Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma

Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma was born on 21 January 1792[1][2] in his parents' house on Kowemerk ("Cow Market") street[10] in the village of Grou, in the central part of the Dutch province of Friesland.[11] He was the son of the baker and small-time merchant[5][12][10] Hidde Joasts Halbertsma (1756–1809)[5][13] and his wife Ruerdtsje (or Riurtk)[10] Tsjallings Binnerts (1767–1809).[5][13][14] He had one elder brother, Justus (1789–1869),[15][16][10] and two younger brothers, Binnert (1795–1847),[5][16][10] and Eeltsje (1797–1858).[11][16][10] Two children who were born later died in early childhood,[16] the little boy in 1803,[10] and the little girl in 1805.[10] 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.[12][13][17] Justus, Tsjalling and Eeltsje, who, as authors, became known as the Brothers Halbertsma later in life,[18][4] were much like their father, while Binnert more resembled their mother.[5]

This mother, Ruerdtsje Binnerts, was a scion of a prominent family in Grou.[5][12] Her people were Mennonites,[5][12] and although her husband had been raised a Calvinist, he converted after marrying her.[5] From the letters of Tsjalling's brother Justus, Ruerdtsje emerges as a smart businesswoman,[5] a loving mother, and a deeply religious person.[19] About Hidde Halbertsma, the father, much less is known. It is thought that he might have been a mariner before his marriage.[19] He is described as a gentle soul, who was, however, apt to take offence, and could be quite sharp-tongued in such cases.[19]

Tsjalling Halbertsma was, according to his brother Justus, an imitator of great skill, a trait he had inherited from their father.[1] 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."[1] 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."[20] A different biographer (G. A. Wumkes) wrote about him: "Here the pen is wielded by a man of high character."[21]

When Hidde Halbertsma died, in January 1809,[17] and was followed in death by his wife Ruerdtsje Binnerts in December of that same year,[11][6] the Brothers Halbertsma became orphans at a young age. Justus, the eldest brother, was in Amsterdam at that time, studying to become a minister,[6] while Eeltsje, the youngest, was boarding in the provincial capital of Leeuwarden, where he attended the Latin school.[11] 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.[6]

After that, Tsjalling Halbertsma started to work for one of his uncles in Grou, who was a merchant trading in butter and cheese.[5][6] 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.[22] In time, Halbertsma took over his uncle's company, which he expanded steadily over the course of many years.[5][23] 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.[1] 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.[5] Furthermore, from 1850 to his death, he had a seat in the provincial assembly of Friesland.[1]

In 1837, Halbertsma had himself a large new house built in Grou, something his brothers were rather boastful of in their letters.[1] He also dressed himself according to the latest fashion, leading to Eeltsje complaining, in 1841, that his brother had become a dandy.[1] 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.[1] This was a severe blow, especially to his ego, which he never truly recovered from.[1]

In 1813, Halbertsma married Tetsje Sjollema (1793–1836). She was from Grou, and he had known her for all of his life.[1] A year after she died, he remarried, to Reinskje van der Goot (1807–1862), who was also from Grou.[1] 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.[1] One of Halbertsma's sons from his first marriage, Johannes Tsjallings Halbertsma (1827–1884), took over the dairy trade after his father's death, and moved it to the city of Sneek.[24] There Halbertsma's grandsons Hylke (1857–1932) and Herrius (1864–1920) established the dairy Normandia in 1888.[24]

Tsjalling Halbertsma began his career as a writer in 1817,[1][2][6] on occasion of his brother Binnert's wedding.[6] Afterwards, he wrote fairly regularly until 1835, with a clear peak around 1830, later followed by incidental writings until 1841.[1][2] The last eleven years of his live he did not produce any new works.[1] He ofted used the pseudonyms 'Master Jouke' and T.T., which was an abbreviation of 'Tsjalling Tsysker' ("Tsjalling Cheese-maker").[25][23] Halbertsma's literary works were always overshadowed to a large degree by those of his brothers Justus and Eeltsje;[25] they consist of folk literature, often with a satirical or playful motif,[25][23] which, however, was very popular with the common man.[25][23] His Sets en Tsjerk yn Snitser Merk ("Sets and Tsjerk at the Fair yn Sneek") was almost a match for the more famous poem De Boalserter Merk ("The Bolsward Fair"), by his brother Eeltsje.[25]

Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma.

Tsjalling Halbertsma's oeuvre was fairly limited,[26] and consisted for a large part of rhymes written for the occasion of Shrove Tuesday and New Year's weigh-house notes, accompanying texts for prints, and fortune-telling notes,[1][2][25][27] partly in West Frisian, but to a considerable degree, especially in the early years, in Dutch.[1] Furthermore, it is known that, even before his brothers Justus and Eeltsje published their De Lapekoer fan Gabe Skroar in 1822, Tsjalling Halbertsma also wrote small tales and poems for a society in Grou.[1] It is unclear what sort of society this was, but it seems very likely it was a remnant of a so-called 'people's society' from the French period, such as were established all over Friesland from 1795 on.[1]

Halbertsma published a number of his works in almanacs,[11][27] although this was limited, insofar as it can still be determined, to the period from 1829 to 1833.[11] The first of his works he had printed in an almanac must have been Sets en Tsjerk yn Snitser Merk, which appeared in Suringar's Almanak for the year 1829.[11] Gerard Tjaard Nicolaas Suringar himself would assert years later that De Bêste Freed yn Ljou'ter Merke ("The Best Friday of the Fair in Leeuwarden") was the first piece by Halbertsma which he had published, but he must have been mistaken, as it can be clearly shown from Justus Hiddes Halbertsma's letters that De Bêste Freed appeared in Suringar's Almanak of 1830.[11] Completely apart from the rest of Halbertsma's works is De Roeker (modern spelling: De Rûker; "The Bouquet") a magazine which was edited by himself, and which included articles concerning topical subjects, but also some of his own tales and poems. Of this publication only a few volumes were published in 1832 and 1833.[25]

Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma died on 12 December 1852 in his birthplace of Grou, when he was almost 61 years old.[1][2] When he was still alive, he had been the steadfast centre of the Halbertsmas of Grou, where his brothers Binnert and Eeltsje especially were often visiting and always welcome.[15] According to his brother Justus, the family became "a scattered herd" after his death,[15][23][28] and Eeltsje wrote to Justus: "I feel like a soldier who has seen his best comrade sink down next to him on the field of battle."[15][23][28]