Ringside seat to history

 

As a reminder, I intend these posts as a way of learning and relearning about history using the vehicle of our family tree. All these relatives lived in specific eras, and in ways large and small, they influence that history. Many times I can't find the exact ways they did this, but as the simplified version of chaos theory would have it, every action affects our world, often in unpredictable ways.

I've not told the stories of those whose names only show up on marriage registers or birth records or pictures of tombstones because I'm relying on the Internet to find their connections to history instead of doing the really hard work of traveling to the areas our ancestors lived in and digging through the records at libraries and churches and government offices. Fortunately, others have done some of that work and put it on the WWW for me to find. 

Sometimes the connections are a bit tenuous -- say a letter written to a congressman seeking help that leads me to discover how a system worked at a particular time. Other times I've found people who took part in events that were important but that I don't remember from my history books. And occasionally, I've run into relatives who had a ringside seat for the events that are in the history books.

Sharon's Dutch forebear turns out to be a ringsider. I say this not to brag but to note that even if your family seems like an insignificant part of the world now, and even if you don't care about genealogy, there's a good chance that someone in your far-flung past connects you to the story of our world.

The Dutchman in question, Brant van Schlichtenhorst, was born in the Netherlands in about 1588. (By the way, I found several different spellings of the last name -- a common occurrence -- and am using the one from a translation of a poem about his written by one of his children.) He lived in the town of Nykerk in the province of Gelderland, the largest of the Dutch provinces. Gelderland has produced a number of notable persons, including a Holy Roman emperor and the man who is responsible for van Schlichtenhorst coming to America. You'll meet him later. 

Before we get into van Schlichtenhorst's life and contribution to history, let's back up a bit and remember how the Dutch came to America in the first place.

You probably remember that in the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans kind of had a thing about exploring the world and "discovering" lands they seem to have been unaware of existing in the first place. They also had a bad habit of claiming these discoveries on behalf of whatever country they sailed for. 

When the explorers discovered these places -- I'll continue to use "discover" in the sense of learning about something for the first time, like discovering a restaurant that's been down the street since forever that everyone but you knew about --  they often also discovered ancient cultures with resources that held the potential for a great deal of profit if sold back home. 

Taking advantage of those resources was a specialty of the Dutch East India Company, which I will confusingly refer as the VOC, from the initials of the company's Dutch name, one of the biggest companies ever to exist. Like other countries and companies, the VOC wanted to find a shortcut to the east.

To that end, the VOC chartered an expedition led by Henry Hudson, whom I sure you remember from your history books. Now, what the VOC wanted was for Hudson to sail east using a supposed short cut across the Arctic Ocean, but Hudson couldn't accomplish this because ice blocked the way and took it upon himself to try to find a way west. He'd already been to North America and tried a couple of routes, so returning made some sense. He might actually find a way across.

While sailing around, he found the entrance to the river that would someday bear his name, and like all good explorers, he claimed the land along the river for the people paying the bills. He also did some trading with the indigenous tribes and brought back furs that would help set the stage for the next part of our tale.