​May 20 2024 by Alexis Alexander Zolner

My great uncle Henry Joseph Duyck was born in Tielt Belgium on March 6 1862.  His parents were Ivo Duyck and Eugenia DeWulf.  His Duyck line goes Ivo, Joannes Duyck/Rosalia Vandaele, and Michaelis Duyck/Joanna Gurdebeke.  He and his two brothers Hugo and Desiderius (my great grandfather) emigrated to the U.S. in the 1880's.  Hugo died in Kansas City a few months after arriving however Desire and Henry went west.   The photo attached is Henry on the left and Desire on the right.  It was taken at a Portland Oregon studio circa 1895 and I suspect they were there to see Duyck cousins who had settled in the Forest Grove area.   Desire married Irma Loncke, another Flemish immigrant, near Seattle in 1896 and they and Henry moved to Murray Utah and then Golconda Nevada in 1898.  Henry and Desire worked in smelters and the family lived together with Desire's son William, born in 1897 and daughter Adele in 1900. Desire died in 1902 and his widow remarried shortly thereafter and moved back to Seattle.  The 1906 Shasta County California Voter Rolls has Henry working as a smelterman in Ingot California.   The 1910 Rolls list him as a democrat, smelterman, residing in the Coram area near the Balaklala Mine.   Henry also worked on his cousins  farms in the Forest Grove area.  In the 1920 Census, Henry is living in Redding California and describes himself as retired.   Henry was in an auto accident on February 12, 1828 and died in Washington County Hospital in Hillsboro on March 8 according to the death certificate.  He was single at his death.   His Duyck cousins buried him in Visitation Cemetery in Verboort Oregon on March 12.

Henry obviously thought a lot about the Forest Grove area.  In the book 'Verboort, a Priest and his People', the author, Scott Vandehey, includes a letter dated September 14 1906, written by Henry to his cousin Emil Duyck urging him to come to Oregon.  Henry writes:

"Emile, I would be happy if you would go to Oregon some time.   It is beautiful land where it is not very cold in the winter, but it rains a lot.  And all who are there seem to do pretty well.  You know the life of a farmer; working from early in the morning till late at night.  And they work hard all summer but in winter days are short.  I wished that you had waited to come till spring because I won't go until March.   I don't want to go in the winter because I can make more money here [Ingot California] than there.  They pay only $25 a month while here I get $3.00 for eight hours work.

"Emile, see if you can get a colonist or settler's ticket from the train.  They are still good till October 1st.  It costs $30 from Chicago and $25 from Kansas City.   Otherwise they are $44.   The Southern Pacific sells them from any point in California to Portland."     Emil Duyck did arrive in Oregon in November of 1906.