James Brewer

The Brewer Family in America has a long history including that of Corporal John Brewer who lived in Sudbury, Massachusetts as early as 1642. The name is not an uncommon one, and suggests that at sometime in the past a distant ancestor brewed ale or some other intoxicating beverage. And whether our present James Brewer is a descendant of Corporal John Brewer or of some other Brewer is not known.

James Brewer (1818-1880)

James Brewer (1818-1880) 

High on the Flint Hills where waters to Hickory Creek and the Little Walnut River form lies the township of Hickory in Butler County.

It was there that our James Brewer brought his wife and four children to in the 1870s. He settled on a claim on the south forks of Hickory Creek on the southwest corner of plat 14-28-7 of Hickory Township. Other families who arrived included the Comstocks, the Armstrongs, Bartholemews, and MacGinnises. The beginnings of a town were started with a general store at Old Brownlow, but that town has since disappeared. Further east at the edge of the long slow slope into Greenwood County is the town of Beaumont which began as a stagecoach stop and became a railroad hub with the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Our James Brewer would not see the coming of the railroad. He died in 1880, nor would he be around for the publication of the Walter McGinnis and I.C. Thomas Atlas of Butler County published the same year.

Hickory Township 1885

Our James Brewer lived two months shy of his allotted time of 70 years and five years before the Santa Fe laid its tracks through Beaumont. His wife Margaret lived on to the age of 79, dying in 1904 at the age of 83. The mail came weekly by horseback from El Dorado. Otherwise it was a quiet life. Homesteaders farmed for a living and took their produce to El Dorado or Augusta.

Wife
Margaret Faubion Brewer 1821–1904

Children
Mary Elizabeth Brewer Crecelius 1846–1928
Melissa Brewer Wilson 1855–1946
Henry Monroe Brewer 1861–1931
Josephine E. Brewer Van Huss 1865–1912

Was life easy?

No!

In 1871 a tornado blew through Butler County pausing to wreck havoc in Hickory Township. The Semishes who were newly arrived in their wagon were blown over but not hurt. Dr. MacGinnis' house, the only one then standing was blown away. In the fall of 1873, a prairie fire consumed all the dry grass and more in the township. Cattle and horse rustlers were afoot, but vigilantes soon put a stop to their bad ways.

The Brewers were neighbors to John Finley Van Huss who also had a farm in Hickory Township. James and Margaret's youngest daughter married John, and they had four children, one of whom was named Fred. He in turn was father to James and Robert, who is my wife's father.

The Brewer family including Josie is buried in beautiful Old Brownlow Cemetery. John Finley Van Huss is buried in the Latham Cemetery.

John Finley Van Huss

Thanks to Melynn for this photograph of John Finley Van Huss and family.

John Finley Van Huss

Latham, Kansas 1909

Big changes were afoot in Butler County Kansas in 1909.

The Ford Model T automobile was making headway in Kansas, but it still shared the dirt roads with the horse and buggy. Telephone wires were strung from town to town, but party lines were still common and a telephone operator connected the call. Test wells were drilled for oil, but the big find was not to be had for a few years. One and two teacher schools dotted the county like wildflowers. Teddy Roosevelt was in his last year as president. Walter R. Stubbs was the Republican governor and he made Kansas dry.

John Finley Van Huss had a farm near Latham, a wife name Josie, and five children, ages five to twenty.

John Finley Van Huss was my wife's great grandfather, grandfather to Robert (Bob) Van Huss. He lived to be 80 years old. He was the youngest son of Valentine Worley Van Huss and Elizabeth Campbell.

Born in 1859 in Carter County, Tennessee, John Finley came to Kansas in the 1870s with his parents in a wagon. He lost his mother in Johnson County, Kansas, before his father and older brothers took up homesteading in Butler County Kansas. Eventually, John took a farm near Latham, Kansas and married the neighbor's daughter, Josie Brewer.

They had five children. The second, Fred Brewer VanHuss (1893-1972) was Bob's father.

Family

John Finley Vanhuss 1859-1939, Marriage: 24 April 1888, Mo.?
Josie or Josephine E Brewer 1865-1912

Children (5)

Beulah Van Huss 1889-1975
Fred Brewer Van Huss 1893-1972
Luva G. Van Huss 1898-1980
Elmer (Van) E. Van Huss 1901-1970
Lois (Jerry) O. Van Huss 1904-1963

What Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand looked like

Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand (1618 - 1703)

If Jan Franz Van Husum is the first direct American ancestor of all who bear the name Van Huss, Van Hoesen, Van Hooser, et al, then one should know the name of his wife, Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand. Volkje meaning "little falcon", Jurrianse meaning daughter of Jurri (English, George), Nordstrand, the place from which she came.

*[Volkje, pronounced like folkie, my interpretation of this name is little falcon, like the Latin "falco". Others might disagree. "Volk" means people, but "little people" seems stupid to me a a girl's name. One other possiblility is "wolf" from the "Proto-Slavic *vьlkъ, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos," and that points us back to falcon, Frisisan "wikel" where the "w" is pronounced like a "v".]

Of course no one knows what Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand looked like. There are no photographs for she lived  from 1618 until 1703. Nor are there portrait miniatures in gouache, watercolor, or enamel as a copper locket for Volkje was a simple farm girl from Nordstrand. There are no paintings that hung on the wall of she and her husband Jan Franz Van Husum.

Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl earring

But we can still guess.

She was Dutch or Frisian, not likely Danish, though that might not matter. Families formed tribes, tribes became nations, people migrated, inter-married much like they do today. The island of Nordstrand where she lived with her parents and sister was in the Duchy of Schleswig, politically part of Denmark, but only loosely so. It was settled by many who were Dutch, but in the small villages lived the Frisians who had lived in these islands since the time before Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus who would accommodate them and bring its young men in Roman armies. It is also quite likely that the Frisians were indistinguishable from the Angles and Saxons who invaded England from the fall of the Roman empire until the seventh century. That we know from the linguistic similarity of the Frisian language and Old English.

Blonde hair or brown, blue eyes or brown, probably both types existed within the general population. Tall, medium, or short, thin or stout, anything is possible, so let us look to the old masters for help.

The Milkmaid by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1658 when Volkje would have been 40 years old. By this time, Volkje and Jan had left Amsterdam where they lived after the flood of 1634 and sailed to New Holland and settled along the Hudson River in an estate belonging to Van Rensselaer family.

Volkje and her husband Jan learned the bakery trade, so here is a modern interpretation of a young girl and her pancakes.

To add a contemporary image to the mix, I will show you the photograph of the author, poet and linguist Albertina Soepboer.

Albertina Soepboer, copyright hers

Perhaps you will want to check Albertina Soepboer out. Image and poem are hers.


Now let us Visit a Farmhouse, courtesy of Peter Brueghal the younger, circa 1610. A peasant woman is halfway through breast feeding her young before a caldron of boiling beets, in the background the milk is churned into butter.

Lastly, I will leave you with my favorite, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch, Meisje met de parel) circa 1665.

Dutch, Danish, or Friesii

[Previously discussed in May of this year.]

Joyce Lindstom in her history of the family, VAN HOOSE VAN HOOSER VAN HUSS FAMILY IN AMERICA has identified Jan Fransse Van Husum as the first ancestor of all the Van Hoosers, Van Husses, Van Hoesens, Van Hooesrs, Hoosers in America as well as some thirty variations of the surname.

She explains that Jan was born in 1608 in the city of Husum on the Jutland Peninsula, in the Duchy of Schleswig, then part of Denmark. She goes on saying that Jan was not Dutch as most of us think. Neither was he German, for Husum and the once Duchy of Schleswig and Schleswig-Holstein now finds itself in Germany, even though not by much. He was a Schleswigan, under Danish rule.

 Joyce surmises that, "He spoke low German, probably with a Frisian or Danish dialect."

We shall never rightly know if Joyce was correct. A DNA test of family members might give us some statistical evidence, but Joyce points out that living in Amsterdam, then New Holland and marriage certainly clouds the question. Then too, his wife, Volkje Jurrianse Van Nordstrand was most likely Dutch. Her parents were farmers who settled on the island of Nordstrand. It was an island under the supervision of Dutch hydraulic engineer Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater.

What about Danish?

In 1252, King Abel of Denmark took an  army to Husum on account of the fact that the local population refused to pay taxes and recognize Danish authority. A battle took place on the bridge at Husum (Husembro) and King Abel was killed. Old history yes, but it was a long way to Copenhagen from Husum then and now.

[There is no historically old image of King Abel's death, but we have an old sketch of Count Willem II In Hoogwoud, Falls Through The Ice, and killed by West Frisians in 1256.]

Who are these Frisians Joyce talks about?

The Frisians are an ancient people whose existence goes back to Roman times. They inhabited the low lands and marshes along the North Sea coast from the Sheldt River in present day Belgium, along the coast of The Netherlands, and up the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula. These ‘barbarians’ chose to live on the border between land and sea, probably as a means of protection against the Romans and other tribes. To protected themselves against floods they built hills (Dutch and Frisian, halligen) buttressed by logs. Besides farming, they raised cattle and sheep, and no doubt engaged in trade and fishing on the sea. By the time of Caser Augustus, the Frisii seemed to have gathered around the Zuider Zee and east, just outside the reach of Roman authority which ended at the Rhine.

The Frisii reach some form of accommodations with the Romans. Don't bother us, we won't bother you. Then seeing an opportunity for plunder, Frisians joined up as legionnaires to fight in the Roman army. Traces of the Frisian legionnaires have been found at the English towns of Bicester, Burgh-by-Sands, Carrawburgh, Cirencester, Glossop, Hexham, Manchester and Papcastle. note 1

The Roman Empire finally fell in the Fifth Century. The Frisians still lived along the coast. From the fifth century on, it seems the Frisians took part in a general migration to Britain along with the Saxons and Angles. This fact is born out linguistically, as English and the Frisian language are similar. By the seventh and eighth century the Kingdom of Frisia existed along the coast, succumbing for a time to Charlemagne, then battling Vikings, then regaining their independence.

Frisia would fade in time as Holland blossomed. Today the Frisian dialect is spoken in a few areas near the island of Nordstrand and that is all.

I suppose this leaves us with the adage, that history is written by the victors. Jan might have been Frisian or not. He was certainly Dutch (his descendants look Dutch, like those in this painting by Jan Van Husum's contemporary, Rembrandt), he migrated to Amsterdam after the Great Flood of 1634, married, and sailed to New Holland in 1639 where he began a new life as an American.

Husembro

Husum (North Frisian: Hüsem), capital of the Kreis (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. [Birthplace of Jan Franz Van Husem and Home to families named Van Huss, Van Hoesen, and others].

The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey city by the sea". It is also the home of the annual international piano festival Raritäten der Klaviermusik (Rarities of Piano Music) founded in 1986. - variously used on multiple sites

Husum was first mentioned as Husembro in 1252

Abel, son of Valdemar (1218 – 29 June 1252), Duke of Schleswig, 1232 to 1252, and King of Denmark, 1250 until 1252. Died on the bridge at Husem (Husembro).

In 1250, Abel killed his brother Eric and was made king. In 1252, Abel was told that the Frisians who lived along the North Sea coastline refused to pay taxes. Raising an army, King Abel marched to the sea where he met an opposing force of Frisians organized by Sicko Sjaerdema, who gave allegiance to William of Holland.  King Abel's army was defeated at the bridge to Husem (Husembro) and it is reported that he was killed by a wheelwright named Henner.

In 1539, Husem again enters recorded history when it is mapped (inaccurately, as it is placed next to a large lake at the bottom of the Jutland Peninsula and towards the center) for the first time on the Carta Marina in the Frisian (Latin) form of Husem. Swedish map maker Olaus Magnus, initially published in 1539.

 

In 1634 a Great Flood struck the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula causing tens of thousands of deaths and making Husem a port city. This fact is revealed by mapmaker Georg Braun (1541 – 1622) who included a birds-eye view of Husem in his Civitates orbis terrarum (cities of the world).

Husem 1593, mapmaker Braun

Today the river that divides Husum is more of a tidal estuary. The port is removed a mile to the west. The city center is a tourist destination with restaurants lining the river bank watching the tide come and go.

The old bridge around which Husem grew is still there. One can sit and have a glass of wine or beer and think about the battle that took place on this old bridge more than 800 years ago.

From Husum to Helsinore

Jacob Knijff - National Maritime Museum, London (c.1670), image Wikipedia

 

 

Husum to Helsinore

Today, the trip from Husum Germany to Helsinore Denmark takes 4 hours by car, longer if one goes by boat since one must travel north along the Jutland peninsula, past Fredrikshaven and on to the northern point of the island of Zealand. Here is Hamlet's imposing castle overlooking the sea where Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia are separated by a channel of water called Öresund (the Sound) which is no more than two and a half miles.

Hamlet

The closeness sets the political stage for Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in which the underlying fear of a Norwegian invasion is the backdrop for Hamlet’s conflict with his uncle, the new King of Denmark and the king’s wife, Hamlet’s mother.

I mention this purely because Shakespeare’s play may give us insight into the life and times of the Danish people, and, our progenitor, Jan Franz Van Husum (Husum then Danish and the people a mixture of Danes, Dutch, and Frisians). Too disturbing you say, too psychological, too royal for a common sailor like our Jan and his father Franz. Perhaps.

Still, it demonstrates that our ancestors were like us, subject to human passions, to anger, to love, to jealousy and revenge. And life does not always turn out well.

Varengezel 

The marriage certificate of Jan and Volkje
in which he describes himself as a "varengezel"

 

A “varensgezel,” as Jan would later describe himself, is a sailor, a shipmate, a wayfaring journeyman. Such a sailor makes a brier appearance addressing Hamlet’s best friend Horatio:

“Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them.”

Scholars of Shakespeare have determined that Hamlet was written sometime between 1599 and 1602. This would be a few years before Jan’s birth in 1608 and at time when Jan’s father Franz was of a similar age to Hamlet himself.

Shakespeare speaks

We are all familiar with Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be…” It dominates our understanding of the play, but there is much, much more that reveals the everyday thinking of the late 16th century and early 17th century Dane. I will give you two and suggest that you read the play.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” And, “Listen to many, speak to a few.”

And close with, “Good-night, sweet prince; and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Settling down in America

Most genealogists of the family Van Huss (Van Husum, Van Hoesen, etc.) report that Jan and Volkje Van Husum were married in Amsterdam's Nieu Kirke on on April 30, 1639, then soon set sail on the ship Den Herring, arriving in Rensselaerswyck on 12 July 1639.

Fort Orange, Renssalaerwyck

Renssalaerwyck was a feudal estate owned by Killiaen Van Rensselaer and his family. The Rensselaer family provided passage to Dutch immigrants to the plantation in exchange for work. The original settlement called Fort Orange was located at the juncture of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in the area that now includes the capital city of Albany. As settlers arrived, a new settlement called Beverwyck was built outside Fort Orange.

The settlers swore an oath of fealty to Renssalaer as follows:

I, [name], promise and swear that I shall be true and faithful to the noble Patroon and Co-directors, or those Commissioners and Council, subjecting myself to the good and faithful inhabitant or Burgher, without exciting any opposition, tumult, or noise; but on the contrary, as a loyal inhabitant, to maintain and support offensively and of the Colonie. And with reverence and fear of the Lord, and uplifting of both the first fingers of the right hand, I say — SO TRULY HELP ME GOD ALMIGHTY.

The industrious Jan Van Husum and his wife Volkje set about making a living with Jan working as a clerk for the estate. The couple are reported to have opened a bakery. It is also likely that Jan engaged in the lucrative beaver trade with the Indians. Eventually, Jan and Volkje were able to buy their own land as the Dutch Government recorded the following land grants in the Books of Patents and Town Records:

Van Hoesen, Jan Frs. a lot Beverwyck 25 October 1653
Van Hoesen, Jan Jansen An Indian tract Claverack 05 June 1662

The lot containing a garden where they built their home was on the corner of Broadway and State Street. The tract of land at Claverack included included what is now the city of Hudson from Stockport Creek south along the river to Kishna's Kil at South Bay and east beyond Claverack Creek.

Dutch, Danish, or Frisian?

A rose is a rose is a rose, or is it?

The question is often asked, what nationality were Jan Franz Van Husum and Volkje Jurians Nordstrand?

Joyce Lindstrom in her biography of the progenitor of the Van Huss (Van Hoesen, Van Hooser, etc.) family notes:

"Jan Fransse was born in Husum ... in 1608. Husum lies in the northern duchy of Schleswig, which was once an independent duchy ruled by princes of the old Roman empire. A ducal portion was ruled by the dukes of Holstein and a common portion was ruled jointly by the kings and dukes."

Danish

The self-same duke and King of Denmark was Christian IV, who has come down in history as a sagacious fellow who ruled his kingdom with a level of stability and wealth unmatched elsewhere in Europe. This is not saying much for a Europe in the midst of the Thirty Years War, Dutch struggles for independence, religious conflict, the plague, and the simple daily struggle to survive.


This might settle the question of nationality in favor of the Danish, but not so quick.

Frisian

The western coastline of the Jutland peninsula where Husum and Nordstrand are found is historically part of North Frisia. The North Frisians settled on the coast and in the marshes on tiny islets called “halligs” shored up by wooden posts barely peeking out above Wadden Sea. Frisians are identified by dialect, speaking Low German, a dialect most closely identified with English. Thus, we may conclude that these were part of the Anglo Saxon raiders who invaded England between the 5th and 9th centuries and gave us their language.

Again, not so quick.

Dutch

The Dutch, great hydrologists that they were, moved into Nordstrand. They battled with the sea, attempting to hold back the water with dycks and windmills. The task was given to Jan Leeghwater, who met his match with the Great Flood of 1634.

Jan and Volkje did move to Amsterdam which counts for something.

Conclusion

Joyce concludes:

"Jan Frantz Van Husum wasn't Dutch as many people have supposed. Neither was he German. He was a Schleswigan subjected to Danish rule. He spoke low German, probably with a Fisian or Danish dialect. However, after three generations of living among the Dutch settlers in New Netherlands, his descendants gradually became Dutch by association. There were also more emigrants in New Netherlands who were Danish, Frisian and Schleswigan than Dutch."

To the mixture we can add the many German immigrants who arrived in America and added to the melting pot. In time Jan became Johannes, then John.

In the end, we conclude that Jan Franz Van Husum was American.

Valentine "Felty" Van Hooser (1726 - 1781)

Genealogy can be a veritable alphabet soup, sons are named after fathers or grandfathers, or uncles. Names appear and reappear quite frequently making it difficult to distinguish one apple from another, or in this case, Valentine Van Hooser from another.

New York

This Valentine Van Hooser (1726-1781) was born 16 Jan 1726 in Claverack, Albany, New York. If we are looking for namesakes, then Valentine takes his name from his mother's father, Johann Valentin (Laux) Lauck. "Felty" which is often attached to Valentine's name is but a nickname like Tom, Dick, or Harry.

Valentine a fourth generation Van Huss, and direct descendant of Jan Franz Van Husum. As is often the case with children not the first born, they move on to other lands. So it was that Jan Franz Van Husum who settled in upstate New York near present day Albany would watch as later born children moved on. In the case of the Van Husums, Van Hoesens, Van Hoosers, and Van Huss, it was west to Pennsylvania, south to North Carolina, up to Virginia, then across the Smokey Mountains to Tennessee and beyond.

Pennsylvania

Our fourth generation Valentine finds himself in Tulpehocken (Land of the Turtles), Lancaster County (now Berks), Pennsylvania, home to many German families like the Laux and the Zerbe that mixed with Valentine on the maternal side of the family, and interestingly, the ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln and the birthplace of Daniel Boone. Valentine came there in 1728 at the age of 2  with his parents and siblings. They settled among Germans who had first come in 1723 and squatted on land that by rights belonged to the Indians. Thus, when the Van Hooser family arrived, the dispute with the local Delawares had yet to be settled. Only in 1732, when Thomas Penn purchase of the land from the Indians, were things made right.

Then, there was the matter of his marriage to Maria Barbara (Zerwe) Zerbe on 22 December 1746 in Tulpehocken. The couple had begun a family by the 5th of March 1750, when Valentine took out a land patent for 50 acre.

North Carolina

Perhaps the reason was the impending Indian troubles, or the growing number of German immigrants moving in, or just the need for change and new land, but, for whatever reason, the couple moves to Rowan County, North Carolina.They would travel by wagon drawn by horse. Their route was The Great Valley Road, aka the "Great Wagon Road," "Great Warriors' Path," "Valley Pike," "Carolina Road," or "Trading Path" which forked at Big Lick Virginia (Roanoke) and took our travelers south to Salisbury North Carolina where they found land.

North Carolina had its own Indian troubles and then there was the matter of the Regulators, who were incensed at paying taxes to absent British "landowners". The farmers "rebellion" against British authority culminated with the Battle of Alamance in 1771, which the Regulators lost. Many of the farmers who had taken up arms then fled to the hills of Tennessee or Virginia.

Virginia

This would explain the strange case of McKenney vs. Preston--O. S. 308; N. S. 110, Chancery Court, Chalkley's Chronicles, Vol 2, Court records of Augusta Virginia, page 228.

Thomas Beelor being deposed remembers:  "...[The] family Hooser or Van Hooser, as they were called, ... settled on North Fork of Clinch near Flat Lick in 1775. The oldest Van Hooser (deponent understood from his father) made the upper improvement, and the old man's son John was the next oldest man and made an improvement near the old man."

Various sources state that Valentine, 51 years old, died at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Valentine's name is not included among those listed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, but there is a note that the list is not complete.

Sources

* History of Tulpehocken, Berks County by Judy Thayer

Van Hooose, Van Hooser, Van Huss (Van Hoesen, Van Husum and other variations) Family in America by Joyce Lindstrom

Franz

We know him by no other name than Franz, father to Jan Franz Van Husum (the first Van Huss, Van Hoesen to come to America). He possessed no last name. None was needed and if further distinction was required, he might be addressed as Blackbeard, or Red Franz or Tall Franz, or whatever distinguishing characteristic he might have possessed.

He was of the late 16th century (Jan was born in 1608) and was likely a seaman, for two reasons: first, this was the primary occupation of those living along the North Sea coast and second, his son was also a "sea-going" man.

We know that his name is Franz because of the marriage certificate which gives Jan's first name, his father's name Franz, and his place of origin, Van Husum. We do not know if he was Dutch or Frisian or Danish. Modern DNA tests might answer this question with some statistical probability. If we go simply by place of origin, then we would say that he was Danish or at least a subject of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein. Then again, the ancient North Frisians had inhabited the coastline of the Jutland Peninsula for millennia. The Dutch also have a claim on our Franz, for the name screams Dutch, but that is not to say that the Danish and the Frisians did not use similar names. Moreover, it was the Dutch who came to the island of Nordstrand and with their technical know-how, attempted, poorly as it turned out, to reclaim the land from the fierce North Sea.

What he looked like is anyone's guess, but we can imagine that he might have been a character out of Isack van Ostade painting, Workmen before the Inn, 1645, National Gallery of Art.

Franz likely visited an alehouse and drank ale to while away the time. While drinking he most likely broke out in song:

Come all you young Maidens & lend an ear
Come listen awhile and you shall hear,
How the Keepers did sport with the fallow deer
Amongst the leaves so green ah
Hey down derry derry down,
Hey down down, ho down down,
Het down ho down derry derry down
Amongst the leaves so green ah...
The Huntsmans Delight, Or, The Foresters Pleasure.

A churning song

Johannes Vermeer, the Milkmaid, c. 1658

On the last day of the last year of her life on Nordstrand, Volkje and her sister Annetje would have gone about their daily tasks, rising to feed the chickens, tend the ducks, milk the cows, wash the clothes, prepare and cook the food. In 1634 a terrific gale hit the island of Nordstrand, causing the sea to break the dykes, flood the island and destroy churches, farms, and homes with great loss of life. Sixteen year old Volkje and her older sister Annetje are the only two in her family who are known to have survived.

We find her, five years later in Amsterdam, marrying Jan Franz Van Husum (Husem), and ready to depart for the New World and New Holland for a new life.

The butter churn surely followed.

‘Apron on and dash in hand
O’er the churn I stand’
Cachug, cachink!
Aching back and arms so weary

We are not so dumb as you might think
It’s just that we have no time
We must work
We milk the cows, we let it sit
While we mend, clean and cook
Then take the cream
And place it in a barrel
From which we churn and turn
Hour after hour
To make our bread and butter

And you my child, the future
You are not so smart
Yes you, who do nothing more than text
You see, oh no you don't
That iPhone in your hand is
But a stratagem to beguile
A clever ruse, a simple trick
A wile they say is free, and
All the while
They charge you out the ass
And turn your brain to mush

Bruegal, Visit to a Farmhouse

Life in 17th century Netherlands

Life in 17th century Netherlands

Roelant Roghman, (Dutch 1627–1692), The Breach in the Dike between Amsterdam and Diemen in 1651

 

Frisian is a Dutch dialect spoken by a Dutch minority. They were recognized as far back as Roman times and they inhabited the coastline of Holland and the Jutland Peninsula. Frisia was comprised of West and East Friesland and North Friesland, the area from which Jan and Volkje came. There has been much discussion on whether the name Van Huss and Van Hoesen is Dutch or Frisian. The question can not be answered clearly. Husum and Nordstrand where the two came from was once upon a time Danish, then part of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, but in the main, the inhabitants were culturally Dutch.

Historically, it is important to know that the nation state of the Netherlands only came into being in 1596 when the kings of France and England arranged a treaty with the Republic of the United Netherlands, giving the fledgling state international recognition. The Kingdom of Spain continued to wage war on the Dutch until 1609 when they too recognized Dutch independence. The North Friesland coast where Jan Fanz Van Husum originated was for the most part a "vast swampy moor." Husum was a seaport and it is likely that Jan, who was a sailor, sailed into the North Atlantic to catch cod. Because of its remoteness from Amsterdam and the major Dutch cities, Husum and the island of Nordstrand escaped the fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. Dutch engineers had come to the island of Nordstrand to battle the sea and reclaim the land.

It was not a battle they could win.

Go stroll along the sandy dunes and march through the muddy marshes. See the world the way they saw it. For a good article on Dutch life in the 16th and 17th century with images go to the following link:

Nederland naar ’t leven: Een inleiding

Dear Lilith

Reinier Zeeman (ca. 1623–1667 Dutch), Flooded

I often wonder what thoughts they had, what they said to each other, what they felt. They were, after all, no different than you or I, touched by human emotions.

His name was Jan, nothing more. Like all the Biblical characters, like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a first name was enough.

He was a 30 year old sailor from Husum.

Volkje was a 20 year old farm girl from Nordstrand, brought together by a terrible storm that took thousands of lives. Her parents killed in the deluge, his occupation as a sailor likely ended with the flooding of Husum, a seaport along the tidal flats and salt marshes of Wadden Sea. Like hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors, making their way to Amsterdam. Then offered a chance to settle in the New World.

Married in Amsterdam's Nieue Kirche, where for the first he took the name Jan Van Husum. They then prepared to set sail across the Atlantic to New Amsterdam and a new life. She would be his guiding life, the mother of his children, the keeper of the house. Together they would share life's journey.

What thoughts had they, we can only imagine...

Dear Lyltsen

Dear Lyltsen, when I am with thee
(My light, my flame, my sun, my eye)
As dark as deep as night may be
When through the sky stars steer their course
No matter how dark it may be
It is light as the daylight sun for me.

But when your flare flares not unto me,
I have no star to steer my turning;
I move then blind as a stick, a stone,
Though mid-day sun is burning.
What use if the sun in my eyes is bright?
Lylts is all, my dark, my light.

Gysbert Japicx (b. 1603)

Lyltsen  (the diminutive and enduring way of referring to Lylt), possibly Lilith. In Jewish mythology, Lilith refers to a demon in the night. Volkje (Volkie and its variants) is the diminutive of  the Dutch word for falcon.

Gysbert Japicx (also Japiks; 1603–66) was a 17th century Dutch poet who wrote in Latin as well as the Frisian dialect, Friesche Rymlerye (1668; “Frisian Verse”). Japicx or Japiks spoke of his beloved Lylt in several verses. Whether she was real or just a vision is uncertain.

Life in the Netherlands

Historically, it is important to know that the nation state of the Netherlands only came into being in 1596 when the kings of France and England arranged a treaty with the Republic of the United Netherlands, giving the fledgling state international recognition. The Kingdom of Spain continued to wage war on the Dutch until 1609 when they too recognized Dutch independence. The North Friesland coast where Jan Fanz Van Husum originated was for the most part a "vast swampy moor." Husum was a seaport and it is likely that Jan, who was a sailor, sailed into the North Atlantic to catch cod. Because of its remoteness from Amsterdam and the major Dutch cities, Husum and the island of Nordstrand escaped the fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. Dutch engineers had come to the island of Nordstrand to battle the sea and reclaim the land.

It was not a battle they could win.

Go stroll along the sandy dunes and march through the muddy marshes. See the world the way they saw it. For a good article on Dutch life in the 16th and 17th century with images go to the following link:

Nederland naar ’t leven: Een inleiding