Introduction to
"Letters from America"
(Go to the
List of Letters)
The following 35 Letters from America to
Holland provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the three te Selle
brothers who emigrated from Winterswijk, Netherlands, to the United States,
settling first in Wisconsin and then later in Nebraska. The letters were
written primarily to their mother,
Dela ten Damme-te Selle, and to their brothers. These letters span a
46-year period from 1865 – 1911, during which time the brothers Jan Hendrik,
Harmen Jan, and Gerrit Jan te Selle evolved from young, idealistic, agricultural
immigrants to mature, middle-class farm owners who had established themselves
and their families as significant members of their local communities.
The first letter in the collection was
written by G. W. Bloemers, who had emigrated to America in 1846. G. W. Bloemers
was married to Janna te Selle, who was an aunt to the three te Selle brothers.
When Jan Hendrik and Harmen Jan first arrived in the United States in late 1865,
they stayed with G. W. and Janna Bloemers. In Letter 1, written in 1865 by
Uncle Bloemers, we get some insight into the effects of the Civil War on the new
immigrants to America.
The remaining letters in the collection were
written by the three brothers. The brothers clearly had deep-rooted religious
beliefs, and were frequently moved to expound their philosophy at length in
their letters, often extending their comments for several paragraphs. Many
letters appear to be a composite of text from an emotional sermon, coupled with
the local crop report!
The letters were written on lightweight
paper, and the text was quite compressed, in order to minimize the cost of
postage. Given the infrequency of their letters back and forth to Holland, and
their concern to reduce the postage cost, I was struck by the amount of verbiage
that was often devoted to general religious philosophy, rather than to specific
news about their families and the community.
However, many of the letters did focus on
family matters, such as who was healthy or sick, and what new babies had been
born. There was always a crop and livestock report, meticulously reporting the
price of each item.
Sometimes the writer touched on more
“worldly” topics. For example, in Letter 19 Harmen Jan provides a fascinating
discussion of American history and native Americans. His thoughts about Indians
would not be considered “politically correct” in today’s environment, but in
1878 he was certainly not shy about expressing his opinions.
In Letter 22 Harmen Jan mentions that he is
a correspondent for one of the local newspapers, He says that some of his
articles are signed as “Te S” or “T.S.” It would be fascinating to obtain
copies of those old newspapers today, and to read Harmen Jan’s viewpoints on
current issues of his day.
In Letter 33 Gerrit Jan provides an
interesting account of their visit to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. As a
carpenter himself, he was quite fascinated with the enormity of the buildings
and the difficulties of constructing such large structures.
As you read the last several letters, you
may begin to chuckle. Obviously the family in Holland is not writing often
enough, and the American brothers are getting more and more exasperated by the
lack of letters from Holland. They try using many different phrases to shame
their brothers in Holland into writing more frequent letters!
One can only wish that more of these letters
had been preserved, or that there were “Letters from Holland” that had been
saved by one of our American ancestors. There are instances in several letters
where one of the brothers refers to something that was written to them in a
letter from Holland. We can only guess what those incoming letters might have
said.
Our family owes many thanks to Dirk Willem
te Selle (Enschede, Netherlands), who has carefully captured the Dutch text of
the letters into the computer. Dirk was careful also to include the literary
flaws. As Dirk Willem states in his introduction to the TeSelle Chronicle, “Since
we feel that historical sources should be tampered with as little as possible,
we did not attempt to modernize the rather old-fashioned Dutch language. We
also did not correct spelling mistakes, such as unnecessary capitals, nor
grammatical style.”
The English translation was
orchestrated by Norma TeSelle Prophet, of Firth, Nebraska. Norma is the
granddaughter of Harmen Jan te Selle. She was so anxious to read the contents
of the letters that she arranged a group of translators to translate the first
group of letters. These translators had an almost impossible job, as they only
had poor photocopies to use as their source material. Later, some translations
had to be altered when the translators gained access to good, readable Dutch
text.
Each translator had a different
style, so Dirk Willem te Selle made a final review of each letter and tried to insure a
consistent translation of similar words and phrases. Also, Dirk Willem
carefully translated certain expressions that are only familiar to those who
understand the Winterswijk dialect.
Beginning with Norma and Dirk
Willem, several people, including many other family members, have been involved
in finalizing and footnoting the English translations. We all have tried to
retain the flavor of the text, while still making it readily understandable to
someone who does not read or speak Dutch. Those of you who understand both
Dutch and English are best equipped to appreciate both the tone and meaning of
the brothers’ words.
Some phrases in the English
translation are highlighted in yellow,
indicating that the meaning of those phrases was unclear or confusing. We would
welcome some clarification from those of you who read both Dutch and English, so
that we can improve the translation.
We have added a number of footnote
references in the letters to help clarify the people, places, and events. We
hope to add more footnotes as additional information and insights become
available from family members and other interested readers. Please feel free to
suggest footnote references if you have new information that might enhance the
understanding and enjoyment of these letters.
Please enjoy these "Letters from America".
Share with us your comments and reactions, which we may include in future
versions of this Letters’ collection. Perhaps future generations will be
interested not only in reading the original Letters, but also in reading the
thoughts and commentary of later generations about those early letters
Robert TeSelle
(Great-grandson of Harmen Jan te Selle).
Santa Monica, California
April, 2001
(Go to the
List of Letters)
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