Daniel Elardus Erasmus

Daniël Elardus inherited his father’s portion of the farm Doornkloof and also his half of the farm Rietvlej.

Daniël Elardus Erasmus was born on 14 August 1870, as the eldest son of Michiel Christiaan Elardus and Anna Susanna Erasmus. They lived on the farm Doornkloof and later moved to the half of the farm Rietvlej that his father inherited in 1875. In 1892 Daniël married Johanna Maria Moodie ( born on 9 April 1871). She was the daughter of Thomas,”Big Tom” and Cecelia Moodie from the Bethlehem district in the OFS. Daniël Elardus and Johanna Maria raised five children on Rietvlej farm.

Daniël’s sister, Susara Magaretha later married Big Tom’s nephew [cousin?], Thomas Dunbar Moodie. During the Anglo-Boer war, Daniël and his father’s nephew, Jochemus Erasmus started supporting the British cause and in Sept 1900 they became what the burghers referred to as “Joiners”. Daniël was therefore allowed to return to Rietvlej for the remainder of the war. (Daniël’s two uncles, Genl Daniël Jacobus Elardus “Maroela” Erasmus and Cmdt Stephanus Petrus “Swart lawaai” Erasmus, were both leaders of Boer commandos to the “bitter end”). Daniël and Johanna remained on Rietvlej until after the death of Johanna’s mother Cecelia in 1905. In 1908 Daniël sold his portion of the farm Doornkloof to Genl JC Smuts for £900. Daniël and Johanna later moved with some of their children to their farm near Volksrust, where they were eventually both buried. (They may have left the Pretoria area because of the animosity they had to endure from the other Erasmus families, as the result of his Anglo-Boer war loyalty to the British.)

Ref: RIETVLEI NATURE RESERVE - A Historic Summary by Deon Storm