Ferdinanda Dekraauw and the Baders

In the previous post I wrote about how the Bader family arrived in Canada from Holland in the 1920s. But there is more to the story of their journey, and that ‘more’ comes from the granddaughter of a fellow passenger who travelled on the boat to Canada.

A young woman named Ferdinanda DeKraauw was born and grew up in Rotterdam and became a formally trained Registered Nurse. Like the Baders, her fiancé, Caspar Golhof, too had applied to go to the USA and was also turned down. So, again like the Baders, he applied to Canada and was accepted. He’d arrived in Canada in 1924 and was sent to Alberta as a farmer, even though his original occupation was cooper.

After two years in Canada, he saved enough money to send for his fiancée to join him.

Ferdinanda’s granddaughter interviewed her and recorded the story in Ferdinanda’s own words. This has been prepared using that original story, which shows that her native language was not English. The quotes that appear are direct from her before Ferdinanda died.

After her fiancé sent for her, Ferdinanda booked passage on a ship called the Marburn that was leaving Antwerp on on 23 April 1926. Before she was to leave for Canada, she had to have travel papers prepared by an agent in Rotterdam. The agent mentioned to her that he had prepared papers for a large family from Warmond who would be traveling on the same voyage.

Since Ferdinanda was travelling solo, she thought it would be good to meet that family before the trip so she would know someone on the ship. Ferdinanda, her sister and her brother bicycled the 40 km from Rotterdam to Warmond to meet the Baders.

Postcard of Warmond in 1905 showing the neighbourhood where the Baders lived.

They had apparently simply arrived in town and asked for directions to the home of the Baders, since all she had was their last name. When they eventually found the house, Ferdinanda introduced herself and explained that she would be travelling on the ship with them.

This is apparently a photograph of the street where the Baders lived in Warmond taken in the early 1900s.

Ferdinanda said that the Baders were very welcoming, and that she thought both the parents and the young people were all very nice. She and the Bader family arranged to meet in Rotterdam and travel together on the train to Antwerp.

Photo of the Antwerp docks taken in the 1920s.

Ferdinanda said, “First in the train we stayed together and so the whole trip, and many people thought I belonged to the big family.”

Unfortunately, Ferdinanda was sick in bed for the first three days of the voyage. “The two eldest girls of Bader’s were fine company for me, and in general we had lots of fun. It was a nice trip except for the first three days. The photographer made pictures of the Bader family, and I am supposed to be with them on the picture.”

The Bader clan with Ferdinanda on the Marburn.

Ferdinanda’s granddaughter wrote that her grandmother and the Bader girls had so much fun together and that they instigated a prank. One of the boys who hung around with the group on the boat was named Jan Stuyt and many passengers thought he was Ferdinanda’s boyfriend. The Bader girls took the bouquet of flowers from a dining table and had Ferdinanda kneel in front of Jan and ask him to marry her. “She said all the people had lots of laughs about it.”

Ferdinanda is bottom centre in this photo taken on the Marburn.

A photo of all the passengers on the Marburn. It's difficult to identify individuals because of the poor quality.

Ferdinanda’s granddaughter wrote that there were many mixups with the English language, as her grandmother only spoke Dutch at the time she travelled to Canada. “From the boat we had to go over to the custom’s office, and one of the agents asked me ‘Are you Dutch?’ I said ‘No! Hollands.’” The word ‘Dutch’ had sounded like the Dutch word for German, which is ‘Duitse.’

Ferdinanda said, “When we came from the boat we all had to go with a bus to the train. The train didn’t leave for four hours so we took a walk together, the Baders and their company."

Canadian Pacific train circa 1926.

The train stopped in Winnipeg, which was the immigration hub for Western Canada. "We went in Winnipeg to Chinatown and got our first meal in Canada in a cafe for 25 cents each, full meal.” Since it took several days to get to Winnipeg from Montreal, they must have eaten on the train though.
Ferdinanda said the train journey to Calgary was not as nice as the boat voyage. “We had to sleep on the bench, our own seat, it was hard."

Interior of a Canadian railway car in 1926. According to Ferdinanda she and the Baders did not have sleeper compartments or berths (above), so would have slept on the benches.

"When it came time to separate we felt sorry because we knew each other well although it was a short time.”

After arriving in Alberta, Ferdinands married her fiancé and began having children.

Ferdinanda on the farm in Granum, Alberta.

Ferdinanda kept in touch with the Baders, and in 1930 she and her husband decided to move to Vancouver — I believe the harsh winters were the reason.

Ferdinanda’s family stayed in the Bader house when they arrived in Vancouver, and the Baders helped them get settled. Adrian Bader was working on a farm in Cloverdale at the time and he took Ferdinanda’s husband to work on a farm in Cloverdale with him to help him earn money until he could find a job in Vancouver.

Ferdinanda and her family after they moved to Vancouver. Caspar Jr. is one of the twins front centre.

The two families remained friends for many years. One of Ferdinanda’s sons happened to live across the street from the location of the last Bader reunion, which was held at Trout Lake. Caspar Jr., although 89 years old, walked over to the park and met several of Baders who attended.