Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006 Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 page 5 page 19 (616) 526-6313 Origins is designed to publicize 2 From the Editor 16 Holland Marsh and advance the objectives of Harry Vander Kooij 4 Frederick Manfred: The Archives. These goals An Elegy for the Man include the gathering, 22 Jacob Maasdam’s Memoir, organization, and study of James Calvin Schaap 1831–1840 historical materials produced by Robert P. Swierenga and Muriel Kooi, the day-to-day activities of the editors; Michael Douma, translator Christian Reformed Church, its institutions, communities, and people.

Richard H. Harms Editor Hendrina Van Spronsen Circulation Manager Conrad J. Bult Book Reviewer Tracey L. Gebbia Designer H.J. Brinks Harry Boonstra Janet Sheeres Associate Editors James C. Schaap Robert P. Swierenga Contributing Editors page 34 page 39 HeuleGordon Inc. Printer 31 Bernard J. Fridsma: A Frisian 42 Book Notes Ambassador in the United 43 Book Reviews States Conrad Bult, James Evenhuis Janet Sjaarda Sheeres Cover photo: 46 For the Future 37 Our Trip to North America, Bernard Fridsma in the Netherlands upcoming Origins articles in 1948, sitting at the tiller of a canal Part II; Summer 1949 boat like the one his father had owned G. J. Buth, Nieuwe Tonge 47 Contributors and operated. from the editor . . .

Marsh, Ontario, area, where a num- Heritage Hall in an Excel spreadsheet. ber of post-WWII Dutch immigrants We translated the data into English settled but whose naming had little to and reformatted them into the PDF do with the Dutch. The long life and fi le linked to our web site (http://www. extraordinary career of Dr. Bernard calvin.edu/hh/family_history_resources/ J. Fridsma are recalled in the article drenthe_emig.htm). Each entry con- by Janet Sheeres. Moving to the tains the name of the person, age, Time to Renew your Subscription southern part of the Netherlands, we occupation, community of origin, As we have in the past, we are using have the translated memoir of Jacob family size (unless traveling alone), this column to notify you that it is Maasdam, a leader in the fi rst years religion, economic status, and reason time to renew your subscription. An of Pella, Iowa; and we continue the for emigrating. Surnames were refor- envelope for renewing your subscrip- travel account of G. J. Buth, a Dutch matted and alphabetized according to tion is included in this issue; this dairy farmer and veterinarian, visiting English conventions. Also new to our saves the cost of a separate mailing his relatives in Grand Rapids during website is a copy of the worship pro- for renewal. As it has since we began the summer of 1949.D gram of the fi ftieth, and last, Frisian- publishing in 1983, subscriptions Language worship service held in are $10 (US) per year. Gifts in addi- Available On-Line Grand Rapids last May. The program tion to the $10 are acknowledged as In March 2006, Wij, Eenvoudige also contains some basic histori- charitable gifts to Origins and we are Drentse Lui: Landverhuizers uit cal information of the fi fty worship grateful for this generosity.D Drenthe (We, Simple Drenthish Folk: services. The programs can be viewed Emigrants from Drenthe) by histo- at http://www.calvin.edu/hh/family_his- This Issue rian Ger de Leeuw was published in tory_resources/Fyftichste.pdf with Noted educator and author, Dr. James the Netherlands. The book tells the images from the service at http://www. Schaap of Dordt College presents his story of emigrants from the prov- calvin.edu/hh/family_history_resourc- elegy of the life and work of Freder- ince, their reasons for emigrating, es/Fiftieth_Frisian.htm.D ick Manfred, one of the literary giants and their experiences after arriving from the Dutch-American com- in West Michigan. Among the use- News from the Archives munity, who profoundly infl uenced ful data sets in the book is a list of During the summer we organized and Schaap’s own life. Harry Vander all those emigrants, 1845-1872. De opened for research eighteen cubic Kooij, long a resident of the region, Leeuw provided a copy of this list feet of Calvin College records. Of provides an account of the Holland of the 370 families or individuals to these, eight cubic feet are from the

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college’s 1984 and 1994 accreditation has changed during the past forty the Historical Series of the Reformed self-studies, which detail the college’s years. Church in America (see book review development during a roughly fi f- Our volunteers continue various section). Published by William B. teen-year span. The remaining ten translation projects having to do with Eerdmans and available for $25, the cubic feet are from the Calvin Center classical and congregational records. book is available to Origins subscribers for Christian Scholarship, founded The early minutes from Dispatch, for $20 at the Origins offi ce.D in 1976 as the fi rst of the college’s Kansas, CRC were completed and are fi ve research institutes as a place currently being typed and then will Staff where Christian thinkers can refl ect be proofread. Indexing of The Banner Richard Harms is the curator of the upon issues of public concern across continues. A volunteer is collating Archives; Hendrina Van Spronsen is academic disciplines. Over the years, data on post World War II immigrants the offi ce coordinator; Wendy Blank- dozens of books and countless articles, in Canada. Another volunteer began a espoor is librarian and cataloging lectures, conferences, and related pub- better organizing and indexing of our archivist; Boukje Leegwater is de- lic presentations have resulted from collection of family histories. As we partmental assistant; Dr. Robert Bolt this effort. noted in the past, this work is becom- is fi eld agent and assistant archivist. We also opened for research twen- ing more pressing with time, as fewer Our capable student assistants are Re- ty-eight cubic feet of denominational and fewer of our constituents are able nee LaCoss and Dana Verhulst. Our records of the Christian Reformed to read Dutch. volunteers include: Rev. Henry De- Church in North America’s (CRCNA) We accessioned seventy-seven Mots, Ed Gerritsen, Fred Greidanus, World Missions and Chaplaincy of- cubic feet of records in seventeen Ralph Haan, Dr. Henry Ippel, Helen fi ces. The World Missions material, transfers during the summer. Among Meulink, Rev. Gerrit Sheeres, Janet S. access to which requires permission, the larger transfers were records from Sheeres, and Rev. Leonard details the efforts of various agencies the Calvin College provost; CRCNA Sweetman.D during the 1970s and 1980s in re- Inter Church Relations Committee; shaping missions to encourage more and Robert Recker, professor at Calvin indigenous participation and leader- Theological Seminary, 1960s–1980s. ship. The chaplaincy material, some Son of Secession: Douwe J. Vander of which also requires permission to Werp, a biography of a leading early access, details both the military and ci- minister among the Dutch Reformed vilian dimensions of this program and in North America by Janet Sjaarda how the civilian chaplaincy program Sheeres was published by Origins and Richard H. Harms

3 Frederick Manfred: An Elegy for the Man James Calvin Schaap

met Frederick Manfred in Ia bookstore in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in late November of 1966. I wasn’t looking for him, but I stumbled across his name, a name I wouldn’t have recognized a couple months earlier, before my fi rst trip to northwest Iowa, a region Manfred, a native, loved to call “Siouxland.” I don’t know what I might have been look- ing for that day, but it wasn’t his name or the book I found, a paperback novel titled The Secret Place. I bought it, then left the store, that book in an inconspicuous brown paper bag, its own secret place, you might say. Just a few months earlier, I had gone to northwest Iowa Frederick Manfred (Feike Feikema) was inextricably rooted in a region of the plains that he called Siouxland. Photo and enrolled at Dordt College, courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. in Sioux Center, primarily because I thought I wouldn’t In a dorm room full of rowdy guys, be quick enough to make the Calvin I heard the man’s name for the fi rst College basketball team. At Dordt I time—“Manfred,” some guy said, thought I had a shot. In 1966, college sneering a bit because he claimed choices—at least in my family—were the name was phony. “His real name considerably narrowed by tribal iden- is Feikema,” a local kid said, “Feike tity: Dordt, like Calvin, was one of Feikema, and the guy writes dirty our schools, a place where good Chris- books.” tian Reformed kids were encouraged Adolescent male snickering. to attend, sometimes even required. “There was this sign along 75— For me, high school classes in litera- used to say ‘Doon—home of Frederick A native of Wisconsin, James Schaap is ture or history or foreign language had Manfred,’” another kid said. More a professor of English at Dordt College since 1982. He has published novels, been little more than starting blocks snickering. “Somebody cut it down. historical short fi ction, and medita- to get to the gym or the practice fi eld. They don’t like him much.” tions, as well as short stories and es- When I left for college I had no greater How come? says for periodicals. aspirations than to become a coach Shrugged shoulders. “You know— someday—teaching, well, whatever. dirty books.”

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“He’s from here?” I said. Feike Feikema, had taken a story that Thanksgiving break, then returned “Yeah, from Doon.” belonged to them and spread it all to Dordt College and told my Eng- Where’s Doon? over as if it was the world’s business. lish instructor that I’d like to do a Thumbs up and over the left shoul- Susan Cheever, in a recent inter- research paper on it, a novel she’d not der, pointing north. read, even though she knew Freder- I’d never heard of a writer, a novel- ick Manfred, at least by reputation. ist, actually being born and reared Not long before, President B. J. Haan someplace close. Besides, writers lived had buckled under to a local church in books and novels, not in dirt and group who vowed to stop giving to harvest and the shady ambience of the fl edgling college down the road if compost. Writers were city folks— Feikema’s books were right there in educated. Snobs. The best ones were the stacks of the library, no one super- prophets. Writers didn’t milk cows. vising. To Haan’s credit, he didn’t toss Then I went home to Wisconsin, them, but he did put them behind the waltzed into a bookstore, and found desk so students had to ask. this novel, The Secret Place. “Freder- I don’t remember what grade I ick Manfred.” received on that research paper, but I’m sure I didn’t show my parents, it’s still somewhere in my fi les I’m who wouldn’t have understood the sure, because I studied The Secret attraction; if they had, they wouldn’t view about her famous father, John Place in a way devoted freshman col- have approved. They likely would Cheever, says that being fi ctionalized, lege students are still asked to study have seconded the hostility of those as she was in her father’s work, is literature. I read that novel closely, upstanding, sign-dumping Doon- “ten million times more painful” than outlining theme and motif, in a way sters because my parents preached being written about in non-fi ction, I’d never read anything before. I read righteousness as fervently as they op- “much more dangerous because much earnestly. posed dirty books. Meanwhile, their more painful for the people it may be Sometimes I wonder if I wasn’t, son was nineteen, and the Sixties were based on.” As a fi ction writer myself, even then, trying to save this man I’d happening all around me. I had my I believe her. But, back then, I had no never met, if not from the wrath of own enthusiasms. notion of the sensitivities of Manfred’s his villagers, then from the fl ames of The Secret Place was the novel neighbors, nor did I have any idea hell others in the neighborhood were that brought Manfred most dishonor there existed a prototype narrative. stoking. I admired his rebellion, his among the good folks of Doon, Iowa, I read The Secret Place during prophetic character. Somewhere in The not only because Secret Place I wanted of its graphic to fi nd what people sexual content, once called “socially but because local redeeming value,” people felt used, in spite of the racy the story line so cornfi eld passages closely mirroring a that made my hor- saga many of them mones pulse. remembered—how I may have want- a local boy got two ed to baptize Feike girls pregnant in Feikema, but it’s far too short a span, more obvious, in both out of wed- retrospect, that with lock. Local people that novel Frederick felt what the Manfred baptized subjects of literary me. When I read work have felt for certain passages—a centuries—used. One of six brothers who all stood over six feet tall, Manfred, at six feet nine inches, towered couple of young One of their own, above his 1934 Calvin College teammates. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. fornicators meeting

5 self-righteousness head-on in a smoke- the sprawling home he’d fi lled consistory room, for instance—I built into the edge of Blue felt a confl ict that wasn’t at all new, but Mound, and I’ll never for- as familiar to my perceptions as church get the cupola up above, an peppermints drawn discreetly from a eagle’s nest, 360 degrees of black suit coat. windows and book shelves, I date my own birth as a writer to including the very defi ni- that novel and that freshman English tive collection of his own. paper. Before reading The Secret Place, I remember him stand- I had no idea my life, and the lives of ing there, pointing south, those around me, was worth a story. then telling us that on a Fred Manfred made it vividly clear to clear night he could see me—even though I’d never consid- the radio tower of Dordt’s ered it before—that I didn’t have to be station. And I remember Jewish or urbane or sophisticated or being comforted by that snobbish or even particularly “liter- gesture—somehow we still ary” to write stories about real people mattered. in real time, in a landscape no more Frederick Manfred was than a day’s hike away. so huge he made me feel Fred Manfred made me want to diminutive. I remember his write stories, and that may well be immense hands, long fi n- the most signifi cant reason why I gers permanently crooked wanted to save him. The Secret Place, from some accident. And Manfred’s inscription in his novel, The Golden Bowl, “Here is a novel also published as The Man I remember his passion, a genuine fi rst edition of my fi rst book. This book represents the seventh attempt on the same idea. Each time I began I kept Who Looked Like the Prince of Wales, as everyone who ever met the same hero, Maury, and his antagonistic, the droughted land. may well be totally forgotten to every- Frederick Manfred will. I learned that this was a good story when I found in telling it one but me, but today that book sits That sheer passion for life people listen to me—for once. I once hitchhiked through the in honor behind ancient glass on the stormed over everything Dakotas, in 1944, and met such a wanderer.” From the Manfred Collection in the Archives, Calvin College. Manfred shelf of the oak library you and everyone. My fellow can’t miss when you walk in our front staffers had to slug their door. way into a conversation that wasn’t through the years—how he had Two years later, the staff of the dialogic at all, but a running mono- crawled for miles through the prairie Dordt College Diamond drove north logue that never once grew weary- so he could feel exactly what Hugh to Luverne, Minnesota, to meet with ing. The man was a presence. Even Glass had in the legend that became Mr. Manfred. I was one of them. I those who dislike his writing will say Lord Grizzly. I listened to him go on remember the Sioux quartzite wall of it: Fred Manfred wasn’t so much an and on about running to high school artist as a force, like the wind, or the every day—seven miles each way, Plains themselves, the world from Doon to Hull, to Western Academy. I 1 What I learned from which he’d come, their emerald edge heard Calvin College stories, how he’d in Siouxland, where every season’s Frederick Manfred weather comes in spades. There’s a voice in all of us—I When we left the place he called call it the internal commentator Roundwind, we descended the curv- 2 What I learned from or the “I. C.” or “I see.” It’s the ing, steep road through swaying Frederick Manfred voice that won’t let other people prairie grasses all around. I’d asked no There’s no such thing as writer’s get away with things. It’s the voice questions while we were there, and block. Writing is like farming. that questions and doubts. Good I’m sure I said little on the way home. When you get up in the morning, writers have to listen to the IC; you got to do the work. The cows they have to pay attention to what I’d met a man, a presence, who was have to be milked. That’s it. that voice says. unlike anyone I’d ever known. That night I’d also begun to hear stories I’d hear time and time again

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left Siouxland for Michigan, packing family he had seemed to care very oxygen tank was never far behind. the only two books he’d ever owned— little about him or his circumstance, He knew his life was ending, he told the Bible and Shakespeare. perhaps with good reason. me, and he wanted to go home to Even more, I began to understand I was studying Thoreau and Emer- Rock Valley, Iowa, his birthplace. He things about writing, about the neces- son, and he was reader—and a poet, wanted to die in his native Siouxland. sity of endless research into Native mostly a devotional poet, but some- Even before my wife and fam- ceremonial pipes and dances and buf- times a little racy too, an untrained, ily moved back to Iowa, Mr. Abma falo—and the sheer joy of learning. I Dutch Reformed John Donne maybe. did—he got a room in the Manor, looked through notebooks scribbled Profound spirituality in the Dutch showed me his letter of acceptance full of his long-lettered handwriting, Calvinist character, at least histori- in fact. When, a year later, we moved interesting names and comic and fright- cally, has never seemed to eradicate a to Siouxland too, he used to call me ful anecdotes he didn’t want to forget, sometimes profl igate earthiness quite occasionally, tell me about the Bible things he’d use someday, he told us. unknown to contemporary evangeli- studies he’d set up at the home, then I left Manfred’s home in silence that cals, and that inelegant mixture was reminisce a bit about Manfred because night, having met a writer. especially evidenced in farm folks I he’d read ‘em all, he told me, every In graduate school, in addition to met in Siouxland—especially men, last word of Feik’s work—life-long everything else, I read texts that helped who brandished a hybrid spiritual- reader and admirer. me identify who I was and the eth- ity, as much a part of this earth as it I knew Harry was dying. So one nic and religious ethos that was my is and was a part of heaven to come. day I told him I’d see if the two of us birthright—Calvin’s Institutes, and the Mr. Abma was a Frisian and he was a could drive up to Luverne and visit novels of Peter De Vries and Frederick Christian: my guess is that Fred Man- the man whose work he’d always Manfred. So when I returned to Sioux- fred would have liked that wording. loved. Mr. Abma was older than land in 1976 to become an instructor Abma had but one-quarter of Feike, he said, but the two of them in English at Dordt College, I knew a lung, and wherever he went his had grown up in the same world. much more about this man Fred had some healthy years Feikema, this presence, and I as a writer, and some wearisome remembered that he lived only droughts. Somewhere along the an hour north. But it took the line, with few royalty checks dying wish of an old man to get coming in, he’d lost the big me back to his home. house he’d built into the Sioux That dying man was Harry quartzite of Blue Mound, and Abma, a man I’d met in Ari- was then, 1977 or so, building zona, a retired postal worker, an another big-shouldered, very eccentric little man in a beret, male, home quarters on the edge who scooted about the Val- of a hill north of the Rock River, ley of the Sun in a VW bug. In east of town. Arizona churches full of retir- I did some research to deter- ees in the mid-70s, Harry was mine the protocol—one didn’t unique—single, literary, often simply drop in on the novelist very lonely, and guilt-ridden. In Frederick Manfred. I checked our quiet talks after church on with the Doon Press editor, Sunday mornings, sometimes Harold Aardema, probably his he’d cry, hair-trigger, profoundly closest friend in his hometown, saddened, he told me, by the life and Harold pointed the way, told he’d lived, a life that had begun me to stop in at the drug store in in Siouxland, where he was Luverne and talk to the druggist, born. I never asked much about who was, in a way, Manfred’s what kind of mess had piled neighborly gatekeeper. As I re- up in the wake of his years, but member, that drug store carried in his Arizona retirement he every novel Manfred had ever was very much alone; whatever From the dust jacket of This is the Year by Gregg Press. written, even those out of print.

7 All the way through my research, I were barely out of earshot when he got green lights when I made it clear broke into tears. “Here in all that time that I wanted to bring a dying man up that he and I talked together, I never 3 What I learned from to meet another Frisian Siouxlander, once brought up the state of his soul,” Frederick Manfred something of a Make-a-Wish project, Harry told me, sobbing. It wasn’t the All stories are C’s—that is, they I suppose. That’ll be fi ne, the druggist fi rst time that I tried to drag him out all have openings the writer leaves said after phoning and checking with of despair, and I did again, with lines for readers. Sometimes, given your the novelist. he would have expected—“salvation, audience, those C’s have to be a So Harry and I followed another Mr. Abma, belongs to the Lord.” little more closed than at other long gravel road to the site where Not long after came the publica- times—almost O’s in fact. But Fred was, once again, building a tion of Green Earth (1977), Manfred’s they should never be O’s exactly house—and there he was, expect- chronicle of life among the Dutch because readers have to be part ing us. He put down the axe he had Reformed in the early decades of the of the story, part of piecing things in his hands—he’d been chopping twentieth century. I’ll let others de- together. wood—and walked through the sticky clare on the novel’s success, but I’ll of- topsoil, the driveway not having fer this: in no other book ever written been graveled, straight up to the car. can one get as abundant an account of By that time in his life, Harry Abma northwest Iowa life among the Dutch Most-read words of my life, I believe. could barely walk. Beside him in the during those years. Love it or hate it, Frederick Manfred remembered me front seat sat his oxygen tank. Green Earth tells a Siouxland saga; from that second seemingly invisible Fred didn’t wait for us to get out and if anyone would like to walk that visit, perhaps because he thought it of the car, although I stepped out ground again, it’s the fi rst book one was good of me to bring that beret-ed quickly, thinking it decorous to make ought to read. old afi cionado up to meet him just formal introductions. Manfred didn’t months before the oxygen tank was stare warily or expect genufl ection. retired. From that visit, Fred remem- He simply walked over to the pas- bered me. Besides, he knew I taught senger side, ignoring me, swung open literature at Dordt College. the door, and thrust that huge hand Frederick Manfred stood 6’9”. In inside. “Well, I’ll be,” he said. “Harry the late 20s, the basketball coach at Abma. I’ve read your poems for years Calvin saw this huge presence show in the Doon Press. I’m so happy to up on campus and almost immedi- meet you.” ately recruited him to play ball, even Abma was speechless, but only though Feike had not played a quarter for a while. Soon enough, the two of From the copy of Lord Grizzly in the collection of high school ball at Western Acad- them were talking and chatting, using of the Archives, Calvin College. emy. Back then, competitive athletics their beloved Frisian tongue to swap were basically aerobics for town boys. jokes they wouldn’t have told in Sun- Harry Abma was gone by the time Fred wasn’t. day school. I didn’t know Frisian so I Green Earth was published, so, soon Aldert Venhuizen, a student man- didn’t catch the punch lines, but the after its publication, I wrote a long ager for the basketball team in those chortle is a universal language. review of that novel, a review Harold years at Calvin, once told me that his I don’t know that, here below, Aardema stuck in the Doon Press. I ad- job for half a season of practices was Harry Abma could have been the dressed the whole essay to Mr. Abma, nothing more or less than teaching recipient of a greater blessing late in without using his name, tried to con- Feike Feikema to rebound, which he his life than Feike Feikema know- vince this man in glory that Fred was attempted to do by shoving him in the ing his name, praising his poems, doing all right, that things were okay lower back whenever a shot would go and shuckin’ and jivin’ in the Frisian with his soul. A paragraph or two up during scrimmage, creating a sense tongue. I’m not sure he needed the of that review was quoted in People of timing Fred had never learned. oxygen once we started back up that magazine soon thereafter, when they Tall and gaunt, his shoulders broad gravel road. did a feature on this giant, small-town as a double-tree, Manfred’s sheer But the amplitude of the old man’s novelist whose chronicles celebrated physical stature fi lled a room—and emotions was extraordinary, and we the lives of people who despised him. that was before he started talking.

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Because, in the late 70s and 80s, he knew me—and because he knew Dordt—he liked driving down high- way 75 from Luverne to meet with my literature classes. With time, the sharp edges of the old scandal had dulled Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. a bit, enough so that it didn’t seem an abomination for Feike Feikema to was looking for, had he taken the time there. Construction crews were still appear in a Dordt College classroom, to ask the question he didn’t. all around, and the dust on the stage at least it wasn’t as unthinkable as it The fi rst time Fred Manfred visited was a half-inch thick. Everywhere you might have been a decade earlier. Still, a class of mine I had no idea how it looked there were canvas drop cloths, discretion advised me not to carry the might go. I had spent some time hav- but the place was closed up and warm, news into local papers. ing my students read passages from cavern-like and spacious, a work-in- Mr. Abma’s questions about Fred’s some of the novels and a few poems progress. soul, about his salvation, weren’t from Winter Count, and I’d promised Down the center aisle we walked questions he alone had raised, of him that his appearance wouldn’t together, this huge man looking up course; and there was that matter of require a thing—all he needed to do and around, as if the unfi nished ceil- sexuality—not to mention violence, was fi eld questions. ing was lined with stars. Together we loads of it in some of the Buckskin And those questions came. One stood, center stage, looking out over Man Tales, Scarlet Plume, for example, kid raised his hand and brought up open stretches where eventually the buckets of blood and gore from the a scene in Green Earth, when, soon pews would sit, and he was astonished, Indian wars. “Was that Christian after his profession of faith, Free and almost speechless. writing?” people asked, rhetorically. his buddies hang out. In the novel, “If you would have told me, when Those books were nothing at all like a couple of the guys, multi-talented, I was growing up,” he said, more rev- the Sugar-Creek Gang. tune their expressive fl atulence into erentially than I could have guessed, Manfred used to tell me that there music, if you can believe that—“The “—if you would have told me that was, in the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Star-Spangled Banner,” or so Manfred someday my people would have a Chaucer and John Gower, two signifi - would have us believe. beautiful place like this, right here in cant English poets. Chaucer loved the “Mr. Manfred,” one of my students Siouxland, I wouldn’t have believed miller and the wife of Bath, sinners said, “in that passage, are you making you.” and the saints, loved every one of fun of profession of faith by having It was the “my people” that struck them. Gower could sing praises only them fart the way they did?” me, but maybe it shouldn’t have. to God, not to life. I don’t remember how Fred Man- Through the years, I heard him, time Fred said he wanted to be a Chau- fred answered the question, but what and time again, refer to his ethnic and cer, chanting the tales of all the Sioux- I’ll never forget is the way he grabbed religious roots in very, very loving ways. land pilgrims. He wanted to chronicle me, shocked, the minute the hour And I suppose I shouldn’t have been the joy of the very earth he loved be- ended. “That kid said the word fart surprised either when, after showing tween his fi ngers and toes. He wanted right in class,” he said. I’d never off the chapel, we stopped at the offi ce to celebrate life, not eschew it for guessed that Frederick Manfred’s sen- of the college president, the Reverend dreamy visions of the hereafter. The sibilities could be so easily violated. B. J. Haan. Once again, I didn’t know good Christians of Siouxland didn’t It was one of those moments when what to expect. It hadn’t been all that know quite what to make of that. In a something happens that blows our long before that the Reverend President way, to their minds and souls, Man- expectations into oblivion. I thought I Haan had capitulated, to a point, to an fred loved life a bit more than good knew Frederick Manfred. After all, I’d outraged constituency ready to burn Christians should. He used to say that read many of his novels. But the man books. his grandfather, an outspoken atheist, was even bigger than I’d determined, I took this man who was becom- had the best answer of all to imperti- and there was more to him than I’d ing my friend to the President’s offi ce, nent spiritual questions—“God is in guessed—which is, I’ve come to be- where we waited for a few minutes. me, and I’m smiling.” lieve, true of most of us. Once he discovered the secretary I knew his grandfather’s answer The Dordt College chapel was was married to another English would not have been what Mr. Abma being built just then, and I took him department member, Mike Vanden

9 The man had immediately pointed. “You went to Calvin College. I can 4 What I learned from always tell questions that come from 5 What I learned from Frederick Manfred Calvin College alums. They ask ques- Frederick Manfred You really can’t write all day tions nobody else asks.” If you don’t know what a grass- long. You got to chop wood. The unique shape of those Calvin hopper tastes like, and you need questions he would have attributed, to know for a story, go out and I’m sure, to Prof. Harry Jellema, the fi nd one and fi gure it out for your- legendary professor of philosophy, a self. Bosch, another writer, he wouldn’t man he himself lionized. let her alone. That too was typical He cherished his Calvin educa- Manfred. tion, and was equally proud of the But then B. J. stepped out of his fact that he had done very poorly in those who didn’t leave his and their offi ce, a man half the size of the giant his freshman English class, failed it in ethnic and religious roots. Undoubt- Manfred. I don’t know that they’d ever fact, because he hadn’t written to the edly, the break he made from those said a word to each other before in standards of course or the instructor, he himself called “his people,” left their lives, but without any introduc- but then, neither was he particularly scars. On the other hand, when Feike tory fanfare they hugged, the two of interested. Feikema became Frederick Manfred, them embraced, perhaps because they The Manfred oeuvre includes tales he also carried with him the longings understood each other’s stature and from his Calvin years. The best way of what was then, certainly, a clan- callings, perhaps because they both to read those stories is in the trilogy nish people for the kind of highly loved the world God gave them in Wanderlust, a fi ctionalized memoir profi led place Manfred gained in Siouxland. I don’t know why. Then (he called the form a “rume”) that American culture, an aspiration to be they talked like old friends, swapped includes more than his college experi- truly and successfully “an American.” stories—a God-giftedness they both ence. Those stories were published Lord Grizzly was much admired; for shared. separately in three That night, the novelist Frederick volumes: The Primitive Manfred came to the Schaaps’ house (1949), The Brother for dinner, for the fi rst time, the fi rst (1950), and The Giant of many. For several years after, I took (1951)—not a quick van loads of students up to his house, read. just as I had gone when I was an un- His work fl ow went dergraduate myself. like this: start the Fred was never happier than when morning up by read- he could entertain. My students found ing through every- him and his passions astonishing. thing he’d written the Nothing pleased Fred Manfred day before, editing more than similar kinds of visits to his infl exibly, then go on alma mater, Calvin College, especially for four hours or so, in the last decade of his life. He would that’s all. He was more talk about those trips for weeks ahead than happy to trumpet of time and weeks afterward. He felt his skills as an editor, lionized at Calvin, and the joy was but then, even rebel- almost too great for him to bear. lious Calvinists can be His Calvin pedigree was precious to woefully short-sighted. him. He loved to tell the story of how, Almost everything he once when he was living in St. Paul, wrote was a tome. he’d attended a lecture at the Universi- Frederick Manfred, ty and asked a question of the speaker, like Peter De Vries, an academic whose name or topic I was likely as much Manfred speaking during the 1983 homecoming at Calvin College. don’t remember at all. reviled as beloved by Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College.

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its success, Manfred was nominated of primitive mysticism that would, hypocrisy amid the Siouxland Dutch, for—and just about won—the Pulit- soon enough, disappear among the and Fries, from which he’d come. But zer. In his own way and in his own masses, just as it had already disap- it wasn’t sharp tongues that kept him time, Feike Feikema “made it,” and peared among the enlightened. That wondering about God, even arguing, many of his people were proud of him never happened, and Fred died before I believe; what never left him was, in- because of the way he step-laddered the advent of our post-modern milieu, stead, the loving embrace of his godly out of the ethnic ghetto. when spirituality, in all its manifesta- mother, what she was and what she But he came along at a time when tions, is fl owering, sometimes madly. represented. leaving the tribe behind was neither His father, Frank Feikema, may His liberation comes in the fi nal simple nor sympathetic. Life among well have prompted the most beauti- powerful pages of Green Earth, when, the Dutch Reformed, mid-twentieth ful writing Fred Manfred ever did, on her death bed, Ada (his mother) century, was stifl ing to some, comfort- a loving elegiac biography in Prime tells Free (read Feike) that she wants ing to many—a signifi cant force, an Fathers. him to be a writer even if she’ll never identity, that one couldn’t leave with- But what remained in him of see him in heaven someday. She wants out some heartache. We’re not talking the faith in which he grew was the him to be true to what he is. simply about wooden shoes or tulips beloved, yet searing memory of his But to know that he himself felt, or Scripture texts in the language of deeply religious mother, whom he in a certain way, blessed by her early the old country, embroidered and idolized, a woman named Alice Van death, for the reasons he gives, can’t framed and hung from a nail in the Engen. His mother’s vibrant and gra- help but make us question whether parlor; Frederick Manfred had those cious spirituality must have glowed the liberation he celebrates in Green hangings, and he loved his heritage— like a dawn, if you listen to him. She Earth is purely fi ction and not mem- no question. But that heritage has an is in his novels. Her death ends Green oir at all. No one will ever know. Only undeniable faith component that Mr. Earth, and offers his readers—and his two characters are privy to that death Abma wondered about, as did others, people—an explanation of how he bed scene—Free and Ada, son and even those within the clan who very considered himself liberated from the mother. much admired the novels Feik was cultural and spiritual strictures of his Most critics of the work of Peter writing. tribe, a tribe he never really stopped De Vries maintain that even though To my mind, Frederick Manfred loving, strangely enough—and re- you could take the boy out of his was deeply infl uenced by modern- specting. boyhood Calvinism, the ambience of ism, the prevalent intellectual world- In his daughter’s memoir, Freder- that world—its powerful religiosity— view of his time and the cultural and ick Manfred: A Daughter Remembers, never really left him. The same can be intellectual milieu of, at least, the Freya Manfred remembers the way said for Frederick Manfred. American Depression. After leaving her father always extolled his mother’s Elsewhere in her memoir, Freya college he traveled to the East Coast, beauty and grace. But she also remem- Manfred remembers how, close to his where the roughshod farm kid with bers her father—and quotes him—ad- the Calvinist pedigree walked in on mitting that his mother’s early death the substantial political questions of (he was seventeen when she died) the day, questions which were, during was something of a blessing: “ ‘. . . I’d 6 What I learned from those years, sometimes answered bet- have had an awful time explaining my Frederick Manfred ter by socialism and communism than vision to her or going up against her,’ Fiction — stories — are all capitalism. he said, ‘because she never yelled at about cause and effect. One of the In New Jersey and later in Min- me. If I did something wrong, or she great things about living in a small nesota, he met what his own people thought I hadn’t been entirely honest, town is the fact that you can see it would have called “leftists.” They she’d just look at me sadly and I’d feel in life. You see a kid on the street were bright and they were infl uential terrible, deep in my guts.’ ” and read in his walk, his father’s and they were many. His many years The caricature of stern Dutch own style of using his hands or of cloistered Christian and Reformed Calvinism would have no currency the size of his step. Generations education did not stand up well if it weren’t, in part, true. Fred Man- are like exercises in cause and ef- against the prevailing modernist views fred remembered and undoubtedly fect. of faith and spirituality—that Chris- experienced dour religiosity, preen- tianity was little more than a remnant ing self-righteousness, and outright

11 death, her father once asked her a her head, he recommended question she thought strange: “What Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, do you suppose God will have me Schopenhauer, Plato. do when he gets me into the other No reaction. place?” “What about poetry?” To which his daughter replies: “I Fred said, booming, I’m sure, didn’t know you thought there was and now on a roll. another place.” She shrugged her shoul- It seems, he did. ders. “Maybe I should,” she At his burial service up in the said. cemetery on the hill above Doon, Manfred created a reading his daughter read a story that was list—“Chaucer, Whitman— read again, later, at a memorial party and don’t forget Dickinson, he had himself ordered up, a story my personal favorite,” he told that later aired on National Public her. Radio, albeit altered a bit. That story Once again, she tried to epitomizes the relationship Frederick broker her mission into the Manfred maintained with the faith lecture. “I came here to fi nd tradition from which he’d come. out what your relationship You can read it for yourself in his to God might be,” she said daughter’s memoir, but I’ll summarize sweetly, stroking her white it quickly. When the doctors discov- Bible. ered a rapidly growing brain tumor, And then Manfred told her Fred was scheduled immediately for that he simply wanted some- surgery. An hour before, a young one else. “My background female hospital chaplain, someone was Christian Reformed,” he Edited page correction by Manfred of the manuscript for Freya Manfred describes as “wearing said. “You wouldn’t have one Flowers of Desire. Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. a brightly fl owered dress with a white of those Christian Reformed lace collar and carrying a small white guys right here, would you?” think she knew of any, and he told her Bible,” dropped by to see him. Hospi- “You mean a minister?” the young that if she’d fi nd one to “rustle him tal policy. lady said. up.” When she told Fred that she was Freya quotes him like this: “’No, “Rustle him up?” she responded. there to see how he stood spiritually, just anyone who’s raised Christian “Bring him around here so I can he immediately asked her about her Reformed. Someone who’s sick here in talk to him. I like to argue with those background. She told him she was the hospital like me. Aren’t any of your guys—it perks them up,” he said. Catholic—although only by upbring- patients Christian Reformed?” “Send him over and we’ll talk. It’ll do ing; and he told her in no uncertain The woman told her she didn’t him some good, and me too.” terms that Roman Catholics had a That’s a story Fred himself would great history. Do you know it?—he tell, I’m sure, even embellish a bit, if he asked. She didn’t. Well, you should, could. I feel his own voice in it, in me, said Manfred, and then, characteristi- 7 What I learned from as I tell it. I know he’d approve. cally, began to hold forth on Aquinas Frederick Manfred A few weeks later, Frederick Man- and all manner of Roman Catholic fred was in the hospital, dying, even To feel respect and awe at the history. though he didn’t believe it himself. giant swaths of land and sky in Harold Aardema called me and asked if When he stopped to catch a breath, Siouxland, the yellowing trees in she bridged the question again—“But September, the ochre and green I’d like to ride up to Luverne with him how are you doing spiritually? Per- of corn and alfalfa, and the slowly and visit, so we did. haps I could guide you along,” she swirling mares’ tails in the broad On the way up, Harold told me that told him, sweetly. azure sky. he’d been a bit disappointed with Fred “Have you read much philosophy?” because his youngest brother, Ed, a Fred asked her. When she shook life-long resident of Doon, a man who

12 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

was just a bit mentally retarded, had that moment in time, with Harold sit- fi gure, an immense presence, a writer recently died after a long illness. Har- ting just across the bed, Fred’s broth- fi rst of all. If he weren’t, we all might old lamented the fact that Fred hadn’t er’s death seemed to me to mean very not be remembering. really paid signifi cant attention to his little to Frederick Manfred. A friend of his told me this story. younger brother during that time, Throughout his life, he taught me After fi elding successive rejections and hadn’t visited him as he should have. I so many things that I don’t know suffering the resulting pain, Fred rose could tell that Harold was hurt by what that I can possibly remember them up in anger. “I will not be stopped,” he thought was Fred’s inattention. all. But that moment I’ll not forget, he told this friend. “I will not be Harold knew Fred as a man, not coming as it did in the wake of Harold stopped.” He was fi ercely angry. just as a lion. I remember Harold Aardema’s lament. When Fred looked Such Promethean will, admirable telling me how Fred had stopped at at me and talked to me as a writer, as it can appear from afar, feels, in the his home in Doon and wept when I couldn’t help think of what I was wrong place and time, like a cousin his marriage broke down. Fred had already coming to understand about of whatever it was that pushed along just picked out a burial site in the the process of writing fi ction—how it Ahab, the Captain. Doon Cemetery, where he wanted is that sometimes writers to be buried, “guts and all,” as he who so carefully breathe instructed his children later. That day, their souls into their work on our way up to Luverne, Harold, in can begin to love the a mission of mercy, admitted that, in worlds of their novels more not paying attention to his youngest than the worlds in which brother, Fred had let him down. they live. Storytellers—the We spent an hour or so in the really great ones—can and hospital, Harold on one side of the sometimes do abide more bed, me on the other, and Fred loved comfortably in the neigh- the visit—I know he did. But when borhoods they create than the topic of Brother Ed came up, Fred they do in the here and turned to me and said, “You know, now. Jim, I always wanted to write a story “Writing,” the essayist from the point of view of someone and historian John Milton like Ed—you know, someone not to- writes in his book, Conver- tally there. To get the voice right, you sations with Fred Manfred, know? To get that right—wouldn’t “is the absorbing purpose of that be something?” Fred Manfred’s life.” Freya Manfred claims that her That realization made father told her that his brother Ed’s me uncomfortable, and still death affected him deeply, and I have does. But I wonder too, no doubt that it did. But that day, at whether that very passion isn’t essential to creating really great fi ction, really great art. 8 What I Learned from I know another story Frederick Manfred about Fred, about his drive, his passion, something Some things that happen to which sometimes I believe you, the things you can’t forget— there’s a reason for that. You bet- is its own species of mono- ter pay attention to them. In the mania. He gave his all to his middle of those things, there will work, everything—writing be something you can pull up and was a calling/obsession. I may well be writing these In 1983, thirty-nine years after graduating, Manfred took abstract, something important. obvious delight in shooting a basket during the halftime of words right now because it the homecoming game. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin was. He was a gargantuan College.

13 Once upon a time, one of my stu- gone into brain surgery, weeks before, dents, young and female, an aspiring in the Sioux Falls hospital. “I told writer, took it upon herself to visit 9 What I learned from those guys to be careful when they Manfred’s house on her own. I don’t Frederick Manfred go in there,” he said, pointing to his know what happened between them, “It was all marvelous. I don’t re- head. “There are at least three or four but she told me, brimming with anger gret a minute of it. Even the pain good novels up there yet in those and bitterness, that she would never and hunger were sweet to have. synapses.” go back, accompanied or unaccompa- It was life, not death, and all mo- “I don’t think so,” Harold told me, nied. He was, at the time, sixty years ments of life are very precious.” sadly, when we left. “Hear that rattle older—or more—than she was. — inscription on the grave of in his breathing?—that’s not at all Frederick Manfred taught me some Frederick Manfred good.” things that he didn’t think of as les- I’d never before heard what some sons in craft. He was, without doubt, call “the death rattle.” my literary father; but I’ve come to Harold was right. The physical understand, for better or for worse, Luverne, the places his own liter- systems that would have lent him that I’d never give up so much of ary mentor, Sinclair Lewis, quite strength to type those unfi nished what he did to be a writer. That too is obviously hated. He loved small novels on the old black Remington a lesson I learned from him. towns, he used to say, because of the weren’t enough to keep his systems But what about Harry Abma’s extensive networking one becomes running. As I said, the morning he never-asked question? heir too, the cause-and-effect of gen- died, he was particularly restless. Fred Manfred used to say he stayed erations, the way one sees a father One of his nurses is an old friend, in Siouxland because he didn’t want or a grandfather in the manner by and she told me sometime later that to leave the place in which he’d which a grandson walks down the when she noticed Fred was agitated, grown up, the land he’d looked over sidewalk. she asked if she could pray with him, as a boy and loved. He liked to tell I mention that now because I’ve and he nodded, and they did. The two the story about a time when as a kid, come privy to inside information as of them prayed together. And that was when he sat out back of one of the a result of the networks he himself helpful, she told me. He seemed to farm houses where the Feikemas appreciated in small towns, where fi nd some peace. lived and looked over the endless the webs grow thick and sometimes Then he died. acres and the broad sky full of sunset. stifl ing, even to those who abide I don’t know if, legally, I’m sup- He’d just fi nished Rolvaag’s Giants within them. Here’s a story I know, posed to know that story; but I’m glad in the Earth, and he’d realized much a story for Harry Abma, and a story I do because it’s as close as I need to of that novel had happened in the for me. come to answer Harry Abma’s unasked neighborhood. He looked over the On the day of his death, Frederick question. open fi elds and told himself he knew Manfred was not resting easily. His His daughter records what may well so very little about the history of doctor, one of my own ex-students, be the last words Frederick Manfred that land, about the stories that still described the reason for his death ever penned: “Patience and brilliance seemed to him to be lodged in the that day, Freya says, as “Central is all,” his very last journal note. earth beneath his feet. Nervous System Lymphoma.” Fred March 30, 1994. What prompted him to try to be a Manfred died, like my own father, But those words were not his last. I William Faulkner or a Thomas Hardy, fi ghting. He died, really, of a kind know. And besides, Mr. Abma, salva- to cut the whole world out of one of of physical exhaustion. He and his tion belongs to the Lord. its small corners, was the desire to biological systems tried everything Just a few weeks ago, I needed a tell the stories of a real place, its his- they could to stay alive, battling picture of a country graveyard, so tory, its sorrows, and its joys. cancer and sepsis and pneumonia. early one Saturday morning I headed Check out his canon sometime: That massive body of his worked as out to Doon, where the cemetery hugs that’s what he did. That was one of hard as he had at anything in life. the rolling hills of the Rock River, a the reasons he wouldn’t leave Sioux- But lost. setting that offers a graveyard even land for New York or St. Paul, even On that last visit Harold and I had more wordless gravitas. I can under- though staying in Siouxland meant made to visit him, Fred told us what stand why Feike Feikema wanted living in small towns like Doon and he’d told his doctors before he’d to be buried there, looking down at

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his beloved Doon to the east, and Wisconsin, a novel that changed my “Till we meet again” the stone says, across the spacious fi elds of corn and life. in mossy text. beans to the north, fi elds that, even I know that good people felt used I stood there beside her grave, sorry in winter, don’t shed their spacious by that novel, even though the young that she’d died so young, and sorry grandeur. woman buried beneath the marker too that Feik Feikema caught all that That morning I wasn’t looking for where I stood probably suffered no rage from the town he loved when he his grave. It was cold—January—and abuse at all from Frederick Manfred, was just trying to tell a story. I was looking for a photo that would years later, when The Secret Place was But that morning in the Doon feature the long shadows laid across published. cemetery, I was also thankful for a stripes of snow and columns of stone I met that woman, a prototype, in story that made that very burial site by an early morning sun—just looking the pages of a book. She died at just alive with this even bigger story I’m for something touching, really, trying twenty-one years of age, the stone telling, I guess, a sprawling story to get something visually stunning. says, way back in 1920. Still, that that will end only when the sun sets That’s when I stumbled on the morning, it seemed to me that I knew forever over the open spaces of a burial site of a woman whose story her, or at least of her; and I couldn’t landscape Frederick Manfred loved I would know absolutely nothing of help wondering how many people on and called Siouxland, a real tome that if I’d never read the novel, The Secret the face of the earth, even among her won’t be fi nished until the very last Place, a novel I bought four decades own descendents, had any inkling of story of this broad land has fi nally ago in a bookstore in Sheboygan, her story. been told. K

15 Holland Marsh Harry Vander Kooij

n 1791 Samuel Holland,1 a major attempting to open former crown Iin the British Army and Surveyor land to settlement, observed that the General of Upper and Lower Canada, area was “a mere ditch swarming with came to survey the area northward mosquitoes, fl ies, bullfrogs and water from Toronto. The region contained snakes.”2 a water route from Lake Ontario to A number of early settlers ventured Georgian Bay via Lake Simcoe, with onto the marshland and attempted a portage west of present-day Aurora. to partially drain sections. Peat from Holland’s name came to be associated such drained areas was used for fuel, or as rich soil for agriculture, but the area remained too wet, so these efforts were abandoned. Still, the idea of us- ing the bog persisted. The plan that came to be favored called for lowering the Washago outlet of Lake Couchi- ching, north of Lake Simcoe, thereby lowering the water levels of Lake Simcoe and the Holland River, which would allow the Holland Marsh to drain. But shoreline property own- ers on Lake Simcoe, who anticipated Major Samuel Johannes Hollander, great damage from such a scheme, 1728–1801, who proposed draining prevented this idea from progressing what would be called Holland Marsh. beyond the talking stage. Photo courtesy of the author. The fi rst signifi cant industry on the with the river that originally drained marsh developed after 1880 with the about 20,000 acres, including the harvesting of grass and reeds. The hay area of the marsh, fl owing into Lake was much in demand in Toronto and Simcoe. The river had a landing at the other urban centers as mattress stuff- southeastern boundary of the marsh. ing. Initially strong hands and scythes Although a corduroy road (logs were used. Later horse-drawn mowers laid crosswise) and a fl oating bridge did most of the work. Horses were were built between Holland Land- ferried across fl ooded areas in fl at-bot- ing and Bradford in 1824 by Robert tomed scows. To prevent the horses Armstrong, the area did not attract from becoming mired in the soggy With his family, Harry Vander Kooij early settlement. In places the river’s ground, fl at boards were strapped immigrated to Canada in 1947 and course was barely discernable from across the bottoms of their hoofs. the Holland Marsh region became his home. Now retired and living in the marsh reeds, which were fl anked With these the horses could step Barrie, Ontario, his career was with the by swamps and hardwood brush along, much like someone on snow- Ontario Ministry of Transportation. on the higher elevations. John Galt shoes. This haying business reached of the Canada Company, a venture its peak about 1915.

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A few years previous to this, David 7,000 acres of land in the vicinity in for a total of $26,000, or an average Watson, a young farmer from the draining the marsh. Following the cir- gross yield of $702 per acre.6 These Scotch settlement, a hamlet just west culation of a petition, the proposal to were striking numbers and boosted of Bradford, of which only a Presbyte- drain the marsh was approved under the professor’s optimism. He had two rian church remains, sparked renewed the province’s Municipal Drainage Act. acres of lettuce maturing each week interest in draining the marsh. He On 16 April 1925 a contract for eleven weeks and looked forward was convinced that large parts of the amounting to $137,000 was awarded to the time when Holland Marsh Holland River Valley could be de- would supply head lettuce for all Can- veloped into agricultural land once ada during the summer season, rather it was drained. He invited William than having to be imported from Cali- Henry Day,3 a professor of physics at fornia and other places in the United the Ontario Agricultural College (now States. But, due mainly to complex the University of Guelph) to do some land entanglements with the owner- testing in the marsh to ascertain the ship syndicate, depressed agricultural feasibility of draining. About 1910, conditions due to the economy during after carefully examining the marsh- the Great Depression, and the general land and surrounding watershed, Day lack of experience of the landowners concluded that draining some of the in muck farming, little progress was marsh was possible without lowering made in dividing the land and devel- the water level in Lake Simcoe. Professor William Henry Day, oping farms. Within a few years many Watson’s enthusiasm for the project 1870–1938. Photo courtesy of the of the plots had been abandoned or had a contagious affect on Day. The author. taken for tax arrears (non-payment of next year Day built up a small plot of taxes). land from one to two feet and planted to the Toronto fi rm of Cummins and Even before the drainage work it with produce. He reported, “All Robinson to drain the marsh. Initial promoted by Professor Day began in the vegetables matured, the quality calculation indicated that the cost of 1925, the marsh was widely known being excellent, the celery carrying the work would be $21 per drained throughout Ontario for its produc- off the prize at the local fall fair.”4 He acre. Key to the effort was the digging tion of “swamp whiskey.” Police raids found that the black muck and or- of a drainage canal around the project rarely ended in arrests, as the moon- ganic material was almost identical in area. Plans prepared by Alexander shiners knew the ways of the swamp composition to the well-known onion Baird, an engineer from Sarnia, called and were able to escape the pursuing lands of Point Pelee, south and east of for a canal 17.5 miles long, with an police offi cers. Marsh stills reached Windsor, Ontario; the celery land at average depth of 7.5 feet and a width their peak production period between Thedford, Ontario (west and north of from 38 feet to 70 feet. Excavated 1923 and 1928 when all legal sale London); and the well-known celery material was to be dumped on the of liquor was banned in Ontario. In fi elds of Kalamazoo, Michigan.5 As marsh side of the canal, wide enough spite of the numerous police raids and a result of these satisfactory results, to carry a road. As with many ma- eighteen liquor-related deaths, people he was able to form a development jor projects, there were unforeseen still came from miles around to buy a syndicate that purchased about 4,000 complications, and delays were time- jug. acres of marshland. In spite of his consuming and costly to overcome. In 1930 John Snor became suf- enthusiasm, Day was not able to Furthermore, the early economic ill fi ciently interested in the marsh, so convince the nearby municipalities to effects of the Great Depression took a much so that he came to visit Brad- become involved. When World War I toll. But in 1930 the canal project was ford and some people who had started began, the effort was shelved. complete. farming. At that time Snor was the In 1923 Day resigned from his posi- During this same time an area of representative of the Netherlands tion at Guelph and moved to Bradford. about 200 acres, known as the Brad- Emigration Foundation.7 Among the He began an energetic campaign to in- ford Marsh, was diked and drained. Foundation’s mandate was investigat- terest the townships of King and West Also in 1930, Day had thirty-seven ing potential settlement locations for Gwillimbury (the Holland River is acres under cultivation, on which Dutch emigrants. During the 1920s their common boundary), the Village he had grown lettuce, celery, onions, several Dutch families had come of Bradford, and the owners of over carrots, and parsnips. These sold to Canada. Some had settled in the

17 Hamilton and Chatham areas, where of the Dutch words “aan,” “Snor,” and they had found seasonal farm work. “veld;” meaning “on Snor’s fi eld.” In a As the Great Depression took root, ceremony to mark the offi cial naming, however, such work became scarcer they raised Canadian and Dutch fl ags and those who were not natural- and spoke a few words. ized citizens were in danger of being An important question that faced deported if they continued to be a the settlers was education for their fi nancial burden. Snor sought ways children. The Glenwith Public School to avert such deportations. Under the was two and a half miles away, over a federal settlement program and in as- road with steep hills, and there were sociation with some major landown- also concerns about their children ers he developed a plan to relocate getting lost in snowstorms, so a school immigrant families to the marsh. In was built on a one-acre lot at the north 1933 he arranged to have 125 acres end of the settlement (today a youth of undeveloped land subdivided into center is on the site). The land was fi ve-acre parcels and further divided donated and most of the work was the strip in Concession and King done by volunteers. It was completed Townships into lots with 50-foot in time for the start of the school year frontage and set aside for houses the Entrance sign of the 1934 Dutch settle- in September 1935. William Mulock, ment. Photo courtesy of the author. settlers would build themselves. He Postmaster General, was one of the further arranged fi nancing—with guests present at the offi cial opening each family getting $200 from the conven iences; the men used the canal of Public School S. S. 26. federal government, $200 from the to bathe and wash their clothes. For the men in the henhouse in the provincial government, and $200 The building materials provided summer of 1934, Sunday had been a from the Dutch government. With included eleven 8-foot cedar poles for welcome day of rest. In keeping with this $600 the settlers could make each house which enabled the men to their Calvinistic background, they new beginnings. Each would spend build their dwellings three feet above adhered to the biblical instruction “six $200 on material for a house, a ground level, a precaution against pos- days you shall labor and do all your two-story frame structure measur- sible fl ooding. In the fall the houses work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath ing 16x20 feet; the material was just were completed to the point where the to the Lord your God, on it you shall enough to complete the shell without families could move in. None had run- not do any work.” And so, for as many insulation. Another $200 was used ning water, which was carried by pail as had transportation, they would re- as a down payment to acquire the from a community artesian well; an turn to their respective communities. fi ve acres which was considered a outhouse was built in each backyard. Those who stayed behind conducted normal-sized market garden in those That fi rst winter was cold and harsh, their own church services by reading a days. The remaining $200 was set so cardboard and other materials were prepared sermon and singing hymns. aside for living expenses for the fi rst used to cover the cracks in the walls to After the houses were completed twenty months. The remainder of the reduce drafts from the cold winds that and the families had moved in, the $500 land cost—$95 per acre plus swept across the open terrain. Stoves residents gathered in their homes $25 for the house lot—would be paid were kept red hot by burning tree each Sunday to worship; each home in the years following.8 roots that had been plowed up from hosting the worship service, in turn. Snor enrolled fi fteen Dutch fami- what must have been a forest on the This arrangement came to be known lies, an Englishman, and a German. site many years earlier. The residents as the “traveling church,” with each In June 1934 the men arrived to start in nearby Bradford were relieved on person old and young alike required developing the land and building cold winter mornings when they saw to bring his own chair. That fi rst their houses. One of the men moved smoke rising from the chimneys of the winter some fi fty people crowded into a 20x20-foot hen house section to settlers’ houses. the small houses twice each Sunday, the marsh from Hamilton, and it With spring came the fi eld work. attending services where the men took became the communal living quar- The settlers also decided that their col- turns reading Dutch sermons, since ters for about a dozen men, most of ony needed a name. It was agreed to they had not yet suffi ciently mastered who slept on the fl oor. There were no name it Ansnorveldt—a combination English.

18 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

When the fl oors in their houses Hamilton offi ciating. The fi rst wed- and in the congregation’s fellowship, began to sag from the weight during ding, on 17 October 1937, was that of especially on Sundays; all wrestled the meetings, they knew something Tony Sneep and Nelly Rupke. Sneep with similar problems. Once a year had to be done. They did not have was the carpenter of the community; they forgot about work and loaded much money but, after many collec- he had taught the men the basics of into trucks and whatever vehicles they tions, a cash balance of $75 was on construction for their houses and was had and traveled to Innisfi l Beach, on hand and a loan of $175 was secured the only worker paid in the building Lake Simcoe, for a picnic, games, and with the signatures of a dozen or so of the school and the church. fellowship. men who had little other security to In 1938 the Holland Marsh Chris- As the community grew, so did the offer. They constructed a 20x20-foot tian Reformed Church was organized number of children attending the lo- church building on a vacant lot at the with a membership of eighty-eight cal public school. The public school south end of the settlement and, on 21 people. In 1940 the congregation board included members who did June 1935, dedicated it to the Lord’s received its fi rst pastor, Rev. Martin not have the same Christian perspec- service, with Rev. John Bolt from Schans, who had previously served the tives on education as the founding Christian Re- members. When enlarging the school formed Church building to accommodate growth was in Redlands, to cost the local taxpayers $5,000, California. The some of those in the Reformed faith Holland Marsh decided to establish their own school. church played It would offer the same basic educa- a cardinal role tion but with a fundamental differ- in the develop- ence: it would be Christian rather ment of the than public. Most of the adults in the marsh as a settlement had attended Christian community. schools in the Netherlands and they While diffi cul- desired to have the same spiritual care ties abounded, for their children. A school society its members was established and in 1942, for $150, The Holland Marsh Christian Reformed Church building was built in 1935, found comfort a three-acre lot was purchased. Due but the congregation was not organized until three years later. Photo courtesy and courage to the wartime shortage of building of the author. in the Bible materials, however, they could not

The Holland Marsh settlement in about 1935. The gambrel roof style opened the upper fl oor volume and was a distinctive feature of an architectural style called Dutch Colonial. Photo courtesy of the author.

19

The Holland Marsh Christian School was assembled in 1947 from two former army barracks, Photo courtesy of the author. obtain a building permit. They then matches or would see who could jump Early in 1954 my father bought obtained permission from the church across the ditch if we were near a wide thirty acres of excellent land without a to rent the consistory room and on 15 one. down payment. This was a very large February 1943 the school opened with In 1949 my dad bought one of the parcel for that time and it kept us all nineteen children. Since that time and original settlement houses which had very busy during daylight hours. In several buildings later, the school has been enlarged but still stood on its early fall there was a lot of rain which grown to about 275 students.9 raised foundation of cedar posts. A made harvesting very diffi cult. Then, Some have called 1947 the year of modest down payment made him the on Friday, 15 October 1954, every- the great invasion of the marsh, as in owner of a $2,600 house to accom- thing came to a sudden stop when June of that year the fi rst wave of post- modate the family which had grown remnants of Hurricane Hazel roared in World War II immigrants arrived. Ten to nine children. During the follow- and fl ooded the marsh. The rainfall of or more families settled in the marsh ing years, while he worked for other more than seven inches was too much as farm help. I was among them—with growers, Dad rented some land which for the surrounding canals, which also my parents, one brother, and fi ve sis- we worked in the evenings. collected the runoff from the sur- ters. We came over on the Waterman, In 1953 Dad thought the time was rounding highlands. The rain, togeth- a troop carrier with no conveniences right to start his own business; he er with the strong northerly winds, for family travel. But it was an exciting rented fi fteen acres. Much of the work prevented the water from its normal experience for an eleven-year-old boy was done by hand, his and those of fl ow into Lake Simcoe, causing sec- wearing coveralls and wooden shoes. the many other capable members of tions of the dike walls to washout. By Dad, who had been a self-em- the family. That year I had a full-time late evening, attempts to sandbag and ployed market gardener in the Neth- job in the local grocery store, which close several gaps were abandoned; erlands, went to work in the fi elds of provided just enough cash to pay all night long the water kept pouring his sponsors. I also went to work in for the family’s groceries. A bumper in. People were evacuated and others these fi elds together with a group of harvest in the marsh that fi rst year moved to the second fl oors of their kids ranging in age from ten to fi fteen led to very low prices and made for homes to be rescued by boat the next years. We crawled up and down the a poor start. The farm income was day. The depth of the water ranged 2000-foot-long rows of onions and just enough to pay for the rent, seed, from about two feet at the east end of carrots, pulling weeds. When the custom work, containers, and other the marsh, where we lived, to about foreman gave us a break at the end of items. Dad returned to his former em- the ceilings of the houses at the west the row we often engaged in wrestling ployer for work during the winter. end. Fuel tanks, crates, outhouses,

20 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

wagon platforms, houses—anything constantly, they moved 200,000 Endnotes that could fl oat did. The De Peu- gallons per day. On 17 November, 1. Holland was born in 1728 near ter family and our family, then with after nearly four weeks, the marsh Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and had twelve children, were startled when was cleared of water. Everyone got served in the Dutch army prior to join- our houses began to fl oat. To keep involved with cleaning and repairs. ing the British army. the houses somewhat level, we kept Busloads of Mennonites from the 2. “Holland Marsh—Its Reclamation and Development,” Immigration Branch running from the low areas to those Kitchener area tackled some of the of the Ontario Department of Planning rising in the bobbing houses. After a toughest jobs. The beautiful late fall and Development, 1949. few miles’ journey the house lodged weather was ideal for the cleanup and 3. Day was born 10 September 1871 against Highway 400. That same repairs. By spring everyone was ready in Fenelon Falls and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1903. He was night, after bringing my parents and to get on with the task of working the appointed head of the Physics Depart- siblings to Bradford, I returned to our fi elds and the relatively normal pro- ment at Guelph in 1906. house with my buddy who worked for cess of seeding and harvest resumed. 4. Albert Vander Mey, “And the us. We went to bed upstairs, since all Life goes on in the Holland Marsh, Swamp Flourished,” 1994. 5. See: Herbert J. Brinks, “Celery,” work was abandoned. The next morn- which is the richest vegetable-grow- Origins vol. 16, no. 1 (1988): 31-34. ing I looked out and saw a tranquil ing land in Ontario (referred to as the 6. Vander Mey, “And the Swamp lake under a bright sunlit sky. The salad bowl of Ontario). Just one acre Flourished.” only thing wrong with the view was of this good organic soil will pro- 7. The Netherlands Emigration As- sociation, a private government-subsi- that houses, barns, trucks, and farm duce nine hundred 50-pound bags of dized organization that provided reliable equipment were sticking out of the onions, or 1,200 bushels of carrots, or information to emigrants, was created in water. 25,000 heads of lettuce. It has come a 1913 to curb abuses in the way potential The big cleanup began shortly after long way from the time that Professor emigrants were recruited. Ten years later the Dutch Emigration Centre was the closing of the breaches in the Day harvested his fi rst crop and won a begun to provide advance payment in dike. Pumps were brought in and with prize for his celery at the local fall fair, the form of a government credit to cover twenty-fi ve of them in place, running but he had seen the direction.K the costs emigration, but the funds had to be repaid. In 1931 the two groups merged into the Dutch Emigration Foundation. http://www.nederland-aus- tralie2006.nl/geschiedenis/au/html/land- verhuizers_voorbereiding2.html, visited 18 August 2006. 8. Vander Mey, “And the Swamp Flourished.” 9. The 1950 graduating class totaled eleven, including the author.

The Christian Reformed Church in 1948, after two enlargements. It was replaced in 1960. Photo courtesy of the author.

21 Jacob Maasdam’s Memoir, 1831–1840 Robert P. Swierenga and Muriel Kooi, editors; Michael Douma, translator

Introduction1 oldest twenty-seven.7 Father was dead Editors’ note: Among the nine- Jacob Maasdam2 was born in Zuid- and buried and was missed, and it teenth-century Dutch Immigrants Beijerland, often called Hitzert.3 His became quite obvious shortly after were a number, particularly from the father was Gerrit Maasdam [1765– his death that the children were not southern Netherlands, with strong 1831] and his mother Adriana den walking in his footsteps. All sorts of pietistic roots. Maasdam’s narrative Tuinder [1777–1834].4 From that godlessness were manifested in them of his conversion and experiences union nine children were born.5 The and Mother had the least knowledge in the secession movement in the father of this large family provided an of God and did not admonish or rep- Netherlands during the 1830s is a honest life for his family.6 His life was rimand her children but allowed them vivid account of how some of this fi lled with many struggles and adver- to continue in their sin. The Lord, pietism found expression, and how sities, and fi nally illness called him who is a jealous God and a destroyer some pietists saw both good and evil home to the Lord at the age of sixty- of his enemies; let us feel his displea- rd working in all aspects of life. fi ve on the 23 of May in the year of sure. our Lord 1831. His life was exemplary In 1832 I was included in the and edifying; his life was a pious, conscription for the national militia. godly walk, so that his name will be I was very anxious because of this, remembered with blessing. This pious fearing that I would be conscripted, and God-fearing man led his family which did happen. This struck us in prayer, asking that the Lord would as a visit from the Lord, because we be merciful to them. The Lord has had not listened to His voice and had confi rmed this to some of his chil- not acted upon the admonitions of dren, but not yet on them all. When our father. This infl uenced some of the father [Gerrit] was on his death- us, but the hearts of others were not bed he called all his children to him humbled. For me the impact went and gave them earnest instruction, in deep, for when I stood in front of Muriel Kooi of Pella, Iowa, has spent particular to his son Jacob, who was the mayor, I vowed to the Lord that I many years studying the history of the eighteen at that time. The instruction would live a godlier and more con- Pella Colony and is a frequent contribu- was that he should think about the scientious life and I prayed that He tor to the Pella Chronicle. lessons, warnings, and advice given to would spare me. him. “I can no longer counsel you,” I was part of the draft lottery at Michael Douma is a 2004 Hope College 8 graduate and was a student assistant in said the dying father, “but think of Oud-Beijerland. With a trembling the Van Raalte Institute in 2005. He is a these things after my death.” These hand I pulled my number out of graduate student at Florida State Uni- words ran through to my soul and cut the bottle and it was sixteen, which versity, studying with Suzanne Sinke. deeply into my heart and I cried as I seemed a good number.9 As a result, left. This while he breathed his last all fear left me; I forgot the Lord; I Robert Swierenga is the Albertus C. Van Raalte Research Professor at the A. C. breath, content and comforted by his sinned more than before, and served Van Raalte Institute, Hope College. An wife and children. the world more than before. This emeritus professor of history from Kent The widow was left with seven lasted two months from March until State University, he has written exten- children, two daughters who were the latter part of April in 1832. One sively on the Dutch in North America. married, and fi ve sons still at home; Sunday evening I was walking with my the youngest was thirteen and the friends and Jacob Baay came up behind

22 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

to come to earth in the Blaak, the constable in The Hague, and fl esh! For the salvation from there to Leiden, where I became of those who are always a part of the 5th infantry division. From at enmity with God and Leiden I was sent to Utrecht to the his followers, the Lord Rijks Hospitaal [government hospital] renewed mankind from because I had had pain in the left side an enemy to a friend, of my chest for a long time. I was there from unwilling to willing, for six months. After having endured from darkness to light, much pain there, I was excused from from death to life—a service because I had been hospital- new and spiritual life in ized. I had to return to Leiden until him, shaped into a new my discharge papers came in April and spiritual man, as it is 1833. This release made me unspeak- written in the holy book, ably happy, because I was very afraid born again. In a birth of living among such godless people as from above, John 3:6, servicemen. I had not been able to pray which occurs through or read freely and I became a caged belief, 2 Colossians 2:12, bird. I was separated from the men and given with Him in bap- labeled a fanatic. tism in which you are also Upon my return home I learned that revived in Him through my oldest brother, Steven, had died. Location of Maasdam’s home and other locations where he lived belief in God. This was the second misfortune in my and visited. This almighty work parental home, the result of having dis- of God then became the obeyed the Lord. I had suffered much us and tapped me on the shoulder work of transforming me. It showed hunger while in the hospital because and asked, “Must you continue to me how I was lost in Adam, but also I sent my money home to help sup- sin, hasn’t it been long enough? What that there is salvation in Christ, al- port the family. Upon returning home would you do if the Lord should call though at fi rst this was not clear to me I promised Mother that I would stay you? Don’t you know that then you because of the darkness in me. Yet the with her as long as she lived and that would be lost?” These words pricked Lord did not let His work lay half fi n- I would support her. I was with her a my heart and I had to agree that if ished, but He began and completed His year and a half when the Lord took her I continued on my present course I work. This action of God transforming away from us on the 10th of September would indeed be lost. My conscience me took place in 1832, in the latter 1834. The next month, on 10 Novem- awoke again and I became very fearful part of April. Soon after that I noticed ber, half sister Willempje, the wife and depressed just as I had been years that some who were called to army of Gijsbert de Laat, died. Our sister before when a child. Guilt weighed service were rejected and then others Jaapje, who was married to Willem den heavily on me until the next morning were called in their places. And so, my Boer, came to live with us. when this lifted along with the clouds turn came, which depressed me greatly, Then a signifi cant change quickly and early morning dew. yet I had to stay the course. I had acted occurred. Jaapje was very stingy and The Lord knows His own (2 Timo- as though the Lord could do nothing so living with her was very diffi cult. thy 2:19, [NRSV]): “But God’s fi rm to me. When I was in need, I called My youngest brother, fi fteen years foundation stands, bearing this inscrip- on Him and gave promises to listen to old, left home because he was being tion: ‘The Lord knows those who are Him, and then when I thought I was mistreated by Jaapje. Everything I his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who calls on saved I did not keep those promises. earned I contributed to the house- the name of Lord turn away from Anyone who reads this or hears this hold. However, I wanted to keep a wickedness.’ ” He lifted me out of the being read, I advise you not to do as I little money so that I could go to miry clay and put me in the kingdom have done. Because who has ever quar- church elsewhere, but this was not al- of His son. He was the faithful one. reled with the Almighty and had peace; lowed. This put me off and I decided I was unfaithful. How could He love or who could ever refuse His hand? to move to the village of Piershil, an a sinner like me? Oh, the wisdom of Not I or any other creature can do that. hour from Hitzert.10 Soon after, I also God in sending His only begotten Son I was called-up and sent to Arie left. There, in 1835, I established

23 myself as a cooper and boarded with no longer valid; the temple of Solo- recuperated. My sister very faithfully Bastiaan Agoort. mon had fallen. nursed me back to health and when Having been there for a year, one I protested against these and other I had regained my health, the hand Sunday morning I went to Hitzert terrible heresies and was called to of the Lord came upon her young- to worship in Hendrik Barendregt’s appear before the elders. I took a few est child who was six months old. carpenter shop with the Lord’s people of my students along as witnesses. God, however, restored the child. But who were part of the afscheiding They quickly left me, wanting noth- then my sister fell victim to the same [secession], even though I had not yet ing more to do with this. The consis- disease and died. This was once again become a seceder.11 This was because tory itself was hostile toward me; the very diffi cult for me, and all the more I, to my shame, then still loved the congregation slandered me, so that so since I had never seen the fruits of world more than my Savior Jesus nearly everyone was opposed to me. conversion in her. This happened on Christ. As early as 1833, a year before However, I stood steadfast in the Lord 10 July 1835; she was thirty-one.13 the afscheiding led by Rev. [Hendrik and appeared before the consistory After this I decided to again move Pieter] Scholte, then preacher at eight times. Members of the consis- from Piershil to Hitzert and board Doeveren, Genderen, and Gansoyen tory made me out to be my own god with my brother. There I again be- [Noord Brabant], I had had a serious and worthy to be torn apart by four came ill and recovered with nearly quarrel about religion with the horses, because I, as a child, had de- no help. This sorrowed me; when I preacher at Zuid-Beijerland (Hitzert). fi ed the dominie and brought dissent again recuperated I left and boarded into the congregation. The last time with Hendrik Barendregt. While I that I was in their midst the consis- was there his wife died, so I left and tory had the civil authorities fi ne me boarded with Antoone Smaal, where fi fty gilders, and threatened that if I things improved for me. did not stop challenging the minister Meanwhile, I actively searched I would be imprisoned. I questioned for a wife and choose Maria Adriana the consistory if they found such Breure. I made my wishes known to things in God’s word, since I had her in a letter, after which I talked to never read such things, and that it her in person. We had a lot in com- appeared clear enough to me that mon, but her parents offered much although they called themselves resistance. But what the Lord of eter- Reformed, their actions made them nity has brought together no man can appear just the opposite. I knew that keep apart. Since I had been reborn in I should stop speaking, knowing that the Lord I had the fi ery desire to con- Rev. Hendrik Pieter Scholte was a the Lord will judge and everyone will duct myself in the word of the Lord. prominent infl uence in Maasdam’s have to explain their actions. I had A path for doing this was opened life. Image courtesy of: Archives, done as much as I could there, know- in 1839 when I went to the revered Calvin College. ing the Lord was with me. I left their and very learned Dominie Scholte in meeting with the words of the Apos- Utrecht and received training from This quarrel occurred in the church tle, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, him.14 I practiced the principles of about the catechism and the free will says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). the Hebrew language and after that of man and God’s power over man. Very soon after that I again went studied church history and theology. The minister taught that man has a to Hitzert for the Sabbath. I became Having been there for about a year, free will and can do good or evil as he unwell and went to my sister, married circumstances prevented me from pleases and he can also repent. Thus to Willem den Boer, in Piershil. I lay continuing my studies. faith or belief was the result of man, in bed there and became so ill that in But, we were married on the 27th of who can work out his own salvation. the evening of that same Sunday I no November 1840. I was twenty-seven And, if a man has done enough good longer wanted to live. Late Monday years old and my wife twenty-six. The deeds, then he can become a new night the Curelijn12 said that I was prospects of earning my bread in an creature, in other words, then he can dead. But, a quarter of an hour later I honest manner were not promising, win the favor of God and the Lord was sure that I was alive, and on that but the Lord can advise those who would grant him salvation. He also same day regained by senses and the are on the darkest paths, and this he taught us that the Old Testament was pox appeared, and after fi ve weeks I did for me. I followed the advice of

24 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

Koenraad De Jong, who was with me the minister at the Seceder church at about two hours from Utrecht to teach for a time at Rev. Scholte’s, to go live Noordeloos. In Amsterdam we met the catechism. There was quite a dif- in Noordeloos.15 Because of circum- Dominie Scholte and a Mr. Tiddy, an ference of opinion between me and the stances, my wife stayed at her parents’ agent of the British and Foreign Bible pious ones there, so much so that they house and I boarded with Cornelis Society, who told me why I had been did not wish me to teach them any Koek. My wife and I were separated asked to come. They proposed that more. Truly scorn, slander, and heresy I from each other by ten hours [travel I become active in the distribution received from them. I was easily able to time]. But when the frost came I of Bibles, to go visit people in their endure this because I was fully con- could not work any more and went to homes, and to speak with them about vinced in my heart that I had taught Hitzert and was with my wife through the way of salvation and to proclaim them nothing other than what is in the the winter. Jesus Christ, etc. Bible. I rented a house in Noordeloos After I asked a few questions and to begin living there in May, but this they had given me a satisfactory an- Church leader didn’t start until the 11th of June 1841 swer, I accepted the task of trying to I shall now write about the events in because my wife was confi ned to win miserable sinners unto salvation. Hitzert when I was not yet a seceder. bed at her parents’ house because of But they [the Bible Society] resisted I have already alluded to this in the childbirth. Our fi rstborn came into the focus and source of salvation. preceding pages. In the beginning of the world on 18 March 1841. Her Instead of putting Jesus Christ and my stay in Utrecht it continued to name was Elizabeth. She was very Him crucifi ed fi rst, they read the law be hard. I boarded in the house of intelligent and pleasant and well- of God and said that man is doomed. C[ornelius] van der Meulen, who is mannered but as pleasing as she was, Thus they drove men away from Jesus now a minister in Zeeland, in the city death did not spare her. After we had Christ. They propose the law for men, of Goes.16 He lived next to Dominie her for about fourteen months she whose situation is damned. They Scholte. That week a sentry, or guard, was suddenly torn away from us with- could not learn of God and Christ, the was posted at the front of the door, so out warning after a day and night of that when we went out, it was very seizures. She passed away on 27 May diffi cult to reenter. Yes, this happened 1842 and was buried in Noordeloos. one Sabbath day after we had par- We will see her again when the Lord taken of the Lord’s Supper at Takken’s Jesus Christ returns and all the saints house,17 when W[ynand] Gardenier, with him. Then death no longer will who is now a minister in Zeeland, and be, and we will not be separated but I returned home.18 The daughter of will be reunited. May we eternally Dominie Scholte also was with us and glorify and praise Him who has loved she pushed through to enter Domi- us and bought us with His own blood. nie Scholte’s house, where a guard Having lived in Cornelis Renge- seized her and dragged her out of the ling’s house for nearly three years and Rev. Anthonie G. Betten, entryway and slapped her. But fi nally having worked as a cooper, a son was a friend of Maasdam, we were able to get around them and born to me on 13 September 1842. also immigrated to Pella, went inside. Once on another Sab- and became a minister in His name was Leendert. We were the Reformed Church in bath we had gathered in the church living there very quietly and content- America. Image courtesy of: building when the police came with edly, when a member of the Seceder Archives, Calvin College. six offi cers and twenty-four soldiers congregation of Utrecht came unex- with loaded guns to force us out of pectedly, sent by Dominie Scholte, crucifi ed, in whom we can see that the church. With battering rams they saying that I must go at once with God cannot let the sinner go unpun- broke the door open so that they him to Utrecht and from Utrecht to ished, since he would not have given could get to us. Amsterdam, since a man had to speak over this beloved son to pay for the The police offi cer spoke very to me about working in God’s king- salvation of the sinner. angrily toward Dominie Scholte and dom. This news terrifi ed my wife and I returned to Hitzert where every- told him to leave, otherwise he would me. There was no time to prepare. I thing went well and many agreed with have the soldiers force us to leave. went [to Amsterdam] with him and me but, when I came to Utrecht, I had Seeing these armed men, Dominie Dominie [Antonie] Betten who was a strong urge to go to Maartensdijk Scholte thought it best for us to

25 disperse on our own and prevent hearing this, said, “Yes, never have I en- further incident, since some might joyed the privilege to be free in nature perhaps have sacrifi ced their lives, so or to sit in a boy’s lap, but now I have we all went to his house. a spiritual freedom.” Upon this the old Another circumstance took place woman hugged another and kissed her while I was a student at Utrecht. A and began to dance and to sing, in the rumor was being spread from the manner of many others with her. village of Bunschoten, which lies This surprised me. Steketee stood near the Zuider Zee, that there were close to the girl and Betten and Gar- many conversions there.19 So I went denier and I sat by the fi re. I winked with four others to verify this report. to Steketee to come by me, but he Betten, Steketee,20 and Gardenier shrugged his shoulders and said, “I were my travel companions. Having don’t know.” I mentioned to him that arrived there in the evening we came I wanted to pray together, which he to Reintjepoort’s house. found a good idea. I tapped my hand While there, two soldiers entered on the table two times, because there the house thinking that there would Scholte shunned denominational affi liation and was no opportunity to call out above be preaching. But this was not our his congregation built this structure for their in- the song and dance. After I had done intention. Many people quickly gath- dependent congregation. Soon after organizing, that, they all stopped. I said, “Friends the congregation joined the Reformed Church in ered to see us, and it was our wish America, despite Scholte’s views on the matter. in the Word of the Lord, I see that there to see them and listen to them. Soon Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. was a congregation that also was fi lled strange new converts came to me, but with the Holy Spirit and they were con- I made no remark nor spoke about from her ecstasy, she was healed. He sistent in the teachings of the Apostles, this. Meanwhile I was requested by was so overwrought by the events that in the breaking of bread, and in prayer, Reintjepoort to ask a blessing on the he could not tell us about this without and while you also appear to be fi lled meal. After this, I offered my prayer jumping up and down from his chair; with the Holy Spirit, you certainly feel and asked the Lord that He might lead he was very nervous as well. After the need to pray, which Christians of all us with his spirit and see to it that His he had told us all of this, we went to times have needed so much.” Now they work might be evident among us and Rientjepoort and from there we went to looked at each other, asking, “Can you offered my thanksgiving to the Lord the house of another. There we found pray, poor wretch?” They answered each in prayer. several young people between the ages other, “I cannot pray, poor wretch.” When I fi nished, a good many of of twenty and thirty years of age. When To this I replied that if we are so fi lled the people left for another place. We we came into the house they sang with the spirit as they are, we should be stayed there awhile and talked to Psalm 25, but the song stopped at once able to pray. Then Steketee said that I the elder. He told us how the Lord with our entrance and everyone went should pray, since they could not. Then brought his wife and two sons to silent and would not speak. But after a I asked the entire group whether there repentance. The Holy Spirit had sud- little time had elapsed a few began to was anyone who objected to me pray- denly brought them into ecstasy so speak about the love of the Lord. Yes, ing. They answered, “No, no one.” So I that they became very nervous and they too were drunk with love so that a prayed to the Lord that He might give this caused a terrible twitching and girl sitting next to a boy sat in his lap. these people a quiet and merciful spirit spasms in their bodies so that one From time to time more boldness began and that they might not be so publicly could hear the very bones moving in among all those who sat there, that they zealous and that they might not slander their bodies. Such a rattle sounded in began to speak again. Meanwhile an old His name, because now the work of the their bones! This continued for a short woman, who had been in bed, came in. devil showed itself among them and while and then they were born again. She came in her nightclothes with her that they should take care that nothing They glorifi ed the Lord with psalms wooden shoes and a scarf around her of the devil should be seen as the work and songs and were so gladdened by head. This old woman, seeing how the of God. this wonderful privilege that had been girl was sitting in the lap of the boy, said When I had ended the prayer, there given to them. she was not fi lled with love of the Lord. was a terrible cry from the gathering Yes, the elder testifi ed that before his “Yes, now she is in the wine house of and many others, who in religious wife was crippled, but after she awoke her heavenly bridegroom.” The girl, ecstasy, could not speak nor cry. At this

26 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

point Reintjepoort entered as a man The Bible says not to not extinguish speaking and admonishing, so that possessed by the devil foaming at the the spirit, which was an evil I had not Jan Vogel became so angry that he told mouth. The mass of people gathered done. But it was not long thereafter that me again to leave the house, because around me with raised fi sts, saying that the Lord convinced everyone that this otherwise it would turn out badly for it was better for me to have a millstone work was not of Him but was of the me. I answered him that it was evil of around my neck and for me to be heart, because their zealousness was him to turn me out, because he would thrown into the sea, than that I bother all in public. Instead of white linens disgrace himself for turning out some- one person of this small group. Then on their bed they had black. And the one fi lled with the devil. I warned him my comrades fl ew out of the house, women wear black caps, and their that his hands would not again hit me, but I remained seated. After they had clocks use pebbles and rope instead of because what would the world say spoken the anathema on me, they took copper weights and chains. Still other about that? Then he got up and angrily a vote and sang Psalm 68 verse 1: “Let things that they did turned other pious left Gerrit den Boer’s house. But soon God rise up, let his enemies be scat- people away. thereafter I had to leave, because it was tered; let those who hate him fl ee before Still another case occurred in time for Dominie Van Velzen to preach. him,” and following verses to me. Noordeloos. There was a division in This man was also terribly angry at me, Meanwhile De Hartoch [den Har- the congregation as there was in most because I had said many things about tog], who was the elder, came inside of the congregations in our Fatherland. him that were scandalous for someone and they told him what evil I had done The main cause of the division was the who wanted to be called a servant of to them. But I also began to speak with issue of child baptism. One side said the Lord. The things that I said about him and I asked him whether he had that all children must be baptized; the him could be read in the journal, De been converted according to the word other said only the children of believ- Reformatie, written by the Rev. Scholte. of the Lord, and he answered me, “Yes.” ers should be baptized. Those who From this and other circumstances Then I asked him whether we were advocated that all the children should there existed a bitter hate and enmity converted as these other people have be baptized said that the children of against me. People do not get what they been. He answered, “No. Now you had the believers were not in the covenant want, except when it is in the will of the been converted according to the Word of God, that they did not count their Lord. of the Lord, and they are not converted children as belonging to the Lord [due Yet a few more of my activities in the as you are, then is their conversion from to family relationship] but all children congregation of Hitzert. At the begin- the devil.” I admonished him to perse- were outside the covenant. They also ning of the secession we were followed vere and called out the devil. proposed an external church and an closely and were not allowed to gather The people, having seen and heard internal church. To the external church with more than nineteen persons,22 that the elder agreed with me, grabbed belonged all those who believed in the so that by necessity groups of seced- me and threw me out the door. It was truth and were one with the truth with ers gathered at fi ve different places, so night and very cold because it was which they preached. The others said that one Sunday I also had to preside freezing, so we decided to go back to “No”; there is but one church, it is the over one of the assemblies. Many times Utrecht. It was twelve o’clock when same church internal as well as exter- I was elected to go to the classical and they threw me out the door and we nal, which revealed itself as a city on a provincial gatherings; also two of those were six hours from the city, the whole hill. There were still many other issues. were delegated to be sent to the King. journey was lonely and not very pleas- At one time Dominie [Simon] Van H[endrik] Barendregt and I were named ant. Gardenier had to stay in Amers- Velzen came and preached. I went into those two, to ask for freedom of reli- foort,21 because he is a lamb and was the house where Van Velzen was, prior gion. On this occasion I also took my not able to travel as far, but Betten, to preaching, to ask him whether he wife along to visit her aunt. Steketee, and I continued and went the had come in the name of the Lord, be- six hours to Utrecht, even though we cause it was needful to heal the division Editors’ conclusion were very tired. and not to make it any wider. After I Maasdam closes his account abruptly, When many who call themselves had spoken with him and the others for probably in 1840, when the Christian God’s children heard this, they felt sorry two hours Jan Vogel wanted to throw Seceded Church of Hitzert delegated for me because of the way I had been me out of the house. But I requested Barendregt and himself to go to the treated. One cannot know whether fi rst to light up my pipe and give thanks King to request “freedom of religion.” there were converts among them and to the intercession of another; this The outcome of the trip is not dis- if there were, then it grieves my spirit. was allowed. When I was done I kept closed, nor did Maasdam later recount

27 his activities in the ensuing nine years When the Franziska passengers in the Netherlands and nine more in arrived in Pella after the arduous Pella. Accounts of these events come and emotional trip, they received a from other sources, especially the hero’s welcome. Scholte and his 1847 journal and letters of Jan Hospers. vanguard group, which had been led The religious persecution and hard by Maasdam’s good friend Hendrik times due to diseases in the potato Barendregt, were there, as were several and rye crops prompted 10,000 seced- who had remained in St. Louis to ers to immigrate to North America in work for a time. Kommer Van Stigt, the years 1846-1849, including the in his 1897 History of Pella, mentions Reverends Scholte, Vander Meulen, that the 1849 immigrants were “con- Betten, and Gardenier, and the laymen sidered more enlightened and better Barendregt, Koenraad De Jong, Adria- Another of Maasdam’s ac- educated.” Scholte’s early Christian nus Den Hartog, Ernst Takken, Jacob quaintances from the Neth- Church, Van Stigt writes, “was also Baay, Jan Steketee, and Jan Vogel; all erlands, Jan Hosper became benefi ted by the acquisition of such are mentioned in Maasdam’s memoir. a prominent leader in Pella men as Jacob Maasdam and A. C. and in the church there. In the spring of 1849 Maasdam, age Image courtesy of: Archives, Kuyper and Jan Hospers.” Those three thirty-six, also departed with his wife Calvin College. men were accepted as leaders without Marie Adriana, age thirty-fi ve, and any formality. They lightened the bur- their children, Leendert, age seven; Maasdam preached from I Corinthians dens of the early leaders, especially in Elizabeth, age four; and Jacob, age 10, warning the people huddled be- the performance of Sunday preaching one. The family sailed on Franziska tween decks in rough seas not to put services. Until a few months before his with a group of 235 fellow Seceders, God to the test by unfaithfulness. At death, Maasdam served without remu- all bound for Scholte’s Pella Colony, another funeral he preached and led in neration. His steel-trap mind earned with Maasdam, A. C. Kuyper, and Jan singing Psalm 103, a favorite of the Se- him the moniker “the walking concor- Hospers selected as leaders. Hospers ceder faithful for its promise of God’s dance,” for he could and would quote chronicled the voyage in a journal, everlasting love in life or in death. On Scripture verbatim—book, chapter, which was recently published in Iowa 11 May Maasdam preached again and and verse. Letters: Dutch Immigrants on the Ameri- Jan Hospers taught catechism. Kuyper During the two years prior to can Frontier (2004). The six-week trip led the singing from the Genevan Maasdam’s arrival, Scholte had seen began on 3 May and ended in Pella on Psalter, since he was very musically to the organization of his Christian 17 June. It was tragically marked by inclined. The trio of leaders were also Church in Pella, one he emphatically ten burials at sea and two interments asked by the ship captain to appoint declared would not be affi liated with in Albany, New York. After several men to “swab the decks” during the any denomination, including the committals of bodies to the deep, ac- voyage, and the Dutch, interested in Dutch Reformed. His church was not cording to Hospers, on Sunday 13 May cleanliness, readily complied. to be subject to any synodical system.

A view of Pella in 1847, about a decade before the Maasdam family arrived. Because the fi rst structures were built of sod and prairie grasses, it was also referred to as “Straw Town.” Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College.

28 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

Immediately upon arriving in Pella, Reformed group that he had briefl y Maasdam became a combatant in supported. controversial affairs dating from Maasdam lived in Pella less than a Pella’s very founding. Schism had decade before his untimely death on not been left behind in Holland and 29 December 1858. He left behind his was prevalent again in their lives as wife and children, including Maria Dutch-Americans. One bitter confl ict who had been born in Pella soon after arose when Scholte reneged on giv- their arrival. He was buried in Grace- ing to the church two building lots land Cemetery, the kerkhof of the on the west side of what is now the First Reformed Church, located one town’s Garden Square. Maasdam was mile north of town. Maasdam’s grave named the chairman of a consis- is graced with an engraved stone that tory committee formed to discipline states: “At rest in the silent tomb, Life Scholte. The upshot was that the Minister of the Gospel at Pella, This consistory barred Scholte from his was his expectation and hope, De- pulpit at the Christian Church. cember 29, 1858, Aged 44 years and Maasdam was asked to devote his 9 months.” The family plot includes entire time to pastoral duties and his wife, infant son Abraham, and he happily accepted. The consistory 27-year-old daughter Elizabeth. A Maasdam’s grave marker in Pella. Photo cour- tesy of Robert Swierenga. offered no salary; it had always been newer and more readable stone states his delight to serve the Lord, he said. simply their names and dates. The Rev. Betten joined him in this min- older stone is ravaged by time and the istry after giving up leading a new inscription is diffi cult to read.K

Endnotes Maasdam died in Pella, Iowa, at the age including her in the age range. She was 1. This is a translation from the of forty-fi ve. born 25 December 1796 and would original manuscript in Dutch preserved The island of Beijerland, astride the have been thirty-four at her father’s by the family of Leendert and Marie Ha- Oude Maas and the Hollands Diep, was death; she had been married to Gijsbert gen Maasdam. It was passed to younger long noted for its pietistic religious de Laat since 1825. Jaapje, his oldest full relatives, William Maasdam and his wife culture. The Nadere Reformatie (Later sister, was twenty-seven; she had mar- Cora Van Dam Maasdam, who gave it Reformation) of the seventeenth century ried Willem den Boer in 1830. to Martha Lautenbach, the late Pella took strong root in this poverty-stricken 8. Oud-Beijerland was a larger historian. Lautenbach, in turn, gave it region south of Rotterdam. municipality in the northern part of the to Jan Handley of Ankeny, Iowa, a great- 4. Gerrit and Adriana both had been Hoekse Waard, about fi ve miles north of great granddaughter of Jacob Maasdam. married previously; Gerrit to Apolonia Zuid Beijerland. Some years ago Handley’s friend, Kath- Verschoor (1768–1803) and Adriana to 9. A number not likely to result in leen Kallemyn of Des Moines, Iowa, Leendert de Hek. Adriana and Leendert actual conscription. translated the original document for the de Hek had one child, Magdelena, who 10. Piershil was another small village family. Handley kindly provided a copy died in 1804 at fi ve months. Gerrit and in the Hoekse Waard, fi ve miles north of the document and the translation to Apolonia had six children: Maria and a northwest of Hitzert. Muriel Kooi. Capitalization, punctua- stillborn twin in 1796 (Maria died after 11. The Secession, or Afscheiding, tion, paragraphing and idiomatic usage fi fteen days); Willempje, 1796–1834 began in 1834 with calls for reforma- have been altered where necessary to (married to Gijsbert de Laat and men- tion in the national or state church. produce a more readable text. tioned in the text); Maria, 1798 before King Willem I, as titular head of the 2. For unknown reasons Maasdam 1805; Hendrik, 1802, died at 2 weeks; church, together with church leaders, refers to himself in the third person in and Apolonia, 1803–1804. condemned the protestors and tried the fi rst two paragraphs. 5. Maria, 1805–1805; Jaapje, to suppress them. Police and soldiers 3. Jacob Maasdam (1813–1856) was 1806–1836; Steven, 1808–1833; Klaas, harassed the religious dissenters; neigh- born in the village of Zuid Beijerland 1809–1824; Arie, 1810–1890; Jacob, bors scorned, ostracized, and blacklisted (then known as Hitzert) on the island 1813–1858; Abraham, 1815–1894; them. of Beijerland (also known as the Hoekse twins Adrianus, 1817–1820 and Isaäc, 12. This is not a Dutch word; per- Waard) in the Province of Zuid Holland. 1881 –1882. haps it means healer (the Dutch verb for He and his siblings were baptized in 6. He was a cooper. healing is cureeren) or doctor. the local Hervormde Kerk, the national 7. Maasdam is counting his half 13. In 1835 Maasdam fi rst identifi ed church. A gifted and devout leader, sister Willempje in the total, but not with the Secession and worshiped in a

29 house church in his friend Barendregt’s Takken, who emigrated from Utrecht as stern, pietistic communities. home in Hitzert. The congregation was in 1854 to Van Raalte’s Holland colony, 20. Three Steketees, Jan, Jacob, and formally organized in April 1836. Bar- or Henry Takken, who immigrated to Cornelius, immigrated with Rev. Vander endregt was a follower of the Reverend America before 1850. Meulen’s congregation of Zeelanders Hendrik P. Scholte. 18. Wynand Gardenier (1819–1856) to Zeeland, Michigan, in 1847. It is 14. He boarded with another student immigrated to the United States in 1853 unknown which one was Maasdam’s of Scholte, Cornelius Vander Meulen, and in 1854 accepted a call from the companion, but we suspect it was Jan, who would later lead a large group of First Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, the leader of one of the three ships. Zeelanders to found the colony of Zee- Michigan, where he died on 13 March 21. Amersfoort is a large city in the land, Michigan. 1856. province of Utrecht. 15. Noordeloos is located to the 19. The decision to suppress the 22. The government misused an old north, in the Abblasser Waard region of reform movement made it grow all the statute of the Napoleonic code (articles the Province of Zuid Holland. more. However, some like the so-called 291, 292, and 294), which forbade 16. Cornelius van der Meulen (born “Black Stocking” group led by a man regular public assemblies of twenty or 1819 in Middelharnis, Zuid Holland, named Reintjepoort in Bunschoten, car- more persons for religious, political, or and died 23 August 1876 in Grand Rap- ried their newly found religious liberty literary purposes without offi cial per- ids, Michigan) led his Goes congrega- to excess and even to ecstasy and sexual mission, subject to fi nes of f100 ($40) tion to the Zeeland, Michigan, colony license. Bunschoten, along with its con- on clerics and consistory members for in 1847. joined twin village of Sparkenburg, both each offense. 17. This Takken might be Ernst in the Province of Utrecht, were known

30 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

Bernard J. Fridsma: A Frisian Ambassador in the United States Janet Sjaarda Sheeres

n 12 October 2005 Dr. Bernard birthday, Scharnegoutem, the village OJoukes Fridsma, emeritus of his birth, held a special church professor of Germanic languages service in his honor. This love affair at Calvin College, passed away in began, surprisingly enough, not in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at one Friesland but three thousand miles hundred years and nine months of away in America. age. In November, seventeen banker Of course many Frisian emigrants boxes—the Fridsma Collection—ar- paid homage to their heitelân (father- rived in the Heritage Hall Archives land); several groups even named located in the Hekman Library. Many their settlements Friesland. But of the documents, including seventy Fridsma took his admiration for all annual diaries from 1932 to 2002, are things Frisian beyond the usual, and written in the Frisian language and his is an unusual immigrant story. will take an expert, not only in Dutch The family immigrated to the Unit- but Frisian as well, to sort out. The ed States from Scharnegoutem when material is in Frisian because Fridsma he was six. While still in his teens he carried on a life-long love affair with began reading Frisian literature and, his native Friesland. And Friesland as he absorbed the stories of great did not forget Fridsma either—on Frisian authors, his own life story was 15 January 2005, his one hundredth dramatically formed.

Janet Sjaarda Sheeres is a historian, ge- nealogist and author, whose most recent work, Son of Succession, is reviewed in this issue of Origins. She is president of the Association for the Advancement of Dutch-American Studies. The Fridsma family came to the United States on Rijndam, a different sort of vessel from the canal boat the family had operated in the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College.

31 America “. . . with liberty and justice for all,” ordered his fi rst books in Frisian on To emigrate or not to emigrate? That resonated deeply with him. The rights Frisian history, poetry, and language. question troubled Bearend’s father, of people, cities, and states to govern Soon he was deeply engrossed in the Jouke Fridsma, who bought, shipped, themselves, choose their own lead- language and the struggles of the Fri- and sold peat from his canal boat ers, and decide their own destiny sian movement to maintain an ethnic based in Scharnegoutem. His eldest were principles he wholeheartedly identity within the larger, dominant, son, Meindert, had immigrated to endorsed. Anything less seemed in- Dutch culture. At fi fteen he joined the the United States and wrote glowing tolerable to him. In September 1918, Jongfryske Mienskip (Young Frisian letters from New Jersey. Still, Jouke Bernard enrolled in Clifton High Community) and began receiving wasn’t sure. Finally, Meindert wrote, School. There he became acquainted its weekly publication, Frisia. “The “Father, if you cannot make up your with the great English classics and, as ideal set forth by this organization,” mind, let the Lord do it for you. Put he put it, “the beauty of the world of Fridsma wrote later in his memoirs, your boat up for sale for a good price literature began to open up for me.” “was one I could embrace heart and and if you soon get a buyer, see that Bernard might never have given his soul, and to its realization I felt I as a sign that you should emigrate.” birthplace another thought had it not should dedicate my life, that is to Who could argue with logic like that? been for his voracious appetite to read say of course, as much as I could in Fridsma put his boat up for sale for a everything that came into the house. distant America.” thousand guilders and the next day a When one of his sisters subscribed to It would have been very under- young man bought it—no questions Yn ús eigen Tael (In Our Own Lan- standable had he, at some point as asked. guage), a bi-monthly publication of It an adult, decided he no longer had The family left for America in early Kristlik Frysk Selskip (The Christian an interest in what possessed him as March 1911. Lytse Bearentje (Little Frisian Society), he began to read it a teenager. No one would have given Bearend), who was barely six at the as well. Since the books in his home it another thought if he had left the time, had attended school in Friesland had been either in Dutch or English Frisian cause behind to immerse him- for only a few weeks. As the Rijndam until that time, written Frisian was a self in American culture. However, pulled away from the pier in Rotter- new phenomenon to him. The stories, what makes his story so compelling is dam and the family waved goodbye, poems, and articles inspired him to that he never abandoned his boyhood he had no idea how much the prov- want to learn to write the language as ideals. Indeed, ensuing years only ince would draw him back. well as to be able to read it. When he increased his fervor. Once in the United States, Bearend, learned about a new publication dedi- In the fall of 1920, the Frisian renamed Bernard, entered the Ameri- cated to the study of Frisian language speaker and writer Sjouke de Zee can public school system. Compared and history called Swanneblommen, toured the United States visiting the to the small school in Scharnegoutem, he decided to subscribe to it. He also various Frisian societies, including the twenty-room school in Passaic, New Jersey, with students of many different ethnic backgrounds, almost overwhelmed him. But, like so many other immigrant youngsters, he quickly adapted to his new environ- ment. By the time the Unit- ed States entered the First World War, Bernard was singing enthusiastically with his fellow students such patriotic songs as “America, I Love You.” The principles of democracy, as stated in the United States Pledge of View of Paterson, New Jersey, a few years before the Fridsma family arrived. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin Allegiance with the words College.

32 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

various journals in Friesland and the United States. Although it was hailed by many—especially Frisians—as an argument long overdue, it raised many critical eyebrows as well. Some faulted Fridsma for being too strident in tone and too provincial in outlook. However, the little brochure solidi- fi ed his reputation as a champion for the Frisian cause. He was asked to contribute to such diverse journals as De Stim fan Fryslân and The Young Calvinist. All along he carried on an extensive correspondence with editors and other interested and interesting persons in the Frisian Movement. After graduating from Calvin Fridsma stayed in Grand Rapids. In January of 1932 his hope of becom- ing a skoalmaster became reality While on the faculty of Grand Rapids Christian High School, Fridsma (seated at the far left) served as the sponsor for the student periodical the Emblem. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. when he agreed to teach German and Latin at Grand Rapids Christian Utspanning troch Ynspanning (Expand- were, however, grants available from High School. In Grand Rapids he met ing through Effort) in Paterson, New church organizations for young peo- Dorothy Ann Van Dyke, who would Jersey. It was Fridsma’s fi rst opportu- ple who wished to become teachers in become his wife. There was only one nity to hear a genuine Frisian speaker. the growing Christian school system. drawback—Dorothy could not speak He enjoyed the evening but was Fridsma applied and was accepted. In Frisian. “Anyway,” Fridsma said, disappointed in the quality of the pre- September 1924 he arrived in Grand defending his choice, “she had about sentation. He was also disappointed in Rapids, Michigan, to begin his studies her so much that was attractive that I the aims and goals of the American- at Calvin College. overlooked the matter. In the course based Frisian societies as a whole. In At college, as a conversation starter of time, I promised myself, I would his opinion, “There were no credible about his favorite subject, Fridsma teach her Frisian.” cultural programs, no distribution or hung a Fryslân kalinder on his dormi- sale of Frisian literature, no courses tory wall. It aroused the curiosity he Gysbert Japiks in reading and writing the Frisian, no had hoped for and allowed him to Grand Rapids housed a large enough Christian commitment.” share his fondness for it heitelân. His Frisian immigrant population to have Dutch history course also provided its own Frisian society, Friso. Like Calvin College an opportunity to promote his cause. many other Fryske Selskips in the After receiving his high school di- Assigned to write a thesis on some United States, Friso existed largely ploma in 1922 he went to work in an aspect of Dutch history, Fridsma for socializing purposes, fi lling their offi ce, but soon realized that clerical wrote a paper entitled “The Place evenings, according to Fridsma, work was not for him. Since many of of the Frisians in Dutch History” in “mostly with folksy readings without his role models in the Frisian Move- which he addressed such topics as, much substance.” In December 1933 ment were educators, Bernard hoped Do the Frisians have a place in Dutch a small group of Frisians met together that by becoming a skoalmaster he history? Does the average Dutch his- and founded a Christian organiza- might fi nd a position in Friesland and tory book do justice to the Frisians? tion, Gysbert Japiks, with its pur- return to live there. But there was also And does the history of the Nether- pose “. . . to study Frisian literature, a more immediate, practical reason lands include a complete history of music and song.” Fridsma thought for becoming an educator, namely Friesland? Eerdmans, a book pub- the organization had promise. In a funds. The family fi nances were not lisher with Frisian roots, published matter of months he became a board suffi cient to allow him to study. There the paper and soon it was discussed in member and infl uential in drafting

33

For many years West Michigan Frisian immigrants met at events sponsored The worship program from the fi rst Frisian-language worship service organized by Fridsma, and by the Gysbert Japiks Society, named held in Grand Rapids in 1957. He saw to forty-eight more such annual services. The fi ftieth, and after a prominent Frisian author who last, was held in 2006 after his death. Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. inspired literature written in Frisian. Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin a more refi ned charter to include he could promote his passion. And College. phrases such as “. . . to foster appre- promote he did. For the new society ciation for the Frisian heritage and to he immediately ordered a Frisian work toward its enrichment, to study New Testament, twenty-fi ve copies of Frisian history, language, literature the songbook Hwa sjongt mei, twenty and movement, and to give moral copies of Yn ús eigen Tael, and forty- support to the Frisian Movement in fi ve copies of De Stim fan Fryslân. the homeland.” The Grand Rapids The New Testament and songbooks Gysbert Japiks Society affi liated with were intended for the society, but the It Kristlik Frysk Selskip in Friesland periodicals he put on sale at the next as a krite, a regional branch. Finally meeting where they quickly sold out. Fridsma had found a base from which Offi cial dues-paying membership soon grew to 150, with attendance reaching 300 at some meetings.

Fryske Tjerketjinst When, in the fall of 1935, Rev. B. D. Dykstra from Orange City, Iowa, offered to conduct a Frisian church service, Gysbert Japiks sponsored the fi rst Frisian-language church service ever held in the United States. Some 500 people crowded into the Fourth Reformed Church on Ionia Avenue. For many, even among the immigrants who had grown up in Friesland, it was the fi rst time they had sung the Fridsma produced the Frisian News from his home, serving as editor, reporter, and business man- Psalms in Frisian and had heard the ager. Image courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. gospel in their native tongue. This

34 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

fi rst Frisian-language church service was dispatched on 30 October 1943. was received so enthusiastically that it However, like his earlier publication, became an annual event. “Do the Frisians have a place in Dutch history?” this declaration, too, was The War alternately lauded and derided. And By 1941 the increasing war action dismissed—the Queen never replied. interrupted the stream of published The Queen’s presumed indifference, materials coming from Friesland. however, did not mean the document Correspondence ground to a halt as quietly faded away. Indeed, its publica- well and the once fl ourishing Gysbert tion brought the cause of the Frisians Japiks Society lost some of its vitality. once again onto the pages of the The members were growing older and press and before the reading public. no new ones were joining. Still, the To stimulate this interest and keep it staunchly faithful Frisians in America alive, the Frisians in the United States empathized with their fellow Frisians recognized the need for a Frisian suffering in it heitelân. Would this not Information Bureau with a monthly The ‘offi cial’ portrait of Professor be a time for them to do something to bulletin to disseminate any and all Fridsma at Calvin College. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. show their solidarity? E. B. Folkerts- news about Friesland. The fi rst issue ma’s 1930 pamphlet, Selsbestjûr foar of Frisian News Items, dated January Frisian literature and other materials Fryslân, was read and discussed and a 1944, launched an impressive forty- for distribution in the United States. plan began to germinate to assist the fi ve years of publishing. In 1980, at (Post war immigrants from Friesland Frisian Movement if and when they age seventy-fi ve, after thirty-six years eagerly read these materials. They would push for autonomy after the as editor, Fridsma handed over the also breathed new life into Gysbert war. reins. With today’s technology—word Japiks.) He wrote prodigiously, includ- Unaware that her words would processors and high-speed copy ing a “Survey of Frisian Literature” burst that seed into bloom, Queen machines—production of a monthly for the Dictionary of Living Literature, Wilhelmina addressed her nation on newsletter may not seem such a large a history of Friesland in English, 6 December 1942 and spoke of the task. But at that time each issue had to and a Frisian-English dictionary, and future of Dutch colonies after the war. be typewritten on a manual typewriter, encouraged and assisted scholarly These colonies, she promised, would then mimeographed and mailed out. endeavors in Frisian literature. Even be given greater freedom and self-rule. In spite of all the hard work, in his retirement years Fridsma found Fridsma, reading the speech, seized Bernard’s personal life fl ourished. He joy in teaching many second-genera- the opportunity to draft a letter to the married Dorothy and during the sum- tion Frisian immigrant students the Queen. He praised her for her regard mer months pursued a PhD in Ger- language of their ancestors. For nine for freedom and then, on behalf of all man language and literature from the years he taught an “Introduction to Frisians living abroad, begged her to University of Michigan. When in 1946 Frisian” course at Calvin, using a text also consider the same standard for Calvin College’s enrollment suddenly that he developed. her Frisian people, namely greater shot up to 1,245 (due to those return- Not only his students but many freedom and self-rule. Fridsma real- ing from military service) from the others researching their Frisian ized that if his 1500-word document usual 400, Calvin offered Fridsma a heritage also benefi ted from Fridsma’s were to carry any weight, it would teaching position. He accepted and for campaign to promote the Frisian cause need more than just the signatures of the next twenty-four years he served in America. The Calvin College library the members of Gysbert Japiks, who the college with distinction as profes- has a sizeable collection of books on hailed it as a masterpiece. Other Fri- sor of Germanic languages. Besides Friesland—its history, culture and sian societies in the United States were his demanding teaching schedule and people. Again, it was Fridsma who, in enlisted to sign and did. In the end the his busy home life—he and Dorothy the early fi fties, had approached the document also had the endorsement had three sons—Fridsma continued library’s director and asked him why of many well-known Frisian-Ameri- his work for Gysbert Japiks and the there were no books on Friesland in cans and other Dutch-Americans Frisian cause. There seemed to be the library. With many students from who were infl uential in politics, no limit to the work. After the war Frisian background, Fridsma argued, education, and publishing before it he again imported a steady stream of there was a real need. The director

35 know—Fedde Schurer, Douwe Kalma, E. B. Folkertsma, Dr. Wumkes, Ype Poortinga. . . .” And, as he mentioned the names of many others, his face refl ected the pleasure at reliving the ex- perience. “And look at what we have accom- plished! Frisian is allowed in school and church as well Fridsma in 1993 with a copy of his autobi- In 1948 Fridsma visited the Netherlands and here is pictured at the tiller of a as the market- ography, Nea ferbrutsen ban (Never Broken canal boat like the one his father had owned and operated. Photo courtesy of: place. Frisian is Bond, subtitled: 60 years of Frisian Activity in Archives, Calvin College. America: the Memoirs of Bernard J. Fridsma, used in televi- Sr.) Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. sion broadcast- concurred and appropriated an annual ing and other media. It is no longer a God wanted me here in America, amount for Frisian literature and his- second-rate language.” to promote the Frisian cause in this tory materials. His autobiography, Nea Ferbrut- country.” Czeslaw Milosz, the Pol- Fridsma’s unfl agging devotion to sen Bân, is as much the story of the ish author and Nobel laureate, once the cause of Frisian autonomy had Frisian activity in the United States wrote, “Language is the only home- gained him many friends and much as it is his own story. The two are land.” In that sense Bernard Joukes recognition. So much so that by the so intertwined they cannot be sepa- Fridsma lived a great part of his life time he made his fi rst trip back to rated—for Fridsma and Friesland are in his homeland.K Friesland, in 1947, he was welcomed one. He is one of the very few Ameri- by many noted fi gures in publish- cans included in the Encyclopedie van Sources ing and literary circles. The Frisian Friesland, and the Encyclopedie van Personal interview by author, Octo- press also took note and covered his het Hedendaagse Friesland. ber 2000. entire trip. He visited all the people Asked if he had any regrets about Fridsma, Bernard J., Never broken bond: 60 years of Frisian activity in with whom he had corresponded and his life he said, “I would have liked America : the memoirs of Bernard J. over the years that had become near to have lived in Friesland for at least Fridsma, Sr. and dear to him. “I met them all you a part of my adult life, but I think

36 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

Our Trip to North America, Part II Summer 1949

G. J. Buth, Nieuwe Tonge 1 [Gerrit Johannes Buth, 1905-1977]

Tuesday, 5 July. Hot again. We decided from the Marshall Plan. In passing I Translated from the Dutch by Gerrit W. Sheeres to stay home today. The ladies are asked him what he thought about the Annotated by busy doing the wash. In the afternoon plans for this bridge of Flakkee. He Richard H. Harms Gert, Uncle John’s son, telephoned thought that it would be built in time, Calvin College Heritage Hall Summer 2005 that he was coming with a Dutch but that right now other projects had gentleman to visit us. priority. It was interesting though to We were curious who that might exchange opinions with such a promi- be. After a short time both appeared nent leader. One of the things he and it turned mentioned was that he had interned out to be Dr. with dentist Sypkens. Thus we meet Linthorst people in faraway America who are Homan, who acquainted with Flakkee. Toward the was on a end of the visit we had a highball. government In the evening we went to Ann, mission. We daughter of Uncle Dirk, who is mar- found out ried to George van den Berge.2 His that he lives grandparents came from Colijnsplaat. in Groningen. He still knew quite a bit of Dutch and Two months she spoke broken Flakkeese. They ago he had were very hospitable and friendly come here via people. We dined on the lawn in front KLM. He had of the house, which was nice. They visited Canada have four children, three daughters fi rst, where he and one son. It was quite late again had consulted before we went to bed. A view of the downtown area of Grand Rapids at about the time of the Buth with several visit. Most of the streets run north-south or east-west, but in the very center people from Wednesday, 6 July. Today we were they run on the diagonal, perpendicular to the former river bank. Photo cour- other nations scheduled to go to a show near Lan- tesy of: Archives, Calvin College. about eco- sing [in Williamston, Michigan]. The nomic matters. He is chairman of the plan was that four of us would go, National Plan Foundation. He had Martin Jr., Uncle Dirk, Pete and I. seen quite a bit of America already. The trip there was about seventy- His brother is representative of the fi ve miles. Martin Jr. had been request- A native of the Netherlands, Gerrit W. Sheeres is a retired pastor in the Queen in Drente, and it was nice that ed to judge Holsteins. The cattle came Christian Reformed Church. He is a recently he had been in Middelharnis, from this [Kent] county. Everybody volunteer in the Archives translating where he had discussed the plans for brings his best animals and that way records from Dutch into English. the bridge. The National Plan Foun- you get quite a show. Everybody does dation is being fi nanced by funds his best, of course, to be eligible for

37 fi rst prize. The show ended around harvested last week using a combine Aunt Maatje had dinner ready and fi ve and we left to return to Belmont and the yield was about 400 bushels it was decided to eat outside at the since we had been invited to Uncle from nine acres, which is quite good picnic table. It was too hot indoors. Dan’s birthday party. for this area. One bushel equals forty- Only Gerrit Markensteijn objected, The ladies thought we were way eight American pounds, which is 22 since he does not like to eat outside. too late, but we told them diplomati- kilograms for us. They brought the He is always afraid he’ll get a fl y in cally that we simply could not have bales indoors, which means we all his soup. After dinner it began getting made it sooner and they were satisfi ed went to the fi eld on the truck, grabbed dark. We hurried a bit because we were with that. Aunt Maatje had prepared a fi rst the barley straw and after that supposed to visit John,4 son of Uncle delicious dinner for the occasion. The a few truckloads of hay which was Dirk. They already had telephoned to birthday party was slated to be held considerably heavier than the straw. ask what the holdup was. By the time at Uncle Dirk’s farm; he is married to Not being used to working, I sweated we left it was totally dark and it looked Martha. quite a bit, but after a refreshing bath like we would be in for a thunder- It is customary in America that and different clothes I was okay again. storm. only the older generation visits at the Meendert and Gert had to get a load John lives on the outskirts of the birthday of parents. Miny as a foreign yet, and that was the end of it. city close to a small river. This property niece, of course, was allowed to come After this we had lunch and decid- used to be part of the Delaware Farm. along. Even though the temperature ed to call it a day. In the afternoon we It was quite some distance away and had gone down somewhat, the men went for a ride. therefore did not appear to be part stayed on the porch for a while when of the city. The gardens in front and the ladies went indoors. The letters Friday, 8 July. Beautiful weather in back seemed to be well-kept. The from Uncle Jacob and Mother Buth, again. We stayed home in the morn- house was not quite fi nished, but it having arrived in good time, were ing because Uncle John had called to looked like it was going to be a nice read with great interest by all. After ask if we wanted to join him in the place. After a cup of tea we went to all, blood runs thicker than water. afternoon on a trip to Ionia where, one of the ice cream stores on Fulton All kinds of things were discussed; as we mentioned earlier, some of his Street. Aunt Maatje and Bernice had a lot of old memories were recalled, cows are pastured. This was on the stayed home with the children. In the which Uncle Dan enjoyed the most. large farm bought by a farmer who meantime a thunderstorm had de- We fi nally settled around the table used to live on Uncle John’s farm in veloped and it rained very hard. The for a midnight snack. This too was Coopersville. His name is Strybek, weather was the reason it was not very prepared very well; and again, celery, originally from White Russia. He is busy at the store. Everything looked olives, pickles, and radishes were part married and has quite a few children. quite neat and seven nice ladies graced of the snack. We had experienced Uncle John’s neighbor, a Mr. Kuiper, the place. The last few weeks, because similar snack times on previous visits came along too. His parents had come of the hot weather, the store had been with cousins consisting of sandwiches, from Zwolle. His father had been a very busy and the proceeds must have homemade cakes, and coffee. peat skipper,3 and he himself had been substantial, no doubt. Once back Americans always put a lot of effort worked in a factory as a paper cutter. home Uncle John made a highball that into preparing food and setting the The weather stayed good, except it tasted delicious. The conversation table. Martha, Dick’s wife, certainly looked at times as if there might be a was pleasant and Bernice saw to the knew how to do this well. They have a thunderstorm. We saw the cows and midnight snack. Wherever we went comfortable home and the farm build- they appeared to be good milk produc- we had to eat and in spite of the heat ings were all in good shape. Uncle ers. I took a picture of some of them we got fatter and fatter. John was quite Dan said that they needed to re-roof and hope the pictures will turn out. entertaining and we discussed the en- the barn this year. From the porch we We also saw a couple of good-look- tire Buth family. One of the questions could see Uncle Dan’s farm. It is a nice ing gray horses that Uncle John had he asked was why the Buth people farm of about eighty acres. bought last year for $100 total. One were so family oriented. Everybody could make a nice profi t on those in gave his take on this, and I told John Thursday, 7 July. It was a hot day the Netherlands. On the way back we that he should be proud to carry the again. The day before the hay and stopped for a beer, and drove back via Buth name. I am quite pleased person- barley had been brought into the barn a detour on roads lined with colorful ally that relations between members of at Uncle Dirk’s. The barley had been fl owers. the Buth family are so good. I too was

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proud whenever I saw the name Buth take a look at on the various stores or automobiles the airport in that we passed even though I did not Grand Rapids. own any of them. The weather The Buth family happens to be very was good. family oriented and its members have The airport is relied on each other in good and bad much smaller times. We agreed that the big fam- than Schiphol, ily has always had a healthy view of and there were things and that all of them have done quite a number well in life, both here as well as on of sport planes [the island of] Flakkee. in which you Old Grandmother Buth, with her can take fl ights simple philosophy, was privileged to over the city. see that all her children did well in Two airlin- life both here and on Flakkee. It was ers landed midnight again when we got home; it and shortly Monroe Avenue (looking northwest from Fulton) was the main retail strip in poured so that Uncle Dirk had trouble afterwards the city. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. staying on the road at times. left again in the directions of Detroit or Chicago. home, and a garden full of fl owers. Saturday, 9 July. The plan for today We were quite eager to take a ride. Mr. Dutmer works in Uncle Dirk’s was to go to a cattle sale with Martin Miny could not wait to experience dairy; he does this to have something Jr. and Uncle Dirk. The women did this. There was room for two passen- to do. He is appreciated there and is not look too pleased that once again gers and the pilot. First Uncle Dirk quite handy at making and repairing we would leave for the day. Around 9 and I were going to take a turn and if things. They have a good life together. o’clock Martin came to Uncle Dirk’s he liked it Uncle Dirk would go for We have met a lot of people during farm. We drove past Francis Campau’s a ride with Miny. Once in the air we the past week and we have seen quite where we had to pick up an acquain- had a beautiful view of the city. Miny a bit. tance of Martin’s. This time we used enjoyed it very much as well, and was that gentleman’s Pontiac. We had to glad that she had the opportunity to Monday, 11 July. First I worked on my be in Williamston, which is fi fteen do this. diary. An’s hip still bothers her and she miles beyond Lansing, and about one At the same time those small things wanted to visit Abe to see if there was hundred miles5 from Grand Rapids. It are a bit scary, especially when they something that could be done about it. turned out to be the same place where bank sharply, for then it seems that it So Uncle Dirk took her to the doctor we attended the show on Wednesday. might turn upside down. I pinched this morning. In the meantime I wrote About one hundred head of cattle both Uncle Dirk’s knee at one time, but a letter to Mother and the other rela- large and small were sold. This is only everything turned out okay. We also tives. done by bidding and it was interesting wrote this to Mom Buth to prevent her Miny helped Aunt Maatje around to listen to the auctioneer. He was the from being worried. the house because it was laundry day. same Mr. Smith who did the auction We stayed home today. We spent for Uncle Marinus. There were not Sunday, 10 July. We had agreed that time on the porch in the evening. The many people and the prices of regis- we would sleep in today after all the weather was nice. An’s backache had tered cattle were correspondingly low. things we had done this past week. It much improved. Abe had given her The farmers were not quite as eager to was 11:30 when we came downstairs. an injection and some tablets. We all buy as they were a few years ago. Uncle Dirk was still busy getting hope she will get better soon. Prices for dairy cattle varied from dressed. We had breakfast and decided $250 to $700. Young calves went for not to have lunch, but to have an early Tuesday, 12 July. The day began with $60 to $80. A big, three-year-old bull supper. After supper we were going beautiful weather. An’s backache is sold for $500. We were home at 6:30, to visit Mr. Dutmer, who is married a bit better than yesterday. We were in other words, well in time for sup- to the youngest sister of Aunt Maatje. downstairs around 10 o’clock. Uncle per. In the evening we were going to They live close to the city, have a nice Dirk thought this was quite late, but

39 had to hur- no whitetail showed itself on the road ry to be on that evening. The family was waiting time, so we for us but, because of a heavy rainfall, decided to we had to wait in the car until it let stay home up somewhat. The conversation went instead. well; we talked about a lot of things. After all As I said, we stayed for a little lunch our peregri- which caused us to be home very late. nations this A daughter of Gerrit Koert lives with was quite them. Her husband is a pilot in the mil- welcome as itary. During the war he was a bomber well. This captain who fl ew many missions over evening enemy territory. Their son Kees owns we talked a dairy and an ice cream store in the about city of Lowell. The other daughter and marriage her husband live in Grand Rapids, and in general, a third one lives in another state; she A photo from about ten years after the Buth visit, still attestes to the busyness of downtown Grand Rapids for shopping. Courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. with all its is married to a meat inspector who is ups and transferred from time to time. since we have done a lot of tiring downs. Uncle Dirk and I agreed most things during the past few days we do of the time, and so did the ladies. An Thursday, 14 July. Last night’s rain need more sleep. Uncle John came for and Miny went to bed a bit earlier this brought with it totally different tem- coffee this morning since Aunt Marie evening, we did so by 1 o’clock. peratures; in fact, it was quite cool was at a neighborhood coffee. This is a and rainy during the night. It just kept custom they have in this area. Wednesday, 13 July. An is improving raining, which was good for the corn After lunch all of us were planning gradually and is starting to get about a but not for the grass that had been cut to go to the city. Geert Markensteijn little bit easier. Miny was going to help for hay. We went back to the city again was going to paint the three doors to- Uncle Dirk with mowing the grass today, where Uncle Dirk had an ap- day that Kees Koert had made. We let around the house with the new mo- pointment with Mr. Muller, director of the ladies off at Steketee’s, a busy and torized mower. The grassy pleasant store for ladies who like to area around the house is too shop. We went to look up Gerrit Koert large to do with just a push who is married to Anna, the oldest mower. First I wrote a letter sister of Aunt Maatje. We had a cup of to Joost van Es who is going tea and agreed that we would return at to have a birthday in a few some future time with the ladies. Bar- days; An and Miny added a ring circumstances we said we would few words as well. We had come back tomorrow afternoon. I did another beautiful summer not know Gerrit Koert myself, but day without the oppressive when I saw him I immediately rec- heat of the last few days. ognized the Koert mannerisms and After supper we got ready thought he resembled Jaap and Jan to go visit Gerrit Koert. We Koert. When we got back to the city made a small detour through the ladies were waiting impatiently for the countryside along beauti- us, which is unusual for ladies when ful roads with a lot of green they are shopping. growth alongside of them. We were home around six, had a I suggested that we return whiskey, and discussed what we might there tonight to see if we want to do this evening. We decided could kill a few rabbits The Pantlind Exhibitors Building was connected by a tunnel to the Pantlind Hotel, located approximately in the middle to go to see a movie. Supper lasted with the car. However this of the retail district at the intersection of Pearl and Monroe. quite a while so that we would have remained an illusion since Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College.

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an exces- not have to worry about the business: sively high his sons are capable men. We enjoyed bacte- seeing everything and I wouldn’t mind rial count taking a picture of the outside. After caused pos- this we went to get Aunt Maatje and sibly by the drove to Anna’s for a cup of coffee. We milk cans or also stayed there for supper. We had the milking a good time and it was nice and cool machines. there. In the meantime I went to the Since Gert barber to have my hair cut. He turned cleans these out to be a Dutchman as well, a Wil- things him- lem van Dijk. Some twenty years ago self, he felt he had come here from Apeldoorn. He responsible, was a very cheerful fellow who quietly During the 1920s Grand Rapids leaders became convinced of the importance of even though did his work and who was content an airport for the community’s future. This is a photo of a newly acquired used it is hard to with his business which provided him fi re truck for the airport in front of the terminal building constructed as a public prove. This and his family a good life. He would works project during the Great Depression. Photo courtesy of: Archives, Calvin College. is part of the not mind visiting Holland in a few risk of being years. K one of the largest bakeries of the city. in business, and it can serve as an in- Those bakeries do business far beyond centive to be extra careful and to pay Endnotes the city. It was an exceptionally large attention to everything. Something 1. Buth refers to his family in the business that we toured. like this can be benefi cial and prompt USA as uncles and aunts, but he was It was striking how much was done a person to work better. their second cousin; in age they would have been that of his uncles and aunts. with so few people. Hundreds, no We went to see a movie in the He and his wife Anna “An” Geertrudi thousands, of loaves were baked, cut, evening. van Es and their daughter Jacomina and packaged. The bread oven was Anna “Miny,” born in 1929, made this fi ve hundred feet long. Trays came Friday, 15 July. The movie we saw journey accompanying his second cous- in Peter Buth, who had been visiting rolling in on one end and appeared last night was nice, though the ladies the Netherlands. Gerrit Johannes was a completely baked at the other end. It thought it was creepy. successful farmer on Sommelsdijk, and was a gigantic business. Mr. Muller The weather was good, but it prom- operated the Buth family farm “Dijk hails from Bruinisse originally. He left ised to be a hot day again. Aunt Maatje zicht,” later “Sunny Home.” had to be at the beauty parlor at 10:30. 2. They lived at 312 Boynton Avenue for America when he was only twenty. NE, Grand Rapids; he was a salesman Before that he had served in the navy For sociability’s sake we rode along for the Buth Dairy. at Den Helder. His career showed me and took a look at how ice cream 3. An entrepreneur who often owned that it remains uncertain how a man is is made in the dairy. It is a complex (or rented) a canal boat and bought going to achieve his destination in life. process and requires many machines peat for resale at stops along the Dutch canals. Peat was used for fuel. Generally We had lunch in the city. The ladies before the ice cream reaches the din- the skipper and his entire family lived went shopping and we visited the ner table. Gerrit, Uncle Dirk’s son, on the boat. big hotels of the city, like the Morton is in charge there and I believe that 4. John Gerrit Buth was in charge House, and also the big auditorium he knows his trade. Getting the milk of the Buth Ice Cream Stores. He was married to Berneta Margaret Spring; that is connected with an underground ready requires a lot of work. Four big they had three children and eventually tunnel to the Morton House.6 In the trucks transport the milk that comes lived at 46 Maryland Avenue NE, Grand meanwhile it was time to go home from afar, while every day three horse- Rapids. again. The ladies were waiting at the drawn dairy wagons pick up the milk 5. Previously Buth said the distance was about seventy-fi ve miles, the actual agreed upon place. When we arrived from nearby. It is a big business that distance is about ninety miles. home, Gert was greasing the tractor certainly needs good leadership. 6. The Morton House was not con- and was a bit depressed because this John, Uncle Dirk’s son, and George nected to an auditorium; Buth must be morning he had received word from van den Berge—the latter is Anna’s referring to the Pantlind Hotel, which was connected by a tunnel to the Pan- the milk inspector that no milk was to husband—manage the ice-cream tlind Exhibitors Building. be picked up from the dairy because of stores. I noticed that Uncle Dirk does

41 book notes

Grace through Every Say One for Me, Chaplain Generation: The Continuing Louis E. Kok Story of the Christian Victoria, Canada: Trafford Publishing, Reformed Church 2006 Scott Hoezee ISBNM 1-4120-5436-2 Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Available in US from Resources, 2006 [email protected] ISBN 1-59255-294-3 $20 plus shipping $6.95

42 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

book reviews

in the Netherlands he founded two ters. In all these endeavors it can rea- churches and served seven congrega- sonably be argued that Vander Werp tions. One of these was Leeuwarden, may well have ensured the survival of Friesland, a worldly city with fl ourish- the fl edgling CRC in America. ing taverns and houses of prostitution Throughout this biography Vander and abundant with worldly theaters, Werp emerges as a steadfast and music halls, and carnivals. uncompromising champion of the In 1859, while serving Burum, seceder cause in the Netherlands and Vander Werp married Gerritdina Ten America. Sheeres suggests her book Brummelaar (1829-1911), a good title “Son of Secession” results because helpmate for this overworked pas- he was a theological heir to De Cock, tor and three times widowed. Her who broke away from the Reformed unstinting support of the seceder Church in the Netherlands in 1834. cause combined with effi cient man- Secondly, in 1837 Vander Werp with- agement of household matters made drew from the De Cock secessionists Son of Secession her the ideal juffrouw for the parson- and joined the Kruisgezinden folk, who Douwe J. Vander Werp age. Juffrouw was the title for wives believed the church must exist under of seceder pastors and was still used the authority of the cross of Christ Janet Sjaarda Sheeres in America as late as the 1940s. This (God’s Law) and not state authority. The Historical Series of the Dutch-language designation is a bit Thirdly, later in America he affi liated Reformed Church in America, complicated and, as Sheeres explains, with the CRC which had left the Re- in Cooperation with Origins Studies in the Netherlands it had both gram- formed Church in America in 1857. in Dutch-American History, No. 52 matical and sociological implications, Strict adherence to the church order William B. Eerdmans implications that did not carry over to promulgated by the Synod of Dort Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2006 the New World. (1618-1619) was a crucial matter for Late in 1864 he accepted a call Vander Werp. Negotiations concern- 209 pages with appendices, bibliography, and index to Graafschap, Michigan, Christian ing church governance matters left Reformed Church where he remained little room for compromise, especially $25.00 until 1872. After this he served the in the mind of the orthodox Vander Muskegon (Michigan) CRC until Werp. Also, he cherished a longstand- In the preface Sheeres mentions that retirement in 1875. He had overseen ing hope that the secessionist denomi- she fi rst “met” Douwe J. Vander Werp the organization of the Muskegon nations with which he was identifi ed (1811–1876) in Burum, Friesland. congregation in 1867. During these in both the Netherlands and America Vander Werp served the church in eleven years as a Christian Reformed would exhibit the true will of God in Burum from 1858 until 1864 where Church (CRC) minister, he organized preaching, governance, and the daily decades later Sheeres was doing genea- ten churches, four in Michigan, two in life of each church member. logical research on her Sjaarda ances- Ohio, one each in New Jersey, Iowa, After reading this book you will tors. This relationship between author Illinois, and Wisconsin. Added to his know Vander Werp up close and and subject is evident as Vander Werp parish duties were his near-perfect personal. Included in the narrative emerges as a person with an enormous attendance at classical and synodical are descriptions of both historical capacity for work, great intellectual meetings; service as the fi rst edi- events and the cultural atmosphere gifts, and clarity of expression from tor of De Wachter, the offi cial CRC surrounding the secession movement the pulpit and with the pen. While publication; and tutor of future minis- in both the Netherlands and America.

43 By the 1860s many of the secessionists America. Included are such matters as around words—spoken and written” in the Netherlands had made conces- opposition to fi re insurance, lightning and “sometimes caring, sometimes sions of a practical matter to avoid rods, and small pox vaccination. caustic, but always cautionary, his continual doctrinal infi ghting. For But there were areas where Vander words were meant to instruct his Sheeres this dogmatic quarreling “. . . Werp was forced to modify his views. listeners of their need for salvation” did more damage than the persecution When preparing to preach for the (p. xiii). had done . . . .” (p. 170) fi rst time in Graafschap, Vander Werp Since listening to Vander Werp Sheeres’s portrayal reveals Vander donned the pastoral garb worn in the from the pulpit or conversing with Werp as a staunch advocate for the Netherlands. When the housemaid saw him about his secessionist views are secessionist cause, not easily per- him attired in a three-cornered hat, bib not possible, the next best thing is suaded to change his views, thought- tie, knickers, and a long coat, she “. . . paging through this defi nitive and fully nourishing a new denomination shrieked at the strange sight” (p. 124). readable biography of a man who can in America embodying his cherished Vander Werp put on other clothes and rightly be called the theological father beliefs, leaving him little room for never appeared before his congregation of the CRC in America. The bibli- compromise. in Old World clerical dress. ography and multitude of annotated Among the secessionist heroes ap- This sartorial adjustment by Vander footnotes complement the text as do pearing in various roles in the work Werp may have been a bit traumatic, the well-chosen illustrations. One are Albertus C. Van Raalte, the found- but it pales when compared with the titled “Walking to Graafschap Church er of Holland; Koene Vanden Bosch, “shattered relationships” (p. 58) and in wintertime” and another, “A horse the fi rst pastor in the Christian Re- loss of friends he suffered as unfor- and buggy ride to a church meet- formed Church; and Hendrik Scholte, tunate byproducts of internal strife ing,” present a glimpse of life over a pioneer pastor in Pella, Iowa. Reading among those who cherished the seces- century ago. This book will have an how these pastors and others behaved sionist cause. The following well-cho- enduring appeal to a wide variety of under stress mirrors, in a sense, the sen words by the author capture the scholars as well as casual readers.K religious trials and tribulations expe- essence of Vander Werp’s mind and rienced by most seceders who came to heart: “. . . Vander Werp’s life revolved Conrad Bult

44 Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006

from a politically unsettled and anti- own life. In one, Uncle Max Gazan Semitic Poland, which had long been leaves western Michigan to seek his their home, to a much more tolerant fortune in Detroit as a cook. Here, in and friendly life in the Netherlands. the “World’s Automobile Capital,” Under the leadership of the modern Max became a leading labor orga- family’s founder, Marcus Levie Gazan, nizer and union offi cial from the the family began its Dutch rebirth in 1930s to the 1960s. Max is credited the northern port city of Enkhuizen. with being the person who saved the The family then journeyed south to United Automobile Workers Union Leiden and later moved farther south (UAW) when, in the winter of 1936- to Middelharnis, which then became 1937, he organized the cooking and home. The men of the family were delivery of food to over 2,000 “sit- Stories of Our Fathers: kosher butchers by trade. Religiously down strikers” inside the General A Multi-Generational they were active in the synagogue with Motors Buick plant in Flint, Michi- Narrative of the Gazan Family Marcus Levie serving as the congrega- gan. Without his efforts and expertise through Sorrow and Triumph tion cantor. The family surname, Ga- the strike might have failed and the zan, was offi cially recorded in 1811, UAW might not have succeeded in its Harold S. Gazan being derived from the Hebrew word efforts to unionize the auto industry. Springtree House Publishers, 2006 Chazan, meaning cantor. To place this whole-family chron- 290 pages, photos, illustrations, A traumatic break came in 1842 icle in historical perspective, Gazan bibliography, appendices when a fourth-generation son, develops several important sections (hardcover) Markus Gazan, married a Dutch of general historical background on $49.95 Christian young woman, Janna Note- the Jewish situation through the cen- baart, and began a Christian branch of turies, especially in Europe. Here, the In 1994 Robert Swierenga published the family. Because of the hostility that story begins in the twelfth century The Forerunners, which gives a com- developed within the family, Markus when Jews were forced to wear dis- prehensive and fact-fi lled overview and Janna chose to live farther south tinctive clothing with an oval badge of Dutch-American Jews and their in the town of Breskens in the prov- to identify them as Jews and also as communities. Gazan’s Stories of Our ince of Zeeland. the group that crucifi ed Christ. Later, Fathers complements Swierenga’s In the sixth generation of Dutch the author presents a chilling over- work with a very personal and moving Jewish Gazans another son, also view of the Holocaust in Holland. account of his own Jewish family’s ex- named Marcus and the author’s grand- Here, of the estimated 149,000 Dutch periences in both the Netherlands and father, emigrated from the Netherlands Jews in Holland in 1940, only 36,000 America from 1740 to the present. to the United States in 1905. In 1906 remained after World War II. In the The event that motivated Gazan to Marcus brought his wife and three province of Drenthe, a deportation research and write this series of family children to America and settled in the camp was set up near the town of narratives came in 1987 at a fam- large Dutch community located in Westerbork—with a train track that ily reunion in Amsterdam. Here he western Michigan. Members of this went straight from the Netherlands learned that over fi fty family members branch of the family were not practic- to Auschwitz. from the Gazan’s home city of Mid- ing Jews or Christians. They called The stories in this chronicle serve delharnis in the province of South themselves “free-thinkers” and lived well as food for thought on the past, Holland had been taken by the Nazis more by the rule of empirical reason present and future of the Jewish com- and shipped to Auschwitz and other than the dictates of any organized reli- munity in both Holland and America. German extermination camps—never gious system. I heartily recommend this work as a to be seen again. At this point in the book the au- must-read book.K The story begins in 1740 as the thor relates several fascinating stories Jewish Gazans were forced to migrate of his own immediate family and his James Evenhuis

45 for the future The topics listed below are being researched, and articles about them will appear in future issues of Origins.

“Onze Reis naar N. Americak [Our Trip to Paula Vander Hoven and Angie Ploegstra North America]” by G. J. Buth continues. continue their research of Dutch-American settlements that no longer exist with a study Maria Brown details the story of celery of Martin, South Dakota. farmers and the Dutch in Imlay City, Michigan. “The Dutch Come to the Hackensack River Valley,” by Richard Harms. Janet Sheeres takes up the story of Friesland, South Dakota, another former Dutch- American community.

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Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Berkompas, Bill and Judy Terpstra, Schererville, IN Walnut Creek, CA contributors Mr. and Mrs. John C. Vander Haag, Sanborn, IA James H. and Diane Bloem, Louisville, KY Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Vander Kooi, Luverne, MN Mr. and Mrs. Edward Boersma, Visalia, CA Mrs. Jane Vander Molen, Holland, MI Dr. Donald H. Bouma, Sun City, AZ Origins is designed to publicize and ad- Mr. and Mrs. George J. Vande Werken, Highland, IN John and Sharon Bouma, Holland, MI vance the objectives of the Calvin College Dick and Joyce Van Konynenburg, Hughson, CA and Seminary Archives. These goals in- Sid and Virginia Bouma, Visalia, CA Mr. Bern Van Lonkhuyzen, Kalamazoo, MI clude the gathering, organization and study Clarence and Betty Bouws, Holland, MI of historical materials produced by the day- Mr. and Mrs. Allan J. Van Popering, to-day activities of the Christian Reformed Mr. and Mrs. Conrad J. Bult, Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids, MI Church, its institutions, communities and Mr. Duane E. Bulthuis, Ripon, CA Mr. Adrian Van Sledright, Caledonia, MI people. We invite you to support the con- tinued publication of Origins by becoming Mr. and Mrs. John Buursma, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Samuel N. Van Til, Schererville, IN “Friends of the Archives.” Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. den Dulk, Cannonsburg, MI Mr. and Mrs. Max B. Van Wyk, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Jan De Vries, Berkeley, CA Bill and Pat Waanders, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Robert Essenburg, Grandville, MI Will and Dina Wichers, Bradenton, Florida Enabling Contributor John and Marcia Evenhouse, Westmont, IL Mr. and Mrs. Henry I. Witte, Ada, MI Mr. and Mrs. John Meyer, Palos Park, IL James and Rosemarie Evenhuis, Novi, MI Mr. and Mrs. Teunis Witte, Byron Center, MI Roger and Evelyn Feikema, Bradenton, FL Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Wybenga, Tallmadge, OH Friends of the Archives Endowment Fund Builders Dave and Connie Fennema, Durham, NC Mr. and Mrs. Jay L. Zandstra, Highland, IN AEGON Insurance Group, Cedar Rapids, IA Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Greydanus III, Milton, MA Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Baas, Grand Rapids, MI Mrs. Joan Hoekstra, West Olive, MI Contributing Members Robert and Jane Baker Foundation, Kalamazoo, MI Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Hogeterp, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Gerrit Anker, Visalia, CA Mr. and Mrs. Roger W. Boer, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Lester Hoogland, Zeeland, MI Miss Ruth E. Berkompas, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Richard H. Harms, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Hoving, Oak Brook, IL Ms. Grace A. Betz, Kalamazoo, MI Holland American Wafer Company, Rich and Carla Huizenga, Seattle, WA Dr. and Mrs. Allan Bishop, Ripon, CA Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Ippel, Yorktown, IN Mr. and Mrs. Henry Boersma, Marne, MI Mr. Peter Huizenga, Oak Brook, IL Mr. John Kapteyn, Phelpston, ON Dr. Harmon S. Boertien, Houston, TX Dr. and Mrs. William Huizingh, Scottsdale, AZ Donald and Elizabeth Kiel, San Diego, CA Dr. and Mrs. Robert Bolt, Grand Rapids, MI Estate of Dick and Dena Kortenhoeven, Highland, IN Mr. and Mrs. James T. Koch, San Antonio, TX Mr. and Mrs. Arnold S. Boomsma, Schererville, IN Meijer, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Korthuis, Lynden, WA Dr. and Mrs. Harry Boonstra, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Gerald W. Meyering, Denver, CO Mr. and Mrs. Martin LaMaire, Oak Park, IL Mr. and Mrs. George W. Boorsma, Kentwood, MI Drs. Kornelis J. Storm, Aerdenhout, the Netherlands Mr. and Mrs. Arie Leegwater, Midland, Park, NJ Mr. and Mrs. Glenn E. Borgman, Pella, IA Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation, Arthur and Nellie Lucas, Coopersville, MI John and Beth Bouws, Holland, MI Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. William Noordhof, Lacombe, AB Mrs. Margaret C. Braaksma, Kalamazoo, MI Mr. and Mrs. Claude J. Venema, Jackson, MI Chris and Greta Overvoorde, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Harvey J. Bratt, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Gary J. Vermeer, Pella, IA Bill and Evelyn Pastoor, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Paul L. Bremer, Grand Rapids, MI Contributing Founders Mr. and Mrs. James L. Pestoor, Kalamazoo, MI Mr. and Mrs. Bart J. Bremmer, Midland, MI Peters Import Marketplace, Grandville, MI Mr. and Mrs. Neal Peters, Hudsonville, MI Mr. and Mrs. Donald A. Brinks, Wheaton, IL Mr. and Mrs. Leo Peters, Grand Rapids, MI Ms. Tietje Piera, Calgary, AB Dr. and Mrs. H. J. Brinks, Grand Rapids, MI Clara and Leonard Sweetman, Kentwood, MI David and Pam Reitsema, Englewood, CO Dr. and Mrs. Herman H. Broene, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. John Zonneveld Sr., Laton, CA Mr. and Mrs. Roger Riewald, Thousand Oaks, CA Connie and Roger Brummel, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. A. Charles Schaap, Holland, MI Ralph and Elaine Bruxvoort, Bloomer, WI Contributing Sponsors Ms. Kathryn R. Schlamm, Lynden, WA Mr. and Mrs. Conrad D. Bult, Northport, MI Charles and Gail Alles, Byron Center, MI Mr. and Mrs. P. John Shooks, Grand Rapids, MI Jacob and Sandra Bulthuis, La Grange, IL Mr. and Mrs. Jay A. Anema, Seattle, WA Dr. and Mrs. Robert P. Swierenga, Holland, MI Peter and Mildred Buma, Grand Rapids, MI John and Maria Bajema, Lowell, MI Mr. and Mrs. James P. Terborg, Minden, NV Mr. and Mrs. Will Byker, Hudsonville, MI

47 Syd and Ethel Cammenga, Caledonia, MI Rev. Harvey A. Kiekover, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Talsma, Bellfl ower, CA Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Clousing, Shoreline, WA Mr. and Mrs. Peter Kiemel, Colorado Springs, CO Dr. and Mrs. Henry ten Hoor, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Ronald W. Corstange, The Villages, FL Mr. John E. King, Wyckoff, NJ Mr. and Mrs. John Teune, Shelbyville, MI Dr. Ivan E. Danhof, Grand Prairie, TX Mr. and Mrs. Simon J. Kistemaker, Oviedo, FL Dr. and Mrs. Ryan Tolsma, Redlands, CA Mrs. Viola L. De Boer, Grand Rapids, MI Gerald and Hilda Knol, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Dean Van Bruggen, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. W. P. De Boer, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Andrew R. Kooistra, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Van Dellen, Dr. and Mrs. James H. De Borst, Grand Rapids, MI Rev. John M. V. Koole, Strathroy, ON Grosse Pointe Park, MI Robert L. and Frances De Bruin, Mt. Pleasant, MI Mr. and Mrs. Jack B. Kuipers, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Vander Ark, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Lucas De Vries, Grand Rapids, MI Mrs. Ardene Lambers, Grand Rapids, MI Vander Heide Publishing Co., Ltd., Lynden, WA Ms. Barbara De Witt, Afton, TN Dr. and Mrs. Edward A. Langerak, Northfi eld, MN John and Jane Vander Heide, Grand Rapids, MI Henry and Shirley De Witt, Chino, CA Mr. and Mrs. Loren J. Lemmen, Lansing, MI Mr. and Mrs. James A. Vander Leest, Westlock, AB Mr. Gordon De Young, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Lobbes, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. William J. Vander Leest, Leduc, AB Mr. and Mrs. Henry Docter, Ontario, CA Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Lucas, Grand Rapids, MI Gary and Janice Vander Meer, DeKalb, IL Jim and Gerry Doezema, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Douglas R. Maddox, Mission Viejo, CA Mr. and Mrs. David Vander Ploeg, St. Joseph, MI Mrs. Ruth Donker, Modesto, CA Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Mast, Jenison, MI Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Vander Wall, Citrus Heights, CA Mr. and Mrs. Mark W. Dykstra, South Holland, IL Mr. Gerald Meyer, Holland, MI Dr. and Mrs. Gerald L. Vander Wall, Grand Haven, MI Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Engel, Ripon, CA Herman and Marti Minnema, Visalia, CA Mrs. Jacob Van Eck, Lansing, IL Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth D. Engelsman, Centennial, CO Dr. Ted and Mrs. Tena Minnema, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Lester Van Eck, Exton, PA Martin and Sandra Everse, West Blocton, AL James E. and Janice S. Monsma, Medford, MA Dr. Dick and Carol Van Eldik, Atlantis, FL Mr. Harold S. Gazan, Lansing, MI Dr. and Mrs. Richard Mouw, La Canada, CA Dr. and Mrs. Larry Van Genderen, Jackson, WY Mr. and Mrs. Albert J. Griede, La Mesa, CA Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Newhof, Ada, MI Mr. Art Van Groningen, Ripon, CA Mr. and Mrs. Michael Griffi n, Chattanooga, TN Ms. Bonnie Nijenhuis-Hurd, Denver, CO Mrs. Esther Van Haften, Midland, MI Mrs. Wendlena Groen, Manteca, CA Mr. and Mrs. David Ondersma, Holland, MI Henry and Clemmie Van Mouwerik, Redlands, CA Carl and Sandy Gronsman, Grand Rapids, MI Mrs. Hilda Ormel, Abbotsford, BC Dan and Ruth Gronsman, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. John V. Pastoor, North Muskegon, MI Mr. Adrian Van Sledright, Caledonia, MI Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Haagsma, Grandville, MI Gerald and Jane Ann Postma, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Carl J. Van’t Hof, Tinley Park, IL Mr. and Mrs. Ulrich Haasdyk, Calgary, AB Quentin and Harriet Remein, Bethesda, MD Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Van Tuinen, Longmont, CO Dirk and Gladys Hoek, Modesto, CA Dr. Frank and Mrs. Doris Roberts, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Peter D. Van Vliet, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. Henry and Mrs. Caroline Hoeks, Ada, MI Dave Rodenhuis, Falls Church, VA Gene and Sylvia Van Zee, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Hoeksema, Jenison, MI Mr. Albert Scheenstra, Chino Hills, CA Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Vellekoop, Dyer, IN Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Hoeksema, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Scheeres, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Daniel R. Vellenga, Waco, TX Mr. and Mrs. William Hoekstra, Oakdale, CA Mr. and Mrs. Elmer V. Schepers, Jenison, MI Dr. and Mrs. William Venema, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. David Holkeboer, Byron Center, MI Albert and Mary Scholtens, Caledonia, MI Mr. and Mrs. Arie Verkaik, Hudsonville, MI Mr. and Mrs. Henry Holtvluwer, Jenison, MI Mr. and Mrs. William C. Schultze, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. John L. Vinke Sr., South Holland, IL Mr. and Mrs. John T. Hoogland, Zeeland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Ben Senneker, Lethbridge, AB Mr. Evert Volkersz, Stony Brook, NY Dick and Alyce Housekamp, Ada, MI Carl and Cora Mae Sinke, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Philip Wassenar, Uxbridge, MA Dr. and Mrs. Harvey D. Huiner, Lynchburg, VA Dr. and Mrs. Richard D. Sjoerdsma, Kenosha, WI Mr. and Mrs. Klaas Wielinga, Grand Rapids, MI Harold and Esther Huizenga, Grand Rapids, MI Mrs. Doris R. Smedes, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wierenga, Mesa, AZ Dr. C. J. Huizinga, Jenison, MI Bernard and Melinda Smit, Lafayette, IN Mrs. Nell Wiers, Willard, OH Mr. and Mrs. Peter Ipema, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Russell L. Spoelma, Grand Haven, MI Dave and Brenda Wiersma, Tucson, AZ Ms. Hermina Iwema, South Holland, IL Dr. and Mrs. LeRoy Stegink, Grand Rapids, MI Rev. and Mrs. Donald P. Wisse, Wyckoff, NJ Mr. Fred R. Jacobs, Holland, MI Richard and Joyce Stienstra, Okemos, MI Glenn and Marge Wyngarden, Zeeland, MI Mrs. Mary E. Jellema, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Henry Stevens, Tucson, AZ Ms. Elaine Obbink Zimmerman, Woodstock, MD Mr. and Mrs. William D. Jellema, Lansing, IL Dr. Joseph C. Stevens, New Haven, CT Mr. and Mrs. Henry Zuiderveen, Hudsonville, MI Chaplain and Mrs. Herm Keizer, Caledonia, MI Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sybesma, Hanford, CA Mary Zwaanstra, Grand Rapids, MI

48

The Archives Calvin College and Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

The Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary Archives contains the historical records of the Christian Reformed Church, its College, its Theological Seminary, and other institutions related to the Reformed tradition in the Netherlands and North America. The Archives also contains a wide range of personal and family manuscripts. Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary Volume XXIV • Number 2 • 2006