Stephanie and Fred Berger's Wedding

Mum's Buns

Faintly written beside the 3 egg ingredient: warm eggs in warm water before, so as not to cool mixture. What I got a kick out of, is the instructions read - divide into 3 parts, and those 3 parts into 8. Makes 37? While making this recipe I did get around 37, go figure, loaves and fishes all over again.

-- Lisa Schneider

Tilburg, -- Little Chute's Sister City

While many of the original Dutch settlers in Wisconsin came from all areas of The Netherlands, the vast majority -- like the Glaudemans family -- came from the province of Noord Brabant. One town, in particular, Tilburg, proved to be a fountainhead for Little Chute. Three clergymen, who served at Saint John's Church were born in Tilburg.

Reverend Theodore Joseph Knegtel was born there Aug. 13, 1845. From the date he arrived in Little Chute -- Jan. 21, 1890 -- he left his mark. Under his direction, new stained glass windows were installed and a large clock and bells were added to the church steeple.

Reverend Cornelius Van Den Borne was born in Tilburg on Aug. 11, 1882. He served as assistant pastor for five years at St. John's. Later he was transferred to Holy Name Church in Kimberly, where he died in a tragic gas explosion at the school in Aug., 1957.

Reverend Joseph Kools was born in Tilburg on April 24, 1896. He was at St. John's only a few months before he was reassigned. He eventually replaced Rev. Cornelis Van Den Borne at Holy Name Church in Kimberly after his tragic death. Rev. Kools died Oct. 31, 1973.

Dutch Catholic Immigration

St. John Nepomucene Parish in Little Chute owes its existence to the arrival of Rev. Theodore Van den Broek in 1836. Rev. Van den Broek had been a missionary, working with the people of Green Bay since about 1834. When the bishop assigned three Redemptorist Fathers to the territory, Rev. Van den Broek pulled up stakes and journeyed 24 miles up the Fox River to Little Chute -- which the early fur traders had named “La Petite Chute,” because of the rapid movement of the Fox River. On Rev. Van den Broek's arrival, an Indian woman built a bark-covered wigwam on the river in half a day for his first church.

Rev. Van den Broek wrote at the time, “The climate in Wisconsin is normally the same as that of the Dutch Province of Noord-Braband. One would find excellent fields of wheat, rye, barley, flax, tobacco, etc. In addition one could obtain a great many acres from the government for ten shillings. In a few years, Wisconsin will be similarly populated as the other states."

Rev. Van den Broek published his letters about the Fox River Valley to groups in the Netherlands in the Roman Catholic paper, De Tijd (The Times) beginning in 1843. He described employment opportunities associated with the Fox River Canal, which included free passage to America for workers. The results were immediate. By 1848, three wooden sailing vessels called "barques" (small three-masted sailing ships) had been booked for passage. Approximately 918 Dutch Catholic immigrants boarded the three boats -- the Libra, the Maria Magdalena and the America -- to make the journey.

Most of the early emigrants were from villages near Uden, including Zeeland, Boekel, Mill, Oploo and Gemert. The Dutch economy was stagnant. Many Dutch Catholics also emigrated for reasons of restricted worship, high unemployment, high taxes and limited farmland. The emigrants were not poor. After all, they knew they had to afford at least the cost of their passage and the expense of their eventual land in Wisconsin. But neither were they rich. Many risked most of their wealth to make the journey.

Typical passage to La Petite Chute included:

• passage across the Atlantic from Rotterdam to New York City,
• a train trip from there to Albany,
• a train or Erie Canal-barge trip across New York state to Buffalo,
• steamship travel through the Great Lakes to the head of the Fox River at Green Bay
• and finally a 30-mile, ox-cart trip to the mission at La Petite Chute.

The first group from Rotterdam arrived on May 22, 1848, led by a Franciscan missionary, Fr Adrianus D. Godthard. Rev.Van den Broek’s group, held up by an ice jam on Lake Michigan, arrived on June 10, 1848 -- the year Wisconsin became a state. Entire families carrying everything they owned were cramped together for the six to eight week trip at sea. The only thing provided by the shipping ompany was drinking water.

When they arrived in Wisconsin, the emigrants discovered not plowed fields and an established village but forested, uncultivated land -- despite the wording of the De Tijd advertisements that translated acres as "akkers," meaning cultivated land in Dutch. So the early arrivals resorted to drawing straws with the winners naturally picking the best lots to cultivate.

Despite the hardships, including the death of Rev. Van den Broek in 1851, Little Chute prospered. Waves of Dutch Catholic emigrants followed from all over the Netherlands. Whole families and neighborhoods moved to join family and friends already established in Little Chute and the outlying farming communities. It is estimated by 1927 as many as 40,000 Dutch Catholics had immigrated to the area — an average rate of 10 per week for 80 years.

Regards to Broadway!

Mum's grandfather, Arnold Hurkman, first came to America from Holland in 1855. He soon became one of the pioneers of Outagamie county as a leading land owner in the township of Vandenbroek. Filled with ambition as soon as he got off the boat, Arnold marched down Broadway in New York City with his shotgun at the ready. At age 27 he was full of confidence. His shotgun was loaded for "b'ar." He had come to America to hunt. And after a long voyage across the Atlantic, he was itchy and down right trigger happy.

Luckily, before he could pull the trigger, Arnold learned hunting was better in Wisconsin. So he raised his sights, moved to the Midwest and bought a small tract of land along the Fox River -- one-half mile from the small town of Kaukauna.

While hunting bear never proved up to the tall tales he imagined, Arnold came to appreciate the slow but steady payoff of raising Wisconsin pigs and potatoes. He traded them for fur pelts from the Indians. Eventually his diligence paid off. Arnold bought 200 acres of land north of Kaukauna on Rose Hill with a partner. As a part of his next deal, Arnold laid down his shotgun all together for another parcel of land. Arnold had come a long way from his days on Broadway loaded for bear and took the next step.

In 1862, as he was ready to settle down, Arnold married Jane Verstegen of Little Chute . She, however, had other plans. She died a few weeks later of a liver infection. Domestically determined as once he hunted bear, Arnold married Hendrina Berendsen the next year. Together they had six children: Annie, Mary, Nellie, John, Henry and Bernard.

Having laid down his arms and now married, Arnold had indeed come a long way. In fact, seeing life differently during the Civil War, Arnold hid in the woods to escape getting drafted by the Union army. His wife, Hendrina, dutifully brought him meals every day. Arnold developed bronchitis in the woods and later died at age 58.

As the story goes, the 120 acres that made up Arnold's farm was part of an original purchase in 1793 by Mr. Dushareme from Chief Eagle for two barrels of rum. The son of Chief Eagle later tried to claim back the property but was bought off ... by a bit more rum. The farm steadfastly remained in the Hurkman family for generations -- and became Arnold's lasting legacy greater than any trophy he could have hunted or otherwise imagined.