An official from the Netherlands was in the Hudson Valley last week, conducting historical research and strengthening the ties of two sister cities.
Jan de Boer is the royally appointed mayor of Buren, a countryside city of 26,000 about an hour from Amsterdam and The Hague. de Boer and his communications director Mark Hofman were in the Hudson Valley for a week at the end of July. They toured a variety of historical sites, including the 18th century Luykas Van Alen House in Kinderhook.
“For my own, I started a few years ago, research, and writing a book, about the relationship of Cornelius Maessen to Martin Van Buren here in Kinderhook, in America, and last year, I got a letter from Mayor Dunham from the village of Kinderhook, and he wanted to investigate the possibilities of a relationship between Buren and Kinderhook.," de Boer said. "I said, ‘One and one is two. We’re going to take that opportunity, and we’re going to investigate what we can do.’”
Kinderhook Mayor Jim Dunham says the village contacted the Dutch city in March.
“It was a suggestion we had from Renee Shur, our economic development director, and Ruth Piwonka, our village historian, that, knowing that Martin Van Buren’s family came from Buren, they thought it might be good to develop a sister city relationship, and the people from Buren were very eager to do that," Dunham said. "We signed a memo of understanding, and we’re now a sister city with Buren.”
Cornelius Maessen, the historical figure de Boer is researching, was a resident of Buren during the early 17th century, who, upon falling on hard times, emigrated to what is now Rensselaer County.
“He went to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam he signed a contract for the agricultural colony, Rensselaerswyck, here in New Netherland. And when Cornelius came here, first to New Amsterdam, then led about to this area, the banks of the Hudson, there were only about 20 people here at that moment, and one or two farms," de Boer said. "He was really a pioneer.”
Maessen’s family took the name Van Buren, meaning “from Buren.” One of his direct descendants was Kinderhook native, Democratic Party founder and eighth U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
de Boer visited other sites such as the Peebles Island Historic Preservation complex near Cohoes, Crailo State Historic Site in Rensselaer, the studio of historical painter Len Tantillo in Nassau, and Lindenwald, the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, in Kinderhook. He also toured a future archeological site in Rensselaer County: the homestead of Cornelius Maessen.
“Yes, this was for me a very special day yesterday, because I walked over the place exactly where the farm of Cornelius Maessen, where his family, his children, his wife, where they lived, and I saw, I discovered by myself, a stone, in the field, between the plants that were growing there, a stone of a foundation of the farm," said de Boer.
de Boer met with Kinderhook Mayor James Dunham at a ceremony, where the Dutch official was given a U.S. Capitol flag by Kinderhook resident Congressman John Faso, and the flag of Buren was raised over the village square.
This was de Boer’s first visit to the United States, and he reflected on the nature of the Americans who welcomed him.
“Especially here, in the County of Columbia, it’s very European, the culture," de Boer said. "Open-minded. They say Holland is ‘the America of Europe,’ and maybe this country, is the Holland of America.”
WAMC News intern Will Anderson is a third-year student at McGill University.
