VanOlst, Jake, died 1900

VANOLST

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:38

Word came to E. Van Olst, the Orange City blacksmith, this week that his nephew, Jake Van Olst, who up to eighteen months ago was a resident of Sioux county, was killed in one of the recent battles of the Transvaal. The young man is the son of Mr. Van Olst’s brother, who died in Holland, and for several years had worked at the blacksmith business at Sioux Center and for a short time in Orange City. He left to seek his fortune in South Africa in the year of 1898 and when the war broke out cast his lot with the Boers. Nothing definite is known of his death but it is supposed he was among those who fell while fighting with Cronje on the Tugela. Sioux county has reason to feel proud that one of her citizens fell in so noble a cause. There is no cause more glorious than the cause of liberty and many a Sioux county Hollander would doubtless gladly step into the breach left by the young man’s fall.