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Belgians in the Civil War

Emigrants arrival

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

R. Vanderbrook was born in Belgium in 1819. He is son of Peter and Mary (Tracy) Vanderbrook, and was bred a farmer in his native country. He came to America in 1844, and after a brief stay at Detroit and other places, he came to Vergennes and settled on sec. 1, where he has lived 30 years, and owns 500 acres of land with good buildings. He has had much more than ordinary men to contend with, being a native of a foreign country, and entirely without knowledge of our language and customs. He was married in 1845 to Sophia Smith, of Detroit, a native of Belgium. They have had 11 children, nine of whom are living and three married. Mrs V. died in 1870. She and her husband were members of the Roman Catholic Church. The home of Mr V. in Belgium was within 36 miles of Waterloo, the famous battler-ground where Bonaparte had his downfall. Two of his uncles were in the French army.

Source : (collective work) : History of Kent County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, aborigines, French, English and American conquests, and a general review of its civil, political and military history.; Chicago: C.C. Chapman & Co., 1881, 1414 pgs.