Updated Sept 16th, 2000. Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.
Another
place for which there are good historical accounts1,2
is
Zwevezele
which lies between
Wingene
and
Lichtervelde.
It went through the same problems during the
"hunger
years"
('hongerjaren')
between 1846 and 1850 as other places in West
Flanders,
largely due to impact of the failure of the home-based linen
industry. The steady growth of its population was stopped in those
years, as it was throughout Flanders. Earlier, between 1830 and 1846
the population in Zwevezele had risen from 4433 to 5014. It dropped
to 4701 by 1846 and did reach 5000 again until 1876. This decrease
during the
"hunger
years"
was due to a decrease in the births and a rise in the death rate seen
elsewhere when the potato crop failed. This was serious since 13% of
cultivated land in West Flanders was used for potatoes and 92% of
that crop was lost due to a combination of an extremely virulent form
of the fungal disease, Phytophtora Infectans, that also was producing
a disaster in Ireland and also the appearance of the Colorado beetle
that ate the remaining leaves of the plants. In the years 1846 though
1848 the yield was remained only 50-60% of normal and the price of
potatoes, the staple food of the poor, rose steeply from 3.58 Francs
per 100 kg in 1844 to 15 Francs in 1848. Similarly the price of rye
used to make 'roggebrood'
rose 3-fold. It was rumored in Antwerp that people in West Flanders
were slovenly, pale and thin unfortunates who prayed for death to
free them from their misery. Malnutrition was rampant and followed by
the often fatal scourges of typhus
and cholera.
An
attempt also was made to improve the production of linseed oil
production, an important but often forgotten part of the flax
industry. In 1843 Jan Van Renterghem began building a new windmill
made of stone at an enormous cost of 15,000 Francs. However, a number
of windmills from the 18th century and from the time of the French
regime which ended in 1815 were still in operation. Here is a
restored
linseed
mill, powered by a horse!
Further
attempts were made to improve the economy by training the population
in better ways of working in the home-based flax industry. However,
another solution was tried by
King Leopold
I; he encouraged emigration.
In 1840 he
started the "Belgian Company for Colonization". The first couple
left
Zwevezele
in 1844 via Antwerp on the three-masted sailing ship "Emma" to Santo
Thomas, Guatemala. Others followed but some soon came back. But by
autumn of that year there were 871 people in the colony in
Guatemala.
However the climate and tropical diseases attacked 211 people had
succumbed by autumn 1845. By January 1845 the colony had shrunk to
345 and was considered a failure. Others went from Zwevezele to
Argentina
that year and Henri Van Renterghem went to Detroit and was followed
to the U.S.A. by many others. However, more commonly others made the
shorter trip to France, some staying permanently to work in
factories, others working in France seasonally in the sugar-beet
fields. These men were called "Fransmans"; a museum is dedicated to
them in Koekelare, West Flanders. Of course there was a
large
contingent that emigrated
to the USA and Canada. Among the first was P.Dirkx from
Eeklo
who, with support from the Belgian government, started a farming
community near Jefferson City, Missouri in 1847. The next year he
also bought land near St.Mary in Pennsylvania.
But
there was
more to life in Flanders than misery and suffering.2
Even the winter had its charms, with skating on the Sasput (a small
lake) or on the castle's moat, if it froze hard enough, of course.
And this was the occasion in the winter of
1844-1845, a very harsh winter, which preceded the five terrible
hunger years, starting with the
crop
failure
of the
winter wheat followed by the loss of 94% of the potato crop. Now on
the 18 of March 1845, three days before spring, it was still freezing
hard. Secretary of the town, Desiré Callens went to check on
the ice conditions on the castle moat and organized an ice party on
Tuesday 18 March. The Town Secretary wrote a touching short note of
this occasion which was saved by his children and grandchildren to
this day about how these people were able to party and have a good
time, unaware of the hard times that were about to descend on
them.
Desiré Callens described the event in his
'Memories': "On the 18th of March 1845 , on the castle moat, there
were rides with horse and three wheeled wagon, ice skating, sledding,
bow and arrow contests, 'krulbollen',
dancing, baking, playing of drums, flute and violin, done and
attended by: Callens Desire secretary, Maryssael the tax collector's
son, Louis Houttekier the baker and drummer, Ivo Van Quathem, F.
Demeulenaere, Louis Deblaere, Bruno Jansens, Petrus
Demets and son Francois, Jan Vanden Berghe
policeman, Goethals H. teacher, Petrus and Louis Verduyn and many
more."
The
history3
of
Pittem
is
much
like that of other places in West Flanders during the "hunger years"
(1845-1848). Census findings showed a population peak of 6178 in
1840, reflected a 47% increase since 1786. This peak was followed in
1846 by a rise in the total death rate from an average of about 22%
to 30% per year and fall in births. (This included the 15-30% of
children dying during their first two years, which continued until
1890.) The population had dropped to 5174 by 1848, and this decline
continued until 1885 when it reached 4575. Then by 1890 a slow
recovery had started but by 1950 there still were only 4676 people
living living in Pittem. Some of this was due to emigration to France
and to North America. The latter increased after 1850, especially
between 1890 and 1914, when three families per year moved
overseas.
The high birthrate persisted until 1845, dropped
during the "hunger years", and then recovered slowly. The earlier
rise in population between 1800 and 1849 probably was helped by free
inoculations against smallpox enforced by an 1818 law.
Farming was the chief occupation of the people of
Pittem. Garden and orchards for home-consumption partially made up
for the poor nutrition associated with the impossibly high prices of
staple foods including rye bread and potatoes. More land was
dedicated to pasturage and the growing of mangels, a beet to fed
animals, rose despite the fact that the local light sandy soil was
rather unsuited for this crop and for sugar beets which were
cultivated elsewhere in Flanders. As in other municipalities men, in
groups of 6-10 went together to France for seasonal field work. In
March they would go to cultivate beets, in August they went as grain
harvesters and again in September and October for the beet
harvest.
However, not only farmers but some specialized
workers, including artisans, lived in 1849 in Pittem:
11 cobblers, 8 bakers, 8 carpenters and three journeymen, 8 barrel
makers (coopers), 7 tailors, 7 painters, 6 bricklayers, 5 smiths, 5
carters, 4 porters, 3 veterinarians, 3 wagon makers, 3 candle makers,
3 midwives, 2 butchers, 4 harness makers, 2 surgeons, 2 coppersmiths,
2 brick makers, 20 commercial middlemen, 25 barmen and 51 shopkeepers
and 1 each: bailiff's assistant, wood carrier, silversmith,
lawyer.
The history of Pittem
has an account of the role of a ('Weldadigheidsbureel'), "Welfare
Office" also called the "Poor Directorate" ('Armbestuur'). It was
first set up after the "Holy Ghost's Table" ('Heilige Geesttafel')
operated by the Church was closed after the French conquest. After
that it became the financial responsibility of the local civil
administration although the clergy continued to operate it. In 1836
about 30% of its funding went to support indirectly the old and the
poor, another 25% paid the rent of the poor, 6% was used to provide
them with food, 9% for their clothes and 4% provided their fire wood.
Free bread was distributed, strangely enough, at funerals, and on 15
other days through the year. In 1836 it established an "Old Folks'
Home". By 1865 it operated a Hospital and had 15 houses, which
provided free housing for 19 families, totaling 110 people. Its
activities must relieved or ameliorated the suffering of the many
laid low by the failure of the family-based flax industry that
coincided with crop failures and the appearance of typhus and cholera
in the malnourished.
The
history of Egem
resembles that of other places in West Flanders during the "hunger
years" (1845-1848).
As elsewhere the harvest failed in 1846 due to wheat rust, the price
of bread soared and the finances of the municipal administration were
inadequate to offer the help needed. In February 1847 the
administration asked all property owners for help to enable it to
continue running the village's soup kitchen which was providing 130
families, i.e. 40% of the population with a daily bowl of soup.
Typical of the times a heading in this account is "Hunger, Sickness,
Poverty and Funeral Bells". The statistics in the table to the right
reflect of the severity of the population's problems. Note how the
births fell and the deaths rose, the most severely affected years
were 1847 and 1848.
Eventually things got better but as elsewhere in
Flanders the age-old flax industry based on spinning and weaving by
hand in peoples' homes never recovered. Although begging was
forbidden it continued to grow until 1853 and in
that year the Welfare Office help 52 families pay their house rent;
109 families received food. The insolvent administration also was
expected to support beggars from Egem
who were admitted to the "Work House for Beggars" in Brugge! It is no
wonder that the previously sporadic emigration began to increase to a
steady flow.
Many became seasonal workers in northern France
('Fransmans'). However Egem
became well
known for the emigration of its people to North America. In the 1850s
it was direct to the Kansas City and Detroit, where a few became
rich, starting the rumor in Belgium that "In Amerika the streets are
paved with gold"! The outflow was steady but around 1900 became
directed more towards Canada: to Ontario where the immigrants were
successful in farming sugar beets and later, tobacco. Another group
settled in Manitoba
(MB),
farming grain around Swan Lake, St.Alphonse, Mariapolis and
Bruxelles. Others moved from farming there to establish dairies in
St.Boniface and Winnipeg MB.
In the later period 1880-1914 about half the
working population of Egem, about 450 people migrated to
'Amerika'.
OR
Read
more about the textile
industry