View source for Daniel Jacobus Erasmus

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{for|the Transvaal Boer War general (1840-1914)|Daniel Jacobus Elardus Erasmus}}
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|alt                = Acting State President DJ Erasmus
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|office3            = [[List of Presidents of the South African Republic|President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic]]
|term_start3        = 22 November 1871
|term_end3          = 1 July 1872
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'''Daniel Jacobus Erasmus''' (nickname 'van Straten'/'van Straat', [[Somerset East]], [[Cape Colony]], 1830 - [[Bethal]] District, Transvaal, 1913) was a South African [[Boer]] commander and [[politician]]. He was a member of the [[Volksraad (South African Republic)|Transvaal Volksraad]] and served as the acting [[president of Transvaal]] between 1871 and 1872. His plan to unite the [[South African Republic]] and the [[Orange Free State]] failed. In the [[Second Boer War]] (1899 - 1902) he was one of the commanders in charge of the defense of Pretoria.<ref name="DictSAB">{{Cite book |title=Dictionary of South African Biography Vol I |chapter=Erasmus, Daniël Jacobus |first=F. A. |last=van Jaarsveld |veditors=De Kock WJ, Krüger DW, Beyers CJ, Basson JL |publisher=Tafelberg-Uitgewers |location=Cape Town |oclc=1063845175 |isbn=0624008568 |date=1976 |edition=2nd |pages=279–280}}</ref><ref name="geni">{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Daniel-Jacobus-Erasmus/6000000026284619732 |title=Pres. Daniel Jacobus Erasmus |last= |first= |date=27 September 2022 |website=geni.com |publisher=Geni. A MyHeritage Company |access-date=28 June 2023 |quote=Daniel Jacobus Erasmus *5.4.1830 +30.4.1913 Transvaalse Kommandant, Volksraadslid, Waarnemende President.}}</ref>

==Family history==
The history of the Erasmus family began in 1688 when Pieter Erasmus arrived in [[Cape Town]] in 1688. He settled into a farm called "Groenkloof", located in [[Drakenstein Local Municipality|Drakenstein]]. Pieter married Maria Elisabeth Joosten in 1691. The couple had six children. Pieter roamed a great deal to look for cultivable land, a trait that his descendant, Daniel Jacobus Erasmus (not the same person who acted as State President), inherited. It was Daniel Jacobus Erasmus and his family who among the first to occupy the land that in time became modern-day Pretoria.<ref name=Erasmus>{{cite web |title=The Legacy |url=http://www.heritagehill.co.za/history.php |publisher=Heritage Hill |website=heritagehill.co.za |accessdate=24 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116080749/http://heritagehill.co.za/history.php |archivedate=16 November 2012 |quote=The history of Heritage Hill started in the Cape with a young adventurer named Pieter Erasmus that arrived in Cape Town in 1688 and settled on a farm "Groenkloof" in Drakenstein aged just 19. He married Maria Elisabeth Joosten in 1691 and they had 6 children.}}</ref>

In 1841, the 56 year old Daniel "Swartkoppies" Jacobus Erasmus (1785 - 1861)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Daniel-Jacobus-Erasmus-Oupa-Swartkoppies/6000000020328234751 |title=Daniel Jacobus Erasmus (Oupa Swartkoppies) |last= |first= |date=10 December 2022 |website=geni.com |publisher=Geni. A MyHeritage Company |access-date=24 October 2024 |quote=}}</ref> arrived with his family in the area that is now [[Centurion, South Africa]]. The area in Centurion including the Midvaal area was originally occupied by the [[Mogale Mogale|Mogale]] clan and still has an active land claim over it. This land was seized and they were forcibly removed. A later retelling of history says they sold the land.{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for removal/sale affair|date=August 2023}} Like his ancestor Pieter, Daniel moved into a farm, which he named Zwartkop/Swartkoppies after his nickname. But unlike his pioneering ancestor Daniel didn't find the farm site on his own. The place was recommended to him by his eldest son Daniel Elardus Erasmus. Elardus had happened into the area during an elephant hunt in 1831. He had found the area congenial for farming: there were great grazing grounds, pristine rivers and the absence of [[malaria]]. Taking his son's advice, Daniel acquired a large piece of land and settled down.<ref name=Erasmus/> Daniel Elardus Erasmus (1815 - 1875)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Daniel-Elardus-2-Erasmus-Daantjie-Doornkloof/6000000018417520133 |title=Daniel Elardus (2) Erasmus (Daantjie Doornkloof) |last= |first= |date=27 April 2022 |website=geni.com |publisher=Geni. A MyHeritage Company |access-date=28 June 2023 |quote=Daniël Elardus Erasmus was the fourth child, (but eldest son) of Oupa Daniël “Swartkoppies” Erasmus and his wife Cornelia.}}</ref> settled on the farm Doornpoort in the area that is now known as Irene and other members of the family acquired other farms around the Pretoria area.

==Young years==
'van Straat' Erasmus was born on April 5, 1830 in the later [[Bedford, South Africa]] district in the [[Eastern Cape]] to Lourens Johannes Erasmus (born January 16, 1800) and Johanna Elisabeth van Straten (born January 3, 1807) who were [[Voortrekkers]] and fought the Zulus in Natal. Lourens Erasmus moved from Natal to eastern Transvaal before 1842 to settle on the [[Steelpoort River]] and was [[Volksraad (South African Republic)|Volksraad]] member and [[field cornet]] for [[Ohrigstad]]. He then moved to the upper part of the Elands River near the later [[Premier Mine]].<ref name="DictSAB" /> 

==Career==
His son Daniel Jacobus Erasmus fought for the government in the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]] civil war (1862-1864) against [[Stephanus Schoeman]]. The Transvaal Volksraad elected Daniel Erasmus to its executive council on June 21, 1870. After the Keate Award in October 1871 (the British seizure of the [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]] diamond fields by Robert W. Keate, then [[Lieutenant-Governor]] of the British [[Colony of Natal]]), Transvaal president [[Marthinus Wessel Pretorius]] resigned and the Volksraad chose Erasmus as acting state president on November 21, 1871.<ref name="DictSAB" />

===Acting President 1871-1872===
As president Erasmus protested against the Keate Award and the southwestern boundaries, sent a commission under [[Piet Joubert]] to settle relations with the [[Swazi people]], and introduced obligatory printed passes for [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] individuals wishing to leave the Transvaal. He proposed treaties of trade and friendship with the new German emperor [[William I, German Emperor|William I]] and with [[Orange Free State]], drafted with its president [[Johannes Brand]], and also a secret offensive and defensive alliance with the Orange Free State. Only the trade and friendship treaty with the Orange Free State was ratified by both states in May and August 1871. However, Erasmus' plan to unite the South African Republic and the [[Orange Free State]] failed. Brand was invited to accept the candidature for the Transvaal presidency by a delegation presenting 2,886 Transvaal signatures in support. But Brand declined and proposed Reverend [[Thomas François Burgers]] of [[Hanover, South Africa|Hanover]] instead who was duly elected, in spite of the opposition by Erasmus and [[Paul Kruger]]. Erasmus stayed on the Transvaal executive council but resigned soon after Burgers assumed office on July 1, 1872.<ref name="DictSAB" />

===Middelburg===
In 1883 he was commander of the [[Middelburg Commando]] in the war against the native Mapog (father of [[Nyabêla]]), and represented Middelburg in the Transvaal Volksraad from 1884 to 1886. He was a member of the commission establishing the boundary between the Transvaal and [[Portuguese East Africa]]. In the [[Second Boer War]] (1899 - 1902) he was one of the commanders in charge of the defense of Pretoria.<ref name="DictSAB" />

==Private life==
Erasmus married twice, first to Margaretha Maria Steenkamp (died 1874) and later to Hebra (Helena) Margaretha Smuts, who together gave him some eight children. The eldest son, Louw Erasmus, was killed during the Second Boer War in the [[Battle of Bakenlaagte]] on October 30, 1901.<ref name="DictSAB" /><ref name="geni" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Government of Transvaal}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erasmus, Daniel Jacobus}}
[[Category:1830 births]]
[[Category:1913 deaths]]
[[Category:Presidents of the South African Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the Volksraad of the South African Republic]]
[[Category:1870s in the South African Republic]]
[[Category:1870s in Transvaal]]

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