The honourable Carl Godfrey Buncamper was born on January 10, 1906, on St. Maarten. Coincidentally I am writing this today January 10, 2012, without any previous planning on my part. This would be exactly one hundred and six years after he was born. Having known him so well it seems strange that he would have been that old, had he lived. He always had a youthful spirit and was full of information about the history of all of the leading families in the Leeward Islands and in many cases even beyond.
He was born into a close-knit mixed-race family. His father was Albert Buncamper, born May 5, 1861, and died December 29, 1941) and his mother was Johanna Christina Lemke, born January 31, 1866, and died May 16, 1961. Her father was a Dutchman (Frederick Wilhelm Lemke born at The Hague on February 10, 1824. The old Dutchman kept himself busy among the St. Maarten women at the time. His first two wives were Elizabeth Armanie and Jane Koetsveld, and then at the age of 59 he married Louisa de Weever (44) in the year 1883.
Uncle Carl grew up in the house on the Front Street where for the past years the West Indian Tavern is located. His father Albert was the salt checker for the salt industry at the time. This involved checking the number of bags loaded on the schooners by the various headers or porters. I have written a manuscript based on the 1927 diary of Mr. Albert Buncamper. This manuscript reveals through his diary a lot about the Buncamper family and the daily life on St. Maarten at the time. I had the great pleasure to have experienced this way of life in the nineteen fifties as very little had changed since the days when Mr. Albert kept his diary. Uncle Carl was always full of praise for the wonderful youth he had enjoyed growing up on St. Maarten surrounded by a loving and caring family. Both he and his brother Walter were tall men well over six feet tall. They got as much education as was available on St. Maarten at that time. They lived just a stone’s throw away from the school and for recreation they just had to pass down an alley to get to the then glorious Great Bay beach. Their father Albert was also involved, together with Mr. Romney from the “Hope” estate, in raising cattle. As was the custom back then one also had a chicken coup close to the house and in most cases some pigs and small livestock, especially sheep and goats.
From early on Carl was interested in scientific matters. In 1922 he accompanied Professor Dr. J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong to Saba and Sint Eustatius to help him with research on the original Kalinago and Arawak (Igneri) population on these two islands.
I asked him once how come he had decided to move to Statia and to remain there. He said when swimming in the Great Bay on a clear day he could see Statia and having read so much about the history of the island he became interested in visiting there. Also there were always vacancies for teachers on the other islands and most of the teachers on Saba and Statia at the time were natives of St. Maarten. Uncle Carl’s sisters “Coralie,” “Coxie” and “Miss Babe” Elise were also teachers and had served on both islands as well.
Already in the 1920s Uncle Carl decided to leave his sweet St. Maarten behind and move to St. Eustatius. His departure brings to mind a stanza in the poem by Elizabeth Clark Hardy:
“Some time at eve when the tide is low
I shall slip my moorings and sail away
With no response to the friendly hail
Of kindred craft in the busy bay
In the silent hush of the twilight pale,
When the night stoops down to embrace the day
And the voices call in the waters flow
Sometime at eve when the tide is low
I shall slip my moorings and sail away.”
And so, he slipped his moorings and sailed away to Statia where he made his home for the rest of his life. I can understand his attraction to the island. At that time the leading families, the Pandt’s, the Mussenden’s, the Johnson’s, the Every’s and so on had become his close friends. When he first went to Statia he lived at “The Cottage,” the family home of the Pandt’s, and also he lived in that two storied building belonging to Jeanna Houtman just below the Johnson compound. When he built his own lovely home, he had a reception there for the Princesses Irene and Margriet when they visited Statia and he was the Acting Administrator of the island. Friends, like Mr. Arthur Valk (Hodge) son of John Carl Every, as well as Irvie Mussenden, were highly intellectual people. In the slow pace of life at that time these were friends worth having to while away the listless days under tropic skies and watch the days pass by until the nights stooped down to embrace the day. The pace of life only changed slightly with the advent of a hurricane or with the arrival of high Dutch officials from Curaçao with a possible reception at the residence of the Lt. Governor. I can understand his infatuation with that lifestyle. I too went to Statia, not to live, but to visit and once to work. I have close friends from different families all these years still and always look forward to spending time on Statia, even though things have changed, not only on Statia but on all the islands. Even here on Saba I feel a stranger in my own land at times. The charm of bygone days lies only in our memories and in recollections of stories told to us by our ancestors and friends, who like Uncle Carl had an appreciation for the quality of life even in a state of poverty. In other words, the poverty did not hinder a good quality of life even back then. Uncle Carl was that interested in his friends on Statia that he did not bother to get married to his childhood sweetheart until April 23, 1953, when he was 48 years old. His wife was Marie Anastacia Blanchard of St. Barths. I never did ask, but found out from Kenneth that Uncle Carl had known her from the time when many young women would come from St. Barths to go to the Convent School on St. Maarten. Even though his family was staunch Methodists, he and his siblings all went to the school run by the Dominican Nuns of the Church of Rome.
Uncle Carl in his vacations loved to travel to the surrounding islands like St. Kitts and so on. In doing so he got to meet the leading families of the day. I will always remember once travelling with him on a calm day on the old mine sweeper owned by his nephew Eddie Buncamper to Anguilla. We sat on the deck and I was picking his brain about various families in the Leeward Islands and he could fill in all the blanks and add much to the information I already had. When I was doing my book “For the Love of St. Maarten” he was very helpful to me.
By that time he was a widower and spent much time on St. Maarten at the Vineyard with his niece, Ms. Bernadette “Bunchie” Buncamper. We had many jokes about Uncle Carl’s eccentricities. A man of means, yet he would always be looking for a bargain. Once he got lost in Paris and Eddie had to go find him. Turns out he had gotten a better bargain from some Bangladeshi airline, by some ten dollars worth, as compared to the Pakistani airline he was booked on. Anyway it did not work out and he was lost in Paris.
He loved to travel and could regale you with tales of his travels to Europe. He liked to go via Barbados and he also had friends there. Rumour had it that when he was building his home on Statia and digging the cistern, that he had found a small fortune in gold and jewelry which had been hidden there since the days of Rodney. I speculated that Barbados at the time was the only island with Banks which had secure safety deposit boxes and that Uncle Carl’s real purpose of travelling via Barbados was to take a peek at his treasure. Bunchie, like those countries who do not confirm nor deny that they have atomic bombs, just laughs and acts mysterious when queried as to whether or not the rumour of the treasure is true. His old safe remains unopened.
Perhaps the person who is the “Keeper of the Safe” had heard the story of Commissioner Sadler’s mother as told to me by Senator Kenneth van Putten. Arundel Sadler had bought a press from Nathalie Mussenden (sister of Forrester Mussenden). Rumour had it that when she died she left instructions not to open the press. But as curiosity killed the cat, Arundell Sadler decided to open the press. Lo and behold there was the ghost of Nathalie Mussenden inside the press and with such a ferocious scowl that poor Mrs. Sadler fell down with a stroke and never did recover.
What is true is that he did well on Statia, as he bought an old plantation named “Princess” from Mr. Tommy Pandt which had formerly belonged to the Mussenden family. The estate in later life he sold for a substantial sum of money to the government for a housing estate. He also lived a very frugal life and took an active part in the politics and in the government of Statia. He was an Island council member from 1967 to 1971 and had participated in a number of elections. Being a staunch Methodist he was also a local preacher in the Methodist church. He was for many years a teacher at the Governor de Graaf School.
I remember when I went from the Post Office on St. Maarten in October and November of 1961 to assist at the Post Office on Statia. He was the Acting Administrator at the time and Ms. Louise van Putten was my boss. Lt. Governor Japa Beaujon had decided that the recognition by Statia of the flag of the emerging United States should be remembered and so ceremonies were held and a commemorative stamp was issued by the Postal Services. I was sent over to Statia to help out at the Post Office during that busy period. I stayed in the Government Guesthouse in the same room where the Island Council now meets. I reminded the Statia politicians whenever we met there that at one time it was my bedroom. Just like Uncle Carl, I too became infatuated with Statia and many of the friends I made then are still around and we are still friends.
Uncle Carl loved to cruise and every year he would take a cruise. On his last cruise he died at sea off the coast of Haiti. That was on December 29, 1989, when he was 82 years old. His beloved wife had preceded him and is buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery Salem. My wife Lynne and I accompanied the body together with Eddy Buncamper to Statia where he is buried in the Old Dutch Reformed Church yard, where many other prominent people are buried. As the sun was setting in the Western skies many good memories came back to me of time spent with Uncle Carl. At the same time Kenneth was regaling me with funeral stories like the one of Mr. Moore, a famous slave owner and a harsh task master. At one time Mr. Moore had tried to fence the sea as he claimed his property bounds went out into the sea. On the day he was buried Statia had not experienced such a clear sky in living memory. However, as Mr. Moore was being lowered into the grave a very loud clap of thunder occurred followed by a severe flash of lightning. The people in the graveyard ran away in a state of panic and Mr. Moore had to bury himself as no one wanted to come near the grave to finish the job.
Not too many people today care about people and events of the past it would seem. However, I am always amazed at the reception my memories of the past get from people on all the islands. And so I dedicate this article on Uncle Carl to all of those who knew him personally, as well as to those who like to know more about these islands and the people who inhabited them in former times. May he continue to rest softly in the soil of his adopted home, his beloved Statia.
