A Visit to
Winterswijk - Eugene and Hildegarde TeSelle (March 1972)
Compiled from notes and letters contributed by
their daughter Ellen TeSelle Boal, Boulder, Colorado, and
from Dirk Willem te Selle, Enschede, Netherlands
October 2005
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Top Photo: Albert Hendrik te Selle, Gerrit Jan
te Selle, Eugene Arthur TeSelle
Bottom Photo: Johanna ("Jo") Christina te Selle, Hildegard
Christine Flynn TeSelle, unknown neighbor, Albert Hendrik te
Selle |
Eugene Arthur TeSelle
(1901-1986) is the grandson of Jan Hendrik te Selle (1838-1921).
Jan Hendrik, along with his brother Harmen Jan, was one of the first
Te Selles that emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States in
1865. The two brothers initially settled in Sheboygan
County, Wisconsin.
Eugene's father, Jan (John)
Willem TeSelle (1867-1945) was born in Sheboygan County,
Wisconsin, but moved in 1870 at age 3 with his family to a
homestead farm near Firth, Nebraska.
As a young man John Willem went
into the ministry as a preacher for the Dutch Reformed Church.
He married Geertje VanderBeek in 1897, and shortly thereafter they
moved from Nebraska to Sioux County, Iowa, where his oldest son
Eugene was born in 1901. By 1906, John Willem had moved his
wife Geertje and their three small children to Crawford, Delta
County, Colorado. Additional information about John Willem
("J.W.") TeSelle and his famous "round red barn" can be found in a
related
newspaper article.
Eugene married Hildegarde Flynn
in 1930, and they had two children, Eugene and Ellen.
In 1972 Eugene and Hildegarde
decided to take a trip to visit their Te Selle family roots in
Winterswijk, Netherlands. The attached pictures were taken
on that trip (click on the photo to see a larger view.)
Their daughter Ellen contributed the pictures to the website along
with her recollections of how the trip was planned and contacts
made with the Dutch relatives. Her e-mail exchanges with
Dirk Willem te Selle on this topic are shown below.
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E-mail from Ellen TeSelle Boal to
Dirk Willem te Selle, October 17, 2005
"There were some interesting connections resulting from their
visit. First of all, they had written to Norma TeSelle Prophet,
asking her if she had the addresses of any TeSelles still living
in Winterswijk. She did not reply for quite a while, so they sent
a letter in care of "Postmaster," Winterswijk. It just happened
that Dirk's father was the postmaster! So he replied and invited
them to meet him and his wife, Janna. They also visited Albert and
"Jo" at Fokkink [the Te Selle family farm]. Albert sent them several letters written by Jan
Hendrik (my great-grandfather) in the US to Albert's grandfather
in Holland. Albert also sent some maps of Holland and Winterswijk,
which I still have.
"It just happened that Dirk [Dirk Willem te Selle] was looking up some old te Selle
records at the time, so his parents sent Gene and Hildegard the
family tree as far as he had it. I started looking up records of TeSelles in the US which I didn't have, so when Geert te Selle
found Elizabeth TeSelle's website on the internet, and wrote to
her, she told him to write to me, her aunt, because I had more
information. So that is how Geert and I got in touch.
"My husband, Dean, and I finally met Dirk when he was in Denver a
few years ago. Dirk told me that his father still had the US
silver dollar, minted in Denver, that my father had given him. "
---------------------------------
E-Mail response from Dirk Willem te Selle
to Ellen TeSelle Boal, October 17, 2005
"Hello Ellen,
"I have to complete or correct this information. I still have in
my archive some letters my dad wrote to Norma. Her first
letter arrived already in the early sixties and our family was
living in Amsterdam in those days. Her letter was to "The Te
Selle-family" Winterswijk c/o Postoffice Winterswijk. At
that Winterswijk Postoffice - where my father started his career -
somebody knew our address in Amsterdam.
My father received this letter, but I think that he did not really
know what to do with it.
"He wrote back to Norma all the information he could give about
his direct ancestors and later he told her how she could contact
the right persons at the Winterswijk Townhall who could provide
her with more family-information from the Registry of Births,
Deaths and Marriages. He helped her out as a "mediator". My
father was not really interested in genealogy, but a quiet and
very friendly man who was willing to help everybody. I still
possess his letter to Albert te Selle in which he writes at the
end "I think I was able to satisfy those people in the United
States...." After my opinion this was typical for him: the
job is ready!
"After leaving Amsterdam in 1963 - we moved to the very small city
of Vianen in the neighbourhood of Utrecht where he became a
postmaster for the very first time - the correspondence was
continued by me. Being a student at the State Training
College for Teachers in Utrecht till 1965 I already studied
history, which I continued in Arnhem and Nijmegen after 1970. Some
years before I visited several times the State Archives in Arnhem
to find more material about Te Selles. (I think I was 17 or
18 years old at that time.)
"When I returned from military service in Suriname in 1967 my
parents had moved to Groenlo , 10 km from Winterswijk. Again my
father was the postmaster. Hellen and I did not marry in Groenlo:
a very Roman-Catholic city with a small "Gideons-gang" of
protestants. As my father was almost always an elderman in the
Dutch Reformed Church he could not bear the thought that his son
would marry a roman-catholic girl in a roman-catholic church in Groenlo. That was "one bridge too far" for him. We married
in Amsterdam in 1968 and then moved to Enschede.
"Then my father became a
postmaster in the - rather orthodoxe - protestant city of Aalten.
(Also only 10 km from Winterswijk.) Being a rather liberal
protestant, here was the first church in which he did not want to
become an elderman! It was in this city that our families
met each other. The picture with Eugene and Hildegarde and my
parents was taken at the front door of their home above the
postoffice. My father showed them the wonderful region and
together they paid a visit to Albert and his sister Jo at the "Fökkink"
farm.
"Some time later Connie and Julius Robinson arrived in Aalten at
the same time as Hellen and I did. I think - my memory can be
wrong - that we talked some time together, but that there was no
time left to pay a visit to Winterswijk. Julius and Connie
were living at a US-base in Pirmasens Germany.
"In 1992 I went to the USA for the first time and visited Norma
and Russell in Firth. The second time was in 1998 where we met in
Denver.
Dirk
PS
"I know Albert has very good documentation about all the Te Selles
who visited his farm during the years. I will ask him for more
details.
I have to hurry: he is already in his eighties........."
------------------------
E-mail from Ellen TeSelle Boal to
Dirk Willem te Selle, October 18, 2005
"DIrk,
"I think my Dad still had to write a letter addressed to
"Postmaster." Norma's reply to my parents was dated 28 February
1972, and she apologizes for not writing earlier. Albert te Selle's
letter to Hildegarde and Gene was dated Kotten, gemeente
Winterswijk, 18 February 1972, ten days earlier. He says, "Along a
roundabout we have receive[d] your letter of 28 January 1972."
"I am glad that I had to look up that letter again, because I did
find my parents' reply with an exact date for their visit. Gene
writes: "At this point we cannot say definitely; however, we
expect to see you Thursday, 30 March, 1972, if possible."
"Dirk, he also mentions a date for Jan Willem's visit to the
Netherlands! I had completely forgotten this. He writes, "My
father, Jan Willem, a dominie in the Dutch Reformed Church,
visited Winterswijk in 1902 when I was a baby." So his visit was
later than I had figured out. Now I need to search for a "Henry"
(the boy in the picture with Jan Willem) who was about 5 years old
in 1902.
"I will copy all these letters and send them to you.
Ellen
-------------
E-Mail response from Dirk Willem te Selle
to Ellen TeSelle Boal, October 17, 2005
"Hello, Ellen,
"It was nice to see my
father's letters from the 12th of April 1972 to your father and
mother! In my own archive I found a letter written by him at the
same day and addressed to his cousin Albert at farm "Fökkink".
This letter is of course in Dutch. He tells his cousin that I did
some genealogy research and that he made a small survey for his
and Albert's relatives in the US so that it could be of some help
during their visit. He also provides Albert with a copy. He
writes "Ik dacht dat we die mensen in Amerika nu wel tevreden
gesteld hebben" ("After my opinion we succeeded in
satisfying them with these papers.") Typical for my father: a
very hearty person, but absolutely not interested in genealogy.
He also asks Albert: "Are you still planning to send them copies
of these old letters that the family received from America? As
they already wrote to you: you can also send the originals to
America and they will make copies of these letters themselves.
Well you must make your own decision what to do. Stay in Good
Health. Gerrit te Selle."
"While reading these old papers I remembered that Norma te Selle
showed me her archive(s) in 1992 and that she saved her entire
correspondence with The Netherlands. When I spoke to her last
weekend she confirmed that. At the same time a letter from
daughter Su Zanna arrived and I had a good reason to call her in
Urbandale, Iowa. Su Zanna will visit Firth at Thanksgiving and
promised me/us to look for her mother's first correspondence with
the Te Selles in the Netherlands. Her results and your letters
most probably can deliver enough material for you or Robert to
write a text about the way relations became re-established.
"In the same time Connie TeSelle-Robinson and Julius Robinson
visited Aalten. I don't know how they found out about my parents'
address in Aalten."
--------------
E-Mail from Connie TeSelle
Robinson to Dirk Willem te Selle and Ellen TeSelle Boal, November
27, 2005
"Hi, everyone,
"Rob and I have been trying to remember about our trip to
Winterswijk. The trip was about May or June of 1975. I wrote to
the Post Master in Winterswijk or Aalten (can't remember which
one) and asked if he knew anyone with the name of TeSelle. I
explained that my maiden name was TeSelle and wondered if he knew
of anyone with that name. We thought that if anyone would
know whether or not there were TeSelles in the area it would be
the Post Master. I had previously received a letter (dated 25
September 1962) from Norma TeSelle that indicated that the
TeSelles were from Winterswijk or Aalten.
"As I recall, I believe that the Post Master was Dirk's father.
Is that right Dirk? He sent us a letter saying he was a TeSelle
and invited us for a visit. Dirk, I have that letter somewhere
and have searched, but can't find it yet. I will continue
looking. Rob seems to think that we wrote back and told him when
we could come, but he was going to be away on vacation. He then
contacted his son Dirk, and Dirk came to Winterswijk from
Amsterdam to meet with us since his father wasn't going to be
there. Is that right, Dirk? I really can't remember how we came
to meet up, but I do remember being amazed at all the genealogy
you had compiled. Dirk, do you remember exactly? I do remember
though, that you took us to visit the farm, and we exchanged our
genealogy information.
"I remember meeting a cousin (can't remember his name) and his
wife. I do have a picture of him and his wife. He was a descendent
of one of the TeSelle brothers that had remained in Holland. He
had the letters that the brother's, who immigrated to the USA, had
written after their arrival in the USA and he gave me a
copy of
one dated 26 November 1865.
"I remember, that thanks to Dirk, it was a wonderful and memorable
visit. We had made arrangements to meet with you Dirk, in
Pirmasens Deutschland, but missed you. I believe we had gone to
the store for a few minutes and when we returned, you had already
been there and departed. I hope you can help me fill in some of
the details.
"Take care everyone,
Connie"
-----------------------
Excerpts from E-Mail from Dirk Willem te Selle
to Connie TeSelle Robinson, November 28, 2005
Hello Connie,
Thank you for your long letter!
First I will try to answer some questions.
1. Yes. In 1975, my father was the postmaster of Aalten.
2. In that same year Hellen and I were already (since 1968) living
in Enschede, the city we never left....
Enschede is about a 40 minutes drive from Aalten. I think we met
in Aalten. Didn't you bring along with you a big genealogy
book ? I remember Rob was wearing a ring from his military
academy. Is that right?
We went to the old "Fökkink" farm of Albert and his sister Jo te
Selle in Winterswijk. (Both are unmarried.) When you look into the
Memorabilia section of the website you will find pictures of Jo
and Albert from the same period.
From a snowbound Te Selle in Enschede.
Dirk
