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This item ran in the Petrolia Topic
May 9/07 and we thought it was a good story for the Wyoming page.
Speaker: Dutch
immigrants saw this region as mini Netherlands
By JOHN PHAIR
The
Dresden Leader
One might wonder why a guy named Campbell, who lives
in a town with an Anglo name like Petrolia, would have such an interest
in post-Second World War Dutch history.
Joel Campbell is a Petrolia councillor and LCCVI English teacher and
was guest speaker at the regular meeting of the Dawn Township
Historical Society.
He explained that along with his Scottish roots, his mother's maiden
name was Wilpstra and that side of his family came to Canada from the
Netherlands in 1948.
Another reason for his abiding interest in Dutch history, he suggests,
may have something to do with the fact he grew up in Wyoming.
With 17 per cent its population either Dutch immigrants or the
offspring of Dutch immigrants, he says that makes it the second most
Dutch town in Canada.
"When you live in a small town and attend a Christian Reformed Church
and a Christian school, you are immersed in a very Dutch Canadian
culture," he said, adding he wrote several papers on the subject while
attending the University of Western Ontario where he received an MA in
public history.
"I wanted to know more about my Dutch heritage, not only in a local
sense but about things that were personal," he said.
"I wanted to look at the role Canadians played in liberating Holland
and what it was that prompted my grandparents and so many like them to
come to Canada."
Campbell said a spirit of friendship between Canada and the Netherlands
developed during the Second World War.
He noted that during the Second World War, the Dutch Royal family fled
to England at first and later, princess Juliana, who would later become
Queen, moved to Canada.
While there, she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Margarette, in an
Ottawa hospital.
Through an act of Parliament, the Canadian government declared the
hospital room was on Dutch soil so it could be said the princess was
born on Dutch territory.
"There was a fascinating relationship developed and every year since,
the Netherlands sends tulip bulbs to Canada in recognition of the
favour the Canadian government did for them," he said.
He also noted Canada's involvement with the Netherlands escalated in
1944 when following the D-Day invasion of Europe, Canada's second and
third divisions were given the task of liberating Holland from the
Nazis, a task it completed by May 5, 1945, three days prior to
Victory-Day in Europe.
He noted the Canadian troops did not pull out right away and
consequently many of the soldiers became enamoured with Dutch girls.
"Canada was looked upon as a desirable country and Canadians appeared
to be healthy and good people to the Dutch," he said.
Consequently, the first wave of Dutch immigrants to Canada was largely
made up of war brides and their children and numbered 1,886 in 1946.
"They were the first group of post-war Dutch immigrants," he said.
Campbell said while researching citizenship and immigration records at
university, he started to notice there was an explanation of what
brought so many Dutch immigrants to Ontario and particularly to, what
he calls, the "four counties" region of Lambton, Kent, Middlesex and
Elgin Counties.
He noted more than 200,000 Dutch immigrants have come to Canada since
the end of the Second World War, with the majority — 120,000 or about
60 per cent — arriving in a 10-year window from 1946 to 1956.
Of those numbers, he said 10 per cent settled in the Maritimes, 34 per
cent went to the Western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta.
But the majority, fully 55 per cent, settled in southwestern Ontario,
with the majority of those opting to live in the four-county area.
Campbell said there are two reasons for that: one being cultural.
But the largest factor by far, he says, is geographical.
"Southwestern Ontario had something the rest of the country did not;
the beginning of Dutch churches that had been started by a wave of
Dutch immigrants following the First World War," said Campbell.
"Canada was attractive to them not only because there were jobs here
but because there was also some type of cultural framework in that
there were churches and other Dutch people here."
However, he said the larger reason was geographical, pointing out the
area is highly similar of the Netherlands in terms of climate, growing
conditions and the wide range of soil types prevalent in the area.
"The land here is the same range of sand, loam and clay found in the
Netherlands," he said.
In addition, he noted the drainage system is similar as well.
"In the Netherlands, the land is drained into the ocean while in
Southwestern Ontario, it is drained into the Great Lakes
. . . the Dutch people felt right at home working this land and growing
essentially the mix of crops grown in Holland."
Campbell noted most of the Dutch immigrants came as farm labourers and
it took many years of hard work before they owned their own farms.
However, there was one industry prevalent in Lambton and Chatham-Kent
that assisted many along that route, that being the sugar beet
industry.
"Many Dutch immigrants worked in the sugar beets and many of the women
were employed in the processing plants bagging sugar and sewing the
cloth sugar bags," he noted.
However, Campbell said inspite of their obstacles and personal
struggles, the Dutch successfully transplanted themselves and set down
deep roots from which their family trees have grown and continue to
thrive.
"So when you go out in the community and wonder what it was that
attracted large numbers of Dutch to Lambton and Chatham-Kent, just
consider this was the most comfortable alternative, it was
geographically and to a limited extent, socially, a miniature of the
Netherlands," said Campbell.
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