Te Rotterdam liggen in
lading, voor Yracht en
Passagiers
The Seceders especially
used the firm's services.
Hendrik Scholte's Utrecht
group signed with him and
Cornelius van der Meulen
wrote from Michigan spe
cifically recommending the
'office of Wambersie and
Crooswijck in Rotterdam'.14
Gerrit Baay, another Se-
ceder clerical leader, also
commended the company
for its service to his group
of Wisconsin colonists.
Despite the obvious Se-
ceder preference for the
Wambersie firm, Albertus van Raalte selected the rival firm of Hudig Blokhuizen
as brokers for his group.
Wambersie placed agents throughout the Netherlands from Limburg to Groningen
and Friesland.15 But the firm faced stiff competition in the north after 1867 when the
Groningen firm of Prins Zwanenburg opened a shipping office for emigrants and
freight cargo to North America. Anne Zwanenburg staffed the headquarters office in
the Frisian port of Harlingen, and senior partner Arend Martens Prins became resident
agent in the head office at Groningen.16
Other Rotterdam firms were Van Dam Smeer, Cornelius Balguerie Zoon, De
Kuyper, and P.A. van Es Company. At Amsterdam Wehlburg Breuker and
Ponselet Zonen advertised their services. Ponselet served as agent for Pieter
Zonnels Seceder group from the province of Overijssel in May of 1847." Amsterdam
ticket prices were considerably cheaper than those from Rotterdam but sailings were
less regular.
The emigration companies in the Dutch port cities not only stationed agents in
interior cities and advertised widely in newspapers throughout the Netherlands, but
the most ambitious firms, such as Prins Zwanenburg, sent partners and representa
tives to the Dutch settlements in the United States to sell prepaid tickets and to serve
as immigration agents for American railroad companies. Martin W. Prins Jr., son of
the senior partner, went to Chicago, and his partner Theodore F. Koch settled in St.
Paul. The firm printed glossy brochures and advertised their services and farmlands
regularly in local newspapers. The number of prepaid tickets used by the Dutch is
unknown, but it certainly increased over time as the immigrants became established
in America and could afford to send for family members.18
The Dutch brokerages had to work hard to compete for the lucrative trade with
foreign agencies from Antwerp, such as Steinman Company and Adolph Strauss
and his son Henry, who operated alongside the Dutch houses. Strauss and Steinman
advertised weekly in Dutch newspapers in the south. Strauss's ads in 1862 and 1863
cleverly included the text of the new American Homestead Law which appealed to
small farmers. The ads also stressed that there were regular sailings each Saturday by
steamboat directly from Antwerp to New York, as well as twice a month sailings on
Naar JVJEUTF-YORKhet Nederlandschc gekoperde
FREGATSCHIP JJSSRLKapitein C. J. A. Ver brug.
Naar JVJEUJV-YORKhet Pruissische gekoperde
BRIKSCHIP PROTEUSKapitein Dubel.
Naar BALTIMOREhet Nederlandsche gekoperde
BARKSCHIP JOH ANN JACOBKapit. L. van Geelkerken.
Alle om spoedig na open water te vertrekken. Adres bij
de Cargadoors WAMBERSIE en CROOSWIJCK aldaar.
Advertisement in the Middelburgsche Courant by Wambersie en
Crooswijck, february 1847
TRAVEL ROUTES OE ZEELAND EMIGRANTS
23
