De Kinkhoorn 11 — April 2005

This issue as pdf (Dutch) · Read the Dutch original · the printed original · the German translation by Ralf J. Kingma

Foreword

Spring 2005. It is almost 5 years since we held the international Kingmadag in Zweins as part of “Simmer 2000”. About 400 participants came, and in all modesty we can say it was a success.

Among others, some foreign participants asked us whether something like that could be repeated. After five years that seemed like a good idea. The board therefore began preparations last year. Whether it could go ahead, and in what form, depended on the number of participants. Together they have to bear the costs. The first survey produced a disappointing number of participants, and therefore too high a cost per participant. To our regret we are therefore unable to let the day go ahead in this form. However, a limited programme will be arranged for our foreign participants who are interested in it (see p. 2).

Further on in this Kinkhoorn a report on the lecture on Heraldry given by Mr Terluin at the donors' afternoon. Ignatius also came that afternoon and features again in this issue.

Then there is the Kingma State on the Wadden Sea coast! Several old maps show the name Kingma, just behind the sea dike above the village of Nes. That has always intrigued me. In the brochure about National Archives Day (30 October 2004) I discovered that there was a “Streekarchivariaat Noordoost-Friesland” (regional archive office for Northeast Friesland) in Dokkum. There must therefore be more to be found about this intriguing State and its namesake. So on the day mentioned above I set off for Dokkum and found the archive, housed on the second floor of the fire station. This last fact meant that I drove past it a couple of times before I figured it out. Moreover, this day turned out not to be such a fortunate choice, because the archival records needed were not accessible that day. They did try to do something for me, but it yielded nothing. So I spent the rest of the time visiting the spot where the State once stood and talking with the people who live on and near that spot.

After two more visits to Dokkum I knew more, but not yet everything. You can read about it in this issue.

Kees Kingma

Announcements Kingmadag 2005

Unfortunately not enough participants registered to be able to carry out the programme. The number of registrations was too low to organise the day at acceptable cost.

We have therefore had to decide, with great regret, not to let the Kingmadag 2005 go ahead.

We will, however, personally receive and give a guided tour to the foreign Kingmas who have registered and are interested in that.

The programme for them is as follows

The participants are received in the old town hall of Franeker. The group then travels by its own transport to Zweins, where a guided walk takes place past the Theehuis (Tea House) in Kingmatille, the site of the former Kingma State, and the Reginakerk with the graves of Kingmas from the 17th century in Zweins.

In the Dorpshuis (Village Hall) there is a lecture on the history of Kingma State. The day concludes with a joint meal in Franeker.

Organisers Kingmadag 2005

Contact address:
Organisation Kingmadag 2005, attn. Lies Kingma
Linnaeuslaan 61, 3571 TV Utrecht
Tel: 030 273 1255
E-mail: kingmadag2005@hotmail.com

Summary of Terluin's lecture on Heraldry

Summary of the lecture on heraldry by Mr J.C. Terluin1 on 20 November 2004 in Zweins.

Heraldry originated in the 11th century and had much to do with the unrecognisability of the armoured knight. Signs and colours made them recognisable. Hence, showing your colours.

The word heraldry, or the art of arms, is derived from herald. The herald was, among other things, responsible for organising tournaments, in which recognisability played an important role. Through the various coats of arms and tabards, and the participants' books (armorials), the fallen could be identified. Besides knights and princes, the citizens of towns, clergy, villages and regions also began to bear their own coat of arms.

The Frisian coat of arms has a long history. In 1440 it is recorded in an armorial in Sweden. Emperor Maximilian I granted Friesland its coat of arms with a crest in 1498. The present coat of arms with the prince's crown dates from 1815.

Since the 14th century members of the Frisian nobility also bore coats of arms. Since the 15th century the Frisians added the half German eagle to their coat of arms as a symbol of Frisian freedom. In 1417 Emperor Sigismund granted Friesland the so-called Imperial immediacy, meaning that it fell directly under the emperor. This privilege is based on a false Charlemagne privilege, in which Charlemagne is said to have granted the Frisians their freedom.

The towns of Sneek and Workum were the first towns to bear the half imperial eagle, soon followed by the nobility. The half German eagle was soon seen as the symbol that one administered justice in the name of the emperor, and was really meant to be borne only by persons entitled to the office of grietman (head of a Frisian grietenij, roughly comparable to a district magistrate).

The half eagle became very popular among the “eigengeërfde” (landed freeholder) families. In heraldry the half eagle is referred to as the Frisian half eagle, a symbol of Frisian identity.

The Frisian nobility often expressed their piety in their coat of arms through symbols such as the star, lily and lion. The freeholders' coats of arms were often a mix of piety and the display of their rights and duties.

Like so many freeholders, the Kingmas too had a coat of arms of their own. In the image below we see the Kingma coat of arms, both with and without the Frisian half eagle. What do the various symbols on the coat of arms mean?

1. The eagle

The eagle confers the right to the office of grietman and symbolises Frisian identity.

2. The hulks

Since the Kingmas did not live by the sea, this symbol has nothing to do with the right to gather shells or catch fish. Possibly the hulk points to the state (a Frisian manor house with land), as the family's proud possession. The hulk as a dwelling, a snail's shell.

3. The arrow

There are several possibilities, such as hunting rights, but also heervaartplicht (the obligation to supply fighting men for the defence of the land whenever this was needed).

4. The swan on the helmet

Symbol of swan hunting. The collar indicates that the swan is the property of the lord of the state.

Besides the two coats of arms shown above, there is a third coat of arms of the Kingmas. This coat of arms appears in the armorial and belongs to Jan Kingma. Which Jan Kingma is meant is not certain, but since this coat of arms is a clear “breaking”, or rather a variant, of the actual Kingma coat of arms, it is assumed that this coat of arms relates to Jan/Johannes Kingma, deputy of Westergo, married to Bauck van Beijma. They lived at Ferniastate in Minnertsga and later in Tietjerk.

Summary: Tjeerd Kingma

Military exploits of Ignatius in 1672

The article in Kinkhoorn number 10 about the correspondence of Ignatius van Kingma (1621-1700) with the Frisian stadtholder Willem Frederik van Nassau-Dietz ends with the fact that on 3 August 1662 Ignatius van Kingma was appointed major in the regiment Sommelsdijk by the Gedeputeerde Staten (Provincial Executive) of Friesland.

This next article, based on my lecture at the donors' meeting of 20 November last, deals with the military exploits of Ignatius during 1672, a disastrous year for the Republic.

That year the country was attacked on many fronts by an international coalition of England, France and the bishop of Münster, who had set their sights on the notoriously wealthy Republic.

Ignatius had by then risen to colonel in the army of the United Netherlands and commanded his own regiment of horsemen (6th Regiment on Friesland with 6 companies) in the army of the States General. This regiment had been formed as part of the rebuilding of the army in view of the threatening attack by the French (led by Louis XIV, nicknamed the Sun King), Germans and English.

First, briefly, a sketch of the international situation.

Duizend jaar weer, wind en water in de lage landen [A Thousand Years of Weather, Wind and Water in the Low Countries] by J. Buisman1 (KNMI), volume 4, 1557-1675, gives a nice, concise summary:

“France is by far the strongest country in Western Europe in the second half of the 17th century. The Sun King reigns here from 1661 to 1715.

The German Empire is depopulated and fragmented, Spain a ‘broken reed’, Denmark and Sweden are exhausted by war, England is mainly trying to establish its hegemony at sea, and the Habsburg Emperor has his hands full with the Turks who stand before Vienna.

France, however, is stable and leading in Europe economically and culturally. The only rival of any significance is the Republic of the Seven Provinces under the leadership of Johan de Witt.

Louis wants a leading position for his country in Europe, and he strives for secure, that is to say natural, borders: the Rhine, the Jura, the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Of great importance here is that France is by far the most populous country in Western Europe and can therefore field a strong army.

The French population numbers around 22 million people, as many as the surrounding countries put together: the German Empire has around 10 million inhabitants, England around 5 million, and the Republic approx. 1.5 million inhabitants.”

We know that in February and April 1672 Ignatius was stationed in Meppel, where his regiment formed part of a so-called ‘vliegent leger’ (flying army). Nowadays we would call that a mobile brigade.

This line of defence was mainly intended to repel the attack of the German bishop.

We read about this in Het Staatsche Leger [The State's Army]2:

“Friesland and Groningen wished, in order to protect their territory and that of Drenthe, to station a ‘vliegent leger’ near Meppel, and also called for measures to prevent the enemy from advancing through East Frisia.

In February 1672 Hendrik van Bernsau, Drost (provincial governor) of Drenthe, received the order “dat hij de passages in Drenthe met goede ende suffisante slaghboomen sal hebben te doen voorsien om in tijde van nooth geslooten en de voorschreve pasages beseth te kunnen werden”.

This last task fell to the ‘vliegent leger’, to which six regiments belonged: the infantry regiments of Hans Willem van Aylva, George Wolfgang van Schwartzenberg and Andolf Clant, the cavalry regiments of Ernst Willem van Haren, Ignatius van Kingma and Boudewijn van Soutelande.”

The Kingma cavalry regiment soon afterwards moved, together with other Frisian regiments, to the IJssel Line at Huissen and Tolhuis in order to hold back the rapidly advancing French there.

Veldman writes about this in Kinkhoorn 7:

“Attack by the French; across the Rhine near Lobith through the betrayal of a ferryman who pointed out a fordable spot (very dry spring and low water level). Battle at the Tolhuis. A Frisian infantry regiment lay there under the command of Hans Willem van Aylva. This regiment suffered great losses.

The Frisian cavalry regiment under the command of Ignatius lay at Huissen and had no influence on this battle. This regiment withdrew to Muiden with field marshal Johan Maurits the Brazilian (1604 - 1679) to protect Amsterdam and to occupy the locks of Muiden.”

Did the Kingma Regiment have no influence on the battle? I went looking into it and arrived at a different conclusion. It looks as though Ignatius was indeed involved in the fighting.

On 9 June the headquarters of the French was established in Wesel. Rich Holland now lay within their reach. The Sun King personally led the attack.

After reconnoitring the situation, the French decide to cross the Rhine at Tolhuis (Lobith) in order to bypass the IJssel Line by a flanking movement through the Betuwe. To their surprise they have discovered that the far bank of the Rhine here is undefended.

Where are the defenders?

For the defence of this whole strategic stretch of river between Huissen and Tolhuis near Lobith, opposite the Schenkenschans, commander Montbas has only two regiments of infantry and two regiments of cavalry at his disposal: too small a force to defend this stretch.

Van Gent's infantry and Kingma's cavalry are stationed at the Tolhuis.

On 11 June, for unclear reasons (betrayal by this Frenchman in the States' service?), Montbas decides not to wait for the attack and to abandon his positions. The 1,300 cavalrymen are ordered to withdraw. From the other side of the river the French therefore see no defence that day.

The Prince of Orange immediately sends field marshal Wirtz, with a number of Frisian regiments including Kingma, back to the threatened spot during the night.

The river level is very low due to the continuing drought. Farmers point out to the French that the Rhine is easily fordable at a certain spot.

While the Sun King watches from the 70-metre-high Elterberg, on Sunday morning 12 June 6,000 French horsemen under the command of Turenne cross through the Rhine. The water does not even reach the horses' chests. A fierce fight unexpectedly breaks out.

The Frisian cavalrymen and infantrymen are back just in time to try to hold off the French. But the superior force is far too great. In the end the States' troops have to withdraw after a fierce fight. The French cross the river and after a few days, through the Betuwe, reach the city of Arnhem, which they capture on 16 June.

The Prince decides to give up the IJssel Line and retreats to Holland, in order to try to stop the attackers there at the Hollandse Waterlinie (Dutch Water Line).

On 16 June the Prince, with a weakened force of at most 8,000 men, including the regiment of Ignatius, stands before the closed gates of Utrecht. The city has no wish to house the troops.

The Prince decides to take up his positions at the Hollandse Waterlinie, where he arrives on 18 June.

Because of the surprisingly rapid advance of the French and the drought, the Hollandse Waterlinie has not yet had sufficient time to be flooded.

On 8 June the order was given to activate the water line, but on 18 June only the meadows around the new headquarters at Nieuwerbrug are under water. That means Holland had then lain open and undefended for a full week, and that the French let an obvious opportunity pass them by.

Ignatius is stationed with his regiment before Muiden, the gateway to Amsterdam along the southern shore of the Zuiderzee. Here the Kingma regiment, under the command of field marshal Johan Maurits the Brazilian, successfully defends Amsterdam and the locks in the Vecht against the French army.

On 20 June a unit of 4,000 French horsemen arrives at Naarden.

As I described in De Kinkhoorn, number 8, the drawback, however, was that the cavalry was practically useless in the flooded areas, and that the horsemen refused to serve as infantry! A touch of Frisian pride?

When Johan Maurits complains about the refusal to Prince Willem III, the latter writes back on 27 June that he had given his own cavalry muskets and had them fight on foot in the marshland. Johan Maurits's horsemen had to do the same; if not willingly, then by force. Whether Johan Maurits actually applied any coercive measures is not known.

What is known is that at the end of June the Frisian cavalry regiment of Kingma is recalled to Friesland. But that probably had to do with the threat in the North from Münster troops.

As a result of the surrender of Overijssel to the German and French occupying force, the northern provinces lie open to the enemy.

The States of Friesland and Groningen decide, while awaiting reinforcement from Holland, to defend themselves to the utmost. For this they have particular need of the loaned-out cavalry regiments of prince George Frederik van Nassau and of Ignatius van Kingma. They even threaten to stop paying the regiments if they do not come immediately.

Partly thanks to their efforts, the attack by the Münster and Cologne troops on the northern provinces is repelled that autumn.

The winter of 1672/1673 is at times severe, which means that the Hollandse, but also the northern, water line is threatened. Between 27 and 30 December the French attempt, along the old Rhine dike from Utrecht to Nieuwkoop over the frozen ice, to carry out a surprise attack on The Hague. Because halfway through the expedition the weather turns and a thaw sets in, his army of 10,000 men sinks through the ice and has to wade back through the ice-cold water to Utrecht. It will, for the time being, be their last attempt to conquer Holland.

The year 1673 opens with dangerous threats to Friesland. An attack on the frozen Northern water line is not among the impossibilities. In order to bring the Northern commanders into line, Willem III places the separately operating armies under one supreme command, and at the end of April asks the authoritative and diplomatic prince Johan Maurits van Nassau Siegen (the Brazilian) to take this upon himself.

Incidentally, the instruction Maurits receives from Willem III for this is a typical example of ‘poldermodel’ (consensus-based) thinking avant la lettre: he will command the troops in the North “met communicatie en goetvinden” [with communication and consent] of the States of both provinces, and for that consult with all and sundry.

That summer Maurits manages to repel the joint Franco-Münster attack, so that the threat to the northern regions has for the time being disappeared. Prince Willem III then asks him to reinforce his army in Holland with some Frisian regiments, because he wants to undertake an attack on Naarden. Johan Maurits is not very keen on this but eventually gives in. The Frisian troops embark, but when they finally arrive in Holland, Naarden has already fallen. Maurits is then grateful that the Prince, after the capture of Naarden, sends the Kingma cavalry regiment back to him. He wants, namely, still to relieve Coevorden. Once that has happened and the troops go to their winter quarters, Johan Maurits feels that he has completed his task and returns to The Hague and Kleve. To his houses and country estates, his books and collections. Ignatius, too, will probably have requested leave to go to his state (a Frisian manor house with land) in order to rest there and settle his affairs.

Joost Kingma

Military career of Ignatius van Kingma

The Kingma State on the Wadden coast

Various old maps mention, in West-Dongeradeel, north-east of the village of Nes, the name “Kingma”, attached to a state (a Frisian manor house with land) that lay there just behind the Wadden Sea dike. I have found six maps where this is the case, namely:

• the pre-cadastral atlas volume 16, West-Dongeradeel, 1700/1640.
• the Atlas of Schotanus from 1718.
• “Frisiæ Dominium, vernacule Friesland” by Halma, after 1729.
• Oostergo in 1739 by Vegelin.
• “La Frise” from the “Atlas du Royaume des Pays-Bas” of 1830.
• New Atlas of the Province of Friesland by Eekhof, 1849–1859.

The “Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden” [Geographical Dictionary of the Netherlands] by van der Aa (from 1847–48) also mentions the State, as follows:

KINGMA of Kingema, voorm. state, prov. Friesland, kw. Oostergoo, griet. West-Dongeradeel, arr. en 7 u. N.O. van Leeuwarden, kant. en 3 u. O. ten N. van Holwerd, 1 / 2 u. O. ten N. van Nes, waartoe zij behoorde, aan den zeedijk, W. van het Moddergat.

Ter plaatse, waar zij gestaan heeft, ziet men thans eene boerderij. De daartoe behoorende gronden, beslaande eene oppervlakte van 4 bund. 1 40 v.r. 2 , worden thans in eigendom bezeten door onderscheidene eigenaren.

Oudtijds moet dit Kingma behoord hebben tot eene der plaatsen, wier eigenaars bij toerbeurten of afwisseling het grietmanschap bekleedden.

All these mentions naturally made me curious and raised questions such as: who lived there and when, and what is the relationship with the Kingmas from Zweins?

To find an answer to these questions I paid visits to the “Streekarchivariaat Noordoost-Friesland” in Dokkum.

Here the archival records of the municipalities of Ameland, Dongeradeel, Schiermonnikoog and the local water boards are kept.

The plot on which the State stood can be found on the 1832 cadastral map and the pre-cadastral map, under numbers 321 and 88 respectively. It lies close to the Wadden Sea dike, midway between the road running from Nes to the Wadden Sea dike (Dyksterwei) and the road situated a little further east (Mokselbankwei) that comes out at the bend in the dike. At present a farm still stands on that spot, as was already mentioned in the geographical dictionary. The residents of this farm, who have not lived there long, and the neighbour living about 3 / 4 km further west, an elderly lady who has lived there for 30 years already, knew nothing of a state that must once have stood there.

At the Streekarchivariaat N.O. Friesland in Dokkum I traced the respective owners of plot no. 88 using the floreenkohieren (old Frisian land registers in which the floreen tax, a land tax, was recorded, listing the plots along with their owners, area and tax due). Working back from 1858 through the floreenkohieren published every ten years (insofar as preserved) to 1700, the oldest surviving copy, I came across a great variety of names. Also often several names of people who each owned part of the plot. The name Kingma did not appear among them.

To go further back in time I could also make use of the stemkohieren (voting registers). These are lists of the names of the vote-bearing sates or states and their owner, who had the authority to vote in village and grietenij (a Frisian administrative district, roughly comparable to a municipality) matters.

The stemkohier of 1684–85 records:

Kingma — E. van Aylva

Here “Kingma” is the name of the state and “E. van Aylva” the name of the eligible owner, who very probably was also grietman (head of a grietenij), as were his descendants.

The stemkohier of 1640 records:

Keijma — de secretaris Cornelis Vermees — Homme Jetzes

Here “Keijma” is the name of the state, “Cornelis Vermees” the owner, and “Homme Jetzes” the name of the meyer = the tenant.

Since this apparently concerned the same state, two conclusions are possible.

1. “Keijma” is a mistaken spelling of the name Kingma. There would then have to have been a Kingma who was owner and namesake of the state before 1640.
2. “Kingma” is a mistaken spelling of the name Keijma. Given the phonetic similarity, one might think of a corruption resulting from oral transmission. In that case there would never have been a Kingma State at Nes. The fact that the name Kingma appears so often on maps near Nes can be explained by the fact that mapmakers in those days were notorious plagiarists.

A document from before 1640 could solve this riddle.

Perhaps the “Register van aanbreng” [Register of Declared Property] from 1511, a forerunner of the floreenkohieren, could provide the answer. But for that I need to be in Leeuwarden again. More on that in a future Kinkhoorn.

Kees Kingma

Our Kingma Family History

Jessie Kingma Brandes, daughter of emigrants John and Vinie Kingma, wrote down the story of her parents in order to tell it during a reunion of this American Kingma branch last summer in New Jersey.

The story -in a somewhat abbreviated form- is a good illustration of how things went for the Kingma emigrants in the US more than a hundred years ago. In the light of the Kingmadag 2005 an interesting glimpse into their lives.

Our parents emigrated from Holland to the United States circa 1888.

John was approximately ten years of age when his widowed mother came to this country with her children around 1888. John’s father traded in horses in Holland and made occasional business trips to England. On one such trip as he was returning to his home in Holland his body was found on the highway, of that day. It was believed that he was robbed and murdered by bandits who knew of the money he was carrying.

After settling in America my father became employed in the silk dye houses as many immigrants were employed in those days. The dye houses always slowed down with work in the summer months due to the terrific heat in these dye shops. Pop then went to work outside as a mason laying sidewalks, erecting brick steps and concrete retaining walls.

Vinie was about five years of age when her parents emigrated from Holland to America with their family circa 1887. After settling in the Paterson, New Jersey area, Vinie attended elementary school. After leaving school she worked as a messenger girl in the “jute mills” of Paterson, bringing spools and supplies to the weavers.

My earliest recollection of my parents was in the house at Stam’s Alley, Hawthorne, New Jersey circa 1920. I awakened from noises in the kitchen. It was my father starting a fire from kindling wood in the huge (to me) black iron coal stove. This stove and a portable oil heater were our means of heating our living quarters. The cooking was also done on this stove both winter and summer. There were also iron molds my mother heated on the stove. After they were heated almost red hot, they were snapped into casings with a handle on top to be used for the weekly ironing.

Our mother made the bread for the family. The flour and other ingredients were put into a large metal bread dough mixer. A shaft ran through the center of the mixer. On the outside of the mixer a crank was attached to the shaft. This rotated the shaft which also had a blade attached to the lower end for mixing the dough. The crank was turned manually until the dough formed. Then the dough was removed and kneaded and left to rise after which it was kneaded a second time. It was then shaped into loaves and placed in bread tins and left to rise again.

Brother Ed remembers he and sister Nellie then hauled the loaves to Persma’s Bakery for baking in their ovens for three cents a loaf.

In our house on Stam’s Alley, we had a huge cistern in the cellar (I was scared to death of it). Brother Ed remembers the rainwater was drained into this vat for all our needs. There was a water line extending to a hand operated pump installed on the wall of the cellar. Water was pumped through a water line to the clothes washing machine. The washer was a wooden tub and had a lever on the side that was moved back and forth to agitate the water. There was also a wringer attached to the washer to squeeze the water from the clothes and linens by the means of a crank that turned the rollers and was again, hand operated. When the children were around they all helped in operating the various cranks. Water was heated for these tasks in large, oval copper kettles on a two burner gas plate. Baths were taken in round galvanized wash tubs (No peeking, please.)

Christmases were meager at Stam’s Alley. One year there was a long strike in the dye houses. That Christmas the stockings were filled with coal and an orange. I guess the coal was a symbol of warmth. I don’t remember this but it was told to me later.

One day Jessie, aged three, got into the icebox. One square of yeast must have looked good to her so she ate it. This was unheard of in those days and when Mom discovered what had happened, she panicked. The doctor and the family were sure Jessie would swell up like a loaf of bread from the gas created by the yeast. The doctor had her brought to the hospital to pump the contents of her stomach. The story goes that a few months later yeast was being advertised as being a boon to your health (the beginning of the end of the dark ages circa 1920).

The older children attended the Christian school on Belle Avenue and Fourth Street. On the way they walked through Muese’s lots. Brother Ed remembers construction work in this area. Sanitary pipes were being installed for drainage. He says one day sister Nellie decided to investigate what was going on. When she had seen the large pipes they looked like a tunnel to her so she thought she would creep through. After a short distance she got stuck and could go neither forward or back. She became terrified and people gathered and tried to help her out. It took the aid of the police and fire department to free her. Needless to say she didn’t try that again!

We had a trolley car line near the home that went to Paterson for shopping. It was a real treat having a ride on the trolley, especially in the summer when the sides were opened.

We attended church services on Second Street. We walked both ways: in the morning to the church service and afternoon to Sunday School. There was also an afternoon service in the Dutch language. The elite of that day had the luxury of having horse drawn carriages. How we envied them! During the services the horses and buggies were sheltered in a three-sided barn.

In those days we had dirt roads circa 1920/21. The main roads were fortunate to have wooden planks. Then came the day North Eighth Street got paved. The kids in the neighborhood went wild with excitement at all the bustle. The cement was laid and then men, wearing heavy, heavy work shoes and using huge bristly push brooms swept it level. This made a lined texture on the surface, and low and behold: we had a PAVED ROAD.

Brother Ed recalls the occasion when our father John became a naturalized citizen of the US on April 19, 1922, at age 43. Pop came from the ceremony with a small flag in his hand, which had been given to him in honor of the occasion. He held it up and said, “Now I am American, no more Holland.” This episode meant a great deal to him as one of the proudest events in his life.

Our parents dreamed of a home of their own for their growing family. I always marvel at the fact that with nine children they made this their goal. Eventually, their dream came true and somehow, they were able to purchase two plots of ground, 25 by 100 feet each, for the staggering sum of fifty dollars. A contract was secured and a two family home was erected at 92 Struyk Avenue, Prospect Park, New Jersey. The contractor for building the house was a Mr. Van Buiten. Richard got a job working for him as a carpenter. When the house was totally framed, a big limb of a tree was placed at the peak of the house. This meant that the workers were to receive a treat from the owners. I do not recall who was with me when a few days later we went up to the house with a bucket of lemonade and cookies to the workers. They really enjoyed it. There was no down payment on the house and the monthly payments were $24.00.

On a bright sunny day in September our belongings were moved to the new house. The moving was done by family with even the youngest children joining in to help. I remember brother Ed pulling a wagon up the avenue, which was very steep. A chest of drawers was perched in the wagon. Sisters Lena and Jessie went along and with our little hands held the chest steady as we tottered along. What a joy the new house was. We had gas and electric utilities and city water…and also indoor plumbing! A new gas stove to cook on and other luxuries. The house was heated by a large black iron coal stove and portable kerosene stove.

The first big event in the new house was the blessed birth of our brother John, Jr. on the 22 nd of December 1922. Just in time for our first Christmas celebration in the new house. In the spring Pop planted a garden. He had flowers from April until frost. The neighbors were always given flowers to bring to patients in the hospital. He also had a vegetable garden.

For recreation we mainly had picnics and outings by trolley car to Pennington Park, Paterson, the playground of that time. A real highlight was a weekend trip to our grandparents in Bound Brook. This was done by trolley to Newark and then a train to Bound Brook. We loved it! Later on Dick bought a car and we went by car. What progress we were making: the first step of transportation independence for the family.

National events also moved forward in the 1920’s. Charles A. Lindbergh made the historic first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh left from Roosevelt Field, New Jersey in a single engine plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis”, on the 20 th of May 1927. He landed the following day at Paris, France and was given a hearty royal welcome.

On July 8, 1931, the family was plunged into sorrow over the unexpected death of our son and brother John, Jr. John was accidentally burned with gasoline on July 6 through a playmate’s reckless deed and died two days later. We were all shocked and heart broken over this sudden tragedy. Pop and Mom never got over the profound grief they experienced losing their youngest child in this tragic way. Our parents could not bear to live in our house anymore, seeing the area where this tragedy occurred. In May 1932 we moved to Hawthorne, New Jersey. In spite of the depression of the 1930’s we enjoyed many happy occasions in this home.

We “upped” into a steam heated home with bathroom and hot running water. Two weeks after we moved brother Dick got married to Mina Doorn on June 8, 1932. This was the first of nine marriages from this home over a period of eleven years. Also Mom and Pop became grandparents 10 times. We also rejoiced with our grandparents Klaas and Janke Yonkman in the celebration of their 60 th wedding anniversary on the 10 th of May 1940 in Bound Brook, New Jersey. Among the guest were four of the Yonkman children, fourteen grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. It was a wondrous occasion.

Then suddenly, On December 7, 1941, our nation was plunged into war. The Japanese made a sneak attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base on the south coast of Oahu Island. There were many dead and injured and much destruction. This resulted in the formation of the Selective Service Draft System. Our brother Henry was drafted and after serving a short period received an honorable discharge. Sister Marge’s husband was also drafted and served with the US Signal Corp from 1943 until 1946 at the end of the war. Those at home worked in war material production plants. We had black out restrictions, food rationing, etc. The war with Japan ended soon after the disastrous bombing of Hiroshima by the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. Thousands were killed and injured and the city was leveled. The Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945. The formal document of surrender was signed on September 2, 1945.

Our father was retired from his work at age 65 so he took a part time job as custodian at the Riverside, Paterson Christian School. Our parents sold their home in Hawthorne and went to live in smaller accommodations upstairs from sister Lena and husband Rich. On the 11 th of February 1952 our parents celebrated their 50 th wedding anniversary at the Victoria Inn, Wayne, New Jersey. Their nine children and spouses, sixteen grandchildren, and relatives attended it from Bound Brook. This was a most happy occasion for them. They planned it for weeks in advance. Happiness and pleasure glowed on their faces at the celebration with all their loved and dear ones around them.

Sometime after this our parents were saddened again by the move of their eldest daughter Jane and husband Harry to California in the fall of 1954. Before this all the family members lived within a 5-mile radius of one another and the move by Jane and Harry broke the family circle.

Our mother had declining health after this occurrence and we lost her on October 9, 1955. Our mother knew many mottoes that she used in teaching us good standards and values to live by. I have in turn used them with our own children and it is rather amusing to hear them being repeated to their children, our grandchildren. Time honored philosophies.

Our father continued to live upstairs from daughter Lena. I had lovely conversations with Pop on my visits with him. Our father lived two years after mom and passed away on the 10 th of August 1957. Our parents were strict disciplinarians. We KNEW black was black and white was white. There was no gray in-between. That’s how it was “back in those days.”

Kingma Kronkels: Famous

Joost Kingma

Genealogy always occupies us a great deal. Who do we descend from? What kind of people were our ancestors.

In that connection I was passed a nice piece about a famous branch of the family: the Kingma speed-skating family, famous skaters from the 19th century.

‘Certain families appear to be hereditarily burdened with certain traits. One is an excellent cattle breeder, another a good skater.’

Thus opens a story by drs. J. Lolkama in Triomf en Tragiek in de Historie van de Elfstedentocht [Triumph and Tragedy in the History of the Elfstedentocht]1.

This concerns the three brothers Benedictus, Merk and Marten Kingma, who reaped many successes on the ice rinks between 1885 and the end of the 19th century. They were the first generation of Frisians, Lolkama writes, who spread the fame of this province far abroad. Benedictus was the eldest brother, and on 25 February 1885 in Oslo he defeated the fastest rider from Norway, Carl Werner.

Merk Kingma, active as a speed skater from the age of sixteen, was a true short-track rider. ‘While riding he works hard with his arms, it is as if he throws his body forward’, Eigen Haard wrote about him in 1892.

Marten Kingma, a cyclist as well as a skater, defeated among others the Norwegian Axel Hagen in an international five-hundred-metre race in 1893.

Good to know about these speed-skating Kingmas. And now, quickly diving into the family tree to see who descends from these famous ancestors!