Dutch emigration followed certain specific patterns. The vast majority of Dutch emigrants were day laborers, farmers, and craftsman from rural areas where economic opportunities were dim. However, few Dutch emigrants were driven by a desperate struggle to survive, such as the Irish. Most made a conscious calculation, that a life in America, among family and friends, offered greater economic opportunity for themselves and their children.
The dominant pattern of the Dutch emigration was the migration over a period of time of related families and friends from particular Dutch communities to their American counterparts. First, a few families would emigrate, and they in turn would convince relatives or friends to follow. During the mid-nineteenth century, 12 % of all Dutch municipalities (counties) provided 75 % of the emigrants. In the US, 72 % of all native Hollanders lived in 1% of all US counties.[1] Dutch emigration was clearly governed by community and family ties.
Emigration from Zeeland was the greatest of all the Holland provinces, both in terms of shear numbers and per capita. It began in the years of 1846-47 (due to the potato blight) and continued until World War I. The early focus (1840s) of emigration in Zeeland was in the southern portion of the province. Note that Oud-Vossemeer is in the North portion of Zeeland. The Tholen region (including Oud-Vossemeer) had its heaviest emigration after 1870.
Like most Dutch, it is likely Adriaan had selected his destination prior to departure. His brother, John, was a mason in Rochester, New York. Arrangements for Adriaan to join him were probably made well in advance of the trip.
Emigrants from Zeeland typically settled near Michigan (Zeeland), Wisconsin (southeastern), and New York (Rochester and Buffalo). Many shared a common bond. They were persecuted "seceders", also sometimes referred to as “separatists".
Most families were members of the Dutch Reformed Church or Nederland Hervormde Kerk. However, there were those in the Church that objected to what they considered doctrinal and organizational changes imposed upon them by King Willem I in the 1820s and 1830s. Their opposition struck a chord with some people, mostly in rural areas. These people became known as “seceders” or separatists. Adriaan Van Doorn, like his mother before him, was a “seceder.”
The secessionist movement, within the Dutch Reformed Church, began as early as 1822 in the town of Axel in the province of Zeeland. The split was over a difference in doctrine. However, the movement was not sustained.
By 1834, the secessionist movement was real, widespread and the conflict could no longer be avoided.
The reasons for secession were not simple, nor were they universal amongst all the Dutch. However, opposition to the practices of the Dutch Reformed Church typically centered on three reasons: the singing of hymns, the participation of non-Reformed Church members in the Lord’s Supper, and the asking of four questions as part of the liturgy in preparation for the Lord’s supper during the worship service.
The hymnbook was introduced in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1807. Its use was slow to spread. Prior to this, the Church limited singing to the psalms published in the “Psalter.” Many believers protested what they saw as the optimistic faith expressed in the hymns. Seceders objected to these hymns as “vehicles of false doctrine.”
The “four questions” were first introduced into the denomination in 1817, although congregations in Friesland and Groningen had practiced it for years.
There were other differences as well.
Leaders within the Dutch Reformed Church did not believe that men such as Calvin should be put on a pedestal. They believed the search for “the truth” was an ongoing process through the further education of men by God. Seceders, on the other hand, believed the Canons of Dordrecht were all that true believers needed to know and follow.
Citizens of The Netherlands in the 1820s and 1830s witnessed economic hard times due to poor harvests, as well as a terrible plague of Asiatic cholera in 1831 -32. . Many seceders saw their difficulties in life as God’s punishment for a false religion. In 1834, Hendrik De Cock, minister of the church at Ulrum in the Province of Groningen, announced he was leaving the Dutch Reformed Church and returning to the true beliefs and practices of the Church, thus becoming the leader of the secessionist movement.
I do not believe the motivation behind Adriaan’s decision to emigrate boils down to a single reason. Roughly 50% of the seceders leaving Zeeland had left by 1850. The big agricultural crisis in The Netherlands did not begin until the late 1870s. Hence the Van Doorn family was not a part of the two largest migrations from Holland to the United States.
One possible reason for leaving was religious freedom. Zeeland was a "hot bed" of seceder activity. However, the seceders, although they gained much notoriety, only represented 13% of Dutch emigrants between 1835 and 1880. Most seceders had left Zeeland and The Netherlands by 1850. The persecution that was so prevalent in the 1830s and 40s had subsided somewhat with the ascension of Willem II to the Dutch throne. Though the movement grew, the pressure to leave, diminished somewhat.
Another possible explanation is that Adriaan was simply looking to provide more economic opportunities for himself and his family. Four out of five Zeeland emigrants worked in agriculture. Of these agricultural emigrants, 95% were laborers whereas only 5% owned their own farms. Adriaan was classified as "needy", meaning he was receiving some form of public assistance. So he not only was poor, but likely had little prospect of improving his position.
Finally, we know that two of Adriaan’s youngest children died of the pox in the years leading up to his departure. Perhaps, the family left for health reasons.
All departing citizens of Holland were asked their primary reason(s) for leaving. So what reason(s) did Adriaan provide on his emigration form upon leaving Holland? Records show the phrase “ hoop op bestaans verbetering.” Translated, it means “hope for a better life.”
Adriaan Van Doorn and his family, including his wife and four children, departed the village of Oud-Vossemeer bound for the United States on April 19, 1866.
Potential emigrants relied heavily on advice from family and friends already residing in the United States. Rochester was one of the more popular destinations for emigrants from the Zeeland province. Adriaan likely received positive feedback from his brother John, who had immigrated to the Rochester, New York area in 1847.
Much of the post-Civil War migration included families and friends of previous emigrants (1840s and 50s) from the same municipalities. It is possible the Adriaan Van Doorn family sought to emigrate earlier, and that the American Civil War delayed this by several years.
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