Some Boer War fates

In the National Archives of South Africa, two claims for compensation submitted by father and son Zacharias Wilhelmus and Abel Daniel Petrus Pienaar in 1904, reveal a little bit about their family’s fate in the South African War.

The Pienaar /Van Der Merwe Family of Rooipoortje, Potchefstroom

Zacharias was the oldest son of Abel Daniel Petrus Pienaar (1825-1895) and his wife Neeltje Maria de Beer (born 1830), and was born in Burgersdorp in February 1853.

At the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899, Zacharias was farming in the Potchefstroom district, on the farm Rooipoortje (also sometimes written as Roodepoort), and was married to Christina Susanna Petronella Woller. The couple baptised eight children between 1879 and 1894. Of interest here is the oldest, Abel Daniel Petrus Pienaar (born 15 February 1879) and his brother, the third child, Jan Hendrik Pienaar (born 25 January 1883).

Compensation Claims

After the war, the oldest son Abel put in a claim for property captured by British troops at Paardeberg. Under oath, he states:

“My claim now before the commission is for a horse saddle & bridle, a wagon box and a bed[sh..?] Total £ 21.10/-.

These were my bona fide property before the war,and were captured by the British at Paardeberg.”

Elsewhere in his application, he lists the property (writing in late 19th-century Afrikaans) as “1 paard zadel & toom, £ 18.18/-; 1 wagen kist, £ 2, 1 wagen katel, £ 1”, and describes the damage as “destroyed and taken”. He lists a J.J. Pienaar of Rietfontein in the Vaal River District and J.G. Pienaar of Roodepoort (probably the farm Rooipoortje) as persons who can give evidence to back up his claim. Presumably, these were his paternal uncles, Johan Jacob Pienaar (born 1873) and Jacobus Gustaf Pienaar (born 1875).

Abel and his younger brother Jan Hendrik were captured by British forces at Paardeberg on 27 February 1900, and sent to the island of St Helena as prisoners of war. The events of February 1900, which led to the surrender of General Piet Cronje and 4 000 men at the Battle of Paardeberg is well-known, and often described as a great set-back for the Boer forces, leading to the loss of 4 000 fighting men in the course of a single day.

It is interesting to note that one of the factors commentators at the time claimed contributed to General Cronje’s fall is the fact that his rag-tag commando of burgers were not nearly mobile enough to elude capture, since they were bogged down by their carts and wagons, which most of the burgers insisted on bringing with them and refused to abandon. Abel’s claim includes a “wagen kist” and a “wagen katel” - a chest which was customarily secured at the front of an ox wagon, in which a person’s personal possessions was kept, and a bed or camping cot which was presumably specifically made for an ox wagen, since he describes it as a “wagen katel”. One can’t help but wonder if Abel’s “wagen kist” and “wagen katel” were transported around on a wagon of some sort - one of the hundreds that slowed the retreating commando down and contributed to their capture.

Abel and Jan Hendrik were not the only members of the family captured at Paardeberg.

The Compensation Claim listed in the name of their father Zacharias turns out to be a claim he made in his capacity as the executor of the estate of the late Barend Jacobus van der Merwe, and his wife the late Neeltje Maria van der Merwe (born Pienaar). He claimed for the loss of livestock; forage; produce such as mealies, potatoes, tobacco, barley and wheat; some 600 poles and 8 rolls of fencing wire; household furniture; farm implements; and damages suffered to three buildings, to wit a house, a coach house, and an out house. The claim totalled £ 748.

Neeltje Maria was a sister to Zacharias, and Barend Jacobus was thus his brother-in-law, and an uncle to Abel and Jan Hendrik. Family ties were further cemented by the marriage of the Van Der Merwes’ second daughter to Abel - and after the war her sister, the third daughter, married Jan Hendrik.

Three separate affidavits accompany the claim

The earliest is dated 21 May 1901 and was deposed by Zacharias’ sister Neeltje a month before her death. She writes that her husband was taken prisoner with General Cronje at Paardeberg and sent to St Helena as a prisoner of war. Further, that she was ordered by the British authorities, on 7 December 1900, to vacate her farm and move into Potchefstroom with her family. She left her property behind unprotected, and had learned that it had suffered extensive damage.

Five months later in October 1901, Barend and Neeltje’s oldest daughter, Neeltje Maria, made a statement saying that her father was a prisoner of war on St Helena and that her mother had passed away in the concentration camp in July 1901. She details the specific damages and losses suffered on the farm as a result of the war.

Barend himself died on 6 June 1902 on the island of St Helena, less than a month after the end of the war, leaving behind seven orphaned children, five of whom were still minor at the time.

The main affidavit accompanying the claim, made by Zacharias, reveals that he himself was removed from the farm with his sister in December 1900, and sent to Potchefstroom. He states that the cart(?) (The handwriting is illegible here, and I can only make out the word “cart”) his sister took with her to Potchefstroom was confiscated by the British. They received information, while still in the camp, that their farm had been destroyed by British soldiers.

The Van Der Merwe/Pienaar family continued to farm in the Potchefstroom district throughout the twentieth century. Zacharias’s son Jan Hendrik, the one who was sent to St Helena with his brother Abel and his uncle Barend, married his cousin, Barend’s daughter Wilhelmina Christina van der Merwe. They had four daughters. The last surviving of these four sisters, my paternal grandmother, died in March 2011 at the age of 91.

Sources

• “Pienaar”, Heese, J.H & Lombaard, R.T.J, Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagsregisters Vol 8 (2009
• Death Notice: Christina Susanna Petronella Woller – accessed on Familysearch https://www.familysearch.org/.../3:1:3Q9M-CS3Y-D394-B...
• Baptism Record: Abel Daniel Petrus Pienaar – accessed on Familysearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:71XR-WK2M
• Claims for Compensation – Burghers – Potchefstroom: Zacharias Wilhelmus Pienaar 1904 (TAB CJC/1017/1950)
• Claims for Compensation – Burghers – Potchefstroom: Abel Daniel Petrus Pienaar 1904 (TAB CJC/1017/1953)
• Death Notice: Barend Jacobus van der Merwe – access on Familysearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QY34-3CT2
• Anglo Boer War Museum – Prisoners of War database https://www.wmbr.org.za/view.asp?pg=research...