Long Before Mexican Farm Workers, the Dutch Saved Addison County Dairying
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Summary
Farming is encoded in the Dutch families' genes. "One of the first words kids learn after 'yes' and 'no' is 'farm,'" Boesman says.
To neighboring outsiders, however, the Dutch farmers still comprise a cohesive, distinctive community. "They're a major reason why there's still farms here," says Charlie Langworthy, a member of the Ferrisburgh Historical Society. "Their kids are also more apt to go into farming than are others. They also tend to be pretty conservative," Langworthy adds, suggesting that local voters of Dutch descent may account in part for why Addison County's lone Republican state legislator represents the towns of Addison, Ferrisburgh, Panton, Vergennes and Waltham.Younger generations clearly don't hold the same attitudes, even though Dutch families in Addison County "remain very closely knit," Albaugh observes. One way Dutch identity gets reinforced is through the visits that many of the families make to the mother country. [Joan DeGraaf], for example, says she and her husband Bob took four of their five adult children to the Netherlands about 10 years ago. It was an eye-opening experience, she recalls. The DeGraafs' children, all born in the U.S., had become thoroughly Americanized, but after a couple of weeks of visiting relatives in Friesland province in the northern Netherlands, "They felt very much at home there," DeGraaf says.See the full content of this document
Extract
Long Before Mexican Farm Workers, the Dutch Saved Addison County Dairying
Vermont's Abenaki and French heritage is being celebrated during the Vermont Lake Champlain Quadricentennial, which will also highlight the recent influx of immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Balkans. But little attention is being paid to a still-distinctive community of Dutch-descended farmers that has influenced the culture and politics of Addison County for the past 60 years.
The collective story of these 100...See the full content of this document
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