Genealog VII - e - 9 blad 1.

GA Den Haag

Bevolkingsregister Den Haag 1913- 1939 GA nr 8419.

Montezaan Pieter Jacobus M 22-5-1899 Vlissingen Hofmeester

komt op 16-3-1918 van Dusseldorf en woont in het Volkskosthuis Assendelftstraat 16 en op 25-3-1918 in de Bazarlaan 77 en op 22-4-1918 in de Sophialaan 2.

August 21, 1978

Dear Truus:

It is with great sorrow I write you that my dear husband, Pete Montezaan, died Friday, August 18, 1978. As I have written you the past few years, he had a heart condition, and during the cold weather suffered from bronchial asthma as a result of his heart. Otherwise, he was in good physical condition. he always kept busy, taking care of the house and the yard, and doing his wood carvings, and other skillful things.

He got sick on the 17th and wanted to go to see his doctor, but he was away for a week, and Pete did not want to go to anyone else. That night he could not sleep. He could not lie down because he couldn’t breathe. He sat up and stood up all night, and by early morning he told me to get to some doctor. I called his doctor’s office ande the nurse said he could see one of the other doctors in the afternoon, but I knew he couldn’t wait that long, so I called an ambulance and carried him to the emergency room of a hospital. A heart specialist worked with him about two hours, but he could not save him, and his heart just failed and he died about 11:00 AM.

He and I both willed our bodies to the University of Texas Medical School here in San Antonio, for medical research, about ten years ago, so his body was carried there. After they complete their research, they will cremate the remains ans I have requested that his ashes be given to me. I have in mind, if possible, to carry them to a little cemetery close to where I was born. My father, grandfather and grandmother are buried there. It is a country cemetery in the middle of a pasture where cattle graze, but the cemetery is fenced. Pete and I have been there several times and it is so quiet and beautiful with all the grass and trees, and the birds singing, and I just love it. I want to scatter his ashes there, and when my time comes I want the same thing done for me.

It was quite a shock that his death came about so quickly, but it was better for him. He was pretty sick, but he did not have to suffer long. My sisters, brother and niece came over Saturday and Sunday, and one sister and her husband will spend the week with me. It helps a lot to have them with me. Right now I am feeling kind of shaky on the inside, and I know the kind of adjustment I have to make, and that my life will never be the same. We were married 51 years and I loved him and we had a good life together.

Love Ruby.

Truus, there is just no use to write to me in Dutch because I can’t read it and don’t know anyone who can. I have enjoyed corresponding with you and Henk all these years and feel like I know you almost as well as my own family.

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December 21, 1981

Dear Han: I was glad to have your letter, and the picture of your daughter, Bente. She is a beautiful young lady.

I will be flattered to be included in your history of the Montezaans.

Name: Ruby D Holley

Place of birth: Dryer, Gonzales County, Texas

Date of birth: September 14, 1906

Date and place of marriage to Pete: July 3, 1927, Galveston, Texas

My parents: Thomas Virgil Holley, born June 17, 1873, Franklin County, Georgia

Minnie D Bellamy, June 24, 1876, Franklin County, Georgia

The letter D in my name and in my mother’s does not represent a name. It is just what it is, Ruby D and Minnie D and I do not know where my mother got it.

Pete entered the United States at New Orleans, Louisiana, February 12, 1921. He was a seaman and the boat he was on went into dry dock and all hands were paid off. The captain told him in about three weeks if he came back he would take him on again; otherwise, he was free to sign on another ship.

Would you be interested in his history? Pete said when the boys in his family graduated from high school, they went out into the world to make a living. I understand there were five or six boys and they seem to have migrated to several different countries, and all died in World War I. So, when he graduated at age 14, he got a job as a galley boy on a luxury ship plying from the Continent to England . He learned to cook there. But when the war came, the ship was discontinued, and he went to work on a merchant ship. He was 15 years old at the beginning of the war, and the ships took him to South America on many trips, as well as other places, and when he reached sufficient age, he became an Able Seaman. Two ships he was on were torpedoed. He was rescued by Allied ships the first time. The second time, the Germans captured him and he was interned in a German prison camp. I don’t know how long he was there, but he became good friends with a young German man about his age. He had been wounded at the front, and had been sent to the camp to do guard duty until he recovered. One day he told Pete he had received orders to report back to the front but he did not intend to go, and he proposed to help Pete escape. He gave him his German uniform, a map showing how to reach the coast, and that was how he made it to freedom. The young German told him he was going to commit suicide rather then go back to fighting.

Pete got on a U.S. troop ship when he reached the coast (I do not know where) and he spent the rest of the war on ships bringing U.S. wounded back tot the U.S. He went to see his mother once after the war was over, and then signed on the ship on which he came to the U.S. He never saw her again. He wanted to and planned to go to see her after WW II but she died before he could carry out his plans.

When he was paid off the ship at New Orleans, he decide not to go to work right away and took a tripto some of the small towns in the country in Louisiana. He liked the people very much. They were happy-go-lucky; friendly, and he was having a good time, but he decided he was not going back to sea, but would stay here in this country. After a while, he began to travel in the direction of Texas, although he had no particular place in mind. He would like a

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place and stay a while, and I suppose he found odd jobs to live on. He finally arrived at aplace called Fort Bolivar which is just across the channel from Galveston. At that time, the people there were rather isolated as there was no transportation to Galveston except by boat. he became acquainted with a farming family who had three childeren about his age, and they sort of adopted him and he lived with them a year or so. They hunted and fished and farmed and he had a great time. he was always a close friend to all of them.

I suppose he decided he had better get serious about making a living, and he did cross the channel and landed at what we used to call the Quarantine Station. The buildings there for government employees to stay when they were on duty -- immigration, customs, quarantine inspectors. He met my eldest brother Gene, who operated a small launch taking these officers out to the Bolivar Roads where foreign ships had to anchor while they awaited inspections. Since Pete was a good cook, he got the job there cooking for these employees. I don’t know how long he stayed, but he and my two brothers all worked at one time on a dredge boat, and he worked at other jobs as well.

After I met him, he worked in a nail factory, as a mechanic in some iron works, and the dry dock in Galveston on ships that came there for repairs. But he was not satisfied, and after we were married a year or two, he decided he wanted to become a diesel engineer, and went to Memphis, Tennesee where he took a six-month course and was awarded a degree in that field. At that time diesels were not too numerous and he did not find much of that kind of work in Galveston, and it was only after we moved to San Antonio that he got two jobs installing several big diesel engines in two seperate power plants.

I went to work for the U.S. Immigration Service in August 1929, and in 1937 the whole district office where I worked was transferred to San Antonio. At first, Pete did not want to move away from Galveston, but we thought it over again and he decided he might like it after all, so I came with my office as secretary to the man in charge. I remained there (or here in San Antonio) until 1964 when I retired. In 1951, Pete decided he would build a shop and do small repair jobs, and be his own boss, and that is what he did. He was very happy doing that, which he kept up until 1964 when he retired also. He called his place Monte’s Repair Service.

I hope this hasn’t bored you but I did not think you would know very much about Pete since you never saw him, and that it might be of some interest.

He told me there was a legend that was handed down in his family that they got their name from some Frenchman who fled from France to Holland during the revolution, and changed his name so he could not be identified.

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you. Love,

Aunt Ruby

I sure wrote a lot didn’t I?

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October 17, ‘89

Dear Han,

I think it is you that I’m writing to. I found an airmail envelope among Ruby’s things with this address.

Ruby has gone home to be with the Lord. We had her Memorial Service today, her family and friends. She had three years of suffering, but now she’s in the best hands of all.

How is your Mom, Truce, and your little girl who loved horses? (I do, too.)

Thank you for making so many bright spots in her life with your letters. She loved all of you.

If you are ever over here in the U.S.A. anytime, let us know and come see us. I’m Ruby’s sister, and I have known about you and the family since Ruby and Pete married.

God Bless you.

Beryle Holley

P.O. Box 762

League City, Texas

77573 - 762

Nov. 20, 1989

Dear Han and family,

I thank you for your letter. Ruby had a perforated colon, was operated on to repair it, and never got out of Intensive Care. She had surgery on October the 3rd and died on the 11th. We miss her, but she’s in better hands than mine - the Lord’s!

League City is halfway between Houston and Galveston. It is located across the Lake from NASA. It is a small town, but growing fast! We would like you, if you get over here, to come visit us.

Pete was so talented and artistic. he could fix anything to work and be beautiful. We all have some of the things he carved from wood. He was like a big brother to all Ruby’s sisters.

He was so good to us, that it is no wonder Ruby was concerned about his family.

Hope your Mom is better and that your children are all OK.

Write when you cabn so we can know how you all are .

God Bless You!

Beryle Holley