Holland Marsh plaques are 6,051 kms. apart

Photo: Wikipedia

Holland Marsh plaque at Nieuwe Pekela 

This plaque commemorating the establishment of Ansnorveldt, in King Township, by Dutch immigrants in 1934, is located on the former city hall at the village of Nieuwe Pekela, in the north-eastern province of Groningen in Holland.   Nieuwe Pekela is a little over two hours by car from Amsterdam, a distance of 217 kilometres.   The original Dutch immigrants who settled in Canada in 1934 were mainly from Groningen and Friesland.   This plaque notes that the reclaimed land of the Holland Marsh was 7,000 acres.   Now, after many decades, the total acreage has increased to 22,000 acres in parts of King, East Gwillimbury, Bradford West Gwillimbury and Innisfil.   A similar plaque exists in the Holland Marsh, in Canada.   The Dutch plaque states that the Holland Marsh is: "...in a river valley north of Toronto, Ontario",  while the plaque in Canada says the the Marsh is: "...in the Schomberg River Valley";   otherwise, the wording is the same on both.   The plaques state that 15 Dutch families settled in the Marsh in 1934. The names of 12 of those families are still to be found today, in local phone directories.   They include Rupke, van Dyke, Brouwer, Valenteyn, van Dyken, Oosterhuis, de Jong, van Luyk, Miedema, Nienhuis, van der Groot and Winter.   I attended high school in Aurora in the late 1950s/early1960s and remember several students with these names.
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Barry Wallace