Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-03-18
MADE THEIR HOMES
IN NEW AMSTERDAM
Eastern Metropolis Founded
by Mixed Company.

In 1928, January Is, a bill was IN
troduced in the house of representa-
tives authorizing the coinage of 90
cent pieces in honor of the three-hun
dredth anniversary Of the settling of
New Netherland, the middle states, in
1924, by Walloons (French and Bel
gian Huguenots), under the Dutch
East India company" writes Anna
Curtis Chandler in st. Nicholas This
bill was passed, and 100000 50-cent
pieces were coined, just as coins were
provided for the Pilgrim celebration
On one side of the Huguenot half-dol-
lar appear the faces of two of their
strong supporters; on the other side,
the ship in Which they sailed, Nieu
Nederland.
The settlement of the New Neither
land was claimed by the Dutch re-
public because of Henry Hudsons ex-
plorations in the Half Moon, in 1909.
Although an Englishman, he was in
the service of the Dutch East India
company. In the ship which arrived
in 1924 were 80 families, mostly Wal
looms who had found a refuge in Hol-
land from religious persecution In
their home countries. Led by Jesse
de Forest, from AvesneS, France, an
ancestor of Robert d. de Forest, pres
ident of the Metropolitan Museum Of
Art they, in 1923, like the Pilgrims be-
fore them, had started out to find new
homes in the New world. The leader
persisted on the voyage, but in May,
1924 their ship, the Nieu Nederland,
reached the Hudson river.
Some of the settlers went to Fort
Orange, now called Albany, others
went to Delaware and to Connecticut,
while some stayed on Manhattan is
land and helped found the settlement
which in 1926 was called New Amster-
dam, in honor of the Dutch city Of
Amsterdam, and today is New York,
named after James, duke of York, the
Baby Stuart" of Van Dyck's famous
painting.
Henry Hudson wanted to find for the
East India company shorter way
from Holland to the East Indies than
that around Africa by way of the Cape
of Good Hope. When he sailed I'D
the Hudson river he thought he had
found the passage which led to India,
and perhaps even to the great khan
whom Marco PoGO met in his travels
and Christopher Columbus expected to
find! He was greatly disappointed;
but because of the furs which could
be obtained on the newly found island
of Manhattan, some merchants of Hol-
land formed the United New Neither
land company, and house was built
for fur traders, near what is now
Bowling Green park, and was called
Fort Manhattan. So rich was the new
country in furs that another company
was founded in Holland, called the
West India company, to trade with the
West Indies, as the East India COM
pany traded with the East Indies, and
this was the company which decided
to make a city out Of the little trad
ing post on Manhattan island.
1t was the Dutch government which
carried out the colonizing of New
Netherland, the name given the new
settlements along the shores of what
are now New Jersey, Connecticut and
New York state. But among these
colonists who helped settle New Meth
erland, were English, French Hugue
nots and Walloons-which meant
strangers"
1t seems queer to think that our
mighty city of New YOrk-the metrop-
oils of the New world, and the larg-
est city in the worId-began in such
small way. But it did. If Peter Min
nit, the first Dutch governor of New
Amsterdam, or Peter Stuyvesant, its
last Dutch governor, could return to-
day, after almost 300 years, he would
be so astOnished that he would think
he was in an enchanted land of giants
whose buildings seem to touch the sky