The Tercentennial Celebration of the Half-Moon -1909

The Committee appointed by the Board of Trustees to present the facts which show the part which The Holland Society and its members took in the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in September 1909, report as follows:

The first public record which we have found is the communication made in the year 1896 by our late fellow member, the Reverend J. Howard Suydam, D.D. to the newspapers of New York. In this letter, he alluded to the fact that the three hundredth centennial of the arrival of Hudson and the Half Moon would be thirteen years later in the year 1909, and therefore urged the proper and public celebration of such an historic event.

At the banquet of The Holland Society in July 1900, our late fellow member, the Honorable Robert B. Roosevelt, one-time U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, suggested that proper observance should be made of the tercentenary of the discovery of the Hudson River. He was filled with enthusiasm and stated that he had made out in his mind details of the celebration. He suggested that something magnificent was bound to come with the celebration – bridges, statues, exhibitions, etc. He pictured the great size of New York in the year 1909, some nine years later, and proposed that a great company be organized to carry on such a celebration and even to erect exhibition buildings on some site overlooking the Hudson River, and particularly a lofty commemorative tower at the Battery. In conversation with other eminent New Yorkers, he fostered this idea.

On June 13, 1901, the Trustees of The Holland Society, at the suggestion of Mr. Theodore M. Banta, then our Secretary and afterwards our President, adopted resolutions in favor of the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River by a Dutch ship, and the President of the Society then appointed a Committee to consider the subject consisting of Messrs. Augustus Van Wyck, Warner Van Norden, Theodore M. Banta, Robert B. Roosevelt, and Henry Van Dyke.

At this meeting, Mr. H. Roosevelt Ostrom presented a letter suggesting that a monument should be erected to the founders of the city of New York.

In December 1905, the first meeting of the organizers of the Hudson Celebration was held in New York and thereafter proposed the incorporation of the Hudson Tercentenary Commission, of which organizers more than seven were members of The Holland Society.

Thereafter it was deemed advisable to add to the Hudson Celebration, the celebration of the first steamboat of Fulton’s on the Hudson River, and a law was passed by the Legislature of the State of New York in 1905 incorporating the Commission. Of the incorporators thereof more than thirteen were members of The Holland Society.

The Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission began the work of preparing for the celebration and many additional members were added to its Trustees and to the Commission during the time of its work down to the weeks of the celebration in September 1909.

Of the Trustees and members of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission about thirty were members of The Holland Society.

Many of them took an active part in the work of the Commission; one was a member of its Executive Committee and three members of The Holland Society were chairmen of important standing committees of the Commission who did constant work in planning, organizing, and accomplishing the work of the celebration.

Not only was a Holland Society man a member of the Executive Committee but one was the Chairman of the Historical Committee of the Memorials Committee and of the General Commemorative Exercises Committee. These committees were very active in the work of the Celebration.

Of the nine members of the Half Moon Committee of the Commission, five were members of The Holland Society. On the other important committees namely, Plan and Scope, Dedications, Hudson River Scenery, Invitations, Military Parade, Nominations, Reception, Religious Services, Patriotic Societies, and Upper Hudson River Committees, there were members of The Holland Society.

The work of the Chairman of the Historical Committee, Mr. Samuel V. Hoffman, was great and arduous, having much to do not only with the historic exhibits and collections of the Commission but also with the preparation of the pictures, etc of the great historic pageant. Another Holland Society man, Edward Van Winkle, was Chairman of the Committee Representing the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in charge of an historical exhibit in the United Engineering Building illustrating that part which the engineers took in the development of marine transportation.

The work of the Memorials Committee under its Chairman, Tunis G. Bergen, had to do not only with the work of advising and planning as to the memorials that were made and erected in honor of the celebration such as the Hudson Monument at Spuyten Duyvil, the great tablet erected by Mr. Billings in honor of the landing of the Half Moon, but also with arranging the publications of the Commission which consisted of the official program, of the exercises for two weeks, the souvenir program which consisted of pictures of the floats in the historic parade and historic sketches connected therewith, much of the good work of which was done by the Chairman of the Historic Committee, Mr. Hoffman, especially the smaller souvenirs and the postal cards of the celebration.

The chairman of the General Commemorative Exercises Committee, Pres. Jacob G. Schurman of Cornell, did great work in arranging the exercises of commemoration throughout the State outside of New York City.

It was a member of The Holland Society, Tunis G. Bergen, who in the winter of 1907 first made suggestions to the Queen and people of the Netherlands concerning the possible construction of a replica of the famous ship the Half Moon. This idea was considered by the court and by eminent people in the Netherlands and thereafter the idea grew in other minds. Contributions were made and the Netherlands Half Moon Commission was created, which built the new Half Moon on the historic lines of the old ship of 1609 with veritable old oak, furnished her in accordance with the historic records of the time, including many interesting and original articles which had been in use on ships of the period of the old Half Moon at a cost of $30,000.

In the summer of 1908, a member of The Holland Society, Tunis G. Bergen who was sent as an envoy to the Netherlands to extend the thanks of the Hudson-Fulton Commission to the Netherlands Commission for their promise of the gift of the new Half Moon and to invite them to the celebration.

In the summer of 1909, this same member of The Holland Society was again sent as an envoy of the Hudson-Fulton Commission to the Netherlands to convey expressions of gratitude to the Netherlands Half Moon Commission and the people of Holland for their generosity in constructing the new ship and for their intention to present it to the Commission carrying with him official diplomas of the Commission appointing the members of the Netherlands Commission as Honorary Foreign Councillors to the New York State Commission.

In March 1909, a Special Committee was appointed by the Trustees of The Holland Society to take measures for the participation of the Society in the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. This Committee was reorganized in June, 1909.

The President and officers of The Holland Society at about that time determined to offer to escort the members of the Netherlands Commission after their arrival in New York on a special steam boat to salute the Half Moon at her anchorage at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. It was not found possible to engage a steamboat of such size as would be admitted to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and also accommodate all the members of The Holland Society who might wish to join in the excursion. Therefore the expenses thereof were not made a charge upon the Society but were borne by the officers trustees and such members of The Holland Society and their ladies as the boat was able to accommodate.

The Chairman of the Committee, Tunis G.Bergen, then sailed for Holland as an envoy of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. While there he received honors and hospitality from the distinguished people of the Netherlands, not only because he was an envoy of the Commission, but also because he was a member of The Holland Society and a descendant of the New Netherlanders. He extended the invitation of the President, Officers, and Trustees of The Holland Society to the members of the Netherlands Commission and the ladies in their party to be escorted on the steam boat Commodore to the Half Moon at the Navy Yard on some day agreeable to them after their arrival in New York. This invitation was gladly accepted by the Netherlanders.

The invitation was also extended to the ladies and gentlemen of the Netherlands Commission to attend a banquet to be given in their honor by The Holland Society soon after the arrival of the Netherlanders in New York. This invitation was also promptly accepted by the Netherlanders These acceptances were cabled to New York by Mr Bergen.

Arrangements were then made for the escort by the steamboat Commodore to the Half Moon and also for the banquet The Chairman of the Committee went out on a revenue cutter boarded the Dutch steamer New Amsterdam on its arrival at the port and welcomed the members of the Netherlands Commission to New York in the name of the Hudson-Fulton Commission and also in the name of The Holland Society.

Three days after their arrival in New York on September 25, 1909, the steamboat Commodore, the flag of The Holland Society waving at the bow, received the members of the Netherlands Commission at the pier at the foot of East 24th Street, and they were escorted by the officers and members of our Society under rainy skies down the East River, partly up the Hudson River, and then to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The skies, however, cleared as they disembarked at the Navy Yard where the distinguished guests and our members were received by Commander Murdock in charge of the Navy Yard with a platoon of marines who presented arms. The Dutch colors were hoisted on the Half Moon by her crew in ancient costume and were saluted by cannon.

The Netherlanders and their ladies escorted by the officers and members of The Holland Society and their ladies then proceeded to the Half Moon.

The Chairman of the Committee, Tunis G. Bergen, embarked upon the ship and in a little speech welcomed the Netherlanders to the ship which was their gift now in American waters and thanked them in the name of the Hudson-Fulton Commission and of The Holland Society for their magnificent historic contribution to the Celebration. Mr. J.F. Cremer, representing Her Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands, made a short speech in response and invited all to embark upon the ship. After inspecting the ship with its interesting equipment and ancient furniture in the low-ceiled cabins of the seventeenth century and wondering at the narrow quarters in which the crew and passengers of that period crossed the Atlantic, all proceeded to accept the invitation to visit the Dutch man-of-war Utrecht lying close to the Half Moon as her escort and were there received by Captain Colenbrander and his officers with the salute of her guns.

A hasty photograph of the Half Moon with the Chairman of the Committee making his speech and the officers of the ship in ancient uniform will be found in this book. Another photograph of some of the members of the Commission and officers of the Society taken on the steamboat Commodore in the glare of the light is also appended.

That same evening at the Waldorf-Astoria, a dinner by The Holland Society was given to the Netherlanders in charge of the Committee. The dinner was presided over by President Henry S. Van Duzer and although the time was short for sending out invitations and making preparations (not more than four days) more than three hundred guests were present – a brilliant assemblage lighted up by the uniforms of the officers of the Dutch man-of-War Utrecht, and of the American officers who escorted them from the Navy Yard in special motor cars provided by the Committee.

At the same time in another dining hall of the Waldorf-Astoria the President of the Society, Mr. Van Duzer, gave a dinner to the ladies of the Netherlands Commission presided over by his sister, Mrs. Burton, aided by Mrs. Tunis G. Bergen, who had met most of the guests during her visits in Holland, and other ladies of the families of The Holland Society members. After their dinner the ladies were escorted to the boxes overlooking the banquet hall of the Society in time for the toasts, some of the Netherlands ladies expressing their surprise that they were not invited together with their husbands to the grand banquet itself.

Many other hospitalities were extended to the members of the Netherlands Commission and their ladies and to the officers of the Dutch man-of-war Utrecht, by the President members of the Committee and of the Society.

This escort of the Netherlands Commission to salute the colors on the Half Moon and the banquet by The Holland Society were the introductions to the great Hudson-Fulton Celebration. These two affairs were approved by the Hudson-Fulton Commission and were included as a prelude to the official program of the Celebration. So it was that The Holland Society, as was eminently proper, was the first to inaugurate the Celebration and receive the Netherlanders and the Half Moon. It was fitting that the descendants of the New Netherlanders should have this honor because the Dutch ship Half Moon was the keynote of the great Celebration.

The Holland Society Committee also obtained, through the courtesy and cooperation of the St. Nicholas Society, a block of very desirable seats to view the three land parades which took place in the city on Tuesday, September 28th. Thursday, September 30th, and Saturday, October 2nd, the first and second being the historical and military parade in the daytime and the third the carnival parade in the evening. This Celebration has now passed into history and its memory will be enduring. Participated in by many millions of people the harbor of New York, the streets and buildings of the city, and the banks of the Hudson presented historic spectacles that never had an equal. The Half Moon again ascended “The Great River” and bowed to the salutes of every city, town, and village from New York to Albany. Descendants of the Dutch and members of The Holland Society at every place vied with one another in their efforts to welcome their mother ship and lighted many bonfires on the neighboring hills.

Some of the results of the great pageants of this Celebration may have seemed fleeting and intangible at first, but on reflection, it will appear that the history of the discovery of the Hudson River and the settlement of the Dutch in America has been written by these gigantic pageants in letters of flame which will be remembered for years to come and gave the Half Moon her first American salute when the old Dutch colors were hoisted. It is some satisfaction to us to know that The Holland Society had no little part in the great event.

 

TUNIS G. BERGEN
Chairman of the Committee, etc.

The 1910 Year Book of The Holland Society of New York Year Book

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The Half Moon replica from Holland to New York for the 1909 Celebration