A newer Amsterdam
Publication Information
[Kalamazoo, Michigan : Brent L. Coates], [2025].
Physical Description
1 volume (unpaged) ; 28 cm
Summary
"Among the papers of Paul Wideman Huntington Rawls in KPL's Local History collection there is an essay titled, A NEW AMSTERDAM. It was first thought to be one of the writings by Rawls from his college days at the U of M Branch school in Kalamazoo or when he studied on the Ann Arbor campus. However, on the back of the essay's final page the author printed his name, class, and date; Paul U. Kellogg, English 2, March 24, 1902. This Paul was the son of Frank Israel Kellogg, Rawls' half-brother, who left Kalamazoo to attend Columbia College. Paul W.H. Rawls' mother, Irene Loomis, in 1830, had moved with young Rawls to Bronson, as Kalamazoo was called at that time. Within a brief time, Irene married local entrepreneur, Israel Kellogg. From this union, were born four children of whom Rawls wrote fondly of in his letters from Ann Arbor. Frank was often mentioned in the letters with friendly older brother jibes. It is probable that Frank named his second son Paul in memory of Rawls, who had died young after suffering from an illness caught in Mexico when he went to fight in the war in 1848. Paul U. Kellogg grew up in Kalamazoo and graduated from Kalamazoo High School in 1897, the same year as his almost two-year older brother Arthur, with an emphasis in English. A year earlier, Paul took a job at the Kalamazoo Telegraph as a staff-writer. Two years later he became the city editor and worked in that position until the summer of 1901. He resigned his position as he was moving to New York to attend Columbia College, 1901-1905. In the spring of 1902, he wrote the essay A NEW AMSTERDAM for an English class. The paper tells of the arrival of Paulus den Bleyker and his followers and their accidental settling in Kalamazoo. It begins with a historical recap of the Dutch immigrant's arrival in the village and the ill-treatment they received while quarantined and blamed for an unexplained illness that suddenly appeared in the village. Kellogg tells how during that time, the Dutch leader Paulus den Bleyker looked over the area for suitability of farming with the intent that if the land was good, he would set out to buy 'outright the whole of their dom (stupid) town.' From den Bleyker's 'vow' to establish an industrious Dutch community became the guiding force of the new settlers and continued after their leader's death. The essay then becomes a cultural anthropological study of the Dutch, comparing the new breed of Hollander with their earlier ancestors who settled in New York. While the first group built a New Amsterdam that existed for forty-two years, the second group's 'New Amsterdam' would survive longer through the creation of a stronger, harder working people determined to hang on to customs and rituals and not afraid to get dirty. The essay received a B+. A year before graduating from Columbia, Kellogg had accepted the position of editor for The Survey, a magazine that investigated and worked to make change in the important social issues of the day. Kellogg was noted for his reporting and work with charitable organizations. His investigation of the Pittsburgh steel industry helped to abolish the seven-day work week and led to the creation of the eight-hour workday. Along with improved working conditions, Kellogg championed the working class and poor's rights for better housing, ending discrimination, and the protection of civil liberties. While Kellogg admired the technological advances of the mid-twentieth century, he felt they were only successful if balanced with success in social achievements. Paul U. Kellogg died in New York City in 1958. The transcription of NEW AMSTERDAM is based on the editing found in the manuscript by both the author and grader to help with the ease of reading. Where Kellogg used Dutch or French words, I have preserved them in the text, but with spelling corrections. Like his uncle, Paul W. H. Rawls, Paul U. Kellogg also wrote with a creative vocabulary, sometimes with altered spellings, for which the grader shows the corrections and I have followed. The grammar and structure are left untouched to preserve the author's words and view of his subject"--from introduction by Brent L. Coates.
Notes
Spiral-bound.
Transcription of the original 1902 document. If the reader wishes to view the original, it is available on request at the Local History Desk (Kalamazoo Public Library).