Lolke Eelses DIJKSTRA

Born: 19 May 1824 at Parrega, Friesland
Died: 11 May 1893 at Heeg, Friesland, nearly 69yo

Father: Eelse Lolkes DIJKSTRA
Mother: Durkjen Joekes BERNARDA

Spouse: Johantje Jans WIJNIA

Children:

  • Grietje, born 3/19/1850
  • Durkjen, born 4/18/1851
  • Auke, born 4/1/1853
  • Jan, born 10/7/1855
  • Bregtje, born 11/21/1857
  • Eeltje, born 5/16/1861
  • Bouke, born 11/2/1863
  • Sjouke, born 6/8/1865
  • Grietje, born 1/9/1870




    At right, Lolke Eelses DIJKSTRA and Johantje Jans WIJNIA c1870 ===>>

    		•


    Already at the age of 6 Lolke became an orphan. As a young man he was a farm-hand in Dedgum. Lolke married Johantje 19 May 1849 in Sneek (county Wymbritseradeel). She was a daughter of Jan Sjoukes WIJNIA and Grietje Aukes ZIJLSTRA and born 5 Jun 1824 in Hijdaard.

    Lolke and Johantje settled down at the Hemdijk near Oosthem, where they lived at first in a small middle-class house. This house (number 835) belonged to them and was connected with the "farmhouse, barn, farm-yard, hornleger and further enclosures, situated near the village of Oosthem, registered in county Heeg, section D number 836, total measurement 16 roods 14 ells".

    Here Lolke became a farmer. A third part of the farmhouse (number 836) became their property by means of exchange with Auke Pieters DIJKSTRA, dated 3 May 1864. By deed registered on July 15, 1865 they then bought a 3rd part from Mink Aukes ZIJLSTRA and by deed of division, booked in the land registry on 22 Aug 1868, Lolke and Johantje after all acquired by inheritance the remaining third part of the aforementioned farmhouse.

    Until 12 May 1882 Lolke was a farmer at the Hemdijk near Oosthem, and after that till his death in 1893, a dairy farmer near Heeg.

    Lolke and Johantje belonged to the "Vrienden der Waarheid" (Friends of the Truth), a group within the "Hervormde" (Reformed) church that moved away from the more liberal Groninger trend, which was followed at that time.

    On 1 Jan 1880 Johantje wrote to her son Auke:

    Much beloved son. We are still healthy and hope you are too; and we wish you the Lord's blessing in this New Year, for that is worth more than anything else.

    Be always patient to bear
    the burden placed on you.
    with him is your path secure,
    he sends what is good for you.
    and be it sour or sweet
    it's love that sends it to you.

    Obviously, Auke was looking for work and mother Johantje wanted to help him with it. She wrote that there was a widow, near the church in Hijdaard, who was looking for a hired man for the farm. "She liked to find somebody who was in favor of the Truth, somebody who was willing to accompany her to church once in a while, and who was not too young anymore".

    Under the leadership of Dr. L. WAGENAAR the whole consistory and also a big part of the congregation of the Hervormde kerk in Heeg joined the Doleantie [breakaway movement] on 24 Jan 1887. Among them were Lolke and Johantje. Since that time a large part of the DIJKSTRA family has belonged to the Gereformeerde (Calvinistic) churches of the Netherlands, for also Auke, Jan, Eeltje, Bouke, Sjouke and Grietje left the Hervormde church.

    The Christian Reformed Church was founded in 1850 in Grand Rapids, MI as the American/Canadian presence of the Gereformeerde Kerk.

    Lolke died 11 May 1893 in Heeg. On 12 May 1896 Johantje with her son Jan returned to the Hemdijk near Oosthem, where she died on 9 Aug 1907 at 83yo. Johantje was a very sincere believing woman. According to her grandson Feike Aukes DIJKSTRA, who was with her when she passed away, she departed singing psalms.


    Contemporary Events:
    - 1795 After a 10yr 'Patriot Rebellion', France invades Holland and installs its (puppet) 'Batavian Republic' (to 1806), forcing Wm V to flee
    - 1806 Louis BONAPARTE, bro of Napoleon, becomes king of Holland; HRE dissolved
    - 1810 King Louis of Holland abdicates (forced out by bro), France (i.e. Napoleon) annexes Holland
    - 1815 Napoleon defeated, Congress of Vienna (w/Great Powers Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia) reorgs Europe, incl. uniting Holland and Belgium in 'The Netherlands'. Wm Frederick, son of Wm V, becomes King Wm I (backed by Great Powers), a Calvinist and pro-capitalist (anti-RCC) 'enlightened despot' who ran the country as if it were a constitutional monarchy til 1840.
    - 1816 Dutch govt takes over 'Dutch Reformed Church', angering many as secularism begins to creep in
    - 1818 France joins the other 4 Great Powers of Europe
    - 1827 Beethoven dies (b1770)
    - 1830 Triggered by unrest in France, revolution also breaks out in [RCC] Belgium against [Protestant] Dutch rule, as Belgium declares indep and on/off fighting til 1839 Treaty formalizing the split i.e. RCC Flemish-speaking Flanders French-speaking Wallonia would become 'Belgium', splitting from Calvinist Dutch-speaking Netherlands (cf Baldwin).
    - 1834 'Secession of 1834' as dissidents break away from increasingly secular state church, harassed by govt til 1850s
    - 1835 Dutch settlers [Boers] found Transvaal in S Africa, defeat Zulus 1838, but defeated by Brits 1842
    - 1837 Abraham KUYPER [AK] born (d1920); theologian, churchman, journalist, statesman
    - 1840-1900 a period of 'democratic and industrial development i.e. modernization' in the Netherlands 'and rise of trade unionism and socialism as working class movements indep of traditional [classical] liberalism' (wiki). Wm abdicated to his son Wm II in 1840
    - 1843 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles DICKENS is published in London
    - 1848 Year of Revolutions in Europe, 'Communist Manifesto' written by Marx/Engels, new constitution for the Netherlands recognizing [classical] 'liberal' reforms
    - c1850 'by the mid-19C, Reformed scholastic language was so outworn and orthodoxy so marginalized that neither its original terms nor its current posture fit the demand of the times' (CT Apr 2013, Eric MILLER rvws James BRATT's AK bio); in response AK formulates 'neo-Calvinism' as 'a life system, not a mere dogmatic theology, whose root principle reached into every domain of human life and learning [i.e. culture MAKING]'.
    - 1857 govt ends all religious instruction at public schools, so churches respond by setting up their own institutions e.g. schools and even universities
    - 1869 CRC created, as thousands of more conservative believers leave for Canada and the USA (esp. MI, IL, IA)
    - 1872 AK 'moves from pastorate to Dutch parliament by age 35' (CT), also becoming editor of daily newspaper De Standaard, from which posts he 'rallied and educated a movement that would have a transformative impact in the 1870s e.g. lauching a new denomination [the Gereformeerde Kerk] and a new political party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP)'.
    - 1880 Boer revolt against British in S Africa, Transvaal gains indep 1881. AK helps found Free University of Amsterdam, where he teaches til 1901.
    - 1882 Triple Alliance formed i.e. Germany, Austria, Italy, lasts til 1914 (i.e. WWI defeated 'Central Powers')
    - 1883 1st 'social security' program introduced in Germany
    - 1893 General strike in Belgium
    - 1898 AK comes to USA, praising our 'open religiosity' but comdemning our 'unabashed materialism' (only 'decentralized power and dispersed authority [allows] a truly human life'). His Stone Lectures at Princeton (PTS) became 'Lectures on Calvinism'. His 'revolutionary proposal' was that 'all knowledge proceeds from faith of whatever kind'. It took awhile, but his worldview thinking eventually became the basis for the 'evangelical intellectual revival of the last 3 decades [since 1970s]'.
    - 1899-1902 Boer War in S Africa
    - 1900 by this year, 10% of Dutch pop. is 'dissident' (CRC, Gereformeerde), 45% 'mainline' (Hervormde) and the rest (45%) RCC, Jewish, secular or other. The practical result of AK's program was to create a 3-way split in society (Protestant, RCC, secular; w/latter later splitting into socialist and capitalist branches) with each forming its own instutitions e.g. churches, schools, political parties, sports leagues, social clubs, ...
    - 1903 1st flight by Wright Bros at Kitty Hawk, NC
    - 1901-5 AK is PM of The Netherlands (and ldr of the ARP). His political vision 'aimed to impede the centralizing tendencies that capitalism appeared to require [and] rested on the notion of 'sphere sovereignty' i.e. that God had created distinct realms of life e.g. church, education, family, state to function independly'. His coalition included RCC against the secularists, but ARP favored 'peace [pluralism], prosperity and liberty [democracy]'. He was a 'disappointed progressive' like W J Bryan and W Wilson i.e. 'humanize, not overthrow, the existing order'.
    - 1907 Triple Entente formed i.e. Britain, France, Russia to counter Triple Alliance (i.e. players set for WWI)

    Source: DYKSTRA family book (Lolke and Johantje are the book's title)