- Henri Sarolea
Henri Sarolea (January 18 ,1844 ,Maastricht –September 12 ,1900 ,Heerlen ), was a Dutch railway entrepreneur and contractor who settled inHeerlen after having worked on the railways in theDutch East Indies (nowIndonesia ).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 betweenHerzogenrath ,Heerlen , andSittard . At first theDutch government was skeptical about building a railroad in that far corner of the country, but Henri persevered and onJanuary 1 ,1896 the railroad was opened.A few years earlier an industrial and
mining family from Aachen, theHoningmannn family bought a concession to mine for coal around Heerlen, but it proved to be impossible to ship thecoal over the smallroad s around Heerlen. When they found out that Henri Sarolea was planning to build a railroad the brothers Friedrich (1841-1913) andCarl Honingmann (1842-1903) realised that it was time exploit the rich coal veins 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 theOranje Nassau Mijnen , the public name of the company. Unfortunately he did not see how his railroad changed Heerlen, he died of a heart attack in 1900 at the age of 56.Trivia
One of the most important
shopping streets in Heerlen was renamed after Henri Sarolea. The "Saroleastraat" (Sarolea Street) runs from thetrain station into the heart of Heerlen's shoppingneighbourhood .ource
Translated from the Dutch Wiki, which used:
* Gemeentearchief Heerlen
* [http://www.ta.tudelft.nl/coalpage/ON-Mijnen/ON-Algemeennl.htm De Oranje-Nassau-mijnen op www.ta.tudelft.nl]
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