Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma

Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma ( West Frisian form: Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, pron. �ʧɔlɪŋ ˈhɪdəs ˈhɔlbǝtsma(the r is silent); Dutch form: Tjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, pron. �calɪŋ ˈɦɪdəs ˈɦalbǝrtsma (Grou, 21 January 1792 – there, 12 December 1852),Breuker 1993, p. 591.Breuker 2016, p. 1128. was a Dutch Frisian writer, poet and merchant,Jensma, p. 197. and the least well-known of the three Brothers Halbertsma.Breuker 1993, p. 587. During his life he won a certain amount of fame in and around Grou, for the poems and short stories he wrote, and also because of his success as a businessman. After his death some of his literary works were collected with those of his brothers Justus and EeltsjeWiersma, p. 9. to be published in 1871 as the famous ''Rimen en Teltsjes''.Breuker 1993, pp. 603–606. It was only from 1918 onwards that more of Tsjalling Halbertsma's works were added to this collection.Breuker 1993, p. 609.

Life

Youth and background

Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma was born on 21 January 1792 in his parents' house on Kowemerk ("Cow Market") streetWiersma, p. 7. in the village of Grou, in the central part of the Dutch province of Friesland.Breuker 1993, p. 592. He was the son of the baker and small-time merchantOppewal and Boorsma, p. 16. Hidde Joasts Halbertsma (1756–1809)Terpstra, p. 317. and his wife Ruerdtsje (or Riurtk) Tsjallings Binnerts (1767–1809). He had one elder brother, Justus (1789–1869),Breuker 1993, p. 588.Terpstra, p. 316. and two younger brothers, Binnert (1795–1847), and Eeltsje (1797–1858). Two children who were born later died in early childhood, the little boy in 1803, and the little girl in 1805. The brothers were very close, possibly as a consequence of the fact that both their parents died at a relatively young age in 1809, when Tsjalling was only seventeen years of age.Wiersma, pp. 8–9. Justus, Tsjalling and Eeltsje, who, as authors, became known as the Brothers Halbertsma later in life, were much like their father, while Binnert more resembled their mother.

This mother, Ruerdtsje Binnerts, was a scion of a prominent family in Grou. Her people were Mennonites, and although her husband had been raised a Calvinist, he converted after marrying her. From the letters of Tsjalling's brother Justus, Ruerdtsje emerges as a smart businesswoman, a loving mother, and a deeply religious person.Wiersma, p. 8. About Hidde Halbertsma, the father, much less is known. It is thought that he might have been a mariner before his marriage. He is described as a gentle soul, who was, however, apt to take offence, and could be quite sharp-tongued in such cases.

Nature

Tsjalling Halbertsma was, according to his brother Justus, an imitator of great skill, a trait he had inherited from their father. Justus also wrote about him, "There was no greater lover of silliness and jokes in all of Friesland than my brother Tsjalling; but, mark this, always in the wasted hours. When it was time for business, all of the joking stopped, and then activity, policy, hard work and calculations were the order of the day from early in the morning to late in the evening." One of his biographers (J. P. Wiersma) described Tsjalling Halbertsma as "a talented, conspicuous person, full of drollery, not without vanity, but original in thought and word, distinctive in all his doings, a trendsetter." A different biographer ( G. A. Wumkes) wrote about him: "Here the pen is wielded by a man of high character."

Trade

When Hidde Halbertsma died, in January 1809, and was followed in death by his wife Ruerdtsje Binnerts in December of that same year, the Brothers Halbertsma became orphans at a young age. Justus, the eldest brother, was in Amsterdam at that time, studying to become a minister, while Eeltsje, the youngest, was boarding in the provincial capital of Leeuwarden, where he attended the Latin school. In consequence, it fell to Tsjalling to keep their father's bakery running with the help of their father's baker's mates, until the third brother, Binnert, was old enough to take over the business.

After that, Tsjalling Halbertsma started to work for one of his uncles in Grou, who was a merchant trading in butter and cheese. At that time farmer's wives churned and made cheese at the farmstead, selling their products to merchants who traded it away, not seldom to foreign markets. In time, Halbertsma took over his uncle's company, which he expanded steadily over the course of many years.Terpstra, p. 320. At first he worked on commission for the Amsterdam trading house of Pijnakker, but later on, he went into business for himself, buying up dairy products in Friesland and selling them with considerable profit in London. Halbertsma became a wealthy man, who, with his brother Binnert (who had sold the bakery and had become a wood merchant) and only ten others, such as Freerk Dirks Fontein of Harlingen, Michiel Hylkes Tromp of Woudsend, Hans Klazes Wouda of Sneek and Dirk Piers Zeper of Leeuwarden, was a member of the new Frisian Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, from 1850 to his death, he had a seat in the provincial assembly of Friesland.

In 1837, Halbertsma had himself a large new house built in Grou, something his brothers were rather boastful of in their letters. He also dressed himself according to the latest fashion, leading to Eeltsje complaining, in 1841, that his brother had become a dandy. But in the end Halbertsma miscalculated badly: when the shares in other businesses he had invested in dropped sharply in value in 1848, he panicked, sold out, and put all his money in rye. When subsequently the rye market also collapsed, he suffered heavy losses amounting to about half of his fortune. This was a severe blow, especially to his ego, which he never truly recovered from.

Family

In 1813, Halbertsma married Tetsje Sjollema (1793–1836). She was from Grou, and he had known her for all of his life. A year after she died, he remarried, to Reinskje van der Goot (1807–1862), who was also from Grou. When this second marriage was contracted, he ordered fifty flags to be hung out in the village, and he gave away a fat cow to the poor

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