Whoop-Up Country Chapter of the Historical Society of Alberta

WHOOP-UP COUNTRY CHAPTER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF ALBERTA P.O. BOX 974 LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA. TIJ 4A2 Number 1 NEWSLETTER ISSN 0382-9812 January 1986 Membership in the Historical Society of Alberta, including a subscription to the quarterly ALBERTA HISTORY, can be obtained for $15.00 per year. Those members residing from Nanton south are also registered with the Whoop-Up Country Chapter, and receive the newsletters and meeting notices. Newsletter subscription only: $7.50 Send membership dues to: Historical Society of Alberta OR Whoop-Up Country Chapter Box 4035, Station "C" Historical Society of Alberta © Copyright 1986 Calgary, Alberta P.O. Box 974 T2T 5M9 Lethbridge, Alberta TIJ 4A2 WHOOP-UP COUNTRY CHAPTER OFFICERS FOR 1986 Telephone (403) 320-3957 President Alex Johnston, Park Plaza Hotel TIK 2P7 Past President Frank A. Russell, Box 326 TIJ 3Y8 Vice President D. Tracy Anderson, 953 - 21 Street South TIJ 3L4 Secretary D.J. Card, 1051 - 13 Street South TIK 1S6 Treasurer J.H. Carpenter, 2117 - 14 Avenue South TIK 0V3 Council Member (1988) Ralph Erdman, 1115 - 17 Street A South TIK 1Y2 Counci1 Member (1988) Audrey Swedish, 526 - 25 Street South TIJ 3P5 Council Member (1987) Henry R. Anderson, 2226 - 18 Avenue South TIK 1C8 Council Member (1987) Robert Shore. 937 - 16 Street South TIJ 3C1 Council Member (1986) Lucille Dalke, 638 - 9 Street South TIJ 2L4 Counci1 Member (1986) Donna Coulter. Box 1001, Fort Macleod TOL 2G0 MEETING JANUARY 28, 1986 WORLD WAR II VETERANS Lethbridge Library Theatre Gallery 7:15 p.m. APPRECIATION DAY 18 MAY 1985 "A History of Pincher Creek and District from the Native Peoples to 1930" by Mr. Farley Wuth. by Marie Sorgard PLEASE NOTE: Because of renovations to the Library, Holland, a tiny country steeped in the history of nav there is a possibility that we will have to meet igation and world-renowned for its industrial atmosphere, somewhere else, perhaps at the Gait Museum. Please wanted to remain neutral during World War II, but was watch for the notice in the Community Calendar Col not given this opportunity. Germany occupied the Neth umn of the Lethbridge Herald. erlands in May of 1940 and for the next five years the Dutch people were subjected to a reign of terror and FEBRUARY MEETING, February 25, 1986. 7:15 p.m. torture. Imagine, if you will, the anguish of wives "The Lethbridge Fire Department" by Alex Johnston. and mothers whose husbands and sons were sent to concen This year is the centennial of the organization of tration camps, never to return. Children were forced the first bucket brigade in Lethbridge. out of schools. Controls of various types were constant ly being exercised; even poultry and livestock were CENTENNIAL TIME CAPSULE. Entries accepted up to counted twice a year. 22 Jan. 1986. Prices for envelope to be opened in 25 years is $2.50; 50 years is $5.00; 100 years is When one considers the plight of this tiny war-torn $10.00. Things that will be of interest in the fut country it is easy to realize the exhilaration these ure are: histories of families, clubs, schools, bus people must have felt when the Canadian tanks rolled in. inesses, churches, membership lists, price lists, day With fear and apprehension gone, they celebrated for to day activities, Xmas & other cards, pictures, days. For the people of Holland, May 5, 1945 has gone photographs. Available from Centennial office on 4th down in history as a day that will be remembered forever. Ave. S. or from Jim Carpenter, phone 327-2081. Then came the stark realization that the economy was In Southern Alberta the family worked in the beet fields in a state of collapse and recovery was not going to while Mrs. Ekkel kept house in a rough shack. It was a be an instantaneous process. The future looked very lonely life and she was glad when friends working on bleak for ten million people trying to make a living construction of the Iron Springs Christian Reformed on thirteen thousand acres. There was fear, too. Church would bring their lunch to eat at her home. Sons that the rumblings in the distance might forbode a Henry and John eventually returned to Holland, but the third world war. youngest son Marinus remained in Canada. Daughter Hen rietta married Joe Duenk and now lives in Brooks. Mar There was but one solution: emigration. Thoughts inus and his wife Tina and their family live in Iron turned to the Canadians who had liberated them from Springs where he operates M and T Service. Says Mar Nazi Germany. Vast, faraway Canada was young when inus, as he looks back upon the years, "My mother was compared to Holland. Bunshoten. Henry Heinen's home happy here. She said the best life she had was in town in Holland, recently celebrated its six hundredth Canada." anniversary, and Barneveldt, Bill Vander Flier's home town, is over eight hundred years old. Reflecting upon the plight of the people in the Nether lands 40 years ago. Bill Vander Flier says "When the In 1947 Canadian immigration laws were amended and war was over we had no horses, no machinery, and nothing emigration began. Dr. A.S. Tuinman, an attache at the to start over with." His wife, the former Cora Visser, Netherlands Embassy in Ottawa, came to Iron Springs to says "Rotterdam was devastated. In our town, 'sGravendal, enlist the services of Bernard Nieboer as a fieldman. the Germans knew where the Dutch Army officers lived. Mr. Nieboer had attended school in the Netherlands be They came and burned their homes. There was a street fore coming to Canada with his parents. He was famil of Jewish people—fine people--including a butcher, iar with all branches of agriculture in western Canada seamstresses, merchants, businessmen. They were taken and was well qualified for this assignment. In the away, only one that we know of managed to escape. We next few years Bernard Nieboer was instrumental in never heard of the others again." locating thousands of Dutch immigrants on farms here. The Loman family lived at Ootmarsum, a short distance Sponsors must be found for the Immigrating families. from the German border. On 9 November 1944, the father The sugar beet Industry in Canada was not then mechan Bernard Loman was taken hostage and for three months was ized: beets had to be hoed and thinned by hand during forced to dig trenches on the north side of the Rhine the growing season, and topped by hand at harvest time. River. He was released on 26 February 1945. Son Ben, The arrival of the Dutch farmers provided a welcome a teen-ager at that time, remembers watching dogfights source of labourers. overhead, and the chocolate bars and cigarettes that the Canadian soldiers gave him. And he remembers the The first families arrived in March 1948 during a potato crop that his father shared with those who had very wet spring. One group, destined for the Picture so little to eat. Butte area, arrived one Wednesday in May and had to stay in Lethbridge overnight and come out the next The Vegters, who lived close to the German border, tell day on the mixed train which operated between Lethbridge of the strict controls that were enforced. Livestock and Turin on Thursdays. In that group were the Van and poultry were counted twice a year, and twice a year Zeggelaars who went to the Steve Holecka farm, the the Germans would take the horses they wanted. Germans Ostlanders who went to the Ervin Haines farm, the Reyer took over the school, the church, and the hotel where Grisnich family whose destination was the Steve Molnar classes were conducted, and finally school had to be farm, the Van Rootselaars who went to the Steve Ragan cancelled because the children had no books or pencils. farm and the Wielengas family who were located on the Ed Reynolds farm. Tony Aleman farmed four hectares near Ouddorp. He grew wheat, onions, sugar beets and potatoes, but could not In May 1948 a Lethbridge Herald headline announced support his large family of ten children. They came to "Clogs Clatter as Fresh Group of Immigrants Arrives". Canada in 1954, and in 1958 rented the Joe Juris farm. The nine p.m. daily passenger train from Medicine Hat In 1959 Tony was injured in a truck accident and was un had brought 42 immigrants, and the newspaper story told able to work on the farm. Sons Case and Jake took over of boys wearing berets and knickers and old men moving operation of the farm, and Tony and his wife Cornelia noisily along the platform in wooden shoes. now reside in Picture Butte. When the Dutch families began picking up their mail at Reyer Grisnich, now 95 years old, had a portion of his Iron Springs Post Office, Lome McDonald coped with the farm annexed in order to enlarge the Amsterdam airport. unfamiliar language by using a Dutch-Canadian dictionary. He and his family of eleven children Came to Canada on Among the newcomers were the Slomps, Van Hells, Van a troopship. It was a rough trip and not easy to care Donkersgoeds, Vant Lands, Tazelaars, Getkates, Op den for seasick children in the bunks stacked seven high. Dries, Scholtens, Vander Fliers, Dykstras, Vissers, Van They landed at Quebec 10 May 1948. The family all work der Lindens. Reurinks.Ouwarkirks, Kblks, and Overeems, ed hard and today Mr. Grisnich lives with his son Ray In the falT, Velva Haney taught English in her home two and his wife Alice.

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