Cornelis den Tex

Cornelis Jacob Arnold den Tex was Amsterdam born and bred. He came into the world on 12 March 1824, the son of professor and member of parliament Cornelis Anne den Tex. He studied law at the Athenaeum Illustre, took his doctorate with honours in Utrecht in 1847 and became a lawyer in his home city. He was a liberal and joined the city council in 1866.

Twelve years as mayor

A royal decree of 1 July 1868 made him mayor and he started on 15 July, succeeding Cornelis Fock, who had become a minister. Den Tex stayed until 1 January 1880, more than eleven years. According to his biography his main focus was better transport links and the layout of the port.

That was exactly what the city needed. For decades Amsterdam had struggled to bring in large ships. In 1865 digging had started on the North Sea Canal at Breesaap in the dunes. In 1872 the Oranje Locks were finished, sealing the IJ off from the Zuiderzee. On 1 November 1876 King William III opened the North Sea Canal, and for the first time Amsterdam had a direct link to the North Sea. After the digging, the leftover parts of the old IJ bay were drained and turned into polders.

A web of administrators

Alongside his job as mayor, Den Tex sat in the Senate from 1875. He chaired the board of the State Railways operating company, was a commissioner of the Entrepotdok and chaired the supervisory committee of the Museum Van der Hoop, an important art collection in the city. He was on the board of the Felix Meritis society and became a jonkheer, a Dutch noble title, in 1874.

His family tied him to other mayors. One daughter married a son of his predecessor Fock. Another daughter, Cornelia, married Sjoerd Vening Meinesz, then an alderman, who had to resign because an alderman could not be the mayor's son-in-law. Vening Meinesz later became mayor of Amsterdam himself.

After stepping down Den Tex stayed on the city council for two more years. He died in Amsterdam on 6 December 1882. Around 1900 a mail boat called the Burgemeester Den Tex sailed from Amsterdam; photos show it moored at the Handelskade.