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The story of Christian Snoeyenbos

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So that some of the history of the Christiana Johannes (Chris John) Snoeyenbos family might be available to our present and future generations, I have collected such narrative details and experiences as would seem of interest.

It relates to their early life in Holland, migration to America, pioneering in eastern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan and final settlement in western Wisconsin.

I am no writer and have no faculty with words. For my shortcomings, therefor, I beg the readers’ indulgence with the hope that the story of this family will prove interesting enough to hold the readers’ interest though written without art.

Information was obtained from the two living daughters of Chris and Lydia, Mrs. Elizabeth Snoeyenbos Heebink, and Mrs. Gertrude Snoeynbos Somsen; the grandchildren of Chris and Jane, a member of each family of Chris’ fourteen children who lived and married; from tombstones; and from Nellie Heebink’s book “The Heebink Geschiedenis” (history) with her permission.                                                                                                                                      Gertrude Kappers

The name

 ”Snoeijenbosch,” the original spelling, translated from the Holland to the American language means “bush cutter”- gardener. J, in the Dutch language is pronounced as Y, and the spelling was eventually changed to Snoeyenbosch - pronounced in Holland Snee-en-bosch. Many years later in America it was changed to Snoeyenbos.

 In his book “The story of our names,” by Edson C. Smith, he says: “Surnames reflect the life of the Middle Ages, the work of the people in the Medieval manors and towns, and the work of the Church, a most potent factor in the life of the individual. In the names of the man of today are mirrored all of the struggles, ambitions, and aspirations of the villagers of the middle ages, all of the activities and work of the townsmen as well as the daily life of the noble and ecclesiastical prince.”

  The story of this Holland American family begins in Guelderland Province, Holland, in 1828, one hundred and thirty four years ago (at the time this was written in 1962). The spelling of this province was later changed to Gelderland. The founder of this family, his parents, six sisters, and all his ancestors were born and lived in Holland. It might, therefore, be of interest to the readers’ to take a little time and consider this young man’s country, the people he descended from, and briefly the long, hard history of Holland’s invasions, wars, and poverty to 1845 when he left his home, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States of America in search of a better, more prosperous life.          

  The Netherlands or Holland, is a rather small, beautiful, meticulously clean country in western Europe, divided into eleven provinces. It is both a Kingdom and a democracy with complete freedom of religion.                      

It is bounded on the south by Belgium, which in 1828 was part of Holland, on the west and north by the North Sea, and on the east by the west German border (at the time this was written, Germany was divided by the Berlin wall.) It is a land of much water - the sea, a great number of canals, many rivers and lakes, therefor it is mostly flat country though not monotonous. The climate is inclined to be somewhat wet, but when the sun breaks through the clouds, the landscape with the brilliant green of the meadows dotted with cows, the glistening canals and rivers alive with various kinds of boats - the Dutch have always been seafarers- the tall church spires and windmills, and the clusters of shady trees has a beauty well known from the famous Dutch old Masters.

  It has a maritime climate with cool summers and mils winters. Plants and animals that thrive in temperate climates are found in Holland. Most common trees are the oak, elm, pine, linden and beech.

  Three times in Holland’s history the sea invaded large sections of the southwestern areas. These invasions and wars left behind them loss of  lives, sufferings, great destruction and poverty. After each calamity, the Dutch people through wise planning, thrift and stubborn hard work, set about to repair, rebuild and replant for a stronger, better and more beautiful country. The Dutch are fond of growing things. They reclaimed swamps and inland lakes into rich farmlands. There goes a saying in Holland, “God created the world, but the Dutch made Holland.”

  Their long hard history have given the Dutch people special character traits. They are essentially a peaceful, home loving people, inclined to be silent, slow to make up their minds but amazingly stubborn when they have done so. They are usually clever in business, traders, thrifty and hard working.

  In the 1800’s, many of the European people were becoming interested in opportunities offered in America and many families and communities were migrating across the Atlantic Ocean and settling in the United States of America, a country foreign to them. They would have to learn the language and the customs of the country, but they believed America would provide a better living for themselves and their children, and raise their standard of living.

  A sturdy, intelligent, Dutch young man who was fond of adventure had heard many exciting stories of America and he very badly wanted to go there but he had problems. He was very fond of his parents and six sisters. If he left home and went to this far off country, he might never see them again. Too, he was the only boy in the family, and who would help his father with the farm, and carry on the Dutch custom that the eldest or only son was to carry on the father’s business and care for his parents in their old age? At their deaths, a settlement was to be made to the other children of the family for their share of the property.

   The young man’s name was Chris Snoeyenbosch. He lived in Aalton, Guelderland Province, Holland. This province runs along the West German border, and it has a proverb “Great in courage, poor in goods, sword in hand, such is the motto of Guelderland.”  A section of Guelderland Province is wooded and slightly hilly but mostly it is flat farmland country. Arnhem lies in this wooded section, the beauty of which has long attracted many people to the beautiful avenues of lofty beeches.

   Aalton was a thriving city of twelve thousand inhabitants, one and one half miles from the German border. In this city, at a county place called “Snoeyenbosch”, lived the Snoeyenbosch family consisting of the father: Harmen J. (Herman) Snoeyenbosch, born 2/221775, his wife Elizebetta (Elizabeth) Winkelhorst-Snoeyenbosch, born 4/9/1790, their six daughters: Aleida (Lydia) later Mrs. Benjamin Graven, Graado (Grace) later Mrs. John William Stronks, Hendrika (Henrietta) later Mrs. Harmen Jan Vrieze, Johanna (Hannah) later Mrs. Garret John Heebink, Janna (Jane) later Mrs. John Duenk, later Mrs. Harmen Draayers, Gazena (Cena) later Mrs. Aaron Lubbers, later after her husband’s death in Holland, she married a Mr. Jagerink, in Oostburg, Wis, and their son, Christiana Johannes (Christian John), Born 10/10, 1828.

  Chris, after much thought, had a solution to his problems. He would go to America. If the stories of the opportunities there proved to be false, he would work hard, save as much of his wages as possible, and when he had the required fare to Holland, he would return home. If they proved to be true, he would urge his family to join him in the United States of America where he could help them and care for his parents in their old age. In 1845, at the age of seventeen, Chris joined a group of immigrants en-route to America.

  It required a great deal of courage in that period of history to undertake an ocean voyage across the Atlantic to the US. Steerage passage was the only type of accommodations offered and it took many weeks to reach New York. The ships were slow, unsanitary, dark and crowded. It was an uncomfortable, dangerous and a very tiresome journey. Passengers were required to take their own food and bedding for the crossing. Each person had to exhibit his or her food supply to ascertain if it was sufficient before allowed on the ship. Water was kept in large barrels on deck and tasted bad. As the supply was limited, only a small amount was allowed each passenger. The bunks were narrow and hard and during a storm when the boat rocked heavily, it was impossible to remain in them.

  Many of the immigrants from Aalton, their relatives, friends and neighbors settled in groups in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. After landing in New York, they had yet a long, difficult journey ahead of them. As they could not speak the American language, they experienced great difficulties in obtaining food, shelter, and travel information. Chris, however, spoke the German language fluently, and as many people in this country spoke that language, he had less trouble than most of the immigrants and was of great help to those whose destination was the same as his. Railroad service in America at that time was sketchy, and the journey from New York to Wisconsin had to be made by train, boat, on foot, by wagon, and on horseback.

  Chris landed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he stayed about a year. Then he and a Mr. Lubbers, who had come to this county with him, went north to where Oostburg now is, but was then a wilderness. There they built a cabin and began clearing the land. For supplies Chris walked some forty miles to Milwaukee. There he bought his first plow which he carried home on his back.

  Shortly after arriving in this country, he became very homesick. The friends with whom he came to America became alarmed over his health and offered to pay the expense for his return to Aalten. As soon as he knew he could return home if he desired, his health began to improve and he did not want to go, nor did he ever go to Holland again.

  In 1846 he married Janna (Jane) Wiggers, who was born in Aalton on August 26, 1830, who with her father and mother, and only sister Johanna had come to the US soon after Chris and had settled on a farm at Oostburg.  After Chris and Jane’s marriage, they went to live with Jane’s parents on their farm in the Sauk Trail, one mile east of Oostburg, now Highway 141. There their eight children were born, H. Herardus (Herman Garret), Elezebeta (Elizabrth), Gerdiena (Dena), Gazena, Hendrika (Cena/Henrietta), Aleida (Lydia), and Johanna (Janna/Jane). Two children died in infancy of smallpox and dysentery.

   Chris had kept writing his family, relatives and friends very enthusiastic letters regarding the opportunities offered in America. He urged them to come to this country where land was cheap and food plentiful, where the laws were so just and impartial that everyone had equal rights.  As the lives of Chris and his sister Hannah’s families were interwoven not only through love, but also through bonds of blood and marriage, it would seem fit to relate the experiences of her family also.

  On April 24, 1842, Hannah was married in Aalton to Garret John Heebink. Garret was thirty eight, Hannah twenty-four. Hannah and Garret became very enthusiastic and wished they too might go to America. They had withheld Chris’s letters from Garret’s father who was eighty-three years old and living with them, as they felt he was too old to withstand the hardships of the long voyage. However, he chanced to find one of the letters one day. He urged them to go and take him with them. They decided to do so and gathered together seeds and his fishing nets saying he intended to use them in the new country.

  Chris had become well established in Oostburg and sent them money ro cover the journey. Sailing plans were made, but a few days before they were set to sail, Garret’s father contracted dysentery and died on the very day they were to sail. After his funeral, sailing plans were renewed.

  The first part of their journey was from Aalton to Arem, a distance of thirty miles which they made in covered wagons. At Arem they boarded a boat that took them across the canal to Rotterdam where the ship they were to take lay at anchor. On the 18th day of August in 1854, Garret John, Hannah (Snoeyenbos) and their four sons; Garret John 10, Herman 8, Bart 6, and John 2, boarded the ship, an English sailing vessel “The Lily” enroute to America. Of the three hundred sixty passengers on board, practically one third of them came from Aalton.

  As when Chris crossed the Atlantic nine years earlier, steerage passage was the only accommodation offered and the sailing requirements the same. It was common to encounter severe storms at sea. One lasted two days, and the ship was in total darkness. At another time the ship struck a sand bar and it was necessary for all of the passengers to keep walking back and forth in an effort to get off the bar, which they finally succeeded in doing.

  The voyage grew very tiresome. On the forty second day of their journey, land was seen in the distance and the passengers shouted with joy. Their long ocean voyage which had taken practically a month and a half was about ended; they would soon be on land again.

 On reaching New York, plans for leaving the ship had to be made. Passengers had to be reloaded in smaller boats as the water was too shallow for the ship to get close to the shore. The doctor came aboard to ascertain whether there was any pestilence or disease among the immigrants before they were allowed on the gang plank. They were then loaded into the smaller boats and brought to shore.

 Then came their problem of securing a hotel for the night and storage space for their baggage and the few possessions they were able to take with them. They were advised to go to a second rate hotel not far from the dock, which they did.

 Many of the immigrants from Aalton on “The Lily” were bound for Oostburg, or near by, and they had yet a long hard journey ahead before arriving at their destination in Wisconsin.

They took the train from New York to Buffalo. From Buffalo to Toledo, they went by ship. Leaving the ship at Toledo, they arranged for passage to Chicago by rail. No passenger coaches were available and their journey had to be made in boxcars without seats. The train stopped at stations enroute so they could buy bread and coffee. Their food supply was very scanty and if the train happened to stop near an apple orchard, they often picked apples along the way for food. It was a very hard, uncomfortable three days trip from Toledo to Chicago.

  In Chicago they expected more difficulties because of not being able to speak or understand the American language. Fortunately, they encountered one of their own countrymen at the depot. He was Zealand Province, and was of much help to them in securing accommodations for the group at a first class German hotel.

  Some of the immigrants decided they could guard their trunks and baggage better if the camped in the open, so they did not go to the hotel. It necessarily took more time to cook their meals over their camp fire, consequently they were not ready to leave when it was time to board the ship which left at eight o’clock.The others caught the next ship. The ship was expected tto stop at Milwaukee, but to the disappointment of their friends and relatives who were waiting to greet them there, it did not do so. They reached Sheboygan at midnight and were taken to the old Wisconsin House, owned by a German hotel keeper who treated them very cordially.

 There was now only ten miles more of travel to Oostburg, their final destination. The next day they would be wit their relatives and friends. At that time there was no means of communication except slow mail service, so the exact date of their arrival was not known. Arrangements had been made that the first one to hear the news of their arrival should blow their dinner horns and this would be relayed to those living a greater distance away.

 The next morning Garret John Heebink and little Garret John set out to walk the ten miles to the Chris Snoeyenbosch home and spread the news of the arrival of these immigrants. They had gone but a short distance when they met one of their old friends from the Netherlands, Mr. Walfoort. He was on horseback and offered to turn back with them. They took turns riding his horse to Oostburg.

 At the first farm, the TeStroote’s, they were busily engaged in threshing grain. All work was immediately stopped and a wagon found to take them to the Snoeyenbosch home. News of their arrival spread rapidly and a caravan of wagons and carts assembled to pick up the relatives and friends waiting at Sheboygan.

 Greetings and joyous welcomes radiated in everyone on their arrival. The long, tedious journey was at last ended.  It was a day never to be forgotten when long parted parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends were together again. The day was spent in visiting.

 Now came the problem of helping these homeless immigrants find homes. Some little time must necessarily elapse before they would be able to buy farms or rent small houses, and they were eager to get settled into some sort of dwelling before winter came. Friends and relatives were eager to share what little they had with them, a trait very outstanding among the early pioneers and soon living quarters had been made for all of them.  The Snoeyenbosches had offered Hannah and her family a home with them until they could get a place of their own, and they gladly accepted.

  Garret John (Hannah’s husband), operated a country store for the convenience of the neighbors and a small part of Chris’s home was given over to this. He soon purchased thirty acres of heavy timberland which they began clearing. Later he built a small cabin on this land for his family.

  In 1856 Garret John and Hannah had another son. They named him George.

  Then came trying years not only for the newcomers but for the older settlers as well. In 1857 a depression was experienced, known as the “panic of 1857″.  Money was very scarce and they lived on cheap food. There was little food for the livestock. Pigs were fed on beech nuts which were plentiful that year.

 In 1861 along came the Civil War. The community was quick to respond to the call for men. Home Guards were organized and many young boys enlisted.  The government paid married men $18 per moth, single men $12. At the beginning, it appeared the war would be of short duration; instead it dragged into years.  Those at home were eager to receive news from the battlefronts but it was very difficult to receive communications in any form. There was no telegraph service in the small towns , the only newspapers printed were weeklies and no one had enough money to buy them.

  Depression was rampant throughout the country. Food was scarce, crops had been poor, spring wheat was a failure, so flour was very scarce and expensive.

  As more and more men had been needed for the Army, they had been drafter into service. Finally, few were left to do the farm work and it was left for the women to do. They took care of the stock, worked in the fields, and it was a common sigh to see threshing crews composed entirely of women. Circumstances at home prevented Chris from entering the war. However, he paid a man $300 to take his place in the draft.

  There was great rejoicing when it was learned the Union had been victorious. Communities mourned for the many who lost their lives in the war and the many hard adjustments to be made because of it. On May  5, 1862, a daughter, Johanna was born to Garret John and Hannah.

  The excitement and hardships of the Civil War had scarcely died away when Indian uprisings broke out in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Several massacres had been reported in Minnesota, and Wisconsin feared attacks from them. Preparations were made for their coming at Sheboygan city, but reports proved false. The Sauk Tribe did pass through the community causing fear and alarm, but little damage was done.

  No records or information could be found as to when the other members of the Snoeyenbosch family arrived in America. However, the entire family, father, mother, and other five sisters with their families came to the United States and settled in Sheboygan County near Chris and Hannah’s homes.

note: the following information was found on the emmigration of the family:

• Christian arrived first on 9/17/1846 in NY;  
• sister Aleida and her husband Berent Graven arrived a few months later, they departed the Netherlands on 12/26/1846
• oldest sister Janna, widowed, arrived with her children 9/28/1847 along with parents Harmen, Elizabetta and sisters Gazena and Graado; 
• sister Johanna arrived with husband Garrett Heebink last on 9/30/1854
• Unable to locate sister Hendrika and husband Harmen Friesen/Vriezen

 

Their father died in Oostburg on Novemebr 14, 1863 at the age of 88 years. he is buried in the cemetery between Oostburg and Cedar Grove.

Jane, Chris’s wife, was taken sick with inflammation of the bowels, now called appendicitis, and died on December 5, 1864. She is buried beside her father and mother in the same cemetery.

During Jane’s illness and death, Chris had a hired girl, Aleida Brethouwer, a neighbor’s daughter. She stayed on after Jane’s death, and in 1865 he married her.  Soon after their marriage, the family moved to Gibbsville, a Dutch settlement a short distance from Oostburg. Chris had loaned a Mr. Ruesink money for a store at Gibbsville, and as Mr. Ruesink was unable to make any payments on the loan, he was obliged to take over the store. He purchased a farm across the road from the store. At this home in Gibbsville, eight of Chris and Lydia’s ten children were born.

One of the early Dutch settlers in Oostburg was a man named John Westendorp. He had become interested in land in the western part of Wisconsin known as Happy Valley in St. Croix County. He decided to investigate this section and made a trip across the state to do so. He returned with the report that excellent farming land was to be bought in this county and he had purchased a half section there and expected to settle on it in the near future.

The first editor of the Baldwin Bulletin, Ed Borchert came from Manitowoc at this time. He installed his first printing press but had considerable difficulty in getting it started, but finally on October 18th the first copy of the Baldwin Bulletin was printed. It was presented with great ceremony to Honorable D. R. Bailey.

 

 

 

                         

 

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