require painting. There was electric light and a sewage service, although the toilet was outside. It consisted of a front porch, a small hall, two bedrooms in the front, a dining room and a small bedroom, a bathroom and a fairly large kitchen. It stood on a third of an acre 45 feet wide and 220 feet deep and I decided to buy it. The price was £1000 including registration costs and we could move in directly. During the Easter holidays we moved to Pretoria by ox-wagon and I still had to go to my post at Zaaihoek for three months. I asked Mr and Mrs Willie Pretorius, who lived half a mile from the school, if I could get board and lodging with them and they agreed. In the mornings I took the children to school and in the afternoons we walked back again together. Mr and Mrs van Rhijn were very sad that we left. The day before closing of the school for the holidays a concert was organised and there I said goodbye to the children and their parents. Mr van Rhijn gave an emotional speech and said he was losing a good teacher and a true friend. Usually we closed the school at 12 o’clock and then took the children home to teach them some of the newest agricultural methods. The children had to make seedling beds. One was not fertilised, the second with kraal manure, the third with horse manure, the fourth with agricultural lime, the fifth with superphosphate and the sixth with everything mixed in. Mielies or corn was planted in them and the children could see the results later on. We also had a hatching machine and the chickens were just coming out. The children stood around to see how the chickens pecked open the shells and crept out. I said “Isn’t that marvellous” as they had not yet seen it. One of the children who lived in town and who lodged on the farm for a short time and was temporarily with us at school said “No teacher, I don’t find it marvellous that they break the shell and creep out, what I do find marvellous is how the thing got in there”. Before the children went home they all got a glass of lemonade and cake.

When I arrived in Pretoria I first went to visit the School Principal in Daspoort to meet him since it was still holidays. He was English. There were almost 700 children in the school and at least 30% were Afrikaans speaking. The Department then decided to build a new Afrikaans medium school in Herman tad, which was completed after two years. We moved there with 150 children and four teachers. There were four classrooms and a couple of rooms for hats and coats and basins with running water and on each corner there was a room, to the left an office for the head, to the right the staff room. In each class, and the other rooms, was a fireplace. Mr J. Le Rous, who had been vice Principal at the English medium school was appointed head of the Afrikaans medium school. The curriculum was immediately changed from the “Hollands” medium education to Afrikaans medium. It did not present a problem for us as we could all speak fluent Afrikaans. But now another story from the time I still gave Hollands lessons at the Daspoort School. The holidays approached and the exams

1 Document stops abruptly had been completed and I had done the reports in Dutch. On the report was a space where the progress of the pupil was filled in. This was naturally also in Dutch, for example “zeer goed, best, goed, vrij goed, matig” etc. (Excellent, very good, good, fairly good, medium). When I had handed out the reports a few of the grown up girls of the upper classes, who were 15 to 16 years old came to me and said “Sir we want to ask something” and I said “That is fine girls, aren’t you satisfied with your reports?”. “No Sir, but look, on our reports it says only Goed and on their report it says Vrij goed, don’t we court well then?”!!!

We lived comfortably in 116 Bloed Street. It was on the road to Daspoort and the children went to school by bicycle and I bought a small motorcycle. The children played piano and Jopie also learnt to play the violin. When we still lived on the farm Ma played piano and Jopie the violin. That duet often took place in the evenings. The front door then stood open. One evening when Jopie again played the violin a few small Blacks came to stand at the door. We naturally thought they stood to listen to the music. After a while I asked them what they wanted or if they had a message from the neighbours. The answer was “No Baas, we just want to see how long it will still take for the nonnie to saw through the little case.”

In Pretoria we also often had musical evenings. We were a bit short of chairs and so decided to have Mr. van Schaik, a friend of ours who had a furniture factory, make six chairs and two armchairs out of oak wood for us. The rice was £2.10 for the ordinary chairs and £3.15 for each armchair, altogether £22.102. Our friend Beauchamp found this very expensive and said that he could but them from the shop for half that price. That was 1920 and now it is 1958 and we use them daily and they still look like new. Because we had a sandbox behind the house the neighbour’s children would come and play. I had also built a sturdy swing for the children. We had good neighbours. To the left of us lived the family Beauchamp and to the right the family Jonas where there were also a couple of small children. Mr Beauchamp worked for the railways at the station and Mr Jonas in the shop of John Jack. Oom Heyman still had the grocery shop and lemonade factory on the corner of Potgieter and Skinner streets and Aunt Nell still helped in the shop. Aunt Marie was Post Mistress at the Sunnyside post Office. Her husband died young and she had two children, Corrie and Herman. She lived in with good people not far from her work. Aunt Nel now expected her third child. The eldest was Willem, named after his father and the youngest was Jan, named after Opa van Boven. He was 14 when small Nellie was born on 10October 1921. They were very pleased with their daughter. Oom Herman asked Aunt Marie if she wanted to come and work in the shop and give up her work at the post office. She did that and asked if she and her two children could come and stay with us in Bloed Street because it was so much closer to the shop. We agreed but the bedroom was very small. We decided to build a big room, an equally large stoep, a pantry and a workshop which could later serve as a garage. At the same time second windows were inserted in the kitchen and front bedroom. The big veranda was now used as the dining room. We also put a geyser in the bathroom. The total cost was £350.

Young Herman, of Aunt Marie began to have trouble with his legs which were blue and purple. Our house doctor Dr Machol was called and he said it was in his blood. He had to lie with his legs in the sun as much as possible, every day three and a half hours. We put a table outside and he lay under it with his head in the shade and his legs in the sun. We kept it up for six months and then an improvement followed. Then our eldest got gastric enteritis. The doctor asked Ma if she could look after her otherwise she would have to be brought to hospital. But Ma did not want that. Then nobody was allowed into the lounge other than Ma whilst wearing a white coat such as that of a nurse, and in

2 6x£2.10 = £12 and 60 shillings = £3, thus £15.0, plus 2x£3.15 = £6and 30 shillings = £1 10 shillings, thus £7.10 totalling £22.10 front of the door hung a white sheet which had to be kept wet with a disinfectant. Jopie was not allowed anything other than milk. The Doctor came every day and after three weeks the crisis was past and the Doctor brought a large bunch of flowers and congratulated us. But still great care with eating. He gave us a menu what Jopie was allowed to eat for the first few weeks. She had lost almost all her hair but she got a nice curly head back. Also small Herman’s leg got better.

When small Nel was ten months old her father got sick. He was taken to hospital where he died a week later. Thus small Nel did not know her father at all. The shop was sold and Aunt Nel was left with nothing at all and came to live with Grannie and Oubaas with three children. Willie was 15, Jan 14 and small Nell 1 year. Oubaas built a few rooms, kitchen and bathroom behind the house for Aunt Nel and the children. Aunt Nel later got work as a cook in the kitchen of the National Club and rented a cottage near it on the corner of Paul Kruger and Proes streets. In that same house Aunt Marie lived with her first husband who died there. Then Aunt Marie was naturally also without work. She applied for work with the Post Office again and got work as postmistress at Dullstroom where she shortly (went)3 with her two children. Corrie and Herman left. At the next Christmas holidays we went to visit her and the niece of Mrs v d Hoven, Bets Stoffels, who had just come out from Holland, came along. We had a lovely holiday there and, although it was summer, it was cool there as Dullstroom is 7000 feet above sea level whilst Pretoria is only 4500 feet. We met many families there. The oldest were Oom Teun Janson and his wife. Then there was the families Alers, Miss Kroon, Joubert etc. Aunt Marie rented a small house from Mrs Joubert, close to the Post Office. Oom and Tante Biljon lived on a farm not far from the town; Aunt Marie later married their youngest son. At Dullstroom Corrie climbed into a tree and fell out of it breaking her arm and also got internal injuries from which she died in Mafeking at 21 years old. Aunt Marie’s Husband, Hendrik van Biljon was later transferred to Ginkingkolon in Natal, north of Durban, as cattle inspector. Sarel was born there. Grannie and Ma went there to help Marie but got there when the little one was already born. Later they were transferred to Vryheid and got another son Jan and a daughter Willemien. Later Marie and her husband were transferred to Mafeking.

In 1923 we bought 460 and 462 Proes Street. The half erf was 60 feet wide and more than 400 feet long. 460 was a stone building with four rooms, kitchen, bathroom and front stoep and 462 also a four roomed house of wood and corrugated iron. Shortly after that we bought the erf that bordered it for £700 whilst I paid £1000 for erves 460 and 462. Later we moved to 460 Proes street and rented the house in Bloed Street for £15 per month. By Now Jopie and Miekie were at the East End High School. We soon got acquainted with the family Groeneweg who also lived in Proes Street and whose nephew, Dick, also attended East End High School and often came to us with other friends of their age. After Jopie and also Dick passed their end exams they went to work. Dick got a post at the Netherlands Bank and Jopie at the Post Office in Pretoria. Later she got work at the Union Buildings, section Agriculture, where she met Herman de Bruijn.

Dick enjoyed cabinet making and the first piece he made was a writing table. In 1924 we had two houses built on the erf 460/2. The builder, Mr v d Hoogen with whom Piet Colyn worked as apprentice, put a board on the wire fence of 462 on which stood “De Veerlaan” and he had all material delivered there, and that name stayed. A friend of ours, Antoon Kollerer, also a builder, had accepted the carpentry work for the houses and another friend, Adriaan van Schaik, did the painting. We had obtained permission from the town council to build the houses if the street De Veerlaan was

3 Word missing

built and paid for. This cost more than £400 and we let the town council do it. In 1925 grandma de Veer was 85 years old and Ma insisted that I go to Holland alone to attend the celebration. Ma would not go along and look after the children as her parents and sisters lived in Pretoria. Then Aunt Nel and little Nel, who was now four years old, decided to come along to make personal contact with the family of her deceased husband, with whom she had regularly corresponded. I got six months leave and we left in the beginning of July 1925. My Brother Jacob, who had also come to the Transvaal in 1900, and who also lived in Pretoria could not get leave. On 25 October my three sisters and I, and a host of friends, celebrated Grandma’s 85th birthday in Muiden where she lived with Tante Juut and Oom Kees. We had a lovely time and good weather until November. Then it got cold and wet with snowstorms and I decided to go back to the Transvaal, the land of sunshine and warmth, where we arrived at the end of November. Ma was surprised that we came back so soon. She had wanted us to celebrate Christmas and New Year with the family. In 1926 we moved from Proes street to No 1 De Veerlaan and let 460 and 62. We had to live frugally as we had to pay the bond of £1500 and the interest was 8%.

Every winter my mother had trouble with bronchitis and in the cold winter of 1926 it got so bad that she died from it on 26 February. Before her passing Ma still got a letter from her thanking her that she had encouraged me to go to Holland to see her once more.

At my departure Tante Juut asked me if I would come to Holland when I went on pension in 1934, thus 9 years later and if we would settle in Holland again. I told her that if we remained healthy we would certainly come again, but if she had been in the Transvaal one year she would certainly not asked me that question. We continued to write to each other faithfully. We wanted to build a few more houses but the times were bad and there were more than 800 houses standing empty in Pretoria and that got worse during the that began later. Jo and Dick asked if we approved of them getting engaged in 1927. Now, there was nothing against that. They were both working and saved what they had. Dick and a few youngsters asked if we could not make a workshop for them. If we paid for the material they would build it. This was acceptable and it was decided to put a floor above the servants rooms behind nos. 1 and 3 De Veerlaan by means of a veranda jutting out six feet from the front so that a work area of 16 x 21 feet was formed. Mr Dekker, the builder, had bought old military barracks and there were flooring planks there, more than an inch thick. These were purchased and existing wall were built to height and the floor laid so that building could continue. The unit got a flat roof , at the back eleven foot and at the front nine foot high. In the front the veranda stood on concrete pillars and that section closed with wood and flat galvanised iron sheets and opening windows provided. On the Southern side a double opening window was built in the masonry and at the front a double wooden door with a wooden staircase to it, which we also bought second hand. Everybody helped with the building, including Ma and the girls, who had to mix lime and throw masonry bricks up to be caught on the next level. In the masonry work quarter inch round bars were laid for strength and when the building was complete I plastered it myself. I had spied on builders how they did it and it went well. Dick made all his furniture there in his spare time, but the first (job) was building a solid workbench. Many friends made use of the workshop. In those days all work had to be done by hand. Machines were too expensive. Electric lights were also installed in the servants room and the workshop so that they could work at night. Dick also studied for his exams which he passed. After they had worked and saved for six years Dick could get long leave and they were married in 1931 and decided to honeymoon in Holland etc. He returned to his parents in den Haag as a married man. They travelled throughout Holland by car and also visited England and Scotland. Herman de Bruijn and Miekie started work, Herman at the Department of Agriculture and Miekie at the office of the Government Buyer, and were married on 7 January 1933 after Herman had completed his BA exams. Their honeymoon was by car, which they had equipped for sleeping. Their journey was through the whole Union and they visited lots of family in the Cape Province as well as De Doorns in the fertile Hex river valley near Worcester where Herman was born. Before their marriage Herman had already been transferred to Cape Town and they still lived there when I went on pension in 1934 (1 Feb). We decided (Ma and I) to make a trip to Europe and in the beginning of February went to Miek and Herman who lived in Seapoint in Devonshire Villa. They had rented that house from someone who had gone to Europe on leave. Whilst we were there their lease expired and we moved to the house named Friar’s Cragg from where we left for Holland on 21 May 1934 per SS Userami. At Antwerp we stayed fourteen days with our family and visited Brussel and many places in Belgium. We had a lovely time there. Then we went on to Amsterdam where we collected from the train by Tante Juut and Oom Kees Spaan and went by car to their house in Muiden at Amsterdam. We visited Dick’s parents a few times and met Dick’s brother, Anton Groeneweg from Johannesburg who was also on leave in Holland. We visited many other family members in Holland, such as Tante Christien and Johan Altorffer who then lived in Breda. They had good friends namely Mr and Mrs de Kramer. He had a Zaanse timber trade in Breda and often had to go by car to his clients everywhere in the province North Brabant and the northern part of Belgium and I often accompanied him. In this way I saw a lot of north Brabant and the northern part of Belgium. The people were very friendly and hospitable and I saw many old cities and towns and some buildings more than 900 years old. In Brussel we saw old houses made of wood from 1300. As far as money was concerned we had some damage as the Union had gone off the gold standard but not Holland, so that we only got 10/6 for our South African pound. As a result we found everything very expensive in Holland. Still, we had a lovely time in Holland, and enjoyed our time there tremendously. Tante Bets and Oom Dick then lived in Nijmegen, Joop was still at home but Jannie had already been in Java for a few years as a nurse. We had not been in Holland long when Tante Bets became ill. When It appeared to be serious Jannie was sent a telegram that if she still wanted to see her mother she would have to come as soon as possible, which she did, but did not see her mother again as she had already been buried when she arrived in Holland. We often went to visit the Avelingen, who had come over from Netherlands India - Semarang - to Bussum, not far from Muiden. Oom Gerard and Tante Annie had specially come to Holland to have their two youngest daughters go to the Higher Public school in Holland for their education. There were three children, Gerdi, Zus and Willem who was called Pim. Oom Gerard was Chief with the Netherlands India Marine and had taken early pension. Later his brother Tonny and his wife Grethe and their sone also came from Java to Holland. We visited Tante Anna Pedersen, an(natural) aunt of Ma, who also lived in Amsterdam. She was a widow and with her lived a grand niece of her’s who was called Mies. Her son Gerrit worked in Venezuela (Maracaibo) at a Netherlands Petroleum Company and we also exchanged letters with him. After he had been there for ten years he came back because his eyesight had become very poor and he was to be treated by a specialist professor at the university of Utrecht. Later he married Mies and they had two children of which the youngest died at twelve years of age. Because his eyesight got worse he did not go back to south America and they went to live in Hilversum. Gerrit later became totally blind. A loom was purchased for him and he learnt to weave and he and his wife earned a living with it. When we lived with Tante Juut their son and daughter, Jaap and Cor were also working. Jaap as Electrical Engineer at Amsterdam city council and Cor at a laboratory for milk research, also at Amsterdam city council. Jaap was engaged to Lien Tinholt with whom he had been at the high school in Bussum. She was a pharmacist and worked in Bussum. Jaap later got a better job at a machine factory but the earnings were still very small. Oom Kees and Tante Juut lived in Muiden in a house which belonged to the yard where he worked as accountant. Bussiness deteriorated due to the injudicious business affairs of the owner of the yard and Oom Kees was put off and another put in his place who not only had to see to the bookkeeping but also travel around getting orders for the shipbuilding yard. Oom Kees naturally had to leave the house but luckily they got a nice inexpensive flat in the Haarlemmermeerstraat in Amsterdam. Oom Kees luckily still had a small pension from the railway where he had worked for a long time, and soon also got work as bookkeeper for several businesses and gave bookkeeping lessons so that the household could continue normally. We helped them move. Before we went back to Pretoria we asked Oom Kees and Tante Juut if we could take Jaap with us back to South Africa as the work prospects were not so rosy in Holland that the engaged couple could get married but his parents were very much against it. We asked Oom Gerard Aveling and Tante Annie, who lived in Bussum, if their eldest son Gerdi could come with us. He was an advertising artist who also drew for newspapers and periodicals but that work also got less and les for him. His parents agreed and in the beginning of April 1935 we left with the SS Ubena of the German East Africa line for Cape Town. Just before our departure we got a letter from Miekie and Herman that(sic) they had bee transferred to Pietermaritzburg and that we should book to Durban because they would fetch us from the boat there, and that happened. On the outward journey we received a telegram from Jo and Dick that they had become richer by a healthy son who was named Andre Rene. We were grandparents.

By means of intervention from Mr. Rompel, whom we knew, Gerdi immediately got a job in Cape Town. Mr Rompel was editor of Die Burger, a Cape newspaper. When we arrived in Durban not only Herman and Miekie were there to fetch us but also Jopie and Dick and little Andre who greeted us with “Oma en Opa”. Dick had obtained leave and decided to go to Durban to fetch us as well. We stayed a few days on the coast and when Jo and Dick returned to Pretoria by train we went along to Pietermaritzburg with Miek and Herman. Our heavy luggage we sent by train to Pretoria. Miekie and Herman had a small Austin. After we had been in Pietermaritzburg for a week Herman got a months leave and he decided that the four of us should make a tour. The car was loaded with a small tent, pots, pans, all sorts of food etc. Opa and Oma sat in the back and were buried with bedding so that practically only our heads stuck out above it. There we went, first to Durban. Right on that day a large motorbike race was being held from Durban to Pretoria. Over and again a motorbike flashed past us and at all the blind bends in the road were people with red flags. When this was waved we had to stop so that a participant could flay by and when it was save we were beckoned on. We also had a large tin of petrol, oil and water with us. From Durban it went northwards and around five o’clock a suitable campsite was picked to camp out. The tent was pitched, several things unpacked, wood sought and fire made, food cooked and then we crept under the wool. Our first campsite was a few miles north of Eshowe on the edge of a forest where we found plenty of dry wood to make fire and on our departure the next morning we took a good supply with us in case we would need it at our next outspan point, which was actually the case. At scenic places we stopped a while and made tea and had something to eat so that we did not have to remain sitting for too long. One night it had rained and when we left the following morning we came to a steep hill and the road was wet red clay on which the wheels turned around without the car moving forwards. We decided to have Miekie alone in the car behind the wheel and the three others would push the car but that also did not work. Then it was decided to pick long grass and place it under the back wheels. That helped and so we slowly came forwards until we were eventually at the top of the hill. After that the road became harder and after a few days we reached Pongola where hard work was underway building a settlement for farmers. A dam wall had been built in the river and everywhere concrete were being laid. Everywhere trees were felled and cut into long pieces and placed vertically against each other to dry and the stumps and roots were also taken out. At last we came to Gollel on the border of Swaziland. In the old days the northern part of Natal was unsuitable for farming due to the Tsetse fly plague but this plague was now eradicated and the beautiful land was now suitable for the cattle and sugar cane fields etc. Herman wanted to drive from Gollel direct to Stegi on the border of Portugese East Africa but the road was so bad that he decided to stay on the main road to Bremersdorp and buy bread meat etc. there as our food supplies were running short. All along the road we had tried to get eggs from the native kraals but did not succeed anywhere. Around three o’clock we arrived at Bremersdorp but all the shops were closed because it was the king’s birthday. Luckily we found an open Butchery and there we bought five lbs rump steak for 2/6 and it was even salted for us. Miekie went to look around and bought bread at the hotel. The road from there to the Portuguese border was quite good. By the first nice place under the trees we stopped and looked for wood and made a fire to cook a nice steak. I believe we also slept over there and the following morning we crossed the border to go to Lorenço Marques. We had no trouble at customs as Portugese East Africa was mentioned in our passports. Across the border all distances were given in Kilometers. The road was also nice and by the afternoon we reached Lorenço Marques where we lodged with the family Ebers. I got to know him when he was Station Master at Krugersdorp in the time of Republic. He was married to the Daughter of Mr Wabeke, my Station Master in Pretoria. Lorenço Marques, on Deladoa Bay, is a pretty harbour town with beautiful buildings. We had a nice time there and saw all the sights. There is a nice beact on the bay which is planted with Palm and other trees. Under the trees there were fixed tables and benches at several places with room to park the car and pitch a tent and good use was made of these. Between the camping sites and the trees along the beach was a wide road where children played and to protect them and prevent the cars from going too fast there was a shallow concrete ditch across the road about every fifty yards so that one could not ride faster that ten kilometres per hour. Everywhere there were tents from vacationers with children and the played around there. There were many visitors on the beach. The beach is wide and the sand is bright yellow and clean and you could walk 100 yards into the sea till the water came to your middle, thus very safe for children. Much use was made of it by the school clubs of the Transvaal during the month long winter holiday when it was cold on the Highveld whilst nice and warm and sunny on the Bay and in the water. Many of the children who came there on holiday had never seen the sea and here they could play on the beach and in the water to hearts content. They also visited the ships in the harbour with their teachers and so learnt many things they could not have dreamed of and could relate to their friends and parents when they came home. The Captains of the ships they visited often entertained them which added to their enjoyment. Many of the streets and squares of Lorenço Marques are paved with mosaic figures. Portugese is naturally spoken everywhere and the titles and names of the shops are also in that language. At the time we were there - 1935 – most policemen understood very little English and absolutely no Afrikaans. A few could speak a little French. Often there were many ships in the harbour with freight mainly for Johannesburg and Pretoria since Lorenço Marques was the nearest harbour for these two towns and Eastern Transvaal. After a few days in Lorenço Marques, having seen all the sights we went on the road to Rossano Garcia where we were cleared by the Portuguese. We had a few Portuguese banknotes left over, all new. I believe 100 escudos was equal to about three pennies. We kept them as mementos. About a hundred yards further on we came to the Union customs and there was our flag. When one of the Customs Officials came out of his office I said “O here flies our pretty Union flag” and he said “Yes Mr de Veer and here you can talk Hollands again” I stood stunned at the answer and the young man said his name was Budding and had been at school with me. Without trouble we were let into the Transvaal and continued the journey to Komati Poort as we still wanted to visit the Kruger Park game reserve. At Crocodile drift we went onto the Pont and came safely to the other side in the game reserve and drove to Skukusa where we booked two rondavels. In that big camp fires were made on which we could cook food and there was always hot water. There was also bathing facilities so that we could refresh ourselves. In the rondavels were beds with mattresses and pillows, a table a few benches and a stormlantern which could be taken outside in the evenings. The rest the campers had to bring themselves. There was a shop where all sorts of things were available and the rent for the rondavels was not high. We stayed there for a few days and drove around the area during the day and saw lots of game in their natural surroundings and grazing. After that we went to other rest camps where we saw lions , giraffe and elephants. Everywhere there were monkeys. We also saw crocodiles and hippos in the which we had to cross by Pont, and the most beautiful coloured birds. The nicest camp was Sabie. This lay high on the bank of a river. We had a nice rondavel there again. We asked the black who made the fire if elephants ever came there. He came later to tell us there were four elephants. They walked about 300 paces from the camp down in the river below. To see them clearly we had brought our binoculars and could easily see how they pulled young branches off the trees and ate them. The boy asked us what we saw and we said “The elephants are standing here by the fire”. He had possibly been chased by an elephant and was very scared of the big monster. He could not believe that through the binoculars the elephants could appear to be so close and we let him have a look. When he saw them he pulled the glasses away from his face with a shout and when the other blacks asked him what he saw he said “The elephants are standing here near the fire and will kill us!” The other blacks were then also allowed to look and they could not believe that with that thing before their eyes the elephants were suddenly so close that you could touch them with your hand. Then we drove further to the north where we would see buffalo. After driving for a few hours the road got so bad that Herman decided to go back to the camp at Sabie because in all that time we had only seen one ostrich. We stayed one more day in that nice camp and departed via Gravelotte, Leydsdorp, Haenertsburg, through Magoebaskloof to Pietersburg. That part of Transvaal is still alive with game and lions but there they are not as protected as in the Kruger Park where no game may be shot except in self defence. Everywhere there are signs on the trees warning you to stay on the road and not to get out of the car and if there are lions in the vicinity to keep the windows closed. Also not to drive forwards when elephants are crossing the road as it had happened that an elephant had rolled a car over and damaged it.

We slept close to Pietersburg, There a large portion of the road had be tarred. At Warmbaths we had a wonderful swim and there Herman phoned Jo and Dick that we could be home in an hour. So after a year and a half of drifting around we came home to Pretoria. We had written to Jo and Dick from Holland to provisionally rent a room for us in the region of the de Veerlaan and they said they would do that. When we entered the de Veerlaan from Edmond street we saw the new block of flats named “Alkmaar Maisonette”. In one of the flats Jo, Dick and Andre lived. When we stepped out of the car our eye immediately fell upon a big new house on the other side of the street where the wood and iron house had stood. “What is that” we both called out. A new house! The windows stood open and the curtains blew out a bit. “It is occupied already. Do you want to have a look?” the children asked. “Would the occupants not mind” we asked. “Yes they find it alright” was the answer. The door was opened and we stepped inside. Everything was tidy, with new furniture in the lounge. Suddenly Ma saw her own piano standing there. We could not believe that it was all for us and Ma cried with emotion that the children had been so good to us. In the bedrooms stood our own beds neatly made up with new bedspreads and our portraits on the wall. In the kitchen a new electric stove, a table and in the pantry all sorts of groceries, including eggs on a rack. In the fridge meat and vegetables etc. No, it was too much Ma continually called out. It is too much. We could not take it in that it was all for us. When the house was being built the children had asked our friends not to write anything about it to us. Our friend Freek van der Veen, who had also been on a visit to Holland and knew about it had let nothing slip about it because it had to be a surprise. Now we had never had such a big surprise. There was also a garage and a servants room and a small workplace. The house itself had a hall, passage and large lounge with a bay window, two bedrooms with built in cupboards, a dining room, kitchen and pantry and a large front veranda. Later another large bedroom with built in cupboards was added, a washing area and a large enclosed back stoep. When Jo and Dick later also came to live in de Veerlaan a house was built for them next to our house in the same style as “Friars Cragg” in Seapoint, Cape Town where Miek and Herman lived when we left for Europe in 1934. In that house, no. 5 de Veerlaan Evert was born, who was brought into the world by Grannie, just like Andre. Later Herman was transferred from Pietermaritzburg to Pretoria and was looking for a house. We then decided to build another two houses on the open ground opposite our first houses, nos. 1 and 3, where Herman and Miekie would occupy the corner house at Edmond Street where Erika was born. After the death of Opa van Boven in 1942 Grannie came to live with us from her 80th to 90th year. Later she wanted to go to the newly built “Ons Thuis” in the Zoutpansberg roadwhere she lived until her death in February 1956. She almost became 93. After our departure from Holland in 1935 it became so bad with work that our nephew Jaap Spaan soon had now work he decided to follow our request to come to South Africa. First his parents wanted to hear nothing about it but later they agreed. He was Electrical Engineer from Delft and quickly got a good post at Siemens electrical factory in Johannesburg and it went so well he could soon get married and let his wife come over. Brother Jacob and his wife who also lived in Pretoria died soon after each other in 1942. Their daughter Dora was already married by then with George Jackson who worked at the Government Printer, just like his father and their daughter Beth married the youngest son Arie of a friend of ours, Mr Ruijsenaars who was manager of his own garage. Dora and George had two daughters, Yvonne who married in 1957 and Estelle who is engaged. The latter likes painting. Bertha and Arie have three fine sons. Later Ger van Doornum who married our niece Jopie Post also came over. They have a daughter Elsje and a son Tonnie (Anton) named after his grandfather. Ger’s parents came to Johannesburg in 1939to visit their children. Because the European war broke out they could not go back and became citizens of the Union. Ger van Doornum was called up as Hollander to go to Java to destroy the harbour in Soeroebaaija if the Japanese should take Java. His wife and daughter..... Historical Papers, Wits University

Collection Number: A3353

DE VEER, Jan, memoirs

PUBLISHER: Publisher:- A.D. van Doornum Location:- ©2013

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