by Willem Meiners
PETER STUYVESANT came from Peperga in Friesland. The Van Ness family, for whom wide avenues are named in Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, hailed from Nes on the Ameland island. Van Nuys near Los Angeles is named after farmer Isaac from the Groningen village of Nuis, between Marum and Leek. The Rockefellers originate from Breskens, and Minnie Mae Hood, who rests below the grass of Graceland next to her grandson Elvis Presley, was a descendant of Jan Hoed from Spakenburg and his wife Rachel van Bunschoten.
The U.S. counts more than 17,000 municipalities. Of these, 15,000 have a population of under five thousand. In addition, there are another 16,000 unincorporated villages, townships, without their own government, controlled by their county. America does not consist of the big cities and their skyscrapers. It consists primarily of villages.
After all, it was founded by men and women from predominantly small Dutch towns. This is remarkable enough to stop and reflect on for a moment. But surprising it is not. Of the first ten thousand or so Dutch folks who came sailing to America four hundred years ago, the majority were villagers. Those in the 17th century who lived in a Dutch city typically were doing well. Holland was prosperous and, except for an occasional plague outbreak, healthy. Children went to school. Homes were modern. Roofs were covered with baked clay tiles, no flammable thatches, therefore massive city fires were rare. Holland was more urbanized than any other country in Europe, by far. City populations had little reason to break away from where they lived.
THIS WAS different for those who were living in a small village. They’d be more willing to pull up their roots and go on an adventure in a land that was not yet called America, but New Netherland. Then you’d board a ship in Amsterdam, Delfshaven, Harlingen or Texel, and you’d land weeks later, sometimes months, in a town named New Amsterdam.
Douwe Fonda from Kollum did it. Henry, Peter and Jane have made his name world famous. The Admiraal family from Monnickendam and Schoorl did it also. Robert de Niro is their descendant. Geesje Springsteyn fled a village in Groningen, and Bruce’s Born to Run is an ode to her. Grandma Kersten left Loenen in Gelderland and planted a family tree in America of mainly pastors, with Stephen King and his daughter Naomi as descendants. Naomi herself is a pastor, too.
PEOPLE CAME from Breukelen and built Brooklyn. They emigrated from Buren and Buurmalsen, Martin became president, and now 31 cities and towns in America are named Van Buren. They left Bunnik and De Bilt and launched the Vanderbilt empire. They came from Coevorden and built two Vancouvers, one in Washington state, and then also one in Canada. Or, as in the case of little Jan Edeson and his widowed mother, they left Edam and Den Oever behind and started a new life that eventually spawned Thomas Edison.
America is the only country in the world that has been created solely by people who didn’t mind starting from scratch. Women and men who came from villages and hamlets. They brought with them an attitude of toss-everything-overboard. Start something anew. Make it better, bigger, stronger. The Roosevelts from Tholen, Greetje Gerritse from Nederhemert whose offspring included the builder of Brooklyn Bridge, Adriaantje Jansen from Durgerdam whose descendant became president Jerry Ford. The Huizengas from Bedum and the Kochs from Workum, who founded America’s largest waste management company and its biggest private corporation, bigger than Disney. And hairdresser Evert Iwwerks from Uttum in East Groningen. He came to Kansas and had a son, Ubbe. The boy was good at drawing.
Ubbe created Mickey Mouse.
* Willem Meiners is the Editor of De Daily Dutchman. He lives in a small village in Maine.
