Eagum

Aegum Eagum
Village
The church tower of Eagum
Flag Coat of arms
Location in the former Boarnsterhim municipality
Aegum Location in the Netherlands
Coordinates:
Country	Netherlands
Province	Friesland
Municipality	Leeuwarden
Population  (2017)
• Total	35
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	9006
Telephone area	058

Eagum (Dutch: Aegum) is a small village in the Dutch province of Friesland. It is located in the municipality of Leeuwarden, about 10 km south of the city of Leeuwarden.

With about 35 inhabitants (in January 2017), Eagum is one of the smallest villages in Friesland.

Fonda Family

One claim to fame is that Eagum, in the 17th century also spelled Agum, is the place of origin of the Fonda family in the United States. In 1642, Jellis Douwese Fonda (1614–1659), an innkeeper in Aegum, married Hester Jansz in Diemen, near Amsterdam. Six weeks later, their son Douw Jellise Fonda was born in Aegum, soon followed by daughter Annetje and another named Geertie. In 1642, the Fonda family emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland (New York), and settled in the Hudson River valley, near Fort Orange (Albany), in a hamlet called Rennselaerwyck (Troy). Jellis became a blacksmith and brandy distiller, and Hester gave birth to three more children, Sarah, Abraham, and Saertje. Jellis Fonda died in 1659, only 45 years old. His widow soon remarried. Among Jellis Fonda’s best known descendants are American actor Henry Jaynes Fonda (1905–1982), an American Academy Award-winning film and stage actor, and his daughter Jane Fonda (1937- ), two-time Academy Award-winning actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru.

History

Before 2014, Eagum was part of Boarnsterhim municipality and before 1984 it belonged tot Idaarderadeel.