David Stapel (II) 1793 - 1879 Gendt on Waal
Tailor, day-labourer, beadle, postmaster, postman
David Stapel was born November 26, 1793 in Gendt on Waal. He was twelve and his little brother Hendrik five only when their father Jan Hendrik died. Somehow and with a stroke of luck mother Johanna could manage. Their garden provided potatoes, vegetables and fruits, while eggs, milk and sometimes meat came from their chickens and the goat. Even well in her fourties she earned some money as a milker, in cheese-making and on the fields. David and his brothers were expected to help and soon to work along, but in the meantime with some assistence he could learn to read and write. That would enable him to become a postmaster or a beadle and even take measures as a tailor. Then he would earn a little more than the daily 10 or so five-cent pieces of a day-labourer.
With such earnings you married young only when you must, like his 23 year old brother Jan Willem, his bride Geertruijda van Swelm already six months pregnant. With his younger brothers David did not consider marriage seriously until much later, in his mid thirties. Although she came from Angeren, an hour's walk to the north, he had met Aleijda Berntsen on the horse fair in Gendt. A refreshing lass she was, 14 years younger than him, who knew how to manage things and able to write too. They married 1828 in the townhall and in the Dutch Reformed church of Gendt and had a dozen children of whom the first Johanna Cornelia and the first Gradus died as sucklings.
Of the remaining ten only David spent all his life in Gendt, following his father as a beadle and also working for the water board to maintain trees, wooded banks and hedges in the polder. Jan Hendrik was a special case: as a salesman he attended neighbouring markets where in 1874 he was persecuted by the law for recalcitrance. The eight others spread litterally in all directions. Hendrika Berendina married Jan Tomas, then in Nijmegen for militairy service. Jan Willem Carel became a county constable in Bergen (L), after his militairy service. Bernardus and Johanna Cornelia both married a Bierenbroodspot in Hoorn, Johannes became a county constable in Rijswijk (SH), Christoffel worked in Leijden and later in Duisburg (G), Elisabeth worked scarcely as a 19 year old in a Nijmegen household when she came back to live some 5 years in Bemmel where she had her first son, then married in Dordrecht and later as a widdow remarried Willem Bertus Pabst, railway engineer in The Hague. Finally Gradus, the youngest, was seen as a dragoon in The Hague too. All their destinations had in common that they could be reached by water, in their time the most comfortable way of travel when you could afford to wait for favourable winds.
Aleijda died in 1872, 65 years old. David reached the old age of 86. A couple with little means that raised ten children to healthy adults with a curious and enterprising spirit.
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Tailor, day-labourer, beadle, postmaster, postman
David Stapel was born November 26, 1793 in Gendt on Waal. He was twelve and his little brother Hendrik five only when their father Jan Hendrik died. Somehow and with a stroke of luck mother Johanna could manage. Their garden provided potatoes, vegetables and fruits, while eggs, milk and sometimes meat came from their chickens and the goat. Even well in her fourties she earned some money as a milker, in cheese-making and on the fields. David and his brothers were expected to help and soon to work along, but in the meantime with some assistence he could learn to read and write. That would enable him to become a postmaster or a beadle and even take measures as a tailor. Then he would earn a little more than the daily 10 or so five-cent pieces of a day-labourer.
With such earnings you married young only when you must, like his 23 year old brother Jan Willem, his bride Geertruijda van Swelm already six months pregnant. With his younger brothers David did not consider marriage seriously until much later, in his mid thirties. Although she came from Angeren, an hour's walk to the north, he had met Aleijda Berntsen on the horse fair in Gendt. A refreshing lass she was, 14 years younger than him, who knew how to manage things and able to write too. They married 1828 in the townhall and in the Dutch Reformed church of Gendt and had a dozen children of whom the first Johanna Cornelia and the first Gradus died as sucklings.
Of the remaining ten only David spent all his life in Gendt, following his father as a beadle and also working for the water board to maintain trees, wooded banks and hedges in the polder. Jan Hendrik was a special case: as a salesman he attended neighbouring markets where in 1874 he was persecuted by the law for recalcitrance. The eight others spread litterally in all directions. Hendrika Berendina married Jan Tomas, then in Nijmegen for militairy service. Jan Willem Carel became a county constable in Bergen (L), after his militairy service. Bernardus and Johanna Cornelia both married a Bierenbroodspot in Hoorn, Johannes became a county constable in Rijswijk (SH), Christoffel worked in Leijden and later in Duisburg (G), Elisabeth worked scarcely as a 19 year old in a Nijmegen household when she came back to live some 5 years in Bemmel where she had her first son, then married in Dordrecht and later as a widdow remarried Willem Bertus Pabst, railway engineer in The Hague. Finally Gradus, the youngest, was seen as a dragoon in The Hague too. All their destinations had in common that they could be reached by water, in their time the most comfortable way of travel when you could afford to wait for favourable winds.
Aleijda died in 1872, 65 years old. David reached the old age of 86. A couple with little means that raised ten children to healthy adults with a curious and enterprising spirit.
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How in such a small day-labourer's cottage a family of 12 children could be raised is beyond our imagination.
David was hired now and then by a local brick-factory; his son David maintained trees, wooded banks and hedges for the water board.
(Source: Verkade album)
(home = www.cstapel.nl)
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Genealogical data
David Stapel (II), son of Johan Hendrik
26-November-1793 Gendt (on Waal)
Aleijda Berntsen, 8-Feb-1828 Gendt on Waal
30 November 1879
tailor, day-labourer, postmaster, beadle
David Stapel (II), son of Johan Hendrik
26-November-1793 Gendt (on Waal)
Aleijda Berntsen, 8-Feb-1828 Gendt on Waal
30 November 1879
tailor, day-labourer, postmaster, beadle