Overzicht
Johann Heinrich Joseph (roepnaam: Heinrich) Driessen was een belangrijke textielfabrikant in Aalten. Heinrich stamde uit een Bocholts textielgeslacht. Hij was de enige zoon van Peter Driessen en Maria Hölscher. Zijn vader nam in het Pruisische stadje, net over de grens bij Aalten, een vooraanstaande positie in. Naast textielfabrikant was hij er schepen en van 1797 tot 1811 tweede burgemeester.
Heinrich received a thorough education at the Jesuit College in Amsterdam and spoke excellent French, so that in 1812, when Napoleon’s troops passed through Bocholt, he was the only one capable of acting as an interpreter between the municipal authorities and the French generals.
Peter Driessen & Sohn
In 1810, Heinrich joined his father’s business. On December 2, 1820, he married Lisette Sträter in Rheine (Germany), a descendant of another prominent textile family. They had nine sons and two daughters. In 1826, he was entrusted with the management of the firm Peter Driessen & Sohn.
In datzelfde jaar richtten zijn neven Anton en Joseph Driessen een verzoek aan koning Willem I om in Aalten een textielfabriek te vestigen, dat door Willem I werd ingewilligd. Niet veel later vroeg ook Heinrich Driessen toestemming aan de koning om zich in Aalten te mogen vestigen. Ook de firma Peter Driessen & Sohn kreeg de gevraagde vestigingsvergunning.
In Aalten
His father Peter continued to live in Bocholt while his son Heinrich settled in Aalten. He initially lived with the Meijerink family on Kerkstraat, one of the few remaining Catholic families in Aalten, in the same building as his cousin Anton Driessen.
In Aalten, Heinrich established a branch of his father Peter Driessen’s fustian trade and hand-spinning mill. They already owned the necessary land in Aalten and Varsseveld, and in 1826 he expanded his activities to Groenlo. There, Heinrich had purchased a house from De Heyder. That house was converted into a spinning mill. He made the yarn spun there available to home weavers who processed it into cloth.
Heinrich was een ondernemend man. In 1832 had hij zo’n 500 linnenwevers in Aalten en omgeving voor hem werken en drie jaar later behoorde hij samen met Blijdenstein in Enschede tot de grootste bombazijnfabrikanten van Oost-Nederland. Als een van de eersten in Nederland maakte hij gebruik van stoom in zijn blekerij.
‘Den veursten Dreessen’
In 1837 liet hij aan het begin van de Dijkstraat een royaal woonhuis bouwen. Daarom werd hij in den volksmond ‘den veursten Dreessen’ genoemd, terwijl zijn neef Anton, die iets verderop Beekhuize bouwde ‘den achtersten Dreessen’ werd genoemd. Heinrich’s oudste zoon Theodoor legde op 29 juni 1837 de eerste steen. Bij de woning waren ook bedrijfsruimten gevestigd, die voornamelijk dienden als opslagplaats van garens en geweven stoffen. Deze stoffen werden met een wagen, veelal getrokken door een os, naar de blekerij in Dale vervoerd. De voerman droeg de toepasselijke bijnaam Ossen Willem. Na Heinrich’s dood werd het huis herbestemd tot klooster.
Following his father’s death in 1843, Heinrich became the sole owner of Peter Driessen & Sohn. His eldest son Theodor (1821-1878) was then placed in charge of the management in Bocholt. In 1851, King William III granted Heinrich Dutch nationality.
In 1849 richtte Heinrich in Aalten aan de Hogestraat, als eerste in de Achterhoek, een stoomspinnerij op. Deze werd al spoedig uitgebreid met enkele ‘powerlooms’ (door stoom aangedreven weefgetouwen). Nadat deze fabriek in de nacht van 19 op 20 augustus 1859 afbrandde, bouwde hij het bedrijf niet opnieuw op.
To Leiden
Heinrich shifted his focus to Leiden. There, in 1846, together with his nephew (his sister’s son), the soap boiler Ignatz van Wensen, he had purchased the declining textile printing and dyeing works De Heyder & Co., later known as the Leidsche Katoenmaatschappij (Leiden Cotton Company). He had his second son Louis (1823-1904) come over from England to take charge in Leiden. With the knowledge he had acquired in Manchester, Louis soon managed to make the company profitable.
Heinrich’s son Eduard (1824-1895) continued to look after the company’s interests in Aalten. Initially, the bleachery there remained operational, but over time Eduard primarily focused on the trade in cotton and yarns. The branch in Bocholt, managed by Theodor, was closed after he and his brother Peter (1832-1895) started a blue-dyeing and printing works there in 1854, named the firm Theodor and Peter Driessen.
Catholic
The Driessen family was also of great significance to the Aalten Catholic community, which had been a minority in the Reformed village since the Reformation of 1596. Not only through their prestige and influence, but also through various donations from the Driessens, the Catholic church in Aalten was able to grow into a fully-fledged church community. Both Heinrich and his cousin Anton played important roles as churchwardens and overseers of the poor, roles that were continued by their descendants.
Heinrich Driessen was very strong-willed in his conduct and often followed his own path in ecclesiastical matters as well. For instance, during the disputes between the Catholics and the Reformed in 1842 regarding the ringing of the bells. Pastor G.H.J. Wansing of Aalten wrote a letter about this to the Archpriest of Gelderland, M. Terwindt, which was co-signed by the churchwardens Th.W. Meijerink, H. Vulting, and A. Driessen. Heinrich Driessen, although a member of the church board, had not signed this letter and addressed two personal letters to Terwindt himself.
What stands out in these letters is that he stated, among other things, that the pastor seemed a priori prejudiced against Aalten and expressed the hope that the Aalten parish would receive a new shepherd who would be to everyone’s liking. He requested Terwindt to take his reflections into consideration when making his choice and assured him that he preferred to employ everything that was conducive to the honor of their holy religion. But at the same time, Driessen wrote that—because the old pastor showed him the greatest respect and because he himself esteemed the pastor as a man whose moral conduct could serve as an example to an entire province—he trusted that it would also please the Archpriest that the contents of the letters never be disclosed to others.
New church
Een volgend probleem ontstond toen omstreeks 1853 werd besloten tot de bouw van een nieuwe kerk. Dit leidde tot ernstige meningsverschillen binnen het kerkbestuur. Zo vond kerkmeester Heinrich Driessen het wederom nodig eigenmachtig te werk te gaan door achter de rug van de andere kerkbestuurders om contact met de aartsbisschop te zoeken. Hij refereerde in een schrijven aan de aartsbisschop aan de goedkeuring die deze had gegeven aan de plannen voor de bouw van de kerk, onder voorwaarde dat de biechtstoel of biechtstoelen in de kerk werden geplaatst en niet in de sacristie of in aparte uitbouwen aan de zijmuren. Uitgaande van die voorwaarde was er een plan ter goedkeuring naar de Koning gestuurd.
However, during Driessen’s absence, the tendering for the church had taken place, in which an extension was nevertheless planned, contrary to the archiepiscopal approval. An extension to the church for the purpose of the confessional would, according to Heinrich, only disfigure a church. He had tried to convince the pastor of this, but had not succeeded. Driessen preferred to see the confessional inside the church, as was common in the Münsterland, rather than in an extension. According to him, the error could still be rectified, even though the masonry on that side was already in full swing. In his letter to the Archbishop, he therefore requested that instructions be given to the church board as soon as possible. The outcome of the matter is unknown. This action, however, is characteristic of Heinrich Driessen, who was apparently accustomed to getting his way and took the necessary steps on his own initiative to achieve it.
Wealthy
At the end of his life, Heinrich was a wealthy man. He held shares in spinning mills in Enschede, Gronau, and Rheine. Rheine was his wife’s birthplace, and her relatives managed textile enterprises there. Furthermore, he owned many lands and farms in the vicinity of Aalten, Varsseveld, and Bocholt.
Heinrich reached the advanced age of nearly 85 years. Several of his children and grandchildren entered the textile industry.
