COLONIAL HERITAGE MONTH
Celebrate
by reading a book Or visiting a local historic site !
Wishing you great
discoveries !
Lord
craven chapter National Society Colonial Dames XVIIC
 |
| Ruth-Anne Bolz in her Colonial attire at the Grave Marking for Henrietta Foy at Poplar Grove on Feb. 28, 2013. |
Colonial
Dames of 17th Century is celebrating Colonial History Month. In
celebration of this I thought I would tell you a little about the early Dutch
settlers and some of the things we have because of them. Many of my ancestors
were Dutch or made their way to Holland to get on a ship to come to New
Amsterdam.
The
Dutch were a progressive and resourceful people. Though they only held the
Island of Manhattan for about 40 years their influence in architecture,
planning and folk life can still be clearly found.
In New
York and New Jersey there are many place with Dutch names; Harlem, Staten
Island, Brooklyn, Flushing, Hoboken,
HoHoKus, Kinderkermack and Haverstraw. We have houses built in the Dutch
Colonial style with steep peaked roofs or gambrel roofs, casement windows with
leaded glass and Dutch doors. They build straight fronted houses in rows on straight
streets. At the front door they built a wooden or brick platform with a bench
on each side of the door were they sat on pleasant evenings. Anyone who has
ever lived in the NY-NJ area knows that they were sitting on the stoop.
Dutch
women were independent and were treated equally under the law; the English
thought they were loud and bossy! They retained their maiden names when they
married, you can see that in church and town records. If an unmarried woman
became pregnant, she had the right to take the father of the child to could and
make him marry her. If he was married he would have to support the child. When
she married she could choose to be declared MANUS – which granted her husband
guardianship over her, which meant she still owned her own property or had her
own wealth, but her husband administrated it for her and she could no to go
court. If she declared herself USUS -
in a prenuptial agreement she rejected her husband’s guardianship; retained her
own money and property, then could go to court; sue or be sued. When the English
took over all that changed to English law.
We have
had five presidents of Dutch descent, Martin Van Buren, my 7tgh great aunt was
his grandmother in addition Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, George HW
and George Bush.
Also
from the Dutch we have Sinterklass or St. Nicholas, who comes on a white horse,
garbed in a tall bishop’s hat, red cape, shiny ring and jeweled staff. He
brings goodies for the good children and switches for the bad.
In 1664,
the English banned the use of the Dutch Language in schools. One resourceful teacher devised a plan. From this we
get the phrase of “Passing the Buck.”We
thank the Dutch people for giving us May Day, May Poles, New Year’s Open
Houses, pancakes, donuts, cookies and tulips.
Posted by Ruth-Anne Bolz, member of the Stamp Defiance DAR Chapter in Wilmington, NC and member of Lord Craven Colonial Dames; After the Grave Marking for Henrietta Foy, the Lord Craven Colonial Dames held a quarterly meeting. It was at this meeting that Ruth-Anne Bolz gave the above report.
