Letters from Meinte Vierstra to his family
To: Anne (his sister)
Canonsburg, PA
August 18, 1910
Dear sister and brother!
We received your letter in the best of health and hope you will receive this letter good as well. Well, Anna, I was glad to notice that this letter was more positive than the previous letter. I read in the previous letter that you were sometimes giving up hope, but you have to keep up the hope for things to be better in time when your boy gets older. If you lived here one of our boys could help you out if Sieberen can’t handle it, but that is not possible of course.
You also wrote in your letter that you were thinking of going back to Friesland, well Anna I think of going back too every now and then, but not before I have money enough to retire over there. I will not go back as only a laborer, that is what you people should remember because then you will be poor again and I know what that means believe me! They (the people in Holland) are not waiting for us to come back with no money, if you have money in your pocket, that is another matter. I wish you people had come here when you first came over, you would have been better off, and Gerber and Anne could have helped you.
My 4 children are now working for somebody else. Jikke (Margaret) is working in a hospital in Washington at the moment, he makes 75 Mark per month. Klaske (Clara) serves (?) in Canonsburg and makes $75 mark per month. Gerber (George) works 10 minutes from here with a farmer and makes $90 per month and Anje (Andrew?) works with a neighbor and makes 423 mark per month. They all have food and lodging included, so altogether they are making $277 mark per month.
We have a part of a farm, so to speak, here. The owner is working the land and I farm the cows and do the milking. Together we have 22 cows and he has another 2 cows where he lives. I have 1 here for our butter and milk. I also have 2 full (???), 14 ducks, 100 chickens and 40 hens for mother. But Sieberen is not too good and it will change, I think that next April we will rent the whole place for ourselves for 150 or 60 pounds. We make good money right now, but the Americans are smart-alecks let me tell you. Although, I have to admit that I did not meet a better American that the one we are working with. But with such a cutthroat mentality, one has to be very careful, let me tell you.
I went to Germany for bread but I came to America for money, and I hope to get enough money too if we have time enough to get it and spend it for I get up at 4:30 AM to milk a couple of cows then put the horse to the cart and deliver the milk to the dairy which is about 10 miles from here. Then I come back to finish milking the cows and then take them to the meadow. Then I clean up the barn and the milk cans myself. Then I take a break until 7:00 AM when I go to work the land for a couple of hours. At 6:00 PM I am done for the day. Anna sometimes helps me milk the cows.
Anne you wrote me that you lost a lot of weight, I think that I am 3 pounds heavier than you are only 167 pounds, we are OK as is. And she is worth her money believe me. I think little Mary is a dear sweetheart and the other children are growing up too. Bert, Juergen (Julious) and Doede (Louis) are the butter makers and Juergen keeps up the garden. My little Marty is a mischievous boy. Loekje (Jennie) is growing up too and is attending school already.
It has been very dry here lately but tonight the rain started to fall again. The potatoes are growing well and so is the corn. But we still needed the rain badly.
Last winter our brother Marten wanted to come to America too, but when I told him that we had a place for him to stay, then changed his tune, so I told Anna, “a lot to do about nothing again”. I would like to have more of my family come to this land because then more would come. I heard that Juergen and Klarke are not doing too well in Sneek, but I won’t mention anything unless I know for sure that they will come. I know the farmer will pay for the fare as long as I secure him for the money, and even if they don’t come and the money is returned, I have to pay and additional 20 percent interest to the steamboat company. So it has to be a clear case, otherwise I won’t pay. And if you were here now you would be much better off, you can count on that
Can Anne milk the cows already? Onze Loede is doing well, they have to start early and it will help you too. Anje (Andrew) is now 17 years old and makes extra money milking too and Gerben (George) (??cannot decipher??). Sunday he told me that he has to sleep at least 7 hours because he is tired all the time. He has grown enormously lately. Three more fingers and he will be as tall as I am!
Jikke (Margaret) worked at a boarding school for young ladies. When the school was out in May she came home for 14 days. Then she wanted to work in a factory, which she did and made $4.25 per day. She worked there for four weeks and was home at night. One day the machines blew up, she came home and told Lampet that she had quit. She went to Canonsburg to work for a neighbor of where Klaske (Clara) works. On Monday she dad to do laundry, and the lady put so much soda in the water, Jikke (Margaret) said that she should do the laundry for herself and quit. Then she called Klaske (Clara) from Washington and said that she was working at a hospital. I think she will be working at the boarding school again by September. There are 8 young ladies and that is much more fun.
What will become of Klaske (Clara) I do not know. Her boyfriend is 21 years old and lives with his sister. He is a farmer and came with his parents 7 years ago from Friesland. First he was dating Jikke (Margaret) and now he is dating Klaske (Clara). He is here almost every Sunday afternoon. A nephew of ours works with him as a farmer’s helper that is the oldest son of Jeertje Alberda who died all of a sudden when we left Friesland and then Klaas came here in May, too. His mother, Anna’s sister, married again last July 23 with C. Bykerk, they are now living in Zaandam. This is it for now Sieberen and Anna. Later I write some more if all goes well. I returned your last letter right away, but was returned. If you will please give your new address to the post office so they can forward. Oh, one more thing, Jacob Pieters Vierstra stayed with us for about 4 months before he moved to Canada like Pieter Prins to work in a factory.
For now dearest greetings from us and write back real soon.
Meinte, Anna and children
P.S. Never go back to Sneek without money, Keep your hopes up Anna and Sieberen.
To: his sister in the Netherlands
Whitensville
November 12, 1932
Dearest sister and son!
With this letter we acknowledge the receipt of your letter which we received, with God’s blessings in the best of health. We also received the mourning card. We also received letter lately from the brothers Marten, Riekel and Juergen. Well, sister, this is the end of Sieberen on the face of this world. Like you and our Marten wrote, has died in peace and that is the thing of the most importance. I am glad that our sister Tryntje and our brothers and all others were there to render the funeral honors and it must have been comforting for you and your son too.
I was very glad sister to know how my brothers admired your son in their letters, how he had everything arranged was exceptional and to the very last detail; ad the other too. Riekel wrote me that it is very comforting to know that we have so many friends in this far away country like Sieberen and Rev. van Uithoorn that nothing but good to say, and I am surely happy to know that you have such a good son, you sure are lucky.
I wrote it to you before, but we have been very busy, we moved last October 29. I wasn’t able to help because I had to sleep during the day so I stayed a couple of days at Anna’s sister Maike, Insche and the boys, those are our Loeltje and Jennie, as they are called here. Her husband and Anne, Doede and Marten helped us out so that it was done very fast after all. Jennie has helped Anna to arrange the furniture and put all things back in order. Our Anna Marie couldn’t come to help because she was moving the same time too, so she packed everything herself. The young couple bought a new home for $2000 or about 5000 Dutch Guilders. They took a mortgage and are now paying principle and interest, so it will be their home after awhile. They didn’t have the money to buy the house outright. They bought it from an uncle of Marten’s wife, who is a carpenter and built the house and then sold it to them.
Now we have a nice home for not too high a rent but….and there are so many buts! Downstairs is 1 living room and a large kitchen, upstairs has 3 bedrooms and still 2 more rooms in the attic, so there are a lot of stairs to climb for mother Anna and she is pretty heavy too, like you see from the picture. She weighs about 197 pounds, English pounds, she is also having problems in walking, so I am afraid that she might fall down the stairs one day, like Riemske, Ulbe Jaarsma’s daughter who fell 2 years ago from the stairs too. She can hardly walk anymore and stayed very long in the hospital, too. So now we could rent another house in Whitinsville, on an outstanding street with 5 rooms, kitchen and cellar all on one level, it is 70 foot long. So I thought let’s do it, it is on a very distinguished street a short distance from the
factory but it is nice living here. But the rent is two times higher, but we are getting older and we should enjoy life more.
Well sister, it will be a quiet and empty house for a while for you because you lived so long together you and Sieberen. Just now I read a letter from Juergen and Klaske and Klaske wrote in the letter that Sieberen was of very good spirits through the ordeal, that letter was dated November 11, 1929 and he was already sick then. I also received a letter from my daughter Klaske, in which she mentioned that she wrote you a letter too, after I told her that uncle Sieberen had died.
I will end this letter now with the best of wishes from all of us.
Your brother Meinte, Anna en children.
Don’t wait too long with writing us back.
My address is literally:
Mr. M. G. Vierstra,
45 Church Street,
Whitensville, Mass.