Letters from Transvaal (ZAR) 1896-1901

by Isaac Salomon Hijmans (1874-1954)

This is the english summary of letters on his travel to and stay in Transvaal (1896-1901)

In the year 1896 the 22-year old Amsterdams-Jewish math-student Isaäc Salomon Hijmans (ISH) decided to accept work at the N.Z.A.S.M., de Netherlands South-African Railways-company. Born and raised in Tiel – the Netherlands, he hoped to depend no longer on his parents, who had financial difficulties. “Your circumstances of the latter years, in which i assisted to deepen the debts”. For his employment consent by the signature of his father on the contract was required, as in those days majority age was 23.

After the Hoogere Burgerschool (Highschool) in Tiel, ISH studied in the faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Universiteit of Amsterdam (UvA). His parents and 1 still unmarried sister moved about the same time to Amsterdam.

His journey to Transvaal was paid in advance by the company.

After a bit more than two years at the NZASM he left and started to be self-employed. He engaged in several jobs and trades such as sales, insurances, hotel management, police of the mines, journalism but the (2nd) Boer War made earning a living and the fortune of which he had dreamt impossible. After the surrender of Johannesburg he went disillusioned back to Holland in January 1901 (probably paid for by the English).

During his stay in South-Africa he wrote weekly letters to his parents in Holland (in Dutch with some yiddish expressions) which give a remarkably vivid impressions of the local situation and his life at the time.

Johannesburg - Mellestraat 2 Bloemfontein on May 28yh 1897
Mellestraat 2 Bloemfontein in 1897 – then a smal house with corrugated sheets, in front Isaac Hijmans (l), Herman Groenman and a “boy” (sitting, bare feet)

Content

1. Journey to South Africa

2. African experiences

Cape town

Johannesburg

Capetown

Self employed

3. Boeren war