A shame that with this small income he straight away got engaged to a real nonna called Miss Hendrix; very soon got married and landed with his wife in a campong house. To add to the misery the woman became insane; however Agness has not been allowed to see that.Several days before the delivery Agnes got high fevers; Persenaire didn’t dare to give her quinine, as the bloodtest didn’t reveal malaria; Dr. Kiewit de Jonge, who had been called in consultation, could not diagnose malaria; so all kinds of medications were given in vain to lower the temperature. Not until the day before the delivery the bloodtest revealed a high degree of Malaria Tropica, yet now it was too late.In the early morning of the 15th December 1900 Agness gave birth to a lifeless boy; besides Piet her sister Tine and Simon de Graaff took already immediately care of a grave and the funeral of the dead little child, according to indigenous custom and all of us didn’t realise that as soon as the following day the mother would be carried to the same grave.We had hoped that the reaction to the birth would bring improvement, the contrary was true; the fevers ran even higher to 42 degrees and in the afternoon already death was the result.So for the third time in my life I had again become a widower and it is hard for me to describe my feelings, which I had experienced the next morning at the solemn funeral. Jop was in such a nervous fit that I called Mrs. Hartevelt’s help, who took her home with her and let her stay for a few days. Lotje, who at other times was the most nervous, looked now very calm; she has never been nice to Agnes.With the death of Agnes my Chief showed himself from a very favourable side.Immediately after he heard the bad news, he came to visit me in de Willemslaan and condoled me in the most heartly way. He offered me a month leave in the country to recuperate of the miseries of the last couple of weeks. I declined this leave as I knew from experience that working is the best distraction for grief.Upon leaving he still regretted that Agnes would not be witness of the change in my management’s review, in which I would be granted the suitability for the colonel’s rank on 1st January 1901 and so in August that year I would be appointed to that rank.He namely had planned to leave the Army and retire after 2 years active service as colonel.footnote:nonna is an indigenous Miss
As I expected the work gave me an excellent distraction and after one month I was as well in my office as at home back to my usual routine; so then I could not leave off to take part in the ovation, which was put together to pay tribute to General Ermeling on his 70th birthday. A large company travelled therefore on 19th January to Buitenzorg and handed him, apart from the neccessary flower arrangements a fitting memory. It was a joy to see the tough old man standing at his reception, who in his speech gave his lovely Chinese wife the honour of his still working life, which he had continued after his retirement with the Biliton Company, demanding everyone’s admiration.After the reception with the General I spent the rest of the day with de Graaff and Tine, who brought a tasty dinner to the table.After the death of Agnes Jop was charged with the household; of course in the beginning she had advice from Milly, who was still staying with Piet at our place.To spare my carriage as much as possible I had bought a secondhand Deeleman cart, which I personally used in the morning to always arrive on time at the office; the little Renny accompanied me then and returned with the driver. No more than her father she had any musical ear; had he only feeling for the drums, Renny treated me daily singing falsely; in her way she then sang all the time: “comedy sepsie”. She could never learn music, but did appreciate it.Work at the headoffice meanwhile went it’s ususal course and the chief was always cooperative and satisfied with me; from this period I can only mention, that captain Idenburg, adjutant of the Army’s Commander, due to illness ( or rather illness of his wife ) took off with an urgency certificate to the Netherlands.At the farewell he declared, that he most likely would not return; soon this became clear to us, when shortly after we read in the European newspapers that through the influence of the anti revolutionary party leader A. Kuyper in Gouda he was chosen as member of the Parliament of the Staten Generaal; so his christian inclinations and preaches in the Kwitang church in Weltevreden were of no small profit to him and had opened the road to the political life.
On the 21st August a telegram was delivered at the headoffice whilst the chief was absent, addressed to the General Major A.J.J. Staal. I didn’t know any better than to hand it to Mrs. Staal, who lived in the welknown home at the Schoolweg; she opened the telegram and read to me the congratulations for brother Jean for the promotion he received.This was the work of the Army’s Commander for his friend Alex and had the result that I now had to wait another 2 years before I would be promoted; there was however still a chance that I would be promoted to colonel ( so called 2nd class ) just like before under General v.d. Eb and Resner and the newly appointed General promised me to get behind that at once.Shortly after I received a message that Jos, Carey and their three children would come to the Dutch East Indies; General v. Heutsz had through intervenance of Colijn asked him if he was willing to come under his command again; he could then act as civil administrator in Tapa-Toean, which he, against my advice accepted because of his shocking financial situation.The youngsters namely had been through a rough time in Holland; arriving there seriously ill, Jos had twice been operated in the deaconesse hospital Bronovo by the able surgeon Walter, luckily with success.They had moved into a top story in the v. Kinsbergentraat and here their second daughter Marietje was born on the 12th September 1900; much help and support with this they had from tante Joh, who had a special liking for little Carey and taught the child all kinds of little trics.Jos was a good mentor for my son Johan, who contributed much so that the boy could get his end diploma of the H.B.S. in 1902.The last part of their leave the youngsters spent in Roermond, the domicile of Jos’s mother, who was married with a certain Gillekens, hardware tradesman as profession and a fanatical Catholic, who kept Jos from gettting his part of his father’s inheritance and had even adviced him to send him a bottle of Lourdes water to cure his illness.
Jos’s mother however was a sweet woman and out of respect for her and by request of Carey the eldest son was baptised as catholic. The birth took place on the 4th August 1901 and on the 21st September the family left Holland already.In Padang Jos was apprehended to go to Atjeh immediately, whilst Carey travelled with the children to Batavia and came to stay with me in the Willemslaan. It was a heartfelt meeting and I was looking forward to have my 4 daughters around me again. As peculiarity I mention here how much the sister looked like each other; the little Carey, a real little crow, had gone immediately on an inspection through the whole house and had seen our cook Ennot with her Javanese child and went quickly to her aunt Milly and called out:”Come and have a look mama, there is dirty Marietje”. The mistake of the little crow surely points to a striking resemblence.During Carey’s stay we also still received a visit from the grand daughter of aunt Cato, Mien Benard, who had been taken along as a nanny by Dr. Kohlbrugge and 2 days later left with him to the East corner; she knew with the aid of a good friend to qualifyin her employment in such a way that she succeeded in the exam for teacher’s aid and after some time was appointed to teacher at the girls school in Soerabaja, where she promoted all the time and nowadays, after an enjoyed leave, is still working.The suggestion of General Staal to promote me to 2nd class colonel had been sent by the State to the Minister of Colonies and he did, because of the costs, not agree with it; I therefore asked for an audition with the Governor General Roozeboom, who indeed listened sympathetically, but absolutely refused to review the taken decision of the Minister. So I had to possess my soul in patience, hard enough since at the same time I had seen my yearmate Jean Staal leaving the service already as colonel. But there was nothing else for me to do than to serve for the benefit of myself and my children who were not taken care of, as long as the sky remaind blue.
The year 1902 started with the departure of Carey and her three children to Tapa-Toean taking much furniture with her for the nice house, which Jos had been appointed as commander and was built from the demolishion of the commander’s house in Roempit with the much wished for raising of the roof and ceilings ( see page 233 ).Jos and Carey lived very comfortably for more than 2.5 years in Tapa-Toean and it was clear that Jos had done good work, as we will see later on. Their youngest son Emile was born there on the 7th November 1902.After the departure of Carey we received a guest and that was my sister inlaw Charlotte Polkijn, who had asked for a day off on her travels through to Djogjocarta, where she was going to visit her sister Anna v. Gennep.In the year 1888, when I had warned her father for that reason ( see page 164 ) she turned out also to have kidney disease just like her 2 sisters who had passed away, but was after a 3 year milk diet prescribed by Dr. Eykman, completely cured, and, after her father’s death, had left for the Dutch East Indies.She landed at family Schnelle in Padang and there got to know a much older man, the employe with the Handelmaatschappij van Gennep, who had been made redundent by his bosses and was helped to get employment as director of the Ice factory in Djogja. He did quite well there and their son was born there. Charlotte’s visit seemed to have pleased Anna just as little as it pleased us, as she returned quite soon, stayed another day in the Willemslaan and left again for Europe.On the first of May Piet with Milly and child moved to the Waterlooplein D. no.21. He was appointed to secretary of the Military Society Concordia and therefore received a monthly addition of f. 250 through which he landed in a remarkably better financial position and the care of the household now came completely on Jop’s shoulders.Lotje went to the H.B.S. with a 3 year course for girls and could get along very well with the director Miss v.d. Willigen in contrary to the previous Miss Sant van Nooten, who complained about Lotje all the time and as I saw it, not always wrongly.
Johan passed his H.B.S. exams and since he was rejected at the K.M.A. in Breda, he was enroled at the technical Higher Education for mining in Delft.It was around this time that Marcella restarted his intruiges of which I talked about on page 234, and gave the chief consideration to let him act in my place at the headoffice; I would then again be regional service chief in Semarang and de Voogt would land in the employment in Batavia; one and the other was requested by General de Bruyn to v. Heutsz and obtained.I was under the impression that with this arrangement I was not allowed to let it rest and asked audition with General de Bruyn, and put forward as argument, that it would not be in the country’s interest, if I as future chief of the headoffice would be taken away and so would not be kept posted about all related business of the service.Not to commit himself General de Bruyn wanted to place me in Batavia and de Voogt in Semarang and asked for this rearrangement once again the ok of v. Heutsz, who strongly recalcitrated, since he only had agreed to the first arrangement because de Voogt had no objections against a placing in Batavia, though didn’t want to leave his job in Atjeh for Semarang. Luckily nothing came of this whole affair and Marcella, who saw his pushing had failed, took his retirement in the beginning of 1903 with the title rank of Colonel.In the month of Februari of the year 1903 the Army’s Commander de Bruyn suddely died and was burried in Tanah Abang in the most solemn way; the hearse had already arrived at the cemetery when the last mourning coach still had to leve the Hertogspark, sothat the procession took up three sides of the Koningsplein.My yearmate of the Artillery W.Boetje was appointed as successor.
Not long after his actions he paid me a personnal visit in the Willemslaan and wanted to know if I had already obtained the suitablily for the colonel’s rank. To my confirming answer he then suggested to let me become a member of the weekly omber party of the upper ten, because General Staal wasn’t a member anymore and the Engineer’s Arms had to be represented.Members were all councillors of the Dutch East Indies, directors and chiefs of services, at least for as far as they practiced the noble omber game.In these so called bigwigs parties I was singled out as ltnt.col. and each Friday evening there was a gathering at one of the members, who then had to look after fine cigars and a good glass of wine or whiskey soda; for me they made a restriction, that there would be no gathering at my place before as a chief I had moved into house at the Schoolweg.This wouldn’t take too long as general Staal, who on the 20th of August would have held his rank for 2 years, had requested to go on a 2 year leave to Europe starting in September and as a result of this on the 5th September I obtained the so long awaited Colonel’s rank.General Staal didn’t want to know anything of a farewell dinner, reason why he was offered a very large framed photograph of all the engineer’s officers present in Batavia, which I handed him in the house of his host Boetje in the Hertogspark.De Voogt, who had already been promoted to ltnt.col. 4 months earlier, was now appointed to Sub-Chief and stayed in the house at Goenoeng-Sahari, diagonally behind our house, where he already was living; we obtained pleasant neighbours from his family.For the furnishing of our so much bigger house was of course the purchase of more furniture, mural decorations, curtains and door curtains neccessary and Jop had already put in a large order on time with the Firm Mey & Edlich in Leipzig-Plagwitz, sothat these would be soon enough ready after moving in. From the firm which deliverd us the largest part of the eldest girl’s trouseaux, we had the best experience and now too all that was deliverd was excellent and on time in our possession.
Like I already mentioned on page 246, Jos did a good job in Tapa-Toean and worked so much to the satisfaction of general v. Heutsz that he recommended him by choice to captain. The appointment to the rank of captain followed thus on the 5th of October, as a result of that Jos was placed as civil and miltary commander in Melaboeh.The commmander’s house te Melaboeh had to undergo a large renovation, so Jos decided to send his wife with the children to Batavia, where they at the same time could take care of the new furnishings. So the whole institution again came to stay with me and so he large house was soon full.We celebrated a most pleasant St. Nicolas evening, for which the sargeant Piet Balkstra functioned as the good Saint and gave several presents to Carey’s children, amongst which a large clown was honoured who later on also made the trip to Europe. The older ones received of course surprises from unknown givers; this way Jop got a small barrel, on which was written: “sour beer”, which gave rise to a bet between her and Crey, with which Jos stated, that she would be engaged before the end of the year, which bet she won brilliantly.Carey got a picture, on which Volendam people were pictured in their remarkable costumes and as a result of this it was arranged to take part in a masqued ball together with the van ’t Sants in the Zoo, where they would appear in costumes.It was a nice group of 6, existing from the v. ’t Sants, Piet, Milly, Carey and Jop, the latter as an old Volendam man, everything of course on clogs, which making them gave a lot of trouble.They had tremendous success and received the honour prize, which they couldn’t accept, because they wanted to remain anonymous and therefore went home before the end of the ball. However I stayed till the end and heard then from Vicky Slors, who was a member of the commission to give away the prizes, that the little Volendam people had won the honour prize in the shape of a large inkwell, which I then received and took home.
This costed me a real scolding from my children.Like I mentioned above Jop did get engaged before the end of 1903; she had found her man on the tennis court, where she nearly daily drove to get better in this noble game; I hadn’t noticed anything, but couldn’t make any objections agains her future husband Marin, Gerard van Heel, who had a decent job at the Ned. Ind. Railway Company.He already celebrated the changeover of the year to New Year with us.At the end of January 1904 Carey left with her children to Melaboeh, where Jos had looked after her house in an excellent way and where she felt really happy according to her letters.During the same time I made an inspection about the work done in the Preanger regions and in the 3rd Military Department. Accompanied by my adjutant, captain de Bruyn ( le rouge ) we left first for Tjimahi and moved into a subsidised hotel there, to visit to visit several places from there, where defense works were being constructed; this lodging didn’t satisfy us in any respect, reason why we moved to Bandoeng after a few days and landed in Hotel Homan, where it was very comfortable. From the excursions in the fields I remember the best the trip to Soemedang, close to which a rather large reinforcement was being constructed above a hill, from where one could close off the entrance from Tjiribon to the plateau of Bandoeng; nature here was beautiful though quite rugged and the roads going up the mountain were not accessable to climb for the carriage with waterbuffalos. Nowadays since the use of cars on Java has become common travelling in that region is no problem any more.From Bandoeng the trip went via Maos, where we had to stay the night, to Soerabaja, where we stayed at Hotel Simpang.The inspection concerned mainly the coast battery, although my attention was also devoted to the local service; a visit to the Navy Establishment was definitely interesting for me, inwhich mainly the distance measuring of the Navy was noticeable.