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Volume XXVI • Number 2 • 2008 Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 page 9 page 13 (616) 526-6313 Origins is designed to publicize 2 From the Editor 13 Early Members in the Maxwell Christian Reformed Church and advance the objectives of 4 The Congregation of The Archives. These goals Angie Ploegstra and Paula Vander Tuberculosis Sufferers: include the gathering, Maxwell Christian Reformed Hoven organization, and study of Church historical materials produced by 22 Pacifi c Coast CRC Churches Angie Ploegstra and Paula Vander the day-to-day activities of the Before World War II, Part II Christian Reformed Church, Hoven Howard B. Spaan 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 35 page 40 HeuleGordon Inc. Printer 33 Notes in a Seventeenth- Century 42 Book Reviews Family Bible Henry Baron, Conrad Bult Anne G. Bousema 46 For the Future 39 “Dear Father, . .” upcoming Origins articles Cover photo: Leendert Woudstra ?? translated by Gerrit W. Sheeres 47 Contributors from the editor . den, Washington, Rev. Howard Spaan to make such data readily available, continues his survey of pre-World both sets of data are now available via War II Christian Reformed congrega- the internet at http://www.calvin.edu/ tions west of the Great Plains. Anne hh/family_history_ resources/ sohol- G. Bousema, who lives in Hoeve- land_church.htm and http://www.calvin. laken (just outside of Amersfort), edu/hh/family_history_ resources/ the Netherlands, teases out historical Maxwell_church.htm; all of our on-line Time to Renew Your Subscription information from various sources in resources are listed at http://www. As is our custom, this is your notice the Netherlands and compares these calvin.edu/hh/family_history_resources/ that it is time to renew your subscrip- with those written in a family Bible in_house_resourses.htm. D tion. An envelope for this is included and told in a family’s story about that with this issue. Using this column to information to determine the accu- News from the Archives notify you saves the cost of a separate racy of that story. D During the summer staff members mailing for renewal notices. Sub- organized and opened for research scriptions remain $10 (US) per year. Available On-Line approximately thirty-seven cubic feet Gifts above $10 are acknowledged as From a variety of sources, we com- of manuscript material. Among the charitable gifts to Origins and we are piled the membership records of the larger collections are the research grateful for this generosity. D South Holland, Michigan, Presbyte- fi les of Dr. George M. Marsden, rian Church, 1852–1867. This group noted scholar and prolifi c author of This Issue was the fi rst to leave the Reformed American religious history; his most Paula Vander Hoven and Angie Ploeg- Church in America after the Dutch recent work is the multi-award win- stra continue their indefatigable search immigrants had joined the denomina- ning Jonathan Edwards: A Life. We for short-lived Dutch immigrant com- tion in 1850. While conducting their als o processed the papers of Paul munities in North America. Follow- research on the Dutch in Maxwell, Zylstra and Tymen Hofman, both ing their earlier work on Perch Lake, New Mexico, Paula Vander Hoven ministers in the Christian Reformed Michigan, and Martin, South Dakota, and Angie Ploegstra assembled data Church—the Zylstra material details this issue contains their detailed on Dutch immigrants who joined the his pastorates in several regions of the research on Maxwell, New Mexico, church there as well as those who United States while the Hofman fi les which was also home to the fi rst lived in the area without joining the detail his life-long research into the Bethesda Sanitarium. A native of Lyn- church. As part of our ongoing efforts history of the Dutch in Canada and 2 Volume XXVI • Number 2 • 2008 the United States. Staff also added a papers of H. Evan Runner, noted archivist; Melanie Vander Wal is de- signifi cant run, fourteen cubic feet, of Christian philosopher and member of partmental assistant; Dr. Robert Bolt the various publications produced by the college faculty, 1950-1981; fi fteen is fi eld agent and assistant archivist. Faith Alive Resources, the publishing cubic feet of records of the CRC Our capable student assistants are ministry of the Christian Reformed Chaplaincy offi ce; nine cubic feet Cyndi Feenstra, and Dana Verhulst. Church that also provided resources from Classis Rocky Mountain; and Our volunteers include Willene De for the Reformed Church in America. four cubic feet from the offi ce of the Groot, Rev. Henry De Mots, Ed Ger- The addition contains Sunday school Calvin College Dean of the Chapel. D ritsen, Fred Greidanus, Ralph Haan, and catechetical material for students Dr. Henry Ippel, Helen Meulink, and instructors. We also processed Publications Rev. Gerrit W. Sheeres, and Janet S. a signifi cant addition to the records Origins currently has two book-length Sheeres. D of the Calvin College HPERDS manuscripts under consideration. A (Health, Physical Education, Recre- history of the CRC mission effort in ation, Dance, and Sport) Department. China, 1920-1950, is being revised by Included are records of the various the author, based on comments from inter-collegiate athletics programs. four readers. The extensively annotat- Our volunteers continue working ed and translated minutes of the CRC Richard H. Harms on the translation from Dutch into synodical meetings (then called clas- English of the minutes from Manhat- sical or general assembly meetings), tan, Montana, CRC and Holland, 1857–1880, are also being reviewed Michigan’s Central Avenue CRC. this summer. These will appear in the Indexing of The Banner vital records same series as the recently published continues. The collating and keying biographies of Douwe Vander Werp into a database the information on and H. J. Kuiper. D post-World War II Dutch immigrants in Canada was completed and is cur- Staff rently being proofread. Richard Harms is the curator of the Accessions during the summer in- Archives; Hendrina Van Spronsen is cluded the Marsden collection (which the offi ce coordinator; Wendy Blank- was processed, as noted above); the espoor is librarian and cataloging 3 The Congregation of Tuberculosis Sufferers1: Maxwell Christian Reformed Church Angie Ploegstra and Paula Vander Hoven n 1893 a core of about ten Dutch out the other heirs to the property. In Ifamilies—most of them in their 1870 Maxwell sold the land to a group twenties and thirties, with young of English fi nanciers who organized children, and a few single people— the Maxwell Land Grant and Railway formed a Christian Reformed church Company, which went into foreclosure in Maxwell, New Mexico. The small in 1879. A group from the Nether- congregation toiled through fi fteen lands, including Samuel Van Houten, years of illness, death, land swindles, a lawyer from the province of Gron- struggles for water, and ultimate ingen and in 1894 a member of the failure far from the concentrations of Dutch cabinet, formed the Maxwell the denomination’s membership. They Land Grant Company and purchased also established a tuberculosis sani- the land, with headquarters in Am- tarium2 and founded what is reputed sterdam and offi ces in New Mexico to be the fi rst Christian school in the and Colorado, and operated mining, West. Theirs is also the story of people timber, coal, farming, and irrigation persevering in an alien land, many of projects, as well as plaster and cement them ill with tuberculosis, and leaving manufacturing. By 1960, the company a strong legacy. had sold off most of its land and left Along with South Africa and the New Mexico, but the Maxwell Land European Alps, the Maxwell area was Grant Company continued to exist in one of several areas that came to the the Netherlands under the name of attention of Dutch tubercular patients De Maxwell Petroleum Holding N. V. and their families, particularly from As part of its nineteenth-century sales the province of Groningen, during the operation, the Dutch company sold last decades of the nineteenth century. parcels to Dutch immigrants. Of these various locations, that in the There had been forays into the Maxwell Land Grant, also known as high, dry country of the American the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant, Southwest by Dutch in 1889. Some was selected to help the patients.3 ministers and schoolteachers had spo- During the early 1840s the Mexican ken favorably about the area, but two government had granted more than people who came to investigate found 1.8 million acres in Colfax County, it to be an arid place where water was Angie Ploegstra, from Zeeland, Michi- New Mexico, and adjoining Las so scarce that it was selling for fi ve gan, and Paula Vander Hoven, from 4 Scholcraft, Michigan, have become Animas County, Colorado, to Charles cents a glass. Writing in De Grondwet regular contributors to Origins. Their Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda for in November 1889, they urged cau- previous work has been on Perch Lake, agricultural use. Lucien Bonaparte tion, “Visit the lands yourself. Don’t Michigan and Martin, South Dakota. Maxwell, a native of Illinois, married believe land agents, dominies, or Luz Beaubien and by 1865 had bought schoolteachers.”5 4 Volume XXVI • Number 2 • 2008 Kampen, the Netherlands, was com- pleted in Grand Rapids. His fi ancée, Margaretha Enter, a tuberculosis suf- ferer had preceded him to Maxwell in 1893 at the age of twenty-fi ve, on the advice of her physician in Groningen, and very much against the wishes of her family.

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