Remembering Flemish American Veterans

Drie Staden - Belgian medal for WW1 Military Service

Tomorrow, Monday, November 11th, is Veteran's Day here in the U.S. It was started to commemorate the end of the "Great War": what we today call World War 1. In earlier posts here, here, and here, I have spoken of the contribution by Flemings and Flemish Americans to the events in World War 1. 

Although it is a National Holiday and U.S. federal government offices are closed, many people only have a dim understanding of the holiday's importance. My childrens’ high school invites local veterans to speak of what they have endured and done for this country. But there is (of course) no reference or mention of Flemish Americans and their involvement in World War 1 (or beyond).

Belgium at the start of the First World War (August 4, 1914) had a very small army of 48,000 men but quickly mobilized to more than 100,000 soldiers. Without question, this was tiny compared to the several million soldiers Germany sent over the frontier in August, 1914.[i]

Newly-enlisted Flemish Americans in front of St John Berchman's Church, Chicago ca 1917

As a result, many Flemish Americans responded to an inner 'call to arms'. So many Flemish Americans in Chicago responded to the call to arms in fact that their families were left destitute. The Belgian Government responded by redirecting a daily payment of 6.5 cents per family per day (even then, insufficient to feed a family used to living on $3 a day, as my grandmother’s family was).[ii] Newspaper reports of the time show long queues of women, old men and children lined up in front of the Belgian Consulate in Chicago receiving their daily allowance.[iii]

One of the very first Flemish Americans to heed the call to arms was Paul Vandervelde of Dallas, Texas. Vandervelde fought for 34 days in five significant battles before being forced to retreat. As a US citizen, he was returned to the US on the White Star Line ship Cedric.[iv] 

 

The inequalities of the Belgian Army - overwhelmingly Flemish soldiers fighting under overwhelmingly Francophone officers - spurred the movement for equal language and education rights for Flemings

On the home front, some Flemish Americans fought without weapons. Johannes Schreuers, a Flemish immigrant living in Chicago and playing for the Chicago Symphony, became a combatant (in a war of words and stringed instruments) with his German and Austrian colleagues (who outnumbered him 76:1). Eventually a sort of truce "for the duration of the war" was agreed upon.[v]

Others, who could not fight, opened their pocketbooks. The Belgian American Club of Chicago quickly established a Red Cross Society chapter, appropriated $200 from the club's treasury, and proceeded to discuss other ways to raise money for their ancestral homeland.[vi]

Led by Flemish American veteran (of the Spanish-American War of 1898) Felix J. Streykmans and supported by Belgian Consul General Cyriel Vermeren, the fundraising garnered support from civic leaders even outside of the Flemish American community.[vii] Eventually, seven Belgian Clubs in Chicago came together to raise money through a series of fund-raising events - such as theatrical performances.[viii] 

Herbert Hoover telegram in 1914

Despite all this support, by October, 1914 it was estimated that more than 1 million Belgians (out of a total population of 7 million people) were starving. Consequently, Herbert Hoover, future (31^st) U.S. President, former global mining engineer, and occasional resident of Belgium, organized an ad hoc system of relief for those caught in the conflict.[ix] By the end of the war, at a time when individuals measured daily earnings in cents, the “Commission for the Relief of Belgium” (as it came to be called) moved nearly $1,000,000,000 in relief to these starving Flemish civilians.[x]

Flour Sack Reworked by Belgian woman

In addition to bringing money, food and clothing to family and friends in Flanders, Flemish Americans offered other relief. In the midst of the war, Fr. John B. De Ville of Saint John Berchman's "Belgian parish" in Chicago crossed the front lines to bring out 1500 noncombatants. Of those were 50 young women who decided to wed their Flemish American beaus on Ellis Island.[xi]

The Belgian state, long ambivalent about its Flemish-speaking majority, modified its Francophone bias during the later stages of the war in an attempt to dissipate Flemish nationalist sentiment.[xii] In an appeal to Flemish Americans in 1916, the Belgian Government in the Detroitenaar newspaper (later absorbed into the Gazette van Detroit), published the below picture and poem. 

De Detroitenaar's appeal to Flemish Americans December 1917

The poem, "Aan mijn volk" in Dutch:

Nieuwjaarsgeschenk Van De Detroitenaar

Ween niet mijn volk mijn natieNog leeft de Vlaamsche leeuwNog staat hij onverschrokkenOndanks het krijgsgeschreeuwAl is zijn huis vernietigdVerpletterd en doorzeefdVan kogels en granatenHij scherpt zijn klauw, Hij leeftNog sta ik aan zijn zijde, terwijl mij 't harte blaaktVan liefde voor mijn Vlaandren! Ween nietUw Koning waaktWeen niet mijn volk, mijn trouwenWeen niet, Uw Koning leeft!Ik weet, dat God ons eenmaalOns Vlaanderen wedergeeftAl is het thans vermorzeld,Vertrapt, verscheurd, vernield,De Vlaamsche leeuw is levendMet leeuwenkracht bezieldHoudt moed, mijn trouwe natie en nooit denplicht verzaakt!Eens zal verlossing komen, Uw Koninginne waakt!

In (rough) English translation: "To my people"

"New Year's Gift from the Detroitenaar"

Weep not my people, my nation

The Flemish Lion is still alive

[and] ever fearless,

Despite the battle cry

Though his house has been destroyed

Crushed and riddled,

By bullets and grenades

He sharpens his claws, he lives on.

Still I stand by his side, while [from] me it [blood?] oozes warm

O how I love my Flanders! Do not cry

Your King awaits

Weep not my people, my betrothed

Do not cry, your King lives!

I know that once again God will [give us]

Our Flanders again 

Though it is now crushed,

Trampled, shredded, destroyed,

The Flemish Lion is still alive

With lionine strength

Take courage, my faithful nation and never fail [to do your] duty!

Once [more] salvation will come, Your Queen awaits![xiii]

David Baeckelandt in Flanders, November 11, 2012

Even without the historical allusions to past Flemish history and King Albert's cloaking himself in black and yellow (the colors of the Vlaamse Leeuw/Flemish Lion) as above, the Flemish and Flemish Americans responded with fervor. Both in the Belgian and US armies they fought and died for rights and self-determination. Some, like Flemish American Charles S. Brokaw, whose ancestors left Flanders in the 16^th century, returned to their ancestral home to fight and die. Today he lies buried in the American Cemetery at Wareghem.[xiv]

Cyriel Barbary

Flemings fought and died literally up until the last day of the war.[xv] At the end of the war, one of those veterans, Cyriel Barbary, gave up his devastated West Flemish home in Klercken, and together with his young bride, relocated to Detroit. There he quietly raised a family in the suburb of Royal Oak. Cyriel gained fame only in his last years: he became the last surviving Belgian veteran of World War 1.[xvi]  

Julien Baeckelandt in the Belgian Army, Ruhr, Germany 1924

Today, then, I wish to recognize all the Flemish Americans who fought for our countries. Closer to home, my grandfather Julian Baeckelandt served in the Belgian Army (during the occupation of the Ruhr in 1924) and my father Werner Baeckelandt served during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. Today my son Luke serves in the Golden Eagle Battalion. It is to you - mijn grootvader, mijn vader en mijn zoon - that I dedicate this post. Thank you - and all Flemish Americans - for your service to our countries.

Luke (Cadet, GEB) and Werner Baeckelandt (veteran)

Endnotes

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[i] “The Belgian Factor”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Aug 5, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 6. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[ii] The stipend eventually was upped to 15 cents per day plus 5 cents a day for each child. In the event of her husband death while in service, the children's daily allowance would be doubled, to ten cents per day per child. See The Chicago Daily Tribune, September 10, 1914, p.8. Regardless of the improvement, these were subsistence amounts. My great-grandmother, before departing Antwerp for America in August, 1905, told the Belgian Inspector Venesoen that her husband-to-be, my great-grandfather Edmond Dupon, Sr., earned $3 a day as a butcher in Chicago. This may have been an exaggeration (one can almost feel the boast in the statement). The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 30, 1908 p. G2 claimed Belgian women working in mines in Wallonia earned 50 cents  - 75 cents/day. So 6.5 cents per day  - or even 15 cents per day plus a nickel a child - was hardly sufficient to feed a family.

[iii] “Belgium Caring for Its Defenders' Wives and Families”, AMERICAN PRESS ASSN. Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Aug 27, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 5. Accessed November 10, 2013. The August 3, 1914 edition of The Chicago Daily Tribune (p.7) estimated that 50,000 to 75,000 of Chicago's immigrants returned to their respective countries to enlist in the belligerents' miliatries. Of the 7,000 or so Flemings in Chicago at the time, it appears that at least hundreds of young men returned to Europe. 

[iv] See “Yankee, Former Belgian, Served 34 Days in War”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Sep 19, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), p.3. Accessed November 10, 2013.  Unfortunately, Paul Vandervelde vanishes from history after his 15 lines of newsprint fame. There is no record of him in Ellis Island online archives. Nor is there a record of him in the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures’, Belgian Texans, (San Antonio: University of Texas, 1982 – Principal Researcher is Samuel P. Nesmith).  Nor is there any record in Ancestry’s voluminous online files of a Paul Vandervelde in Dallas of Belgian origins – among the 56 U.S. resident Vandervelde entries in its database.  For sports buffs, it is unlikely that Mr. Vandervelde is related to this Flemish American football player, Julian Vandervelde  http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/vandervelde_julian00.html . And, since he is originally from Chicago, not to this Dallas resident either: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-04-05/music/david-vandervelde/.  Genealogical note: My great-grandfather, Edmond Dupon, Sr., also traveled on the White Star Line ship Cedric to America – but at a different time and under better circumstances of course.

[v] “Martial Tunes Cause Near War”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Aug 17, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 11. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[vi] “Belgians Aid Red Cross”,  Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Aug 11, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg.7. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[vii] “All Nations Help Belgian Benefit”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Aug 27, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 11. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[viii] “Round About the Clubs and Societies”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Oct 16, 1914;

ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 11. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[ix] “American London Committee to Carry Food to 1,000,000 Starving Belgians”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Oct 22, 1914; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg.2. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[x] To put this in further context, $1 billion in 1913 was the total national debt of the United States at that time. George I. Gay, Public Relations of The Commission for Relief in Belgium: Documents, (Stanford Unversity: Stanford University Press, 1929), vol.1, p.vi. In the Chicago Daily Tribune, October 22, 1914, p.2, Herbert Hoover asserted that there were 1,000,000 civilians starving of which more than 700,000 were Belgians. The overwhelming majority of the Belgians were in what is now called Flanders and ipso facto were Flemings.

[xi] “50 Belgian Brides on Way to United States to Wed”, Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); May 6, 1916;

ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), pg. 4. Accessed November 10, 2013.

[xii] There is, of course, a great deal of debate as to actual numbers of Flemings in the Belgian Army during World War One. At the high end are some immediate postwar documents that suggest that the Flemings constituted upwards of 90% of all enlisted men. According to these sources even nominal Wallon regiments received reinforcements that mainly if not wholly included Flemings. The Flemish units were of course 100% Flemish. The only exception to this rule was the officer corps, which were overwhelmingly Francophone. See Daniel Vanacker,De Frontbeweging: De Vlaamse strijd aan de Ijzer, (Kortrijk: De Kaproos, 2000), p.15 for the discussion of numbers as low as 60%. See Luc Schepens, 14/18: Een Oorlog in Vlaanderen, (Tielt: Lannoo, 1984), p.162, for the belief that the true percentages were “65 to 70% (and not 80 to 90% as widely believed)”.

[xiii] This image appeared in the The Detroitenaar probably in December 1917. E-mail correspondence with Judy Mendicino, nee DeMeulenaere, November 3, 2013.  

[xiv] It is unclear to me whether this Brokaw is related to American television journalist Tom Brokaw (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brokaw) but my suspicion is that he must be. Christopher Sims, untitled and un-numbered excerpt “Brokaw, Charles S., from “The Soldiers of Flanders Field American Cemetery”.  Waregem, W.Vl., Belgium. E-mail correspondence November 13, 2012. BTW, the official website of the cemetery can be found here: http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ff.php and a brochure is available online here: http://www.abmc.gov/publications/CemeteryBooklets/FlandersField_Booklet.pdf. This is the only American cemetery remaining in Flanders.

[xv] It is possible that several Flemings perished in the very last minutes of the war. See, for a commentary about this (in Dutch): http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=9990 .

[xvi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary,_Cyrillus-Camillus_(Cyriel) and http://www.gva.be/Archief/guid/laatste-belgische-veteraan-van-wo-i-overleden.aspx?artikel=3f435976-5e21-4fa1-a356-a48fb53b57fc . There is a bit more detail on his actual military service here: http://wo1.webserver.dmenp.be/ned/geschiedenis/gastbijdragen/barbary.htm .

Copyright 2013 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction without my express, written permission.

In Memorium: A Tribute to Flemish American Veterans

Monday, May 28, 2012 is Memorial Day here in the U.S. 

Today is a day when we pay tribute to those men and women who have given their lives in the service of the country. 

Historically, here in Chicago (as I have mentioned here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2008/10/flemish-in-chicago.html) we would usually have a parade from our Belgian Hall to the “Belgian Church”: St. John Berchman’s.  A color guard of Flemish American veterans would lead the way.  Mass was said in Flemish. The picture at the top of this post is taken from the Flemish American Ardennes Post veterans' color guard at the Belgian Hall in Chicago in 1965. 

Afterwards, we would parade back the three or four blocks to the Belgian Hall where everyone would enjoy sandwiches, beer and conversation.[i]

Unfortunately that tradition no longer exists.

In lieu of that tradition, I offer you a brief tribute to Flemish American veterans.



Well before the United States existed, Flemings served in the defence of their hearth and home. In Nieuw Nederlandt Govert Loockermans of Turnhout (whose 400th birthday comes up in a few weeks) served as a non-commissioned officer in the militia well into his 50s. During the frequent frontier skirmishes, individuals like Pieter Foulgier (later Peter Folger - and yes, predecessor of the creator of the Folger's Coffee brand), Benjamin Franklin's maternal grandfather of Flemish ancestry (from Ieper) fought in the Indian wars. 


During the Revolutionary War many Americans who fought and served (including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton) had Flemish antecedents. Others, less well-known (such as Charles De Pauw of Ghent and whose grandson established De Pauw University) came from overseas to fight. Some Flemish families (like the De Peysters who were Protestants that fled Ghent) fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War.


In the War of 1812 new generations joined the struggle. And some prominent Flemish immigrants - such as the Stier family of Antwerp who were relatives of George Washington and personally acquainted with Francis Scott Key, who gave us the Star Spangled Banner - had their homes burned and looted by the British troops.


By the middle part of the 19th century full-blooded Flemings were serving proudly in all areas of America's military. Barney J. Litogot, Henry Ford's maternal uncle, served in the crack "Iron Brigade" during the American Civil War.  Another lent his brains to making the Union navy technologically advanced by creating the USS Monitor warship. Although listed as Swedish-American, John Ericsson's mother was of Flemish origin.  


Later in the 19th century Flemings moved higher in the service of their adopted country. Brooklyn-born but Bruges origin George Washington Goethals graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (possibly the very first Flemish American to do so). Since the requirements were not only physical and mental but also academic, USMA graduates represent the epitome of those in service to our country. With that as a background it is no wonder that he went on to complete one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century: the Panama Canal.


One of the shortest wars (and one of its most controversial), the Spanish American War (1898), saw the West Flemish emigrant Felix J. Streyckmans rise to the position of Colonel. Afterwards, he became prominent in not only in Chicago (as head of several Belgian organizations and civic groups as well as the 1933 World Exposition) but nationally (in Republican politics). 


In addition, Felix J. Streyckmans also played a prominent role on the Home Front in World War I (as Federal Reserve Director of the Liberty Loan Committee). So did Leo Hendrik Baekeland, of Ghent and the inventor of Bakelite, the first plastic. His discovery (of 1907) found a variety of uses in phones, planes, and tanks in WWI (1914-1918).

World War 1, coming as it did so closely on the heels of large-scale Flemish emigration to North America, saw a large number of Americans of Flemish ancestry serve. These men (and women) had a double reason to fight: to free their ancestral homeland as well as to serve their adopted country. Thousands of Flemish Americans served and fought in WWI. That terrifying experience melded these young men into a distinct group and helped to establish the identity we have today.


Among the young men who served in that war was an 18 year old who in the last six months of the war fought on the front lines to free his hometown of Klerken, West Flanders. His name is generally given as Cyriel Barbary, although officially he is known as Cyrillus-Camillus Barbary.


Barbary himself served on the front line between May 5, 1918 and the end of the war (November 11, 1918). While it is unclear what his actual combat missions he was involved in, Barbary was awarded both the Victory Medal and a Commemorative Medal. Barbary was mustered out of the service on January 31, 1919. After the war (in 1923) he and his wife emigrated to America (the Detroit area) and became an American citizen. What makes him truly unique is that when Barbary died on September 16, 2004, he was the last surviving Belgian veteran of WW I. A true link between our two countries.


In addition to WW I, Americans (including Flemish Americans) fought beside one another in other wars as well. During World War Two, tens of thousands of Flemish Americans joined the fight to free Belgium and Europe of the Nazis. On the home front too, Flemings dedicated themselves to helping both countries: the women in the picture to the right were in the Belgian Hall in Chicago knitting clothes for Belgian victims of WW 2


Returning veterans of WW 2 formed their own posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars ("VFW") or the "American Legion" as they are commonly called. Flemish Americans formed these associations based out of this shared experience. Today these veterans groups, such as the Roose-Vanker Post in Detroit or the Ardennes Post in Chicago, have channeled their collective energies to supporting non-profits in the community.


In Korea, Belgium sent troops to fight under the United Nations. The United States of course supplied the majority of the soldiers that fought in the Korean War. Thousands more Flemish Americans fought in this war as well as Vietnam.


Some Flemish American families contributed sons to more than just one war. The Chicago Tribune, in an article dated August 26, 1965, discovered one Flemish American family where the oldest son Robert served in WW 2, the second son Donald served in Korea, and the third son Jimmy served in Vietnam. This is service truly above and beyond the call of duty for any family. Yet this family, the De Wyze family of Mt. Prospect, had their roots in the same town in West Flanders that Cyriel Barbary's wife (Emma Marchand) was born in: Houthulst. 


More than fifty years after this Chicago Tribune article about the De Wyze family's service for their country, one of their descendants was again in the press. Lee De Wyze had captured the world's attention when he became the winner of the American Idol competition.


In the last several decades since the end of the Vietnam War, Flemish Americans have continued to serve - and, sadly, give their lives - for this country. All one need do to confirm this is read through the announcements in the Gazette van Detroit to confirm this sad truth. Yet, Flemish Americans continue to serve with duty and honor. Last year, Flanders House recognized one of the most recent Flemish Americans to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point: Peter Kerkhof. Peter has served in Afghanistan and was personally and officially recognized by Minister President Kris Peeters.  

In my own family I have two veterans. My grandfather Julien Baeckelandt (pictured above in 1924) served in the Belgian Army after WW I and was stationed in Germany. My father Werner Baeckelandt served in the U.S. army during the Vietnam War. To my father and my grandfather - and indeed to all Flemish American veterans - I offer my deepest thanks and gratitude for their service to our countries. It seems only fitting then, to end with a quote delivered as part of eulogy to a soldier who fell - ironically on the same day as Cyriel Barbary's passing - on September 16, 1918:

“Al de besten onder ons gaan heen! Mocht hun werk hun naam bestendigen in en door de glorierijke hergeboorte waarvoor ze leefden.” [ii]

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[ii] De Belgische Standaard commenting on Joe English’s death, September 3, 1918. Quoted in  Daniel Vanacker, De Frontbeweging: De Vlaamse strijd aan de Ijzer, (Koksijde: De Klaproos, 2000), p.393

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[i] For a more careful treatment of the Memorial Day tradition in the “Belgian Colony” of Chicago, please see David Baeckelandt, Arnold Van Puymbroeck, (Chicago: Blurb, 2010), pp. 50-54

Copyright 2012 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form without my express, written permission.