The First Dutch Settlement in Alberta: Letters from the Pioneer Years, 1903–1914 (review)

Reviewed by: The First Dutch Settlement in Alberta: Letters from the Pioneer Years, 1903–1914 Mary Bletz Donald Sinnema, ed. and trans. The First Dutch Settlement in Alberta: Letters from the Pioneer Years, 1903–1914. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005. Introduction. Notes. Index. 392 pp. $34.95 sc. This book tells the story of a small Dutch settlement in southern Alberta, slightly north and west of Lethbridge, from 1903 to the First World War Throughout the nineteenth century a number of Dutch nationals settled in Canada, often entering the country through the backdoor along with other migrants from the United States. When choice arable land became scarce there, they opted for better opportunities in Canada. The Dutch settlement in southern Alberta was part of the land rush of the early 1900s, when thousands of homesteaders were attracted by offers of free land in the hope of securing independence, social status, and economic prosperity. The story is told through letters, the majority of which were written by the settlers and published in Dutch-language newspapers; several are from private family collections. The letters are full of the wonder of settling in a new land, and picture the pioneer experience in great detail, from the lonely homestead on the bald prairie to a well-developed rural community. The Dutch were relatively few and came late to the Canadian land rush. The first group of settlers hailed largely from a Dutch farming settlement in Manhattan, Montana, and there seems to have been little organized colonization effort. The second group, which came in 1904, was slightly more organized and comprised forty-one persons from the small industrial town of Nijverdal in the northeastern part of the Netherlands. It was here that the industrial revolution had taken root in the [End Page 240] Netherlands, and textile production was the focus of industrial activity in Nijverdal, as it was for the rest of the Twente region. The Nijverdal immigrants in this book were not farmers, but had been employed in miserable conditions in the cotton mills, the Koninklijke Stoomweverij. The Reverend Sybrandus Schilstra, from the province of Friesland, was a strong advocate for settling in the Canadian West. From1902 to 1905 he wrote twenty-three letters to the newspaper Niewsblad van het Noorden, and, although he himself never traveled farther west than Pennsylvania, he wrote glowing reports exalting the opportunities in Canadian rural life: “There is no doubt there is a future here. Already in a few years many have become well off, if not rich.... It may not be easy to separate from parents, family and acquaintances, and to say farewell to friendly surroundings...but one ought to think about the future” (45–46). Schilstra was highly critical of industrialization both in the Netherlands and in the New York/New Jersey area, where many Dutch immigrants were employed in manufacturing jobs. He cautions against urban life: Although [a factory worker] earns relatively much money, he can have no joy of life...A farmer cherishes the land, views his cattle with joy and high spirits, sees the waving corn with gladness.... If this is not the case now in the Netherlands, there is no doubt that this can be the case after a few years in Canada (47). Everhardus Aldus, the most educated person in the group, had been a physics teacher at the local school in Nijverdal, and often appears critical and homesick in his letters. He is astonished that the potatoes served during the voyage were not peeled (94) and stations and railway cars are dirty and unsightly, with no first or second class (99). Although he admires the beautiful rivers, he is disgusted by the climate — the very annoying and strong wind, much more annoying than rain (109). He does observe the lack of class awareness and the fact that everyone, the Negro who washes windows in the town and the black worker who digs coal in the mine, as much as the doctor, lawyer, the land office official, are all addressed as “Mister” (115). Donald Sinnema provides a thirty-seven-page introduction and, given his background in church history, he emphasizes religious developments within the communities. The church was an important...

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