Pella Dutch: Portrait of a Language in an Iowa Community, An Expanded Edition

PART TWO: The Culture

PART TWO The Culture Among the iconic symbols of Pella’s Dutch heritage are its thousands of springtime tulips, functional and decorative windmills (including one serving as a drive-through bank), and wooden shoes prominently displayed as a decorative element in homes and businesses, or worn to complete the Tulip Time Costume. Phil Webber Lori Souza Pella Historical Society Phil Webber Evolving Attitudes toward Language and Ethnicity WHILE many of the following recollections, observations , and excerpts from the historical record might as easily appear in an ethnographic monograph or even in a work of popular history (rather than in a strictly linguistic study), no section of this book is more important to an understanding of how Pella's Dutch-Americans have tended over time to view their ethnicity and their language . Virtually every speaker stood poised to tell a tale of what it has meant to be Dutch and to be a speaker of the language, and as often as not, when individuals were not answering specific questions on language forms or use, they attempted to steer the conversation toward a sharing of just such recollections. I have tried here to present a distillation of these often poignant personal accounts as a complement to the primarily objective material of the other parts, and thereby offer an insight into how members of the speaker pool feel, at the most subjective level, about their heritage and about the language that until within their own lifetime was the chief vehicle by which that heritage was transmitted. 41 Eendracht Maakt Macht, or: Divide and Be Conqueredl AT first glance, Pella appears to be a fairly homogeneous ethnic community. This initial impression of cohesiveness and ethnic solidarity is reinforced by the local residents' fairly precise understanding of just how far Dutch territory extends, and just where the "American" sphere of influence begins. (See Figure 2.1, where boundaries of "Dutch Territory" attempt at best to present a consensus of opinions, rather than fixed lines of demarcation .) Oskaloosa, seventeen miles to the southeast, is viewed as an American town made tolerable by a fairly large Dutch representation. New Sharon, about the same distance to the northeast, and Knoxville, a few miles closer than either of the other two and the Marion County seat, are frequently written off as being beyond the pale, despite visible Dutch constituencies. The small nearby communities of Peoria, Otley (where all five pupils and the teacher of a recently enrolled elementary class had names beginning with Van), and Leighton are accorded the status of "ours" (Le., Dutch) not only on the basis of actual ethnic representation, but also on the relative loyalty of their residents to the Reformed or Christian Reformed Church.1 In former times, there were several additional tiny outposts, such as Bethel (or the Bethel-buurt [neighborhood ]) north and west of Pella, and Olivet to the south between Tracy and Leighton, which were felt to be notably Dutch both in heritage and perception. Most such communities have lost their place on the map and can no longer be observed by an outside investigator, though it is interesting to note that an almost mythic memory lingers on in some circles of a time and a place characterized by 42 THE CULTURE Fig. 2.1. Approximate extent of Pella's "Dutch Territory" (Reprinted, by pennission, from the Iowa Department of Transportation.) an unadulterated ethnic integrity that is being lost in Pella. A closer view, however, allows us to see that the reported halcyon unity of earlier days was not altogether impervious to divisions of various sorts. It has been noted by several scholars that the Dutch who migrated to America tended not to come as individuals, but rather as part of transplanted communities. Hence, the Dutchman arriving in Pella was interested not merely in allying himself with compatriots from the homeland, but specifically with other persons from his province, if possible with those from his hometown, and wherever opportunity presented itself, with his own kinfolk.3 At least in the Pella area, homestead sites seem to 43 PELLA DUTCH have been chosen with an eye toward finding environments similar to, or reminiscent of, familiar ones in the Netherlands. Hence, the Frisians gravitated toward the open prairie land northwest of Pella, immigrants from Gelderland sought out the rocky, hilly timberland south of town, and the relatively few Groningers...