Carl Zagers. A Eulogy.

E U L O G Y.

by: Will Johnson

 

Today we mourn the loss of James Carl Zagers who was born on February 23^rd 1927 and died on November 26^th, 2016.

Carl was born in the former village of Palmetto Point known in the last years of its existence as Mary’s Point. In the year 1927 when he was born there were a total of 41 children born on Saba. This goes to show the difference on Saba between then and the last thirty years.

His wife was Rose Margarete Collins and she died young leaving Carl with three young children to raise, Lillian, Stephen and Cleve.

 

In 1934 the people of Palmetto Point were more or less forcefully removed by Governor Krugers to an area here in the Bottom, part of a larger property called the Man-O-War ground.

Carl did as everyone back then tried to do in order to survive. He farmed the land and fished the seas. He also built his own fishing boats when the need was there. As so many young men did at the time he also went to Aruba where he worked in the kitchen of the dining room for the Lago oil refinery there. After some years he came back to Saba and was able to find work here with the government. In those days it was not much of a salary but you grasped at any opportunity you could get.

 

For many years he was the linesman for the telephone service. Mr. Chester Zagers his former boss will tell you more about that period in his life.

As time moved on and Carl wanted to start a family he found his wife just a stone’s throw from where he lived in the “Promised Land’. He married Rose Margarete Collins at St. Kitts and together they not only started a family but built a house where he lived until he passed away at the age of 89.

Carl and his brother Jimmy were people who retained many memories of past life here on Saba and the people who lived and worked here. I could always ask them to clarify for me some of the families and who was related to whom from Palmetto Point and Middle Island. They would tell me things and when I researched them further they were right on nearly all my questions. I told his son Stephen that I was always promising myself to interview Carl on certain matters thinking perhaps that he would live forever.

He loved to farm and most of his life he farmed, planted the land, kept cattle and pigs and so on in order to provide for his family. The last years of his life he was farming over in a piece called the ‘Plum Piece” situated on a small plateau around 750 feet above Sea Level and on the road around the mountain and just above Palmetto Point where he was born.

This farming of his, led to a major discovery in the history of our island. When I was Acting Governor and Commissioner he called me one day and said he would like to speak to me, so I told him when to come. I thought it was something personal. However he said to me; “I know how much you are interested in the history of our island. I come to you with the following story which might be of interest to you’. And then he went on to tell me that where he was farming at the Plum Piece he was finding all kinds of strange rocks which looked like they had been worked on. ‘Must be Indians, I guess,’ he said.

And he went on to say: “I have some of them at home if you are interested.’ So we made another appointment and he brought a batch of old stones and a talisman made of coral stone with a hole in it which I wear from time to time. I took photos of his visit and offered to pay him for his trouble. He reluctantly accepted payment though he said ‘Mind I did not come for that.’ But I told him, “I suspect there is more to this story,’ and so I am only rewarding you for your labour and for your interest. I had just returned from Holland where I had undergone heart surgery and was still feeling weak. About three months later I thought I was feeling well enough and got my young son Peter to go along with me.

When we got to the Plum Piece there was Carl wearing an apron as if he was working in a gourmet kitchen. He gave me a tour of his farming area and I took a series of photo’s, which I still have and which I will add to this eulogy for posting on my blog The Saba Islander. I gathered what turned out to be some seventy pounds of stone which the Kalinago or Arawak people had left behind. Only when I got to the Queens Garden Hotel and realized that it was only three to four months since my surgery did I get panicky when I was trying to get the bag in my car.

 

Anyway I discussed it with the then Governor Antoine Solagnier and agreed that we contact Corrine and Menno at Leiden University. They had already been involved for several years in doing research on the Native American past on Saba. They were quite interested of course, though they had doubts if Native Americans would live that far up from the sea.

Menno and Corine decided to come and bring some students with them and to see what was there. This study resulted in a book entitled The Real Saba History. I sent my copy to a friend and fellow historian Lennox Honeychurch on Dominica and I cannot remember the exact title now. The book did give credit to Mr. Zagers for his keen observations and conclusions that there had to be a larger story to the stones and other materials he was finding on his farm.

AS a father it was a struggle to raise his children especially after the death of his wife. However he never gave up and he went on to become a loving grandfather and before his death he was to become a great-grandfather.

He was suffering with skin cancer and had to go to Colombia for medical attention and while there he developed other ailments. After he returned home he steadily got worse and this led to his demise.

In family circles he will be remembered as a hardworking and loving man. I will close by reading a poem entitled The Old Farmers Prayer. I could not find out who the author was but I thought it fitting to remember the life and times of Carl with this poem.

I could not find the name of the person who wrote this poem but I will quote it anyway.

THE OLD FARMERS PRAYER

Time just keeps moving on

Many years have come and gone

But I grow older without regret

My hopes are in what may come yet.

On the farm I work each day

this is where I wish to stay

I watch the seeds each season sprout

From the soil as the plants rise out.

I study Nature and I learn

To know the earth and feel her turn

I love her dearly and all the seasons

For I have learned her secret reasons

All that will live is in the bosom of Earth

She is the loving mother of all birth

But all that lives must pass away

And go back again to her someday.

My life too will pass from earth

But do not grieve, I say, there will be other birth

When my body is old and all spent

And my soul to Heaven has went.

Please compost and spread me on this plain

So my Mother Earth can claim

That is where I wish to be

Then Nature can nourish new life with me.

So do not for me grieve and weep

I did not leave, I only sleep

I am with the soil here below

Where I can nourish life of beauty and glow

Here I can help the falling rain

Grow golden fields of ripening grain

From here I can join the winds that blow

And meet the softly falling snow.

Here I can help the sun’s warming ligth

Grow food for birds of gliding flight

I can be in the beautiful flowers of spring

And in every other lovely thing.

So do not for me weep and cry

I am here, I did not die.

***

May he rest in peace.

 

 

Nurse Angele Cagan

NURSE ANGELE CAGAN

BY; Will Johnson

Nurse Angele Cagan was an icon in the Philipsburg in which I knew in the fifties and sixties. She was a native of the village of Grand Case. Where I lived at Captain Hodge’s Guesthouse both Captain Hodge and his wife Mrs. Bertha Hodge-Lawrence were also natives of that village.

The hospital was just a stone’s throw away from the guesthouse. What little spare time Nurse Angele got she would walk up to the Guesthouse in her white uniform to visit with the Hodge’s. She took a liking to me and started calling me ‘Kennedy’. This came about when we were following the election results on radio and when President Kennedy beat Nixon. Everyone but me that night was for Nixon for whatever reason. But I stuck it out and Nurse Angele would buckle up with the laugh when comments were made. She would look in my direction and I had a feeling afterwards that she secretly supported Kennedy but did not want to get in a clash with Capt. Hodge and Miss Bertha.

When Kennedy won she only called me by that name. I remember [don’t all of us] the day he died. I was walking up the Front Street from the office. When I passed the St. Rose Hospital where she worked she was out on the gallery facing the street and called out to me;’ Lord Kennedy, Kennedy dead.’ So I had to go in and sit and talk about the day’s events with her.

I have an article from Saturday October 5^th, 1963 from the Windward Island’s Opinion which for this article I would like to share in its entirety. I happen to have in my collection photos of the event from the album of Jewel Levendag-Wathey and I can match the article with the photos. Nurse Angele was important to a lot of people as she delivered a lot of babies in her day as a Nurse.

The article is as follows: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF NURSING.

On Sunday September 29^th, Miss Angele Cagan, celebrated her Silver Jubilee, 25 years as a nurse in the St. Rose Hospital at Philipsburg.

The occasion was marked by a solemn High Mass at 8 a.m. in the Roman Catholic Church at Philipsburg. The church was crowded with many of her friends, relatives and former patients (some of them had come from as far as Marigot and even Grand Case). The Rev. Father Boradori, Parish Priest; in his remarks about Nurse Angele after the Gospel, pointed out that, in the 25 years that she had been a nurse in the St. Rose Hospital, she had always been a very dedicated nurse and he was sure that she did not work for the money, but instead for the love of bringing relief and comfort to suffering humanity. He compared her dedicated service to the Inn-keeper; in a parable of Jesus (A certain traveler had found a sick man by the wayside, given him assistance and taken him to an Inn. In the morning when the traveler was leaving, the sick man had not fully recovered, so the traveler paid the Inn-Keeper for the night and asked that the sick man be taken care of until he (the traveler) returned, promising that he would pay all the costs on his return. The Inn-Keeper did not ask the traveler to pay in advance – but took care of the sick man with the hope that someday the traveler would return.

 

“Our dear Nurse Angele,” he said: “Has been taking care of the sick entrusted to her tender care, by Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one day, I am sure, that at the end of her journey, He will return and repay her for all she has done.’

A reception was given in her honour at the St. Rose Hospital, from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, and among the many persons present were: Lt. Governor, J.J. Beaujon, Dr. Levendag, Ex. Lt. Governor and Mrs. W. Buncamper, Mrs. L.C. Fleming, Mr. Cagan (her brother), Mr. Th.A. Illidge, Mr. and Mrs. R. Carty and Mr. and Mrs. L.B. Scott. Most noteworthy among those present were; Mr. Anthony Buncamper (Nurse Angele ‘brought’ his mother to be with him) and his little son (Nurse Angele ‘brought’ his wife to bed with his son)-

Speeches congratulating Nurse Angele were made by the Revered Father Boradori, L.B.Scott, Th.A. Illidge, J.H. Lake, R. Carty and Dr. Levendag – And all the speakers praised her for her unselfish and dedicated service to the sick of this community during the past 25 years – She was also the recipient of many useful and valuable gifts.

The Windward Islands Opinion joins the rest of the community in congratulating our beloved Nurse Angele and prays that the good Lord, may bless and keep her for many more years.

Before she retired she built a house on the Back Street. She would go there during the day but would spend most of her time living with Miss Bertha and the Captain over in Sucker Garden. They had sold the Guest House and built a home over there. Catherine Hodge would drop her off at her home on Back Street in the morning and pick her back up at 5 pm and bring her to sleep at the home of the Hodge family. Catherine told me that being a young woman then that Nurse Angele would sometimes have to wait on her and would let Catherine have it when she was late in picking her up. Later on when they all got older she spent her last years in the St. Martin’s Home.

Elsje from the St. Maarten Heritage Foundation said that she would see Nurse Angele coming down the Secretarissteeg (Secretary Alley) to go to work at the St. Rose Hospital. Elsje said she would visit her when she was in the Home. She was in a room that used to be part of the hospital where she had worked most of her life. ‘I always found it a little sad that she worked there and died there. She died on October 17^th, 2003 and was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery. She had no children but lots of nieces and nephews.’

Many of our old timers were true St. Martin islanders and worked where they could. I know of a number of people from the village of Grand Case who found work on the Dutch side and remained working and living there for the rest of their lives. When especially the ESSO refinery called the Lago was recruiting employees who could speak English any number of people from the French side and Anguilla found a way to register via the Dutch side and went on to Aruba. Some of them stayed there and have descendants there still.

Not only Nurse Angele has gone and left us but the hospital as well and the memories of  the buildings and the people who worked in them as well.In my own way I am trying to make a contribution to the past when we lived carefree lives far removed from the wealth of nations which were to consume us as time went on.

May Nurse Angele and her friends rest in peace and not be forgotten.

 

 

 

The Anslyn Brothers

If you misplace a book in my house you can forget about looking for it. Sometimes years later it will turn up stuck between my bookshelves where there are at least 2500 books. I tell friends (and now everybody) that my bedroom resembles the Public Library. I sleep in a huge four poster bed and the room is lined with shelves of mostly books on the West Indies. And then there is my office and most of the other rooms in the house. Books and paper everywhere.

And so it happened with Saban Rascal, a self published book by Carl Anslijn when he was 75 years old. I had asked all over if anyone had a copy of this book of childhood memories written by Carl, to no avail. And just this month the book turned up stuck between another book where I least expected to find it. A hint to the believers. Saint Anthony is your boy to call on for lost items. He always comes true. If you are a believer that is. The Muslims must have an equivalent for him as well. Abu Bakhr perhaps?

Carl and his brother Arthur were the sons of Edward Anslijn whose mother was from Saba and whose father was the famous Dutch Doctor Nicholas Anslijn. He in turn was a descendant of a famous Flemish educator who wrote one or more books on the subject of education.

In an interview in Saba Silhouettes by Dr. Julia Crane ,Carl describes his ancestry as follows:

“My grandfather first came here from Curacao as a doctor. That must have been in l875. My father (Edward) died at the age of seventy-two years. That would give him, let us say, l880 roughly when he was born. My grandfather was a doctor on Curacao, and he had been married to a Venezuelan lady whose father was a military man, and she had died. He came here when he must have been up around forty-five or fifty years, I imagine. Around fifty let us say. My grandmother was very young. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen or eighteen years. He fell in love with her and married her. He took her away to Curacao where they lived for some time. They came back up here then, and he died in Sint Maarten. He left her with three children. She stood here and she married a Saba man who believed that it was much easier to sit down than to work, and she had a tough life.”

Carl and Arthur were very ambitious,and hard working men. They both had an excellent education for their day on the island of Nevis.

Their father Edward was captain of the Luxury yacht the “Nearra” of the Sea Island Cotton company with headquarters on Nevis. The yacht was seldom used and in the hurricane season the yacht had to be sheltered in the Oyster Pond on St.Martin, on St. Barths or St.Thomas, but mostly at the Oyster Pond.

Carl used to tell me many stories about the isolation of the area when he was a boy with no one living there and no roads leading to it:

” In Saba Silhouettes he says:” You can imagine, two boys, my brother and I, in a place where there were practically millions of fish, lobsters, every kind of bird, wild goats, wild sheep, horses, cows, everything you could think of. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer never had the equal of what we had! It was one spree from morning until night, roaming the hills, swimming catching fish, boating, sailing, everything you could do. We were very healthy.

Of course it played hell with our schooling becuase in Sint Maarten living at the Oyster Pond, we could not go to school. The town was some miles away, and in those days there wasn’t cars running back and forth like now.”

In between Oyster Pond, Carl and Arthur lived in Nevis. He said: “We went to a very nice school, a private school that a lady educated in England kept for the Administrator’s children and so on. It was the people who had money, that could afford to pay for good schooling and not send their children to the government school. They sent them to Miss Bridgewater’s school because she gave them a better education. In Nevis I studied not only English but French, and we had Latin classes.”

His father Edward later became the captain of the ferry between St.Kitts and Nevis. He and Carl’s mother were divorced by then and he married a lady from Nevis. Carl’s sister Dr.Brontie Gonsalves-Anslijn and his brother the second Arthur known as “brother” are prominent people on Nevis. “Brother” used to run the ferry for years after his father died. I have occasional contact with them.”Brother’s” son Vaughn is a very talented painter and reminds me of his Uncle Carl.

Arthur and Carl were loving brothers all their life. Carl never married. Arthur had three children. Both of the brothers lived into their eighties.

As young men they bought the “Schotzenhoek Estate” on St.Eustatius for fls.5.000.–This is where the Statia Oil Terminal is now located. They bought it from the Every family of Saba/Statia origin. The first Every was Daniel James Hassell Every a brother of one of my great grandmother’s Adrianna. He married the daughter of a Zeelig who owned the plantation and moved to Statia in the mid eighteen hundreds.The Every’s branched out from Statia into St.Kitts where they owned “Brotherson’s Estate” some 900 acres the largest sugar cane plantation on St. Kitts. They also owned whaling ships, schooners, the “Pinney’s Estate” on Nevis and property on the Frontstreet in St.Maarten.

n the nineteen twenties they were struck with several misfortunes. They lost one son who shot himself accidentally while passing a gun through a barbed wire fence. Two others got lost in a hurricane on their schooner. Their only daughter married a captain of a whaling ship and moved to the U.S.A.

The Every’s spent their last years on Nevis. “Uncle” Carl Buncamper used to visit them and told me how much they missed Statia. They said that if they heard a bird it sang sweeter if they thought it had flown over from Statia to visit them.

Carl told me that Governor Johannes de Graaf was buried on the estate. He decided to dig out the grave but grave robbers had already gone with the golden sword which he supposedly was buried with. All he found was a finger bone. He placed it on the eve of the house above the front door. For two nights there was such an infernal racket on the roof that Arthur gave orders to take the bone back to the grave and bury it. The following night Governor de Graaf allowed them to sleep peacefully.

After several years Carl and Arthur sold Schotzenhoek for fls.25.000.– to a Dutch farmer Mr. van Rijswijk and they went to Curacao to manage two plantations for Dr.Maal whom they had known on Statia.

Carl said: “When you are handling a farm with about four hundred goats, two hundred sheep, a herd of cattle, and big cultivation, two men cannot run it. Arthur wanted to work twenty four hours a day and did not believe in letting a guilder stray from home through employed labour.” Carl wanted to go to church on Sundays and reflect on life, and so they decided to sell.

After Curacao they moved back to Aruba and Carl worked for the LAGO oil refinery. He was a favorite of Juanco Yrausqin of the PPA party and was also a top vote getter. He served as a Member of Parliament for Aruba for seven years. He was also five years a Commissioner and also served as a Member of the Island Council there.

When he was sick and ailing I had one hell of a time getting Aruba to pay him his pension. It seemed to me that all the leading politicians on Aruba were unaware of his career. Some even denied that he had ever been a Commissioner. In 1985 they had fixed up sizable pensions for themselves. How I was able to get through for him is too long for this article but he finally got something a few weeks before he died on Aruba.

Arthur came back to Saba in 1950 after their mother had died on Aruba.He brought a jeep with him. I think it was the first privately owned vehicle and the third one on Saba. As a little boy I used to help him. My job was to jump off the jeep and place a rock under the wheel while he switched gears. He named one of his two sons that he had by Phyllis van Putten after me. At least he told me,” If its a boy I am going to name him Will.”

Arthur also has a granddaughter on St.Maarten. Patsy the wife of Joseph H. Lake, Jr.

Arthur became Commissioner and Island Council Member on Saba in 1955 and served for twenty years in both jobs.

Carl returned to Saba in 1968 and he and I were in opposition to one another. He was not easy with his pamphlet “The Bulls eye”, but then neither was I with the “Saba Herald” After one election Carl declared Cessie Granger and myself the world’s two best eye specialists. He said that young people declaring to the voting bureau that they could not see well enough to vote, after being helped by one of us, were miraculously cured when they left the booth.

In l987 he suddenly decided to support me and stayed with me politically until he died.

In “Saba Silhouettes” Carl gave his reasons for leaving a successful political career on Aruba and coming home to Saba.

” All the years that I was away, I was looking forward to the day when I could come home and do what I am doing now., I say, well, that isn’t much of a goal for a man to look forward to, to come home and have a little garden and keep a flock of sheep and keep chickens and birds and peacocks and fish and all that. But it is a very peaceful existence,, and that is something that after so many years in politics, with all its intrigue and treachery, I learned to value the things we have here on Saba, more than a man usually does who is not involved in the rat race. So I yearned all the while for Saba and looked forward to the day I could come home and live as I’m living now.”

I thought I would share a part of Carl’s book with the readers. With certain groups in the Antilles trying to provoke Venezuela the story is timely as well.

On the eight of June l929 Rafael Simon Urbina and some of his Venezuelan supporters took over the government on Curacao. They took Governor Ir. Leonard Fruytier and garrison commander Borren on a ship with them, which they had commandeerd.They were released but the Dutch government replaced Fruytier with B.W.T. van Slobbe a trained military man, and also jailed the mnilitary commander Borren.

Rumors circulated in the meanwhile that Venezuela was going to taek over the islands and Carl in his book “Saban Rascal” gives an account of:

The Urbina Invasion

Our island was in an uproar. News had come that the rebel Venezuelan, general Urbina, had raided Curacao, and many of our simple-minded citizens thought that the other Dutch islands would be raided next.

Nobody stopped to think that our small rocky island had nothing to tempt any rebel force to raid it. Tension was high, and everybody feared the worst when a steamboat was seen approaching the island from the South.

The average islanders believed that we were about to be raided. People gathered about in groups discussing what should be done. Some of the women gathered up their most prized possessions, and were wondering where was the safest place to hide them. There was a lot of talk about hiding in caves on the island, and carrying food and water until the invaders left.

One old man, who lived close to the road which traversed the island, carried a rat trap and put it on the road, as it was the only weapon he had. He told the neighbours that he didn’t have a gun to shoot with, but at least the trap could give one of the invaders a sore toe.

People had begun to leave their homes to hide in the forests and caves, when it was noticed that the steamboat had anchored on the Saba Bank, which was some miles off the island. A sigh of relief went up from many a heart, and people once again went about their daily chores, but lookouts were still kept on several hills to keep watch on the steamboat.

A day later she pulled up her anchor and disappeared in the distance. And so ended our invasion by Urbina’s forces.”

For those who believe that President Hugo Chavez intends to invade Curacao or any of the other Dutch West Indies, the moral of the story is, be vigilant, be prepared, BUY A RAT TRAP.

**************************

Will Johnson

The Johnson’s of St. Eustatius

By Will Johnson

Every now and then, someone living on St.Eustatius, will call to buy my property there. They are usually not familiar with the islands history.

The one they want to buy is not the property which I own on The Bay. They want to buy that large open lot leading from the main street to the old Synagogue.

Each time I have to relate to them, that even though distantly related to those Johnson’s. I am not descended from them, and therefore not an heir to the property. Some of the Peterson’s on Saba together with family in the U.S.A. are the heirs to this property. My Statia ancestors were the Horton’s, who were related to the Hill’s and the Hamilton’s.

Former Lt. Governor Max Pandt, ever since we were in Boys town Brakkeput on Curacao has been bragging to me that he is descended from Sir John Of The Hill, in England who lived in the time of William The Conqueror. So be it.

There were Johnson’s on St.Eustatius from early on, but not in the same numbers as on Saba. In a document of September 21st 1805 in the settlement of the estate of Venancio Fabio, among the properties listed is one on The Bay. It is described as follows; “Premises with house of wood, two stories, consisting of a cellar, a warehouse and 3 top rooms, a cistern, outhouse, furnace, kitchen at the Bay (Op de Baai), to the North a piece of land belonging to the widow Johnson.”

I remember at Captain Hodge’s Guesthouse in the nineteen sixties meeting a beautiful lady from the USA, who with her son, were on their way to bury her husband on St.Eustatius. He was a Johnson from that island. Besides his accomplishments in life, the lady was testimony to his good taste. As we would say in the West Indies; “What a sweet thing.” That is the equivalent of the more politically correct way of describing her as a beautiful lady.

She told me how she had met her husband. He was a banker in New York, high up in the ranks of the bank. She was a secretary. Each time she had to meet with him it was difficult to understand him. He retained his Statia accent all his life.

And so one day he informed her that since she could not understand him that he would be better off marrying her. And since he was a handsome man, she decided to accept his offer and they lived happily after. Years later I met with her children and told them that story and one of the sons said: “Yes mom was a knockout .”

One thing Johnson did not forget was his beloved St.Eustatius where he had grown up as a boy. He had instructed her to bring his ashes back home to be buried on native soil.

He was one of the many children of Henry Hassell Johnson who was a businessman on St.Eustatius. He also owned Golden Rock estate and other properties in town and on The Bay.

My old friend Charles Arnold knew him well. In Julia Crane’s book Statia Silhouettes, he had the following to say: ” And the Every’s, they came from Saba. One fellow came from Saba a small boy and he became the biggest merchant in the island. That’s Henry H. Johnson. The property across here, he owned that. And he raised his family here. But the boys, soon as they get big enough that they might want to be friendly with girls and everything he send them to the States, everyone, send them to the States to school. So all the boys went away, and then the girls come up. One schoolmaster from Holland, Schotborgh, he’s still living. He married to one o’ his daughters. And some o’ the others hardly they didn’t marry to them. And after he sent away, the girls went to the States also. The three boys they died, but I guess the most o’ the girls are still living.

And they come back occasionally, want to do business here, but they can’t get the property divided to suit themselves. About nineteen heirs to the property now, and they can’t get it settled. They won’t agree, you know, that they could use it.”

As Mr. Charlie said, Henry Johnson went to Statia as a young boy. His parents were James Johnson and Sarah Hassell. On February 27th, 1888 when he was 23 years old, he married Jane Elizabeth Schmidt (25). Her mother was Maria Elizabeth Schmidt and was descended from a Schmidt who had been the harbormaster.

Johnson’s first wife died at an early age. She was only 31 when she died on May 8th, 1894. As was the case many times back then she died , shortly after delivering her fourth child ,James Clarence Austin Johnson who was born on May 7th, 1894 and died on June 2nd, 1894.

They had three children who survived: Henry Stanley Johnson born September 18th, 1888. Florence Amelia Johnson born December 22nd 1892 and died October 12th 1895, and Helen Lucille Johnson, born August 3rd, 1890. Helen later married Captain Ralph Holm, another Statia/Saba family. Helen did not have any children so that the descendants of Henry Stanley Johnson are the only ones who are descended from Jane Elizabeth Schmidt.

Henry Stanley was the only one who remained on St.Eustatius and carried on the business of his father. He also owned a grocery store on Saba and was a Local Councillor here.

Henry H. Johnson’s second wife was Amy Hassell of Saba. She was a daughter of Henry Johnson Hassell and Joanna Beaks Hassell and she was born on May 10th, 187l.

The custom on Saba at the time was to have your mother’s maiden name inserted as a middle name. My grandfather James Horton Simmons was named so because his mother was a Horton. That is why you have a situation that Henry Hassell Johnson took as his second wife the daughter of Henry Johnson Hassell. Get it!

They had the following children: George Clarence Johnson born 17-September -1899.John de Veer Johnson born December 10th, 1903, Mabel Louise Johnson born October 3rd, 1903, and Ida Leolin Johnson born 1897 who married Johannes Wilhelm Theodoris Schotborgh (aged 22) on December 17th, 1914.

After his second wife died as Shakespeare would have put it; “Johnson was visited in his gray hairs by a young mulatto woman named Olive Woods by whom he had three lovely little people, two girls and one boy before going on to the Walhalla of old West Indian men.” Old soldiers and all of that you know.

Charlie Arnold in “Statia Silhouettes” goes on to say:” At the time the white people – we had quite a lot o’ white people that owned the estates but they didn’t work on them. All

the work was done by the Negroes, the Negroes.

But they (the whites) never marry each other. The funniest thing – not a white man in Statia would marry a white girl. Never! I could never understand that. They didn’t marry but they would get children by the black girls.They always wanted the black girls. They kept them and they get children but they never do much marrying. Occasionally a couple o’ them get married to the girl. But the girl, the white girl that got married, is from some ministers came in, some people from England or something, Holland or something. But not one o’ the white men that born in Statia would marry one o’ the white girls. It’s very unusual, and I could never find out from a kid. I noticed it from a kid and when I grow – when I grew up then I could understand better. But not one couple that you can say, well a white man from here married to a white girl. The Pandts and the different one, all o’ them never got married. And we had quite a lot o’ white men in the island then, quite a few. Funniest thing, never married. If they didn’t get married to somebody off the island, they never got married. None o’ them that you can say, see.” Mr. Charlie has certainly made his

point.

Some years ago at the airport on Sint Maarten, I introduced a Johnson cousin of mine to Miss Elrine Leslie of St. Eustatius. I told her that his grandfather was Woolseley Pandt of St.Eustatius. She gave him a good looking over and whispered to me:” Lord, Gena would have been happy to see he. She had like the colour you know.” She was referring to Eugenia Houtman (Ankar) who had 12 children by the white man Peter John MacDonald Pandt and so she would have been the great grandmother of my Johnson cousin who was unaware that his great grandmother was, as Charlie would have said, “one o’ them black Statia girls.”

The Mussenden family was also intermarried with the Johnson’s. However I have much interesting information on the Mussenden family and that will be the subject of another article in the future. As Mr. Charlie said; ” And then the Mussenden’s. They owned the most o’ the land on the South part o’ the island.” Senator Kenneth van Putten told me they owned all the land from Oranjestad to White Wall at one time.

The last Johnson to have lived on St.Eustatius was Miss Lillian Johnson( “Miss Lil”). She was an in-law of Mr. Irvie Mussenden. The Johnson’s must have left a good name behind though. In 1969 when I ran for Senator I pulled 232 votes on St.Eustatius out of a total of 503 votes cast on that island equivalent to 46% of the votes cast. You read me good Clyde.? 46%. Now if you think you bad, try and beat that percentage Clyde if you can.46%. All o’

them Statia politicians going to get out their calculator now to see how they compare.

I have more photo’s in my archive of the Johnson family which I will add to this article when i get time to try and find them.

I wrote this some years ago and I will be going to Statia tomorrow for meetings and will be there for the celebration of Statia Day and looking forward to seeing friends there. God bless Statia and its people!

De Bovenwindsche Stemmen

De Bovenwindsche Stemmen

By: Will Johnson

The first edition of “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen” appeared on August 31^st, 1933 and the Editor of this bi-monthly paper was Mr. Wilhelm Frederick Carl Ludwig August Netherwood who was born on St. Barths in 1870`. The paper in spite of its Dutch name was completely written in English. The paper was stenciled and had a total of sixty copies every two weeks. Tell me about stenciled papers. I did the “Saba Herald” for twenty five years on stencil mostly. My brother Eric did all the stenciling. Finally when his wife Wilda phoned me and said that he had threatened to throw himself over the cliff, I then took over the task. Living next to an even higher cliff it is a miracle that I am still around. Yes tell me about a stenciled newspaper indeed! According to its rival paper “De Slag om Slag” which started publication the following year, a committee had been established by Miss Slothouwer a well known Dutch teacher on St. Maarten at the time in order to establish a newspaper. She saw the great need to give St. Maarten and by extension St. Eustatius and Saba a voice which could resonate in the colony. On that same committee Mr. A.R. Brouwer was also a member but due to disagreements as to what the newspaper should concentrate on Mr. Brouwer parted ways with the committee and started his own paper. His paper “De Slag om Slag” which first appeared on December 22^nd, 1934, had a decidedly ant-colonial tint despite the fact the he was the son of the well known Lt. Governor A.J.C. Brouwer. He was also married to one of the Van Romondt family members so that he actually belonged to the elite of the island at the time. However you would not notice that from his writings. The “Bovenwindsche Stemmen” on the other hand tried to steer clear of controversial issues and stuck with the promotion of agriculture and defending the government as much as it could.  In the early part of the 20^th century the “Amigoe” newspaper on Curacao carried a column by the same name. The Roman Catholic priests stationed on the Dutch Windward Islands would send in news from these islands to be published in that paper. Also the Rev. Charles McIntosh Darrell, Methodist Minister and one of the principal writers for the paper, started his own column in the Amigoe as of June 21^st, 1943 under the same name. This was no coincidence as the Rev. Darrell had been one of the principal writers of the newspaper “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen”. The column followed the demise of the paper in the second half of 1942 due to a shortage of stencil paper caused by the Second World War.

I only have one copy of “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen” issue # 32 of January 19^th, 1935. However I do have almost all of the copies of “De Slag om Slag”. Because of the constant state of war between the two papers just by reading  “De Slag om Slag” one can get a good idea of much of what appeared in the paper of Mr. Netherwood and the Rev. Darrell.

I would like to present just a small sample of the war of words between the two papers. In a lengthy rebuke in one of Brouwers editions he says the following:” Although neither time nor space allow me to handle this inexhaustible supply of sermonized rubbish in the proper way, I shall prove to the public by criticizing on one or two of your insinuations, the audacity of your attack; the sly, sneaking method you pour out on the public, in order to slug away at others, and at the same time safeguard an impregnable hiding place for yourself. To trust also that you will be, the one in future, to take up the cudgel against “unwarranted and disgraceful attacks upon private individuals in this community” as suggested by Mr. W. Netherwood. Such bombastic 5-column rubbish will be sure to prolong the “Bovenwindsche Stemmen’s” life.”

In “De Slag om Slag” of February 6^th, 1937 under the heading “Bovenwindsche Stemmen Again”, Mr. Brouwer writes the following: ‘The Bovenwindsche Stemmen and the Rev. Darrell do not seem to be very well pleased with our comments on their insulting article and letter in which our Editor was compared unfavourably to the wharf rats of London docks; his mentality, morality, fidelity, integrity etc., were questioned.”

 

Another excerpt from “De Slag om Slag” in its edition of February 15^th, 1936 # 53 under the headline: “Bovenwindsche Stemmen Motto”.

“It is without the least bit of surprise that we read in the Bovenwindsche Stemmen of the 8^th instant No. 58 in their leading article entitled “Some Local needs” the following: “ In this connection, we would again refer to the question of moral training in the Public Schools, which we have reason to know is regarded by the Educational authorities in quite a different light to that in which it has been represented in the columns of “De Slag om Slag” where a campaign of vile slander has been launched against the Editor of this paper.”

The “Slag om Slag” reiterated by stating: “We were not surprised to read this we say, since it has been the motto of “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen” to mislead their readers from the time their No. 1 issue appeared on August 31^st 1933.” Those boys were not easy and the tit for tat continued as long as both papers appeared. This led to exchanges of letters which would imply that the Editor intended perhaps to make a legal case in his defense. Such a letter appeared in the issue of January 18^th, 1936.

To the Editor of “De Slag om Slag”

Dear Sir,

In order that responsibility for the defamatory letters by “Ex Scholars” which have lately appeared in your paper may be placed where it belongs, I politely ask that you will furnish me with the name of the individual (or individuals) from whom the letters have emanated. Yours Truly, W. Netherwood.

Reply from “De Slag om Slag”

1. Netherwood Esq.

En ville,

Dear Sir,

In answer to yours of even date we refer to our issue of the 2^nd of March 1935, No. 5 wherein we stated on page 4: “We promise not to mention names of correspondents” etc.

Yours truly.

A.R. Brouwer, Editor, “De Slag om Slag”.

It was not all war though. On January 26^th, 1936 in issue # 50 under the heading Wedding ,we read in “De Slag om Slag” the following:

At 5 0’clock on Wednesday afternoon 15^th instant quite a large crowd was gathered before the Weslyean Methodist Church to witness the marriage ceremony of Mr. W. Netherwood and Miss Grace Darrell which was to take place there. The church itself was full to overflowing. The bridegroom arrived at about 10 minutes to 5 and at the stroke of 5 the Bride escorted by her brother Mr. Jim Darrell arrived. They were followed by two Bridesmaids, Miss Irma Brouwer and Miss Carmen Darrell both dressed in pink with picture hats nestled slantwise on their heads. After the ceremony the company repaired to the home of the Bride’s father, Rev. Ch. Mc.I. Darrell.”

What Brouwer did not mention was that Mr. W. Netherwood was sixty six years old and the bride in her twenties. Who did make a poem on Mr. Netherwoods ability or lack of same to consummate the marriage was Wallace Peterson. I remember sitting with him one day in the “Oranje Café” and he reciting with relish his poem about the intended marriage. I wonder if the “Ex Scholars” meant by Mr. Netherwood could not have been Wallace and his five cents worth of poetry about the upcoming wedding. Mr. Netherwood had first been married at the age of 23 on July 19^th, 1893 to Miss Ella Leonora van Romondt (29). She was born on December 24^th, 1863 and died at the age of 61 on March 14^th, 1925. Mr. Wilhelm Fredrik Carel Ludwig August Netherwood was born on St. Barths in 1869 and died on St.Maarten on October 18^th, 1948, and his parents were George Wilhelm Netherwood and Malvina Augusta Abbott. He came to St. Maarten as a bookkeeper for the Van Romondt family. He later went into business for himself and owned the building on Front street where the Philipsburg Utilities was formerly located. One of the many lovely two-storey houses which formerly graced the town of Philipsburg, this house was first a public school and then later used as a town-house of the first D.C. van Romondt.

His wife Ella was a sister of Mr. Granville van Romondt. Their parents were John George Louis Illidge van Romondt and Anna Paulowna van Romondt.

Mr. Netherwood had no children from either marriage. He was a “grand man” according to some of the old timers like Mr. Carl Buncamper who were privileged to know him personally. He never drank and did not encourage his friends to drink. In the downstairs section of his home there was a large billiard table and in the evenings he would invite his friends for a game of billiards.

Mr. Netherwood owned several schooners, including the “Cyril”. He used them to export salt to Guyana and elsewhere. In his book “Memories of St. Martin N.P.”, Mr. J.C. Waymouth mentions the loss of a fine schooner, the Prins Hendrik. It was lost on a reef while coming out of the Oyster Pond on the 3^rd of October 1911, after the hurricane season. Mr. Netherwood who was her sole owner, thereby sustained a loss of $ 4.000.–.

Mr. Netherwood and his brother-in-law Mr. Granville van Romondt owned a building where Risdon’s Snack bar used to be located and that is where they conducted their business. This property was later sold to the Every’s of St. Eustatius. After they were lost on the schooner the “Verdun” it was sold to Mr. William Benjamin (Willie Bee) Peterson.

Mr. Netherwood served as local councilor for some thirty years and the people looked upon him as a sound and honest man At one time the Methodist Synod wanted to remove the Rev. Charles McIntosh Darrell from St. Maarten. Mr. Netherwood went to the Synod to represent Mr. Darrell as he was a steward in the Methodist Church. In spite of his efforts and even though Rev. Darrell had only one more year to serve in order to get a Dutch pension, it was decided to remove him to Marigot, Dominica, and he resigned. After an appeal to headquarters in England he was allowed to serve out his year on St. Maarten. One of the reasons why the Synod wanted his removal was because he had built the Methodist Manse too large. It was claimed that the reason for this being so was that he hoped to board there when he retired. It was out of this struggle for the cause of the Rev. Darrell that Netherwood started publishing the bi-monthly “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen”, on August 31^st 1933, from his home on the Front Street. The Rev. Darrell was one of the principal writers for the paper. By the time the paper had to be closed down Mr. Netherwood was already old and not in the best of health.

Mr. Netherwood was one of the wealthiest people on St. Maarten, yet he died a poor man. He never tried to get money in a dishonest way. He was buried in the Methodist cemetery and acquaintances say there is no tombstone to mark his final resting place. He was concerned for the welfare of St. Maarten and the people had such confidence in him, despite the fact that he was a foreigner; they elected him as their local councilor. He was also the United States vice Counsel starting in 1898 already. He tried in vain to revive the salt industry with his personal funds and some of the salt pans were under his direction. In the end he became so poor that he would have to borrow money from the government

 

to reap the salt.

After his death the Rev. Darrell lived in Mr. Netherwood’s former home. There is from where he started a column in the “Amigoe di Curacao”, entitled “De Bovenwindsche Stemmen” which appeared at irregular intervals with news of the Dutch Windward Islands. Today few people know of these newspapers and some people even act as if they never did exist. However in their day everyone looked forward to their two local papers on St. Maarten, one of which the Editor (Mr. A.R. Brouwer) was born on Saba and the other Mr. Netherwood was born on St. Barths. Obviously their passport into St.Maarten was the fact that both of their wives belonged to the then all powerful Van Romondt family. As a former Editor of “The Labour Spokesman”, and co-Editor of the “Emporium Review” and for 25 years the “Saba Herald”, all three stenciled papers, I have a great appreciation for anyone who under the circumstances (and at the same time like Mr. Brouwer fighting the colonial authorities), dedicated themselves to publishing a mimeographed newspaper. George Horace Lorimer wrote that;”Writing is like religion. Every man who feels the call must work out his own salvation.” And Mr. Netherwood was one of those who felt the call and made it a reality through his “Bovenwindsche Stemmen.”, and it would be remiss of us not to remember his legacy.

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Miss Paula Clementina Dorner

Miss Paula Clementina Dorner

By; Will Johnson

On December 16^th, 1986, Minister Leo Chance signed the National Decree appointing my person as the representative for Sint Maarten, Saba and St.Eustatius on the Committee concerned with the issuing of new stamps of the Postal services honouring meritorious persons in our island communities.

The other committee members were

The director of the Postal Services R.H. Galmeijer,( member/chairman). Mr E.A.V. Jesurun of Curacao, Dr. A. F. Paula of Curacao, and Mr. F.J.I. Booi of Bonaire.

 

While I served on the committee I nominated a number of persons to be thus honoured and was successful with all of the ones I nominated. They were from St.Maarten: Mr. Cyrus W. Wathey, Mr. Joseph H. Lake, and Mr. Evert Stephanus Jordanus Kruythoff.

For Sint Eustatius: Mrs Christine Flanders and Miss Paula Clementina Dorner;

For Saba: Mrs. Maude Othello Edwards born Jackson, and Mrs. Gertrude Johnson born Hassell.

After the Post office of the Netherlands Antilles was given away to Canada I never heard another word either about the committee or the need to honour people who had served these islands. This was a good way to honour people and the families appreciated what I had done to bring recognition for these people through the issuing of a stamp in their honour. Somalia for many years did not have a government. Some say they still don’t have one. They do have their own Post offices though.

During the period that I served on the Committee it was fun for me to do research on the lives of the people whom I nominated. I got help from a number of friends who knew them as well. I did not do a bad job in bringing the women forward. Of the seven which I succeeded in nominating, four of them were women. There would have been a lot more but alas the new owners of the Post office did not see any financial rewards in honouring people they had never heard of. As the Post office goes, so goes the country as well.

I would like to give some information on Miss Paula Clementina Dorner of St.Eustatius, who appeared on a 40 cent stamp issued by the Postal Services of the Netherlands Antilles on September 20^th, 1989.

She was born on St. Eustatius on January 15^th, 1901, daughter of Jacob Henry Dorner and Agnes Eusebia Godet.

She was raised in the Roman Catholic faith and became a teacher at the Roman Catholic Elementary school in 1919. She taught in the first grade until 1965 when she went on pension. And so for nearly fifty years she directly influenced several generations of Statians who attended her class.

Her religious beliefs also led her to take part in the political life of her island. She was the first woman of Sint Eustatius who took part in elections. She ran on a list in the elections of June 4^th, 1951 and obtained 13 votes. Although 5 parties took part in the elections her party the K.V.P. (Catholic People’s Party) was successful in the sense that party leader G.A.Th. Heyliger was elected as a member of the Island Council. Together with Mr. Vincent Astor Lopes he was also elected as Commissioner in the first Executive Council of Sint Eustatius.

She was directly involved with all which took place in the Roman Catholic Church on Sint Eustatius. She was charged with preparing the young children for first Holy Communion. This task she carried out until her death. She was also leader of the choir and was also the organist. The church on Sint Eustatius was blessed with two great organists.

Before Miss Dorner around 1890 the fourteen year old Cathy Lispier was so talented in playing the organ that she attracted a large number of people to the church. Until her death at the age of 79 she remained the organist and Miss Dorner surely learned from her.

Miss Dorner and her sisters Clasina and Carrie lived next to the Roman Catholic Church on the Van Tonnigenweg. Her house was a place loved by young and old as Miss Paula and her sisters were always socially active in the Statian community. These many years later after her death most old timers on Sint Eustatius know who ‘Miss Paula’ was, where she lived, and,what her contributions were to the community.

After she went on pension she was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen with a medal in silver in the Order of Oranje Nassau.

Paula C. Dorner died on December 1^st 1969. Through her work and example she opened many doors for women in the Statian community and her name is held in honour by all of those who had the privilege of meeting her.

Miss Paula’s house is used now as the headquarters of the Democrat Party. In the nineteen eighties I stayed in the house for a week with my family. The house was then called‘t Tuin Huisje’.It was October, calm and very hot but we look back fondly on our stay there.

The late Mr. William Carl Anslijn knew her well. Carl and his brother Arthur had bought the Schotzenhoek plantation from the Every family of Saba/Sint Eustatius. They lived on Statia for several years before the second world war. When I was doing research on her life I asked him and then Senator Kenneth van Putten to give me information. Carl wrote the following:

“I remember Paula as a person who always had a smile and a cheerful word for everybody. It did not take me long to find that the most of her time when not teaching in the Catholic school or engaged in choir practice and church work, was spent in helping others.

Since every time we came to town from our estate’ Schotzenhoek’, it was always a pleasure for us to stop by for a ‘short’ visit which often lasted an hour or more.

Paula’s sisters Clasina and Carrie were very much respected and liked by my mother, my brother and I, and the same could be said of Paula.

Paula and her sisters were highly respected and liked by the entire Statian community, and many were the gifts of fruit, greens, etc. which were sent to their home by well-wishers.

We grew to regard Paula and her family as our relatives, and many were the happy hours we spent at her home. Some times when I sit and think of the days gone by I imagine us all sitting on their porch on a bright moonlight night, with the fragrance of the jasmine flowers all around us, and peace and contentment in our hearts.

The three sisters were God fearing and religious, and their lives were above reproach.

We spent many happy hours in their company, and when the time came for us to leave Statia it was with sorrow in our hearts that we had to leave such good and loyal friends behind. We kept in touch for many years, but time like an ever flowing stream, bore them also away, and I am sure that among the old folks on Statia there are many who still think fondly of them, and if godliness, goodness, and kindness insure one a place in Heaven, then they are in Heaven.”

Of course Carl is strictly speaking for himself here. His brother Arthur was a bird of different plumage. The old fox would have viewed a house with three single ladies living in it as identical to that of a coup with three pullets in it.

I asked Kenneth about my take on Arthur and he laughed and said:” Yes Arthur was after one of the sisters but she would not take him on.”

I just returned from Statia doing the eulogy for my friend Lasil Rouse. As I passed the old Dorner house memories of my pleasant week there came back to me and thus I decided to share this bit of information with my reading public.

I also went to see Mr. Siegfried Lampe in the hospital. I would like to compliment Statia with its nice clean hospital. Mr. Lampe is 95 and despite the hardships he has been through the last years, I was amazed at how strong he was. He complimented me on my articles and asked me to never stop writing.

I must say I am getting a bit of a swell head with all the compliments I get from all the islands where my articles circulate. So many people call me or stop me about what I write. From the immigration officers on St.Maarten, to the airport cleaners, the taxi drivers, and many of my friends from when I was a young teenager on St.Maarten. I think the articles have brought me as much reputation as my political career.

Anyway I enjoy doing this and I promise all of those who ask, that I will try and put a book together in future of the most interesting articles. It also goes to show that our people long for a time and a world which has been mostly lost to us. I would also like to encourage others to share their memories with the reading public.

This article was published in my column Under The Sea Grape Tree some years ago. Some people told me that I had the wrong house. However that is the one pointed out to me at the time. I would appreciate a correction on that one with a photo of the house they have in mind. I remember seeing a more modern one, but could that have been her most recent house and not the one I am referring to? Anslyn refers to sitting on the porch when visiting in the evenings and the one I refer to is still there and has a nice porch. Anyway if anyone can help me out with photo’s of both houses I would be grateful. I will be on St. Eustatius for Statia day and will also take photo’s if I get a chance. Also I was never able to get a good photo of her. If anyone can contribute a good photo of her for this article that too would be appreciated.

 

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