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| Catherine(?) Zigterman, 22 and Rena Jane Zigterman, 16 |
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| Zigterman Family. L-R: Catherine, Rinske ("Ruth"), Anna, Jon, Rena, Henrietta |
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| Jon ("John") and Rinske ("Ruth") Zigterman |
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| Rena Jane Zigterman, 6 mos. |
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| Rena Jane Zigterman, 8th grade graduation |
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| Rena Jane Zigterman (High school graduation?) |
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| Jon Zigterman's sisters, Tante Zwaan and Tante Greta |
Why I began to study the English language: and how it helped me to earn the first 35 dollars of my life when I was a boy of thirteen years old.
My mother had died in the summer of 1848 and my father, who was a minister in the Seceder Church of the Netherlands, had married again in 1850 with a widow who -----had 2 sons. The oldest of them married my oldest sister and the younger of the two who followed them there, got acquainted with a girl in the city of Lynn, England.
When he came home sometime in the summer of 1857, he told his mother about his love affair and she and my father were of the opinion that he should not be hindered to marry her because she was a stranger if they loved one another.
So he went to Lynn, England, to get married and when he went I decided to try to learn enough of the English language to be at least able to converse with her when they should come to our home after the marriage.
I got a little book called The Quick Englishman which I studied with all my might and after about six weeks, when my stepbrother and his wife came over, I had gathered quite a vocabulary so that I could converse quite a little with her. As she brought an English Bible with her, I began to study that intensely with her help and made swift progress in pronunciation, etc. That's how I learned English.
About this same time a vessel of about two tons capacity, whose owners lived at Hull, England, came from Newcastle bound for the port of Groenigen in the northern part of the Netherlands with a cargo of coal, but by a heavy storm was thrown on the sand banks where lay around the ---------gat, which is the waterway to get to the port.
The crew, consisting of the Captain and mate and three sailors and the Captain's wife and two children were rescued by fisherman of P------ and brought to Oostma house, a kind of station where vessels often lay ------------- take for ------ but nobody could understand English which was a great handicap. They heard about the English lady that had recently come to -----, about an hours walk from Oostma house and where we then lived.
They sent for the lady but that did not help much because she did not understand the country folk and so they came after me to help them out and got along all right.
The Burgermeister of West D---------, (which includes several small villages) was also the beach commissioner and had to look after the people and what could be done about the salvage of the ship and lading.
He came and took charge of things but as he could speak French fluently but no English, he retained me to help out.
The first things was to send a report of the circumstances to the insurance Co. at Hull where the ship was insured and in a couple of days one of the officers of the Ins. Co. came over to see what was best to do.
After the storm abated the captain and crew with the Burgermeister and I went to inspect the vessel and found that it was not badly damaged and ---------- in a place of fairly good access to unload it and float it again. When Mr. Wel----- the Ins. Man came we reported to him and after looking things over himself, he ordered -----------to lighten the ship till she would float and several fishing ------- were engaged so that in three days the ship was brought in deep water and it was found that the vessel was but slightly damaged and with little difficulty could be brought to safety. The Mr. ------------ is a very nice God-fearing man and as he wanted me always around I stayed with him quite a while. By every meal that we partook of he would have me read a chapter in the Bible, correcting my pronunciation, etc. He was just like a good father to me and I was much attached to him and when everything was in order I received a check amounting to $35.00 American.
If this is good enough to bring money, for a price I will write another story, how I was shipwrecked later on.
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| Getting Ready... |
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| Rinske "Ruth" (Van Der Berg) Zigterman and Rena (Zigterman) Bruins |
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| Rena and her parents... |
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| Arriving at the church |
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| Rena and Jon "John" Zigterman |
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| L-R: Jon Zigterman, Rena (Zigterman) Bruins, Sidney Bruins, Rinske Zigterman |
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| L-R: Jon Zigterman, Rinske Zigterman, Rena Bruins, Sidney Bruins, Jacoba (Fridsma) Bruins |
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| L-R: Jacoba Bruins, Rena, Rinske Zigterman |
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| Eating cake |
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| L-R: Hester (Kuipers) Veenstra, Hazel (Boerman) Graveling, Marilyn (Veenstra) Graveling |
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| L-R: Fred Graveling, Hebert Graveling(?) |
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| L-R: Esther Graveling, ?, Marilyn Veenstra, ?, ? |
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| Marilyn Ruth Veenstra and her dad, Marvin Veenstra |
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| The Bride and Groom |
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| Mr. and Mrs. Fred Graveling |
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| L-R: Marvin Veenstra, Hester (Kuipers) Veenstra, Marilyn (Veenstra) Graveling, Fred Graveling, Hazel (Boerman) Graveling, Lambert Graveling |
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| L-R: Lois Veenstra (?), Esther Graveling, Anne Veenstra (?), Bonnie Schmidt (?), Marilyn (Veenstra) Graveling, Fred Graveling, Herbert Graveling, Jay Alderink, Bill Johnson, Donald Graveling |
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| At the reception... |
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| Cutting the cake... |
