Grandfather
Charles Gabriel E. Zetteler
(1868-1931)
b. Milwaukee, to Charles G. E. Zetteler
 (1846-1920) of Vlissingen,
The Netherlands, & Anna (nee) Wahlfort
 (1845-1931) of Switzerland
d. Milwaukee, WI
Father of Frederick C. Zetteler & daughters
Audrey Buchholz & Arlene Hawver, both deceased -- most recently of Tucson, AZ -- & Marion Witte Stephen [deceased].
Pose is characteristic of Milwaukee Turners (Turnverein) gymnastic club, of which he was a member.


Charles Gabriel Elias Zetteler
He died before I was born.  My Aunt
Marion said she always remembered
his muscular forearms, & passed along
to me his stamp collection -- acquired
through his work at Northwestern
 Mutual Life Insurance -- in junior high school.  I always regretted selling it for
almost nothing during a long slow
 spell on the docks in the 1980s.
My grandmother, who never remarried,
kept the brick duplex near Washington
Park, home of the County
 Zoo at the time.  [For an
 earlier view, click  here]  It was famous for
 Monkey  Island & Old Joe,  King of the Rhesus Monkeys. No doubt that's what made me think of a monkey when my Grandma undressed to put on her nightgown for bed & forgot to tell me to look away.
I could hear the lions roar in the
 morning when I went down to the front
steps near the sidewalk to talk to the bus
drivers who parked at the curb on the boulevard during layovers.  Some of
 them remembered me for years, &
used to ask my relatives what happened
to that little boy that waited for them.
Something I often wondered myself.

Some Zettelers & Prasils smile for the lens c.1950:

[clockwise] Dorothy Zetteler, Bonnie Buchholz, Grandma Christine, Uncle Joe Prasil, Arlene Hawver, Mr. Hands, Aunt Nellie, Mike Zetteler, Aunt Marion, Judy Hawver
                         [Pre-1952]

Nostalgie de l'horizon,
with flying colors

The Zettelers: generations of travellers and entrepreneurs

No needle has points at both ends.  The truth expressed by this eastern saying is like a mirror held up to us by life.  It confronts us with the ceaseless alternation of sunshine and adversity.  A family tree is like a blueprint of that life where it has assumed specific form.

The history of the Zettelers is rich in drama.  For nine generations now a thread has been running, a pattern has developed whose elements are long-lived, even in many cases longer than life itself.

The lines that we can trace back towards our eldest ancestors -- whether they called themselves Sitler, Van Zetteler or simply Zetteler -- undoubtedly extend even further, into the early Middle Ages.  However, in our quest for these deepest roots we are thwarted by as yet insurmountable obstacles.  It is up to the generations after us to try , with this genealogy in hand, to clear the path further back in time.

We pick up the thread of our history in the United Netherlands halfway through the Seventeen Forties.  No one had heard of Napoleon Bonaparte yet, but already the outline of the Batavian Republic was slowly becoming discernible.  If one is prepared to overlook some of the facts about the true balance of power between Stadtholder William IV and the all-powerful States representing the population, the country might still, with some fantasy, be called a monarchy in those days.

As far as our present knowledge goes it remains a mystery what made our German ancestor Friederich August Zetteler decide to try his fortune in our country.  Born in Darmstadt (Hessen, Germany) around 1720, the then 20 years old Friederich Sitler, his German name at that time, set out on a westward trek.  Most probably he went on foot, his knapsack full of strength and optimism.  Whatever it was, the attraction of the United Netherlands in those days lay not in its sunny economic climate, for the chronicles speak of dire times, certainly for the common people, to which Friederich must have belonged.

At the end we find him in Breda, where he changes his name into Zetteler and where in 1749 he marries 30-year old Willemina Streuyck from Werkendam.  Their marriage starts at a time when William IV tries, unsuccessfully, to break the traditional power of the ruling class and of the all-powerful States.  It is a time in which the well-to-do heartlessly enrich themselves while "the common working people live in misery and sorrow while the homes for the poor are packed full."

The long years of wars the Netherlands had to fight against well-nigh each of the neighbouring countries and in which the national resources were constantly threatened with exhaustion, must have been grueling, also for Friederich.  A common phrase in those years was: "The States without resolve, the people without work, offices without number, selling without sanctions, burdens without end -- and every man without hope!"

But Friederich must have been a real fighter, a man who didn't easily give up. Although his profession is not known, our ancestor could surely boast an enterprising spirit.  As family history develops and the family tree grows two major branches, that spirit will become more and more evident.  But whatever his achievements during his life in our country, a great fortune was not among them.  This must be the conclusion from the registration of his decease at the age of 80 in The Hague, on July 1801, and that of his wife Willemina fourteen years before, both by legal counsel paid from public funds.

Crystal Clear

For lack of crystal clear proof, this genealogy takes as its point of departure that the Zettelers, with Friederich August as first known ancestor and figurehead, came to the Netherlands from the East.  The author of the commemorative volume issued at the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the firm Molyn & Co. of Rotterdam, manufacturers of lacquers, varnishes and paints, may have been overstretching his fantasy a little when he had the Zettelers come to our country from Scotland, without either offering hard proof or quoting reliable sources for this; with this, we prefer to leave that statement as it is.

It should be added that the said author is right when he characterizes the Zettelers as enterprising, eager travellers.  With subtle understatement, he notes that the Zettelers "have always been driven by nostalgie de I'horizon."  It may well be said that this suited the Molyns, the founders of the Rotterdam-based company, extremely well.  The Zettelers' nostalgia proved to be most fruitful, particularly in the geographically mobile and representative segments of the company.  It is not without reason that our coat of arms shows a proud, nervously bristling stag with impressive antlers.  The animal is all thirst for action, eagerness to undertake, drive to discover.  To me the image seems to convey a sense of initiative, as a common trait of the Zettelers.  This does not mean, however, that they were invariably successful.  Indeed, as family history shows, they weren't.

The commemorative volume on the Molyn company history does not mention our family in a cursory way, or in passing, as it were.  Willem Frederik Zetteler, born in Rotterdam in 1820, makes his career in the company all the way up from modest travel assistant to director.  His son Willem Frederik Jr., born in 1860 and identified by the numeral II in the company's records, continues along the lines laid out by his father.  In 1895 he becomes senior partner and director, continuing to lead the company until 1918.

Eagerness to Travel

Eagerness to travel and entrepreneurial drive, therefore, are two continuous threads woven into our family history.  In nautical history, too, the family made their contribution, albeit that the toll was high.

Before we set out to recount this voyage, though, we must make another excursion and explain why during a certain period the name Zetteler was dropped in favour of the French name De Bourghelles.  The explanation why that name came into use is, in fact, quite plausible.  The name first occurs in our genealogy in 1790, when the third child of our ancestor Friederich August and his wife Willemina, their son Frederik Tobias, marries Anna Judina de Bourghelles de la Vacquerie, from Waalwijk.  She may have come from a Huguenot family. Although people usually married within their own circles, this was not always the case, of course.  This is also true of the marriage of Frederik Tobias and Anna Judina.  Her distinguished name tickled the imagination of one of Frederik Tobias' sons, Wijnand Johannes, who decided to add "De Bourghelles" to his name, putting it in front of his own family name.  For a shopkeeper trading in drapery, first in Vlissingen (Flushing) and later in Rotterdam,  this must have been quite impressive, especially in a time when it was the French who were calling the shots in the United Netherlands.

An additional, but by no means unimportant, reason may have been that a French name such as that could have a favourable effect on the attitude of the French authorities.  Because the family counted many small businessmen, tailors, drapers and suchlike among its members, a French name meant a measure of safety and was considered an asset.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Seven United Dutch Provinces had to face another French invasion, the beginning of two decades of French rule that was to leave Napoleon Bonaparte's indelible mark upon the country.  The creation of a strict and well-organized Registry of BDM [Bureau of Deaths & Marriages] put an end to the existing chaotic practices with regard to family names.
          [continued below]