Henri Sarolea (18 January 1844,

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

– 12 September 1900,

Heerlen Heerlen (; li, Heële ) is a city and a municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the fourth municipality in the province of Limburg ...

), was a Dutch railway entrepreneur and contractor who settled in

after having worked on the

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the Dutch East Indies (now

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

). His house in Heerlen was located close to where today there is a major railway crossing which did not exist when Henri moved there. Although the big towns surrounding Heerlen had railroad service (to places like Aachen, Liège, and Maastricht), Heerlen did not. At the age of 42 (1886) Henri started to plan a railroad between

Herzogenrath Herzogenrath ( Ripuarian: ; li, Hertseraoj; nl, ’s-Hertogenrade) is a municipality in the district of Aachen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It borders the Dutch town of Kerkrade, the national border in one section running alon ...

, and Sittard. At first the

Dutch government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekk ...

was skeptical about building a railroad in that far corner of the country, but Henri persevered and on 1 January 1896 the railroad was opened. A few years earlier an

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

family from Aachen, the Honingmann family bought a concession to mine for coal around Heerlen, but it proved to be impossible to

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

over the small

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

s around Heerlen. When they found out that Henri Sarolea was planning to build a railroad the brothers Friedrich (1841-1913) and Carl Honingmann (1842-1903) realised that it was time exploit the rich coal

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

of Heerlen. The first mine was dug right next to the railway. Henri, convinced that the mines would change Heerlen for good, even became a member of the board of directors of the Oranje Nassau Mijnen, the public name of the company. Unfortunately he did not see how his railroad changed Heerlen, he died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in 1900 at the age of 56.

Trivia

One of the most important

shopping Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scho ...

streets in Heerlen was renamed after Henri Sarolea. The ''Saroleastraat'' (Sarolea Street) runs from the

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...

into the heart of Heerlen's shopping

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

Sources

Translated from the Dutch Wiki, which used: * Gemeentearchief Heerlen
De Oranje-Nassau-mijnen op www.ta.tudelft.nl
1844 births 1900 deaths Dutch mining businesspeople Dutch people in rail transport History of Limburg (Netherlands) People from Heerlen People from Maastricht {{Netherlands-bio-stub