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- Newspaper article - The Late J. G. Gilfillan W. I. S. D. writes:- The Waterberg district suffered a great and irreparable loss in the death on September 13th, after a painful illness, of Mr. John Charles Gilfillan, affectionately known throughout the northern districts and in farming circles in the Transvaal as "Oom Jack." The late Mr. Gilfillan was a descendant of the 1820 Settler stock of that name, a family as widely and prominently represented in South Africa today as any which came to its shores in 1820. He was a brother of Mr. W. H. Gilfillan, for many years Surveyor-General of the Transvaal. "Oom Jack" was born in the Middelburg District, Cape Province, in 1866, being sixty-two years of age at his death. He was educated at St. Andrews College, Grahamstown, and he came to the Transvaal in 1888, being one of the early pioneer prospectors in the low veld of the eastern and northern Transvaal. Those were stirring times when prospectors and hunters lived a man's life on the veld, and many were the yarns of hunting and adventure which "Oom Jack " used to narrate. He suffered much from malarial fever in the low country, which somewhat impaired his health. In the early nineties he took up dairy farming at Lynwood, just outside Pretoria, and in 1896 he married Kate Pienaar, daughter of Mr. J. J. Pienaar, a descendant of the Huguenot emigrant of that name who came to the Cape in the early days of its history. He had five daughters , all of whom survive him. Mrs Gilfillan is a niece of Mr. Pienaar, the grand old man of Parys. The late "Oom Jack " was very proud of being an Old Andrean, and had a very wide circle of friends among the older past students of his alma mater. In 1905 he came up to the Waterberg district to start ostrich and cattle farming, and maize and citrus growing, on what was then bare veld at "Zandfontein," losing heavily upon the collapse of the feather industry. He had at one time the largest and most flourishing citrus orchards in the Transvaal, having planted every tree himself, and it was a severe blow to him when the whole of it was destroyed by the Government owing to the appearance of citrus canker. "Oom Jack" came up smiling after every reverse, however, and devoted his energies to dairying and maize growing, being at his death one of the most prominent farmers in those lines in the Waterberg district. He came of farming stock from the Cape Colony and was most thorough in his methods, his ripe experience being of the greatest advantage to his numerous Milner settler friend son the Springbok Flats, who made full use of it in the early days when they first settled there. The finger of "Oom Jack" can be traced throughout the phenomenal development of the Waterberg district, more especially of Warmbaths and the southern area during the past quarter of a century, and his force of character and forcible and direct method of expressing his convictions made him perhaps the best known and most popular man among all classes of the population of the district. He left "Zandfontein" one of the best developed farms in the Waterberg. The old-time hospitality of "Zandfontein" was proverbial, and its large dining hall seldom lacked a throng of guests. "Oom Jack" was a prime mover in the organisation of most of the farmers associations in the Waterberg being for many years chairman of the Southern Waterberg Farmers' Association and also president of the Waterberg District Farmers' Union. He was a member of the executive of the Transvaal Agricultural Union, and on its standing committee up to his death, and his last conscious effort a few hours before he passed away was to dictate a telegram of encouragement to the last T.A.U. congress. His advice and experience was invaluable to the T.A.U. and it was freely availed of by both ministerial and official circles of the Government, few sessions of Parliament ending without "Oom Jack" being summoned to Cape Town to represent the opinion of Transvaal farmers. It is well known that it was the state of his health alone which prevented his election to the highest office in the T.A.U. of which he was at one time a vice-president. Sympathetic reference was made at the present sitting conference of the Union to "Oom Jack, " and his untimely death will be a sad blow to that body . He had a unique gift in the management of native and coloured labour, although his methods were of the firmest; and while he never called in the aid of officialdom and the law in the settlement of labour troubles it took much to reconcile any of his numerous native squatters to an order from "Mamantane"to quit his farm. Perhaps one of the best tributes "Oom Jack" will receive will be the sincere emotion and grief expressed to me by his large body of native retainers as they passed out of the death chamber. Such tributes are only given by natives to men of real force of character. "Oom Jack" Held a peculiar niche in the affection and esteem of Waterbergers which no one else can fill, and his passing will leave an abiding void amongst us, especially to those of us who claim the honour he highly valued - of being Old Andreans and 1820 Settler descendants of whom we looked upon him as being the best type. To his sorrowing widow and daughters the hearts of the Waterberg will go out in affectionate sympathy. "Au revoir, Jack. Slaap gerus ou maat."
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