Most of the family came from a small area between two rivers, the Lek and the Ijssel, and most of them lived in or close to Krimpen aan de Lek. There is a highway now from Schoonhoven to Krimpen with a Skyway to Rotterdam (De Van Brienen Noord bridge). This bridge was built after the Second World War. The Lek is about a kilometer wide with the Ijssel somewhat less until Gouderak. From Gouderak until Haastrecht it becomes much narrower. Both had very strong currents and were not easy to cross. The Lek had no bridges, just ferries. The Ijssel had small ferries and 2 lift bridges, one at Gouda and 1 at Haastrecht. This made the area quite isolated as the only transportation was by walking or horse and wagon and resulted in very little influence penetrating from the surrounding area. Because of these circumstances changes were made very slowly. The South Holland part was called the Krimpenerwaard. The part in Utrecht is the Lopikerwaard. Originally it was all swamp with bush. The first one or two kilometers of land from the river were clay, left behind from the regular floodings of the rivers and the rest was peat.

I hope to find some more information about the origin of this area. As far as I know now the dikes around the rivers as well as the draining ditches were built before the year 1000. This must have been a tremendous job and was done very professionally. It is amazing how they did this without machines. It was likely in the time when Holland was ruled by dukes, usually called Graven and Barons. Labour was cheap and every Duke was an authority who had to be obeyed. The earliest history I know is about 1340 when there were wars. (Hoekse and Kubel Jouwse Twisten). This area was the last stronghold of Gravin Jacoba van Bergerer who led the party that favoured more rights for the common people. This was in the 80-year war when Protestantism came in and Holland fought for independence from Spain. There is little known of this time except that the Krimererwaard became almost 100% Protestant. The Lopikerwaard remained largely Catholic, which is not that surprising. Holland was always ruled by Dukes, (graven), but Utrecht by Bishops even before Protestantism came. There were often wars with those bishops and a deep resentment of the bishop. They saw him more like an enemy who always tried to expand his territory than as a church authority. From 1795 till 1813 when Holland was ruled by the French, it seems that the Krimpenerwaard was not hurt much. In Bodegraven and Zwammerdam, about 20 km away, many farms were burned down and the people killed, but it seems this didn’t happen in the Krimpenerwaard. In other polders such as the Alblasserwaard there are still signs of floodings when the dikes broke but not many sgins of these tragedies are visible in the Krimpenerwaard. If you drive through the Krimpenerwaard you will find some very old buildings, especially farms and churches, some over 500 years but you won’t find a single ruin, or a single castle or what is left of it, as you would find in other parts of the country.

In 1834 when the church started to split and the Free Reformed Churches (Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerk) were started, as well as many other small independent churches, it seems that the Krimpenerwaard was not affected, neither in 1884 when the Christian Reformed churches (Gereformeerde Kerk) started.  All the churches remained Reformed and became mostly liberal. Not everybody went along, so some people who wanted to stay members of their church stayed home to read sermons by themselves or in very little groups. Later when an orthodox wing developed in the Reformed Church (De Gereformeerde Bonds), they formed a congregation. In the beginning there was strong opposition to the Gereformeerde Bond. Twice their building as well as a farm were burned down and several threats were received, but eventually it was quite well accepted. Soon after the development of the orthodox wing of the Reformed churches, the Netherlands Reformed Congregations were formed in Stolwijk and Berkenwoude but they never became very large.

The biggest flooding in Holland took place in 1492 when many dikes broke and many people drowned. Especially around Dordrecht, whole areas that were farmland before is now still wilderness called the Biesbosch. But it seems the Krimpenerwaard was not touched. The only flooding I know of was on February 1, 1953. It was early on a Sunday morning. A very cold, strong Northwestern storm raged and it was high tide. It was also full moon which makes the high tide stronger than usual. A Northwestern storm is always hard on the dikes in Holland. The North Sea has almost the shape of a tringle or a funnel, the water rises to dangerous levels and is pushed inward in many rivers. Many dikes were not high enough and the water went over the dikes.

This flooding combined with the meters high waves was too hard on many dikes and many of them broke. The Ijsseldijk by Ouderkerk a/d Yssel and the Krimpenerwaard started flooding. However, the people there were used to emergencies. There were always dike watchers during bad storms and supplies of sandbags, shovels, etc. were at hand at vulnerable places. The Dutch have always been good at dike building and a couple hours after the dike broke in the midst of the severe storm they managed to seal the hole temporarily. A large barge was steered in the Yssel towards the gap and manoeuvred so that it came lengthwise in the hole. This was tremendously difficult to do with the raging storm and strong current. If the barge was not exactly lengthwise in the hole, it would be pushed through the hole into the polder. A whole army of volunteers were ready with sandbags, stones, and whatever else was available and when the barge was in place, they started filling in behind the barge and the almost impossible succeeded. The people who volunteered for this did so with their lives at risk. An authority on dikes told me that they figured this method of dike closure stood a less than 5% chance of being successful and that hundreds of volunteers risked drowning, but it was the only possibility, and if the gap, which was widening by the minute was not closed soon, likely thousands of people would drown so it had to be attempted. Quite a bit of water had already come in, but every village had its own small dikes (kade) and most of the water stayed behind the last bank of dikes. The water rose somewhat higher in our place than normal but no real flooding took place in Stolwijk. All the sick and elderly people were moved out and almost all the animals as well which was not easy on those narrow roads. Almost no one had a car or truck. We were about the only house in the whole neighbourhood with a telephone and I remember phoning almost that entire Sunday morning to addresses all over the country to send trucks. It was still storming and very cold with sleet and snow showers. We had everything prepared and we ourselves could stay home. By Wednesday the dikes were rebuilt enough that the cattle were allowed to move back in. The cows didn’t suffer much but we lost many small piglets. The cold was too severe for them.

As I mentioned before our relatives were almost all dairy farmers. The methods of dairy farming changed very slowly from 1700 up to the time that we were children. After that it changed rapidly with the introduction of fertilizer, tractors, all kinds of machinery, advice and all kinds of help from the agricultural department, improved marketing, etc.

When the dikes and drainage ditches were built all the land was more or less the same for a long time. The original farms were very large in terms of hectares, but the quality of the land was poor and quite acidic. There was no fertilizer and with the low number of cattle very little manure was available to spread on the land, but this slowly improved. If I am correct, when I was a young boy, a farm of 20 hectares could grow enough food for about 10 milk cows. This grew to 22 cows on 20 hectares by the time I emigrated and now is over 40 (2003). Even so the number of 10 was likely a big improvement from 200 years ago. Almost no new land was available and many farmers had big families so the only way was to split the farms up and make the fields more productive.

My grandfather’s farm was split into 4 smaller farms and later three of those were divided once more. The fields were too low lying and too soft for plowing and peat is not a very good soil. The fields were only about 40-60 cm above water level, not suitable for growing grain or other cash crops so they were just used for pasture and hay fields. When we were young there were usually two sizes of farms. The small farmers usually had between 6 and 12 milk cows while the big farmers had anywhere from 18 to 40 cows. There was also a big difference between farmers who owned their farm and those who rented from another farmer, and there was also a big gap between workers and farmers. The farmers treated one another as equals in many ways except for intermarriage between the church groups and this didn’t happen very often.

When I was born the address of the farm where we lived was Benedekerk 28 and it was 35 when I went to school. Later the address changed to 45 and now it is Benedekerk 108. About every ten years the number was changed as new houses were built in between the existing ones. “Benede’ means ‘lower’. Our area was slightly lower than the village and church (kerk). The other side of the village was slightly higher and called Bovenkerk.

Houses and barns were built on ground that had been raised a bit using the ground dug out of the ditches and a kind of pond called a ‘put.’. The ground was very soft and low and there was usually a deep layer of peat soil beneath. To avoid having buildings sink into the ground heavy posts were put into the ground that had to reach solid ground at least 40 feet deep. The foundations were poured on top of the posts and then the buildings. The posts had to be so deep that the tops were always in the ground water, otherwise rot would set in. Under our house and cow stable which was one building there are 99 heavy 14 metre long posts, similar to heavy hydro posts. Later when I lived in Canada already the large put was filled in as well as some of the ditches. Big cities like Rotterdam were anxious to get rid of their garbage and that is what they used it for. Later when some vegetation, birds and fish were dying a sudden stop was put to this practice when it was revealed that some of the waste being dumped was toxic. In many places everything had to be dug up again. It could stay at the farm but the quality of the ground water was tested for many years.

The farm life was somewhat as follows. Most farmers made cheese made from fresh milk twice a day right after milking. After cheese making the cheese had to be turned a few times while under the press. In order to have the cheese finished before bedtime, which was usually at 9:30 or 10:00 pm, the cheese making shouldn’t start later than 6:00 pm. For that reason, milking started between 3:00 and 4:00 pm, which meant the morning milking usually started at 3:30 am. The best cheeses were those made in early summer when the grass was still very tender and the poorest cheese was made when the cows were in the barn (stalls) in wintertime. The milk production in wintertime was also low since in the early days people tried to have as much hay as possible and let the grass ripen too far before haying which contributed to low quality milk. Later when more was known about protein, etc., the quality rose quite a bit.

Additionally, feed had to be bought. A cow usually produces milk for about 10 months. Then they are dry for about 1 ½ to 3 months and then the cow would have her next calf. Soon after calving the production is the highest and slowly decreases, so to have the most milk when the production was high and not too much, extra food had to be bought. The farmers tried to have all their cows calve in March and April so that at midwinter almost all cows were dry. After cheese making, what was left from the milk was the whey. This was stored in large barrels (wee kuipen) so the remaining milk fat rose to the top and was removed for butter making. The rest was fed to the pigs and so most farms had a few sows and kept the piglets for fattening. Most farmers also had some chickens.

Haying was a very busy time as everything had to be done by hand and was very labour intensive. Most farmers had some help, either day helpers (daggelders), married or unmarried male and female help who often lived in a small house close to the farm, and who helped part-time. In summertime the mowers who cut the grass for hay with the scythe often came from far away, usually from areas where they grew cash crops. They came after they had done the seeding and planting on their own farms. They tried to make some extra money this way before harvest time started and were then away from home for five to eight weeks, while their wives and children stayed behind to look after their own crops.

Around 1900 this started changing. The hay mower pulled by two horses came into use which made the haying time much shorter. Electricity became more common on the farms with motors for churning butter and other uses. Farm help also became scarcer as more and more people were going to the city to work in the factories that were springing up, and especially the younger generation liked the factories better which offered higher wages, and less work, usually 5 ½ days per week. At the farm they worked six full days along with milking and feeding on Sundays. In the haying seasons 16-hour days were not uncommon. Then as bicycles became more common and cheaper so that labourers could afford them, it became easier to find work in town.

Beside dairy farmers there were also some vegetable growers which didn’t require so much land. Most had around one hectare. At first they grew spinach, carrots, pole beans and cabbage along with lettuce, endive, cauliflower and snow peas. When glass become more common hothouses came in use and then cucumbers and melons were also grown, and later when greenhouses were built they also grew tomatoes and some horticulture. There were no local industries, but small businesses were more numerous. When we were young Stolwijk had 9 bakers and 11 restaurants. In every restaurant the common drink was beer while liquor was also used quite a bit. Now, as the number of inhabitants has almost doubled, there is only 1 baker and 1 restaurant or café. There were about a dozen fishermen who tried to make a living with setting nets, etc., in the ditches and waterways. There were all kinds of shops of shoemakers, wagon repairs, bicycle repair, blacksmiths, etc. and also some stores.

On the social ladder the minister, doctor and school principal were about on the same level as the richest farmers, the store and shop owners level with the common farmers, the others such as shoemakers, and cattle merchants somewhere between farmers and labourers.

Originally everyone in the church consistory and in the town hall was a farmer. When a baker, and later a vegetable grower, were voted in as elder and deacon some found that hard to swallow, especially when later yet the first labourer was voted in. But slowly changes took place. In Holland the village mayor is not voted for but appointed. Only the aldermen (gementeraad) were chosen. When we were young there were seven aldermen in every village of fewer than 3000 inhabitants. Originally they were all Liberals, the moneyed establishment who were in general antisocialist, opposed to social laws. This was not hard since many labourers were not allowed to vote. You needed a certain income and to pay a certain level of taxes to obtain the right to vote. But this has gradually changed. The biggest change came when all people, men and women over 21, were given voting rights. From that time on the aldermen were more divided, some socialists were voted in as well as members of Christian parties. When the village grew beyond 3000 inhabitants a few years before I emigrated the number of aldermen became 11 instead of 7. If I remember correctly, when I left Holland in 1954 the Christian parties had four seats, the liberal parties also had four seats and the socialists had three seats.