Nathaniel Boswell House Wyoming Ontario ??

This is a card that I acquired. In my family it was a significant day as my great grandfather was an Orangeman. He almost had a heart attack because he was so happy that I was almost born on the "Glorious 12th of July." I was born on July 11th.. I fly the Orange from the front of our home proudly every July 12th.

This item ran in the Petrolia Topic May 9/07 and we thought it was a good story for the Wyoming page.

By JOHN PHAIR
The Dresden Leader
One might wonder why a guy named Campbell, who lives in a town with an Anglo name like Petrolia, would have such an interest in post-Second World War Dutch history.
Joel Campbell is a Petrolia councillor and LCCVI English teacher and was guest speaker at the regular meeting of the Dawn Township Historical Society.
He explained that along with his Scottish roots, his mother's maiden name was Wilpstra and that side of his family came to Canada from the Netherlands in 1948.
Another reason for his abiding interest in Dutch history, he suggests, may have something to do with the fact he grew up in Wyoming.
With 17 per cent its population either Dutch immigrants or the offspring of Dutch immigrants, he says that makes it the second most Dutch town in Canada.
"When you live in a small town and attend a Christian Reformed Church and a Christian school, you are immersed in a very Dutch Canadian culture," he said, adding he wrote several papers on the subject while attending the University of Western Ontario where he received an MA in public history.
"I wanted to know more about my Dutch heritage, not only in a local sense but about things that were personal," he said.
"I wanted to look at the role Canadians played in liberating Holland and what it was that prompted my grandparents and so many like them to come to Canada."
Campbell said a spirit of friendship between Canada and the Netherlands developed during the Second World War.
He noted that during the Second World War, the Dutch Royal family fled to England at first and later, princess Juliana, who would later become Queen, moved to Canada.
While there, she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Margarette, in an Ottawa hospital.
Through an act of Parliament, the Canadian government declared the hospital room was on Dutch soil so it could be said the princess was born on Dutch territory.
"There was a fascinating relationship developed and every year since, the Netherlands sends tulip bulbs to Canada in recognition of the favour the Canadian government did for them," he said.
He also noted Canada's involvement with the Netherlands escalated in 1944 when following the D-Day invasion of Europe, Canada's second and third divisions were given the task of liberating Holland from the Nazis, a task it completed by May 5, 1945, three days prior to Victory-Day in Europe.
He noted the Canadian troops did not pull out right away and consequently many of the soldiers became enamoured with Dutch girls.
"Canada was looked upon as a desirable country and Canadians appeared to be healthy and good people to the Dutch," he said.
Consequently, the first wave of Dutch immigrants to Canada was largely made up of war brides and their children and numbered 1,886 in 1946.
"They were the first group of post-war Dutch immigrants," he said.
Campbell said while researching citizenship and immigration records at university, he started to notice there was an explanation of what brought so many Dutch immigrants to Ontario and particularly to, what he calls, the "four counties" region of Lambton, Kent, Middlesex and Elgin Counties.
He noted more than 200,000 Dutch immigrants have come to Canada since the end of the Second World War, with the majority — 120,000 or about 60 per cent — arriving in a 10-year window from 1946 to 1956.
Of those numbers, he said 10 per cent settled in the Maritimes, 34 per cent went to the Western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
But the majority, fully 55 per cent, settled in southwestern Ontario, with the majority of those opting to live in the four-county area.
Campbell said there are two reasons for that: one being cultural.
But the largest factor by far, he says, is geographical.
"Southwestern Ontario had something the rest of the country did not; the beginning of Dutch churches that had been started by a wave of Dutch immigrants following the First World War," said Campbell.
"Canada was attractive to them not only because there were jobs here but because there was also some type of cultural framework in that there were churches and other Dutch people here."
However, he said the larger reason was geographical, pointing out the area is highly similar of the Netherlands in terms of climate, growing conditions and the wide range of soil types prevalent in the area.
"The land here is the same range of sand, loam and clay found in the Netherlands," he said.
In addition, he noted the drainage system is similar as well.
"In the Netherlands, the land is drained into the ocean while in Southwestern Ontario, it is drained into the Great Lakes
. . . the Dutch people felt right at home working this land and growing essentially the mix of crops grown in Holland."
Campbell noted most of the Dutch immigrants came as farm labourers and it took many years of hard work before they owned their own farms.
However, there was one industry prevalent in Lambton and Chatham-Kent that assisted many along that route, that being the sugar beet industry.
"Many Dutch immigrants worked in the sugar beets and many of the women were employed in the processing plants bagging sugar and sewing the cloth sugar bags," he noted.
However, Campbell said inspite of their obstacles and personal struggles, the Dutch successfully transplanted themselves and set down deep roots from which their family trees have grown and continue to thrive.
"So when you go out in the community and wonder what it was that attracted large numbers of Dutch to Lambton and Chatham-Kent, just consider this was the most comfortable alternative, it was geographically and to a limited extent, socially, a miniature of the Netherlands," said Campbell.