THEY WERE women, mothers and grandmothers, and they each had two things in common. They were all from Holland, and they stood like no others at the cradle of what America looks like today.
Their names appear nowhere in neon. They were Wijntje Teunis from Naarden, Annigje Gouwens from Lekkerkerk or Richarda van den Brink from Laren. Wijntje was Walter Cronkite’s ueber-grandma (he named his sailboat after her), Annigje gave her badass genes, and her name, to Angelina Jolie. And Richarda became the mother of Starbucks, thanks to the brilliance of her son Alfred Peet, who crossed the ocean from Alkmaar to teach America how to drink coffee.
They are unsung heroines, strong women, tough gals. Without them, America today would look very different, less, worse. Without Rachel van Bunschoten, no Elvis Presley. Without Adriaantje Jansen from Durgerdam, no Jerry Ford, and without Amsterdam’s Mevrouw Griet Reyniers no Jackie Kennedy. Without Jacomijntje de Winter from Breskens, no Rockefellers. Without Greetje Gerritse from Nederhemert and Hester Verveelen from Amsterdam, their offshoot Emily Roebling would not have built Brooklyn Bridge. And without Trijntje Hendricksen from Leiden we would never have known Jimi Hendrix, let alone that we would have seen Robert de Niro acting if it hadn’t been for Geurtje Hoogland from Heerhugowaard.
ALL THOSE women are the reason why Sieke van Herwerden’s son from Den Helder, Ed Bok, a century ago America’s most influential journalist, wrote in The Ladies Home Journal that not England, but Holland is America’s mother. After all, if Geertje Verkerk from Beusichem had not courageously sailed to America, there would have been no Theo Van Kirk who, flying over Hiroshima in the Enola Gay, ended World War II. And if Els Schuyler from Amsterdam had after her husband’s early death not spent forty years building a museum for him, we wouldn’t have a $10 bill and a Hamilton musical today.
America as a society exists by the grace of twelve interrelated, cohesive areas: politics, military, economics, logistics, aviation, aerospace, culture, information media, entertainment, sex, love and the Wild West. The nation’s cohesion comes from Holland. Pietertje Janse from Naarden and Susanne Dubbels from Vorden gave Las Vegas its unique look, through grandson and casino architect DeRuyter Butler who signed off on the skyline, and Donald Brinkerhoff who made Sin City lush and green. Maria Gevert from Maastricht gave America Buzz Aldrin and the moon. And if Jannetje van Rosenvelt had not left Tholen behind, America would have missed out on two of its most influential presidents.
WITHOUT NEELTJE van Horne from Hoorn, there would have been no Lucy Mercer, in whose loving but extramarital arms FDR died. And seriously, would Marshall Virgil Earp at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona really have been shooting around like a madman if Ellen Rijsdam from Rhenen hadn’t driven him nuts? Neeltje Denyse from Bunnik gave America the Vanderbilt logistics giant, without Griet van Dalfsen from Overijssel there would be no Chryslers on the road, and without Marie Gansevoort from Groningen no one would have heard of Moby Dick. And oh, Jackie’s ancestress Mevrouw Reyniers? She was also America’s very first prostitute.
All these women were the Yankee mothers, America’s archetypal mothers behind the scenes. The women without whom the country would have been a very different, a much lesser, place.
Happy Mother’s Day, ladies!
