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Grote Kerk "Great Church" in Dordrecht
where Peter Hoogerzeil was baptized |
Peter Hoogerzeil, my immigrant 3rd great
grandfather, was born in Dordrecht, in Holland, on 28 October 1803 under the name
Pieter Hoogerseijl. He was the son of a
whaling sea captain, Simon Hogerseijl (1776 – 1829) and his wife, Lissa Van
Epenhuizen. Dordrecht is an island on
the banks of several rivers that flow into the Rhine delta. It is near Rotterdam, which was a big whaling
seaport where the ships sailed for the rich whaling in Greenland.
Family stories say that Peter Hoogerzeil, the youngest son,
stowed away on a ship loaded with hemp, which was headed for the ropeworks in
Salem, Massachusetts. He married Eunice
Stone, the daughter of the ship captain, Josiah Stone. I don’t think a sea captain would have been
happy if his daughter married a stowaway, but perhaps the captain knew Peter as
a mariner before taking him to Massachusetts?
There are family letters which repeat the stowaway tale, dating back to
the 1800s. Perhaps there is a grain of truth to the story?
There are records of Peter Hoogerzeil in ship’s registers
out of Salem and Beverly in 1826, 1827, and 1828. He married Eunice Stone on 30 December 1828
in Beverly. I found Peter listed in
other ships registries until 1835, when
he was listed as a carpenter. In the
1850 census in Beverly his occupation is listed as a caulker, and in the 1860
census he is listed as a day laborer born in “Ireland?” By the 1870 census Peter was working as an
expressman, which was the family business until the 1930s.
Peter and Eunice had six children, all named in his
will. He died on 12 May 1889 in Beverly.
I descend from his son, Peter Hoogerzeil, Jr. (1841 – 1908). Over the years Peter, Jr. worked as a
fisherman, a quartermaster and then as a teamster. He began the Hoogerzeil Express Company in
1867 and employed his father and brothers.
After his death he passed the Express business on to his brother-in-law,
John Healey. Peter was also an inventor
and world traveler. He had patents for many
inventions, which he sold out of his home on 43 Bartlett Street in
Beverly. As a sailor he sailed the South
China Sea several times, and one of his last voyages was to Holland to visit
his relatives.
I descend from Peter’s daughter Florence Etta (1871 – 1941),
my great grandmother, who married Arthur Treadwell Hitchings. She had eight children, including my grandmother,
Gertrude Matilda (1905 – 2001). Florence was known by her middle name “Etta”,
and she was not well. She had “consumption” or tuberculosis, and spent a lot of
time in a sanitorium during my grandmother’s growing up years. My mother remembers visiting her “Nana” at 43
Bartlett Street, which was later occupied by “Aunt Belle” (my great grandmother’s
sister Isabelle Hoogerzeil Sorenson (1888 – 1960). Aunt Belle continued to correspond with the
cousins in Holland all her life, and my uncle visited with some Hogerzeil
relatives in occupied Holland during World War II.
My HOOGERZEIL
genealogy:
(see the blog post link below for Peter’s ancestors in
Holland)
Generation 1: Peter
Hoogerzeil, son of Simon Hogerseijl and Lissa Van Epenhuizen, born 28 October
1803 in Dordrecht, South Holland and died 12 May 1889 in Beverly,
Massachusetts; married on 30 December 1828 in Beverly to Eunice Stone, daughter
of Josiah Stone and Susanna Hix. She was
baptized in Beverly on 15 May 1807 and died in Beverly on 21 October 1886. Six
children.
Generation 2: Peter
Hoogerzeil, born 24 June 1841 in Beverly and died 10 May 1908 in Beverly;
married on 14 March 1870 in Salem to Mary Etta Healey, daughter of Joseph Edwin
Healey and Matilda Weston. She was born
19 May 1852 in Beverly and died 23 July 1932 in Beverly. Six children.
Generation 3:
Florence Etta Hoogerzeil, born 20 August 1871 in Beverly and died 10
February 1941 in Hamilton, Massachusetts; married on 25 December 1890 in
Beverly to Arthur Treadwell Hitchings, son of Abijah Franklin Hitchings and
Hannah Eliza Lewis. He was born 10 May 1868 in Salem and died 7 March 1937 in
Hamilton. Eight children.
Generation 4: Gertrude
Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)
For the truly curious:
A blog post about Krimpen aan de Lek, with my
Hoogerzeil/Hogerzeil lineage back to 1631
A blog post about Dordrecht, where Peter Hoogerzeil was
born:
A blog post about my Uncle visiting the Hogerzeil family in occupied
Holland after World War II:
---------------------------------
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ HOOGERZEIL of
Holland and Beverly, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 31, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/03/surname-saturday-hoogerzeil-of-holland.html: accessed [access date]).
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