People have sent me so many stories, I could write a book with all the material that I have left and not used so far! It’s not just a joke, I am actually going to publish a book on the subject Zeeuwen in America. A publisher has contacted me just before my trip and is very confident that we are going to sell all of them, too! The good news: all chapters will have an extended summary at the end in English. But, I’m drifting off. I wanted to introduce another series of stories on this blog. It’s going to be a series of genealogy stories, of Zeeuwse families in America. Of course, if somebody still has more interesting family-related material, please send it to me. I may be able to use it either here or in the book.
The first story is about Pieter Kallewaard, who in Wissenkerke used to be a rich man, but ended poor as a newspaper salesman in Grand Rapids (Mi). The history has been sent to me from Ms. A. den Hamer-Kallewaard from Oostburg.
It was poverty that caused Pieter Kallewaard, born on 27 February 1815 in ‘s-Gravenhoek, to emigrate to America. “We can tell he used to be rich by the fact that he sold the church of Wissenkerke, that he had financed all by himself, on 4 December 1875 to the Dutch Reformed congregation”, according to J. Jacquemijns, the writer of the summarized genealogy of the Kallewaards. The deal included all furniture, but left out the pulpit bible. “On 26 April 1880, Kallewaard receives the sum of 1300 guilders for the church.” That was a lot of money for that period. Kallewaard was a farmer, but also owned an auction and a shipping trade company for transporting goods.
According to oral history, things went wrong when his wife Jacoba Rademaker, born on 1 March 1818 in Kortgene, got sick and died shortly after in 1866. She was only 48 years old, leaving behind nine children. Within half a year, the 51 year old Pieter Kallewaard remarried to Hendrika Oreel, his housekeeper. She was 29 years old, while his eldest daughter Cornelia was 27. The two of them must have had an affair for quite some time, we know from people who know.
The same resources tell that Pieter ‘gave away’ all his posessions before leaving to America. Or rather: “Supposedly, he was exploited by the family of Hendrika Oreel. (…) His second marriage and his in-laws may well have been the cause of the division within the family Kallewaard”, writes Jacquemijns.
Six out of nine children had already left for America. Peter Kallewaard, Pieters eldest son, born on 3 July 1841, was the first one to go at the age of 32 in 1873. The eldest daughter Cornelia Kallewaard and her second husband Adriaan Boot and her eleven children was the last to join and made the number to seven. Cornelia departed together with her dad in 1883. Two sons, Daniel and Jacobus, would stay in The Netherlands. The party that joined Pieter Kallewaard on the Plantijn from Antwerp to New York, consisted of twenty people, amongst whom probably brothers and sisters of Hendrika.
Whatever happened after with Pieter Kallewaard and his wife after arrival, is a riddle to many. Later emigrants reported they had seen him selling newspapers in Grand Rapids (MI). His descendants don’t even know where they are buried. His grandson Marinus Kallewaard, who emigrated from Werkendam (The Netherlands) to Kalamazzoo (MI) 21 years later never even talked with his children about his granddad!
http://kalamazoogenealogy.org/Cemeteries/Kalc-Kat.htm
See above cemetery for Kallewaard’s in Kalamazoo Mi..
Some of the Kallewaard’s in Riverside Cemetery / Kalamazoo are spelled Kalleward in the cemetery records, Salomon & Maatje “Martha in the records” are Kallewaard on the headstones. I have headstone photo’s and will be putting them on MiGenWeb Tombstone Project & they will be online in a few days. See the following link.
http://usgwtombstones.org/michigan/mitstable.htm
There is a death record for Peter Kallewaard in Allegan Co. Michigan, date of death is 10 / April / 1872.
Allegan Co. Clerk contact link.
http://www.macc-mi.org/Allegan.html
Thanks so much for all the research! I’ll pass the information over to the Kallewaard’s asap. (I received a traditional letter and only have their postal address!).
Salomon and Maatje emigrated in 1903. They arrived with the Noordam on 25 March 1903 with their five children.
There are 36 emigrant families/individuals between 1850 and 1906 from the Zeeland area.
Jeff Flipse’s Peter Kalleward probably belongs to a different family, because his date of death is before his arrival of either his son Pieter or himself.
Pieter Callewaard was officially declared bankrupt in 1880.
Pieter Kallewaard
Plaats : Wissenkerke
Beroep : Slijter en koopman
Jaar : 1880
Faillissementsdossier in archief Arrondissementsrechtbank te Middelburg 1838-1939
Toegangsnummer : 701.1, inventarisnummer 858
Dossiernummer : 61
A copy can be ordered with info@zeeuwsarchief.nl
Pieter Kallewaard died March 1891. His obituary was in the Kalamazoo newspaper on March 15th. It says “Peter Kallewaardt died Friday night at 10:30 o’clock, at 119 Lake Street, after an illness of eight days, aged 76 years. The funeral will occur Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock in the First Reformed Church. He left 5 children to mourn his death.”
119 Lake Street was the address of Adrian and Cornelia Boot, his son-in-law and eldest daughter. I could not discover where he was buried but many of his children are buried in Riverside Cemetery Kalamazoo. Adrian and Cornelia Boot were my great great grandparents.