h.2. Jacobus Hendrik Louw, geb. 21/11/1865, ged. 14/01/1866, Calvinia, oorl. 06/04/1938, Kensington sanitorium Johannesburg, Kanker x 09/07/1885, Schmidtsdrif met Anna Maria VAN TONDER, geb. 1862, oorl. 19/04/1900, Barkly Wes, d.v. Frederik Johannes van Tonder en Maria Magdalena Breitenbach xx 02/04/1901, Barkly Wes met Martha Jacoba DEETLEFS, geb. 08/07/1880, Uitenhage, oorl. 24/06/1954, Johannesburg, d.v. Johannes Petrus Deetlefs en Maria Petronella Potgieter.
Jacobus Hendrik Louw was die seun van Jacobus Willem Adriaan Nel en Jacoba Hendrika Louw.
Name Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel
Birth Date 21 Nov 1865
Parent Name Jacoba Hendrika Louw
Second Parent's Name Jacobus Willem Adriaan Nel
Event Type Baptism
Event Date 14 Oct 1866
Event Place Calvinia, Cape Colony, South Africa
Event Place (Original) Calvinia, Cape Province, South Africa
DG: Jan Abraham Nel, sy vrou wife Anna, Jan Johannes Steenkamp en Mara Catharina Elizabeth Nel
He
was a farmer in the Kakamas district as a young man. JHLN experienced a
number of severe setbacks during this period, losing most of his
livestock in the rinderpest epidemic of 1896 - 1897. The epidemic killed
between 80% and 90% of all cattle in southern Africa. Shortly after
that, when the Anglo-Boer War (aka Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or South
African War) broke out, he went off 'on commando'. He is recorded as
having been a burgher in the Calvinia Commando. He would have been
married to his first wife at the time and they apparently had seven
children together. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
Name Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel
Sex Male
Age
19 years
Birth Year (Estimated) 1866
Spouse's Name Anna Maria Van Tonder
Spouse's Sex Female
Spouse's Age
23 years
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated) 1862
Event Type Marriage
Event Date
9 July 1885
Event Place South Africa
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:8RNR-Q12M
She and two of her children died within a month of one another in 1900, victims of the typhoid epidemic spread by the British army during the war. The death certificates of Anna Maria and her children indicate that they died on the farm Schietpan in the Barkly West district of what was then the Cape Colony, so this must have been the name of the family farm. Anna Maria's occupation on her death certificate is given as 'stock farmer'. According to a report on a fire in the district, published in the Volksblad of 10 September 2010 and accessed by by Jan Jacob de Klerk, the farm - still called Schietpan - was then owned by a Mrs Alwene Ford and her son Arthur. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
Name Anna Maria Van Tonder Nell
Sex Female
Age
38 years
Birth Year (Estimated) 1862
Event Type Death
Event Date
19 April 1900
Event Place
Barkly West, Cape Province, South Africa
Event Place (Original) Barkly West
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2FM-N3ZF?lang=en
Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel
Name Martha Jacoba Deetlefs
Event Type Membership
Event Date 26 Mar 1898
Event Place (Original) Klein Boetsap, South Africa
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:623Y-7JCB?lang=en
Name Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel
Sex Male
Age 21 years
Birth Year (Estimated) 1880
Event Type Marriage
Event Date
2 April 1901
Event Place
Barkly West, Barkly West, Cape Province, South Africa
Event Place (Original) Barkly West, Cape Province, South Africa
Certificate Number 3
Name Martha Jacoba Deetlefs
Age 20 years
Sex F
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZHP-BYNF?lang=en
Martha Jacoba Deetlefs
In April 1901, JHLN married his second wife, Martha Jacoba Deetlefs, apparently coming into town (Kakamas?) at great risk to do so. The exact events of these years are unclear. According to family tradition, everyone left on the farm after JHLN went back 'on commando' after his second marriage was later interned in a concentration camp, and everything - including buildings, livestock, equipment, crops and stores - was burnt by British forces as part of Kitchener's 'scorched earth policy' According to both my aunt Hilda Wallace Keyte and my aunt Olive Wallace McGregor, my great-grandmother nearly died in a camp. She was later (understandably) very anti-British.. What I have been able to confirm is that Martha Jacoba's father, his second wife, all of the children from that marriage, an older child from his first marriage, and everyone else living on the farm Ver Van Hier (Vervanhier) at the time, were interned in the Kimberley concentration camp in 1901. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
At some point after the Boer War, JHLN and his family moved to the diamond diggings near Sydney-on-Vaal, where he procured a claim that he called Louw's Koppie. According to Anton Nell, JHNL swopped his farm for a wagon and a case of brandy before going off to become a diamond digger. Louw's Koppie was apparently about fifteen miles from Sydney-on-Vaal, beyond Droogveldt. According to my aunt, Hilda Wallace Keyte, the nearest neighbours were about three miles away. Louw's Koppie was apparently about fifteen miles from Sydney-on-Vaal, beyond Droogveldt. According to my aunt, Hilda Wallace Keyte, the nearest neighbours were about three miles away. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
In addition to the seven children from his first marriage, JHLN had fourteen children with Martha Jacoba, so he had twenty-one children in total. Of the fourteen children born to JHNL and Martha Jacoba, a pair of twins and another child died in infancy. Eleven children survived into adulthood. All of these children grew up on the Louw's Koppie claim. My mother and her sisters visited 'Oupa' and 'Ouma' there often when they were children, frequently taking lunch for 'Oupa' from the house to the claim. At the time, only their youngest child, Elia (Elie) Nell was still living at home. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
When JHLN became ill with cancer, he and his wife moved to Johannesburg to live with one of their children in Fairlands. JHLN died at the Kensington Sanitorium and is buried at the Fairlands Cemetery. (https://www.geni.com/people/Jacobus-Hendrik-Louw-Nell/6000000017736081892)
Name Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel
Sex Male
Age 72
Birth Year (Estimated) 1866
Event Type Death
Event Date 5 Apr 1938
Event Place Fairland, Roodepoort, Transvaal, South Africa
Event Place (Original) Fairlands, Roodepoort, Transvaal, South Africa
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7H6J-FS6Z?lang=en
