On August 24th 1873, Riemke
was born in Hallum, as
the daughter of Jan van der Haag and Trijntje Eelkes Terpstra. Besides
Riemke, another four boys and one girl were
born. The boys all died young, between 6 weeks
and 5 years old and all are given the name Eelke.Six years before
Riemke
another girl was born, Jantje.
In 1875, Riemke is then 2 years young, her
father passes away. Another two years later her mother also dies, at
the age of
39 years old. The grandparents of Riemke and Jantje are not alive
anymore,
while other family members are all very poor. Nobody can take care of
them and
the two girls find themselves in the Poorhouse of Hallum. Not the best
place to
grow up in, although the then Poorhouse-father, Pieter Rochus Bloemsma,
was
according to history a committed person. Riemke becomes rebellious and
does not
quite conform to the rules of the house. She was a handful.
As
soon as children, according to the
standards of the day, were old enough - mostly from their twelfth year
on -
they would look for a house in which they would be put to work, mainly
as a
servant. By doing so they could earn their own keep and were not longer
kept by
the Poorhouse. Also for Riemke work was
sought and found, but she never persevered long enough and every time
was returned
to the Poorhouse.
She was written out of the Poorhouse on October 25th 1887, because
she started to work for Broer Bouma, but had already returned on
November 15th of
that year. Broer Bouma was a laborer who, together with his wife, lived
at the
then house number 354 in Hallum, a small house outside the village. His
wife
was probably sick and he could use some help. Two weeks later his wife
dies.
Was Riemke again out of place here or did he have to look after his
children in
other ways? The latest is not unlikely. For Riemke was only 14 years
old at the
time. In the minutes of the meeting of June 25th 1889 of the
Administrators of the Poorhouse at Hallum (she is then 16 years
old) we
find a similar situation:
“Afterwards
Riemke van der Haag, who as a resident was hired
out, but because of
misconduct was send back, was called
into the meeting and seriously presented with her bad and sad behavior
and also
to give her notice that she can’t stay in the House and so has to find
a job
and furthermore that as long as she is in the House as a resident, she
cannot
leave except for work and church”.
In the end a workhouse is found with the
Prins family in Oudebildtzijl, but again Riemke is send back as
“useless”. The
Administrators are hard-pressed to admit her again into the Poorhouse.
In
October 1889 comes the request of her
sister Jantje to the gentlemen Administrators “whether she can go with
them to
South-America”. In the meantime Jantje had married Meindert Winkel and
the
couple had taken up plans to immigrate to Argentina. They wanted to
take her
sister (in-law) along. In those years Argentina paid the passage
of
emigrants to gain good farmers. As far as this rule goes, it was
stopped within
two years, because it also attracted all kinds of spongers.
The request of Jantje van der Haag did not
inconvience the gentlemen Administrators, as shown in the minutes of October 5th 1889.
It reads:
“The
Chairman remarks, don’t forget here, that the youthful
girl is in the care of the Administrators and that her difficult, yes
even
petulant nature, should not be considered, but only as much as possible
the
belief, that this is the best for her. Speaker emphasizes to view this
case not
only from a material point of view, but especially also from a moral
point of
view”.
Finally permission was given and the family
departed by train to Amsterdam,
where the emigration papers were finalized. On December 15th 1889 the sail
steamship “Leerdam” departs Amsterdam
for Argentina.
On board were 442 passengers: 16 of them traveled first class and the
426
others stayed steerage. Those were all emigrants on their way to a
better
future. However in the early morning of December 16th the “Leerdam”
collided with the English ship “Gaw Quan Sia”. From the municipality of Ferwerderadeel,
among others, the Beintema and de Vries families were on board, both
from
Blija. Who exactly were on board the “Leerdam” appears to be impossible
to find
out, because the passengers list has not been saved. In the famous book
“From the history of the
“grietenij” Ferwerderadeel” by W.K. van der Veen, the Winkel and Steen
families
from Marrum are mentioned. Checks into the registers of
Vital Statistics of that time, shows that one
de Vries family from Marrum leaves for South-America in 1889. Besides
these
families, also the name Regnerus is mentioned, most likely Lieuwe
Baukes
Regnerus, who was married to Grietje Gerrits Steen. The Goesche
newspaper of December
21 1889 mentions
50 persons from Ferwerderadeel.
Often the emigrants did not properly write
themselves out
and at
discovery of their disappearance were officially discharged. Because
the
families in question already returned before Christmas, their departure
had
probably not been noticed.
Riemke
also came back to Friesland.
First she stayed in Stiens, because through the Poorhouse-father of the
Poorhouse in Hallum, the Administrators were asked in April 1890 for “ some clothing”. No unfair request if you think that all
possessions had been lost in the ships
disaster. However the Administrators decided otherwise.
As it was customary then, the
Administrators conducted regular inspections at the Poorhouse and on
one of
those visits they noticed the former resident R.v.d.Haag again. When
they asked the Poorhouse-father for
clarification, it appeared that she as usual could not or would not
keep a job.
At the discretion of the Chairman it was decided to place an
advertisement “to find a place for her,
because she - must not nor cannot - be here”.
This placement was found for her at the
home of honest citizens in Leeuwarden,
but they also had to send her back after some time. Admittance into the
family
of her sister Jantje and brother-in-law Meindert Winkel appears no more
favorable. In the end Riemke ends up in prison in
Assen for the 1896 theft of a skirt.
On April 27th, 1901
she married, in the municipality
of Hennaarderadeel,
one Fokke van Breeden,
a wagon maker’s helper in Kubaard. A year and a half before that, on March 9 1898, their
first
daughter Trijntje was born. On December 5th 1899 second daughter Tetje is born.
Twin boys
are stillborn on March 9th 1910 and in 1913
again a
stillborn son is born. The family moves often: Kubaard, Dronrijp,
Menaldum, Groningen and Leeuwarden
are a few places of where they lived. In the end the marriage fails and
on February 1, 1929
a divorce
follows.
Riemke
dies, after having remarried once
more, at the age of 66, in Leeuwarden,
two weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War.
