Website about Little Deuteren and the family de Leeuw.
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This is a website about the farm Little Deuteren at Bois le Duke and its former occupants, family de Leeuw. This farm is located on top of an natural mound. The address is: Oude Vlijmenseweg 114, Bois le Duke.
If anyone finds a link with this family, they are free to inform me about this. On every image or chart is copyright. It is mentioned at every image.

 
  About myself:  
 
I once did a course for beginners-genealogy under direction of Leny Aben-Nederpeld of the NGV (Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging). At the end we had to write something, so that it was reproduced in a little book with a very small circulation. I choose to write about the farm Little Deuteren at Bois le Duke.

In 2004 (at the age of 45) I got paralized on my left side by a braininfarct, by wich it now it is even more a challange to ceep this site up to date. If you do find a not working link, please inform me. I made a new link about me and my Hobby's I now create. Everything changed. Don't hesitate to inform me or ask questions. Genealogy is still my passion. My sister does help me, because I can no longer do everything
  
  The farms Little- en Great Deuteren.  
  Deuteren used to be a hamlet, which consisted of two farms located both on separate mounds, namely Great Deuteren and Little Deuteren and several other farms lying around Great Deuteren. Little Deuteren is the farm, which nowadays lies inside the boundaries of Bois le Duke, but before 1932 still belonged to 'Deuteren'. In 1932 started the first ribbon-building at the Oude Vlijmenseweg between Great and Little Deuteren and from Cromvoirt. Schutjes wrote in 1872, that the municipality Cromvoirt existed of Deuteren and Cromvoirt. The word Deuteren does not come from the French word 'deux terrain', which means two terrains. The name is derived from the word 'de Oeteren' out of 1329. Prempart mentioned on a map from in May 1629 a cellar by means of the French word 'La Cave' on the nowadays location of Little Deuteren. The Staatsen have probably digged a cellar in the natural mound for the storage of ammunition (for Colonel Pinsen).
On maps before 1629, there isno notation (but this does not deny the presence of it!) of a hill or house mentioned or drawn. Yet, there should be inhabitation on this natural mound from the Iron-Age. This has been appeared from recent dig ups in 1993, where the barn was standing. The name is for the first time noted with Kleyn Deuteren (Little Deuteren) on a map in 1740. On this map is also a building drawn.		  
  The ancestors of the Leeuw come from Loon op Zand.  
  Former occupants 'de Leeuw'.  
  In 1794 the French had on this location a masked construction for a battery. According to our family-legend, the house should partial be destroyed during the French War. On a French map of 1794 is drawn the front-part of the building. And there are two little buildings independent in front and one behind.
In the fore-front is a stone tablet, which says 'P. de Leeuw has layed the first stone in 18 1/6 14' (01-06-1814). This probably has been Peter de Leeuw. He was at that time 10 years old. But what my granny also told me, was that there had been a cannonball in the fore-front. This probably happened in 1794.
The house 'Little Deuteren' has been occupied from 1814 until 1925 by the family de Leeuw and there descendants. When Maria Brok (widow of Antonius de Leeuw) went to an Ancient of days home, the house was sold by auction to the family. Nobody wanted to buy it. Eventual it stayed with Jan Hendrik Hubert Vroemen, her son-in-law. He started to life here, with his wife and children (arond 1879-1881). He himself stayed working in the place, Horst (Limburg) and traveled in between. Because Jan Hendrik Hubert Vroemen died at early age in 1894 (the yongest child was not yet two years old), had Margaretha Jacoba de Leeuw, his wife, still had some use of the house. To gain income, she held cows for the milk and chickens for the eggs to sell. Sundays there came people to row boats and to hunt. Children came to play in the playing-garden. In the winter the mound was surrounded by water. All the time, that the house belonged to the family de Leeuw hoorde, it also has been a pub.
  
  The cellars beneath Little Deuteren.  
  There are two cellars in the house. This is not so strange, because the farm used to consist of two houses. A front-part and a hind(rear?)-part with a big barn attached to that last one.
Under the foremost house is a barrel-vaulted cellar build before 1814. The foremost building is build above this cellar. The cellar is not connected with its ceiling to the underside of the building. Its floats beneath it. On maps from 1794, the hind-part building is not yet drawn. Presumable this was build between 1814 and 1832 at the same time with its square cellar.
'La Cave' on the map from Prempart out of 1629 will maybe not be our barrel-vaulted cellar (the tooth of time not survived?), but undoubtedly there lies enough material in the mound beneath the cellar, whereof the hart of an archaologist will beat faster! According to the latest information is the farm/cafe not on a list fot mounuments.		  
  The farm Little Deuteren.  
  In the left sidewall there is possible 14th century brick-work. These bricks are probably from other buildings in the neighbourhood. With the rebuilding in 1814, they used demolition stones. On a map from 1832 stands the complete house with the front- en hind-part house, barn and dependances. The roof of the front-part was in 1906 different build then nowadays. At that time there were roofing-tiles on it and only on the barn there was partly straw. There is a picture, by which the family de Leeuw is standing in front of the left-side-façade, on which these two different houses can be seen. In the left-side-façade of the front house, there were 3 windows and no door-entrance. In the hind-part house was a street-door (nowadays it is a window). Before 1925 its was inhabited by the family Johannes Antonius Hendrikus Vroemen (Jan, descendant from de Leeuw). He was co-founder of the yachting of Bois le Duke. Between 1906 and 1949, there must have been a reconstruction, by which the entrance-door of the back-house was rebuild to a window. The window to the right was rebuild later to a door. The left-side-façades of the two different houses were equalized, so that you could not see a difference. In the long passage through the building, where lying very old tiles with decorations.
  
  Former occupants: the family Kauwenberg.  
  In 1930, Johannes Kauwenberg (Jan) placed a petrol pomp. He lived here from 1925 to 1950. In world-war II, Little Deuteren got 7 direct hits, by which the roof was damaged. Before the rebuilding of 1950, the hind-part of the house was used as a chicken-stable. After 1950 other family-members of Kauwenberg moved with then into the farm. They had a demolitioncompany. From 1794 to 1988 there was also a little small house at the foot behind Little Deuteren, but not situated on the mound.
  
  The surroundings of Little Deuteren and its vanished wooden bridge.  
  On several old maps, there is so see a small bridge near Little Deuteren. From this plank bridge (Den Drag Boom called), crossing 'the Vliet' or 'the Pomp Hoekse Water-course', has been saved a picture. The photograph has been taken with the back turned to Little Deuteren and facing Bois le Duke, Sint Jansgate. The river the Vliet and the wooden bridge, in time disappeared completely from the face of the earth. This Plank Bridge was drawn on older maps. You can see a picture repaired in history.