Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014 Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 pagepage 8 page 20 (616) 526-6313 Origins is designed to publicize 2 From the Editor 20 Simple Farm Life— and advance the objectives of Graafschap, Michigan 4 C. Kuipers, Mission Novelist— The Archives. These goals Carolyn Van Ess include the gathering, A CRC Story organization, and study of James Calvin Schaap 30 Journalist, Author, and Zionist historical materials produced by —Pierre Van Paassen the day-to-day activities of the Gerlof D. Homan Christian Reformed Church, its institutions, communities, and people.

Richard H. Harms Editor Hendrina Van Spronsen Circulation Manager Tracey L. Gebbia Designer Janet Sheeres Associate Editor James C. Schaap Robert P. Swierenga Contributing Editors InnerWorkings Printer page 3377 pagee 45

36 An Immigrant with Pretensions 45 Book Notes L. Vogelaar 46 For the Future 42 Book Reviews upcoming Origins articles Cover photo: Richard Harms, Eunice Vanderlaan From Deep Snow 47 Contributors from the editor . . .

Homan. Homan traces the develop- Dame, known for his work in the ment of Van Paassen’s career and his philosophy of religion, epistemology, support for Zionism and later paci- metaphysics, and Christian apolo- fi sm. L. Vogelaar traces the careers getics. The teaching and research of Pieter Court Woerden—preacher, papers of Dr. Irene Brouwer Konyn- chemist, and charlatan. dyk, professor emerita in French at Calvin College, were also opened for This Issue News from the Archives research, as were the papers of Dr. Our current issue begins with a Origins co-published Minutes of the Timothy M. Monsma, missionary, discussion of the fi ction written by Christian Reformed Church Classi- scholar, and pastor, from his twelve Cornelius Kuipers by noted author cal Assembly, 1857-1870; General years working in Nigeria, beginning and emeritus professor of English Assembly, 1867-1879, and Synodical in 1962. We processed papers from at Dordt College, James C. Schaap. Assembly, 1880, extensively annotated Dr. Janel M. Curry, currently Provost Before he was ordained as a minister, by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres, transcribed at Gordon College, and previously Kuipers wrote three novels dealing from the handwritten Dutch by professor in Geography at Calvin with the tensions faced by Zunis who Hendrick K. Harms, and translated by College and holder of the Byker Chair were being introduced to Christian- Richard H. Harms. We continue our in Christian Perspectives on Political, ity. Carolyn Van Ess gave a copy of work on indexing the birthday, obitu- Social, and Economic Thought. We her memoir, “My Medical Memories,” ary, marriage, and anniversary records also organized the records of three to Heritage Hall some months ago, from the Banner. The URL (uniform discontinued Christian Reformed and our second article is an extract resource locator) for the data, from congregations, First (1867-2013), (about ten percent of the total) from 1984 through 2013, is http://www. in Muskegon, Michigan; Immanuel this memoir, which describes her calvin.edu/hh/Banner/Banner.htm. (1887-1974), also in Muskegon, youth and adolescence during the Since last spring we have pro- Michigan; and Central Coast (1982- 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s in Western cessed the papers of analytic phi- 1996), in Arroyo Grande, California. Michigan. The colorful life of jour- losopher Dr. Alvin Plantinga, John New collections received include nalist and author Pierre Van Paassen A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy the journals of Dr. Glenn W. Geel- is presented in the article by Gerlof Emeritus at the University of Notre hoed, surgeon and educator, who

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has led more than two hundred Staff health care missions to the develop- Richard Harms is the curator of ing world, including Africa, Asia, the the Archives and editor of Origins; South Pacifi c, and South America. Hendrina VanSpronsen is the offi ce He was named Humanitarian of the coordinator and business manager of Year by George Magazine in 2000 and Origins; Laurie Haan is the depart- received the American College of Sur- ment assistant; Robert Bolt is fi eld geons’ Volunteerism Award for Inter- agent and assistant archivist; and national Outreach in 2009. Christian Anna Kathryn Feltes is our student Reformed Home Missions transferred assistant. Our volunteers include Phil 12.5 cubic feet of fi les dealing with Erffmeyer, Ed Gerritsen, Ralph Haan, its outreach work, 1962-1980; and Helen Meulink, Clarice Newhof, with the change of provost at Calvin Gerrit W. Sheeres, Janet Sheeres, College, we received eight cubic feet Jeannette Smith, and Ralph Veenstra. of records (2005-2012) from that Colleen Alles has joined our staff in a offi ce. Finally, we received records temporary part-time position.% of the Kalamazoo Diaconal Confer- ence, 1985-1989, and of the Christian Reformed Church’s Inter-Church Relations Committee, 1988-1989. Richard H. Harms

3 C. Kuipers, Mission Novelist—A CRC Story James Calvin Schaap

ecause I was an English teacher, Well, sort of. Some of the books Bit was assumed by team leaders I I judged irrelevant ended up in my knew something about books. Books suitcase—like Rooftops. Just because there were by the hundreds in Cary the good folks of rural Mississippi Christian Center, Cary, Mississippi, wouldn’t fi nd them interesting didn’t the summer of 1977, because Chris- mean I wouldn’t—or didn’t. One of tian Reformed church libraries from those I saved was a Depression-era hither and yon had sent the Center novel in a brown cover titled Roaring the books that no longer moved from Waters, a book written by someone I’d their shelves. My job was simple: once met—a C. Kuipers. He was one while the northwest Iowa kids I’d of several retired New Mexico mis- come with put on a Bible school out sionaries who spent retirement years in the country, while others from the in Arizona, where my wife and I had team built latrines or painted walls or lived. I remembered a small, thin man strung up chicken wire for a ball fi eld with sharp facial features and a ready backstop, this Dordt prof would rifl e smile, a wiry, excitable personality through the library and toss titles I still spewing missionary-level energy thought should go. despite his years. The Center’s library, back then, I stole Cornelius (Casey) Kuipers’s was heavy laden with books Baker, Roaring Waters (1937) from Cary Zondervan, and Eerdmans used to Christian Center and then promptly publish, mid-twentieth century— when all three were almost exclu- sively CRC publishers: anything by Marian Schoolland, church and community histories, Navajo and Zuni for Christ, the kind of authentic CRC books that fi lled my family’s library, books no one had checked out any longer at First, Kalamazoo, or Bethel, Sioux Center, rejects, mission barrel books. James C. Schaap is an emeritus Call me prejudiced, but I assumed professor of English of Dordt College few African-American residents of and an award-winning author of Cary’s Black community would be twenty-three books that include novels, interested in, say, Rooftops Over Straw- short-story collections, nonfi ction, and town, the story of Dominie Scholte’s collections of essays. Recently Schaap high-falutin’ spouse and her diffi cul- authored Rehoboth, A Place for Us, forgot aboutbdlb it. It stayed in my library, which tells the stories of twelve families ties adjusting to frontier, windswept associated with the Rehoboth Mission Pella. I didn’t consult, simply tossed along with a collection of similar CRC in New Mexico. what I thought entirely irrelevant to books, until 2012, when I was culling the Center’s mission and clientele. my shelves. I picked it up, read it, and

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was fascinated by a man who, I then I loved reading all three novels, not good question, because most boys discovered, took it upon himself to because of their art but because I who were educated as he was back write three novels—not just one—in came to respect deeply, even love, the then were determinedly bound toward the depths of the Great Depression, novelist. the ministry. After the Academy he “mission novels,” he called them, all traveled to central Iowa, to Grundy of them about the CRC mission ef- Mission Fest, circa 1910, Center, where he attended Grundy forts in New Mexico. Orange City, Iowa Junior College, graduating in 1919. I would have been better served When Kuipers was still a boy in After graduation there followed by starting the Kuipers canon with Orange City, Iowa, his father told him a few two-year stints in Christian his fi rst novel, Deep Snow (1934), or that the family was going to the Mis- schools in Dutch-American enclaves even his second, Chant of the Night sion Fest, an event held every sum- (Baldwin, Wisconsin, and Sheldon, (1934). But not until later did I learn mer in a shaded grove just outside of Iowa). His children claim that a kind he’d written more, including a non- town, an event more beloved to a ru- of boredom set in at that time, enough fi ction study titled Zuni Also Prays: ral church community than anything Month by Month Observations about we can imagine today. Kuipers himself the People (1946). I would have been doesn’t remember the year exactly, better served starting elsewhere, but he was a boy, so a good estimate because Roaring Waters is a sequel to would be about 1910. Deep Snow—the two novels sharing a At that year’s Mission Fest, he protagonist, a young Zuni man named likely drew his bottle of pop from Koshe. cold water in a stock tank, ate cake or My expectations of Roaring Waters pie and whatever other goodies the weren’t high. I’ve read just about all women folk had baked for the oc- of Frederick Manfred, much of Peter casion, maybe even chased girls. In De Vries, some of the De Jongs1— those days Mission Fests may have and Edna Ferber’s So Big, a shaming included softball and tug-of-war, bag indictment of Dutch Reformed farm- races, a rousing hymn sing—“Far and ers just south of Chicago that won near the fi elds are teeming/with the Henry Beets (1869-1947) was the denominational advocate for mission the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Roaring waves of ripened grain”—and then, work and headed the Christian Waters, I assumed, couldn’t amount the evening’s highlight, a call to arms Reformed Church World Missions to much more than fund-raising, not by an honest-to-goodness CRC mis- offi ce, 1920-1939. Image courtesy a work of art. It simply couldn’t have sionary. of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. been written for the Zuni people, What Kuipers remembers (in a so its intended audience had to be a retirement interview by J. Herbert to make him go west, on his own, CRC audience enamored with its own Brinks)2 is one particular speech into territory where he’d have to look fl edgling mission enterprise among delivered by a man he would come long and hard to fi nd a pair of wood- “our Indian cousins,” as the Banner to know and respect greatly, Mr. CRC en shoes. What also led him there called them so lovingly and conde- Missions, Dr. Henry Beets. Kuipers was a desire for more education. In scendingly for so long. I assumed the doesn’t remember the text or the 1922, summer school drew him to the novel was not going to be literature; substance of what Beets said that late University of Denver; he returned to instead, it was written to do its part to afternoon, but his life, he claims, Colorado for another summer session, support mission efforts, less literature changed at that moment because that this one at Gunnison’s Western State than creative marketing. Beets speech made him commit to a College in 1923. He stayed in the It is—and it isn’t. life of mission work. Rockies in September of 1924, when I loved the novel. Roaring Waters To become a missionary meant he became a high school principal at is not great literature, but in certain more education than most northwest Lazear, a mountain village that is no wonderful ways, Roaring Waters and Iowa boys took on in those years, more. especially its predecessors, Deep Snow and that education he undertook at Lois Lovisa Nelson, Iowa-born, and Chant of the Night, are profoundly Northwestern Academy, right there in and the oldest child of a pioneer fascinating for what they reveal about Orange City.3 Just when he decided family that homesteaded in northern the novelist and missionary teacher. on teaching and not preaching is a Colorado, attended high school in

5 Lazear, where she and the principal Rev. Calvin Hayenga in Toiling and Mexico and so maintained a powerful discovered a fondness for each other, Trusting, was hired as “. . . principal presence—every last Zuni man and a fondness both of them must have and disciplinarian, a diffi cult task.”4 woman knew the Vander Wagons, and nurtured, because Ms. Nelson became Just as signifi cant, the entire mis- they knew every last Zuni. The man Mr. Kuipers’s bride just six months or sion’s physical plant was also new. had never lost a degree of his memo- so after her graduation in 1924. Gone were the old chapel, the YMCA rable zeal. Their fi rst child, Calvin Keith, was house, and assorted other mission It’s also helpful to know something born in January 1926, in Gunnison, buildings; in their place stood “the about Kuipers’s personality and char- while he completed his degree and present complex building, of Span- acter. Although his fi rst stay at the studied education at Western State. ish architecture, but built of stucco Pueblo began in 1927 and ended in But Kuipers claims the Mission Fest with common-place Zuni mud,” 1933, during those fi ve years he cre- dedication hadn’t disappeared, so in as Kuipers himself described it,5 as ated co-curricular opportunities un- 1927 he signed a teaching contract to impressive an edifi ce as existed in the imagined before him. Suddenly, Zuni teach at the Zuni Christian Mission Zuni Pueblo back then, a structure had uniformed ball teams—baseball School, in Zuni, New Mexico. Like that would stand just across the Zuni and basketball. Suddenly, Zuni Mis- most CRC mission personnel at the River from the Pueblo for forty-four sion had a school band created by an time, Kuipers had limited—if any— years, until it burned to the ground Iowa-born Music Man. There were experience with Native people. on 17 April 1971, in a late-night fi re no music lessons in Kuipers’s back- of still undetermined origin. Kuipers ground, but he was blessed with an Zuni, 1927 was brand new to Zuni, but then so ear that granted him the wherewithal The Zuni Mission of the Christian Re- was just about everything. He also to play every instrument the Zuni formed Church was thirty years old in found a freshly minted leadership band would need. He was ambitious 1927, and in the midst of signifi cant team, including a young missionary and energetic and forward-looking. change. Rev. Herman Fryling, who preacher and a decorated veteran, He blessed Zuni Mission’s archives had been working at Zuni for two de- Andrew Vander Wagon, well-scarred for years to come because he was the cades, had retired and just returned to by a history of non-compliance with fi rst to toy with new technology like Michigan. In his place was Rev. Calvin the Mission Board a world away in tape recorders and motion picture G. Hayenga, who’d been on the Zuni Grand Rapids. The Board had rehired cameras. staff for only two years. In 1927, the Andrew Vander Wagon, after having What can be known about those Mission School Fryling had created parted ways in 1906—not amicably. fi rst fi ve years is in guarded scraps in 1908 had an enrollment of sixty There were good reasons to rehire and memoirs, the largely unwrit- students, a number which required the man whose fi ery unconvention- ten history of the Zuni Mission, an two teachers as well as a matron. ality created fi restorms: the Vander enterprise struggling to maintain a “Kuipers,” Dr. Henry Beets quotes Wagons had put down roots in New presence and a witness among the

The Andrew Vander Wagen farm in 1897, the beginning of the Christian Reformed Church presence at Zuni Pueblo (Shiwinna, in Zuni), New Mexico. Image courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Zuni and in the minds and hearts and coffers of its own denominational constituency.6 Signifi cant chunks of that history are unwritten in part because some chapters are festooned with quarrels (some petty, some not) between personnel, bickering that oc- casionally grew from real differences in missiology. And by 1927, Zuni Mis- sion had garnered disparagingly few conversions to Jesus Christ, the deity Native people simply assumed was “the god of the white man.” During Rev. Herman Fryling (far left) and Andrew Vander Wagen (seated to right) its fi rst thirty years at Zuni, the CRC during an excursion through the land of the Zuni in 1908. Image courtesy of had a disappointing record of only six Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. adult baptisms, and two of those had died within a year. save the man,” a phrase attributed to of the community. But conversions All of this is interesting if we Richard Pratt, superintendent of the don’t come easily at Zuni, in life or in consider what Kuipers the novelist prestigious Carlisle Indian Industrial fi ction. experienced at Zuni during those fi ve School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the Motivations aren’t always clear in years before he began to write novels. educational model for Native board- Kuipers’s characters. Plots wander While there were almost certainly ing school education, including the and begin to feel like loosely strung prototypes for the mission person- denomination’s own Rehoboth. Upon collections of vignettes drawn from nel he creates (teachers, missionar- Koshe’s return to the Pueblo, the mission experience. Still, it is clear ies, matrons, and custodians) in his forces of his Zuni culture went to war that the climax of his fi rst novel takes three novels, what is most interest- with what he’d been taught at board- place in the deep snow a rampaging ing is how he would write about a ing school. The central question of blizzard had left behind all over the much-beloved mission enterprise for both novels is, not surprisingly, “Will Navajo and Zuni reservations, when an adoring audience accustomed to Koshe become a Christian?” Koshe determines, on his own, to effusive sentimental plot lines, readers Koshe is a born leader, a young become an angel of mercy and deliver who want and expect to see pagan man mission personnel watch closely, both bad news and needed medicine savages released from the bondage of hoping for the kind of Christian affi r- to a family at some distance and in sin, when, in point of fact, only a very mation that will put him into confl ict signifi cant trouble. few had been. How to tell the truth with the deeply religious character Earlier, Koshe and three others when the truth was not what readers dare a Christmas blizzard’s danger to want to hear? rescue Zunis and Navajos stranded while gathering piñon nuts. Kuipers Telling the story summarizes their bravery in this The protagonist of Kuipers’s fi rst way: “The four messengers of mercy novel, Deep Snow, is Koshe, a young pressed onward through the deep Zuni man, who reappears in the snow of Nacionales Mesa. Stern duty novel’s sequel, Roaring Waters. Young urged them on through the icy drifts Koshe had been educated at a board- and the biting cold.” ing school, where he met missionaries Kuipers likely read moralistic of the Gospel, who played a sig- novels; they may well have been nifi cant role in a national strategy to his genre of choice. On occasion, in assimilate indigenous people into the good moralistic fashion, he will, as majority white, Euro-American cul- author, enter into the story when he ture. The progressive adage governing believes his readers should not miss a Indian education in the late nine- thoughtful truth. These four rescuers teenth century was “Kill the Indian, merit particular praise in just such

7 a generous aside: “Christian na- tions observed this crowning day of Yuletide in cozy homes, and Christian worshippers were adoring the Christ- Child in pleasant churches,” he says, editorially. “The four toiling onward over bleak mesas were not worship- ping thus, but their devotion was the supreme sacrifi ce of themselves.” What is so engaging about Kui- pers’s novels is the moral position- ing he frequently stakes out, even when, as a novelist, aesthetically at least, he shouldn’t be editorializing. His momentary departure from the stormy plot detracts from the story’s narrative drive; but the moral lesson he notes is something he believes One of the illustrations from DDeepeep Snow captioned “The ggodsods have spoken” (Grand Rapids: needs to be said. Kuipers cannot Zondervan, 1934), 97. claim these courageous Zunis to be baptized Christians, but their selfl ess on the other side of their own Kodak The Climax of Deep Snow (and thus Christ-like) sacrifi ce needs Brownies: “Suppose some afternoon Later in Deep Snow, Koshe takes to be seen in contrast with Christmas you were puttering away happily at on yet another rescue mission, this Eve in “pleasant churches,” presum- some task,” he says in that newspaper one alone, to the isolated hogan of ably like those his readers attend. He column, “and along came an arro- a young Navajo girl he very much is not particularly shy in asserting the gant Indian caravan of two or three admires (Kuipers was not adept at moral superiority of the Zuni rescu- swanky cars.” He then describes the romance!). The path, often lost in ers. Native people who “gaze intently at the heavy snow, is almost impossible, These frequent asides create a dis- you and giggle, while one whispers, the winter so life-threatening a reader course that suggests Kuipers wanted ‘Gee, ain’t that a cute specimen,’ begins to feel a bit of Jack London’s not only to entertain the Zuni Mis- while another adds, ‘Wonder if that powerful depictions of man and na- sion constituency with the novels, bozo will pose for a picture.’” That ture battling away in the frozen cold. but also to educate them, help them paragraph ends abruptly: “About this Here, life and death square off 7 to see the Zuni people as human time, what do you feel like?” when, just three miles of seven-foot beings, not simply as pagan souls in What Kuipers’s occasional editorial drifts from the stranded hogan, Ko- asides in his novels and his op-eds in need of Jesus. That discourse is espe- she’s pony stumbles once more into cially interesting today, given the of- Albuquerque’s most-read newspaper the deep snow: ten horrifying stereotypes assigned to demonstrate is his desire to be sure Anglo missionaries who evangelized Anglo readers work at understand- The sun lowered and the air became indigenous nations on this continent. ing the men and women and children chilly. The snow that had been thaw- When Deep Snow was published, he knows on the reservation and in ing near the top began to freeze. At Kuipers, then a graduate student at the Pueblo. In fact, such cultural fi rst it was like a thin sheet of paper the University of New Mexico, was comparisons suggest that he was fac- that yielded to the touch. As it grew contributing op-eds to the Albuquer- ing two required conversions at the colder the crust became thicker and que Journal, where his readers weren’t heart of Roaring Waters, two groups began to cut like a knife. mission supporters but a more gen- of people—one white and one red— eral reading public. In one of those both in need of a radical change of That melting, then freezing snow is articles, “Today in New Mexico,” heart. Such asides detract from the crucial. “The cruel glassy crust began Kuipers defends Navajo reticence novel’s unifi ed plotting, but today, to cut into the pony’s body” when the to be photographed by putting his eighty years later, they are a highlight pony and rider go belly deep in a drift. Anglo readers in the position of those of his work. They can go on only if Koshe helps

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his pony climb out. When he does try the novel. Suddenly, Kuipers says, Casey Kuipers’s use of the pas- to dig the snow away, his own hands Koshe screams a prayer, “‘Jesus of sive voice is a theological affi rmation get bloodied. Deeply afraid, Koshe the white man, help me!’ was wrung but also an answer to the criticism urges his pony on, but the pony is sobbingly from Koshe’s heart. ‘Jesus, I leveled at the Zuni Mission project also bleeding. “Icy needles scratched don’t want them to die.’” already by the 1930s, when adult and clawed at her raw and quivering It is diffi cult to believe Kuipers baptisms were so very scarce. Almost fl esh,” Kuipers says. “Crimson tracks would not have understood that from the beginning of the CRC mis- marked the white, glistening snow.” Koshe’s desperate petition here affi rms sion in Zuni, signifi cant voices “back We have arrived at both the dra- his faith, even suggests his salva- East” were concerned about the lack matic and the technical climax of the tion. Kuipers had to know his Bible, of “success” on the fi eld. As early novel. Koshe’s daring in the night cold and what he had to have committed as 1921, Rev. John Dolfi n, of Clas- has placed him and his pony at death’s to memory somewhere was a defi ni- sis Muskegon, signifi cant supporter door. “Sharp, icy, merciless fangs bit tive line from the book of Romans, of early CRC mission efforts at Zuni and gnawed at his hands and arms as chapter 10, from the King James: “For Pueblo, reported on the work in this he struggled and tugged in his efforts whosoever shall call upon the name way in Bringing the Gospel in Hogan to help her rise. He talked to her as he of the Lord shall be saved.” Clearly, and Pueblo:8 washed his freezing, bleeding hands Koshe has done exactly that: he has in the cold, cold snow.” Once again, called upon the name of the Lord Since 1906 Rev. [Herman] Fryling has Kuipers enters editorially: “Lord, have because in his distress he has come to been laboring at Zuni, not with a blare believe that the God of the white man of trumpets and the beating of drums, but quietly and carefully thru teaching can be his deliverance. That, in the and preaching laying a solid founda- reckoning of the novel’s writer and its tion to build upon when the Lord’s readers, is faith. time comes to call the Zuni out of But there’s more. The grammar of nature’s darkness into the wonderful the sentence conveys clearly that, to light of His mercy and grace. Already Kuipers, salvation is not a human a couple of young men have accepted choice, but a matter that belongs to the Christ Jesus presented to them in the catechism class by Missionary the Lord. He employs the passive Fryling. A great number of others voice, the subject, Koshe, being acted would be willing to accept Christian upon: “Jesus of the white man, help Baptism if the Missionary would only me!” was wrung sobbingly from Ko- be ready to receive them and thru she’s heart [emphasis mine]. “Jesus, I baptism bring them into the Christian don’t want them to die.’” Church. Kuipers the Calvinist deliberately employs a sentence structure unmis- Fryling, Dolfi n baldly suggests, is Cornelius Kuipers and his second wife, Martha takable in intent. Koshe did not him- partially to blame for the meager rate (nee Vos), were married at Zuni in 1947. Some self pose the question that suggests of “success” on the Zuni fi eld because of the Zuni guests reported this was their fi rst his adoption of the Christian faith; the tally would swell considerably if Christian wedding ceremony. His fi rst wife, Lois rather, that utterance “was wrung” “the Missionary” would only be more Nelson, had died in 1945. Image courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, from Koshe’s heart by someone else. lenient in determining readiness for Michigan. At this pivotal moment in his fi rst baptism. novel, Kuipers suggests that only God What Kuipers saw when he noted mercy!” says the author. “Only two Almighty could have pulled from Ko- the scarcity of converts in the Zuni more miles! Wilt thou let them fail she’s heart the confession of faith he Pueblo was a theological principle, now?” The adoption of King James utters. In the language of an old hymn that no missionary could wrench (or English suggests Kuipers’s own prayer Kuipers had to have sung: “wring”) conversions from those in at this fi ctional moment. “native darkness,” as Dolfi n describes Then comes the most telling line ‘Tis not that I did choose thee it. Kuipers answers Dolfi n’s criticism of the novel, a line that belongs to For Lord that could not be; with a biblical imperative drawn from Koshe, the young man the nature of This heart wouldst still refuse thee the Psalms: “Salvation belongs to the whose faith is the major confl ict of Hadst thou not chosen me. Lord.” God Almighty is the only vital

9 agent for change in those souls he “ sobbingly.” We know what Lant- the reservation, about daring rescues, wants as his own and in his time. ing does not because we know what this one with a much less complex The technical climax ends when transpired in a seven-foot drift three and far more sentimental conclusion. Koshe prays; the dramatic climax of miles from a snow-bound hogan. In “Flying Bread,” once again the novel also ends here, when Koshe Lanting can only wonder, just as the question is the life and death of escapes death’s cold clutches and gets Kuipers, the mission school teacher a stranded family in a cold hogan through the storm. But Koshe’s crucial in the Zuni Pueblo, can only wonder somewhere out on the Navajo res- confessional prayer no one but God at the developing faith of his Zuni ervation. Another confl ict is also and readers hear. In the novel, God students. That truth offers an answer obvious, however, just as it is in Deep responds. The pony comes up and out to critics who bemoan dismal baptism Snow, a confl ict between the claims of of the drift, enabling Koshe to make numbers at the Zuni Mission: we just Christianity and the claims of Native the delivery. His girlfriend, a Christian don’t know, but God does. religion. Navajo, is delivered from danger, and Kuipers’s subtle ending is fascinat- Kuipers begins with a God-fearing a relationship begins to fl ourish. All ing, especially if one considers how Navajo grandma attempting to impart is well. his readers—loyal CRC members, hope to her suffering family by mak- But as if to make his point even many of whom likely had a very ing claims that the promises of God more true-to-life, Kuipers, the mis- traditional moralistic sense about are good and strong and true and that, sion school teacher, does not allow imaginative fi ction—might have read even in their dire distress, God will Lanting, the novel’s mission school the story. They had to be scratching provide. Her son demurs and predicts teacher, to hear Koshe’s prayer; and their heads because many would have their death by relying on the prin- the novel ends with a question, not expected a more triumphant climax, ciples of his people’s traditional faith: an exclamation mark. In the denoue- some poor wayward Zuni or Navajo “The snow is too deep for us to get ment, Koshe goes back to school and coming blessedly to Jesus. That hap- help,” he says with a laugh Kuipers writes his parents, who are neither pens, but there are no exclamation describes as “bitter.” “It is the will of Christians nor literate, need Lanting’s points, and the truth is only suggest- the gods of my people that some of us help to read the letters Koshe sends. ed, not trumpeted. must die. I am ready.” In the novel’s last scene, Lanting reads Kuipers clearly understood what In a classic deus ex machina, de- his intended denominational read- liverance arrives from above exactly a note from Koshe to his parents, an ers wanted in their stories. That he at the moment when the family is at ordinary, newsy letter, then thinks knew their expectations is illustrated death’s door. The old grandmother about the whole story. This is the fi nal by “Flying Bread,” a short story he implores the Lord to send relief—and paragraph of Deep Snow: published in the Banner at just about he does, by way of an airplane pi- Long after the father had left him, the same time (November 1934) Deep loted by men who were “looking for Lanting still pondered. Koshe wrote Snow was released, another story Indians in just such need.” Kuipers about tomorrow. Tomorrow’s game. about deep snow, about suffering on doesn’t run from the obvious: “Indeed After that tomorrow was another tomorrow, then another and anoth- er—an endless string of them, for to- morrow never comes. What did these tomorrows hold for Koshe?

Lanting, the missionary/teacher, is left wondering what’s happening in the boy’s heart and soul. But read- ers heard Koshe call on the name of the Lord because the novel brought us to a time and a place where some unseen and likely divine force (Kui- pers would name that force as God The bridge across the river, dry in summer, which separated Zuni Pueblo from the Christian Almighty, I’m sure) had “wrung” Reformed Church mission property. The house to the right was occupied by the missionary. Image Koshe’s confessional prayer from him courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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not taken with Casey Kuipers’s fi rst powerful. In a discussion Kuipers attempt at a novel. Beets praised it in creates midway in the novel, the mis- Missionary Monthly: the novel shows sionaries talk about combating that a “keen insight into the heart of the formidable enemy daily; and DeWitt, older and younger Zunis,” he wrote; the old missionary, explains how but his praise is muted: “It would every new missionary’s initial zeal is have pleased us if the author had also tempered by the diffi cult experiences been able to make a real hero of him of evangelism in the pueblo. as to his defi nite stand as a soldier of When they talk about fi nding the cross.”9 the best way, they also speak to Rev. Keith Kuipers claims his father Dolfi n’s criticisms of Zuni Mission’s loved Beets, the man whose passion lack of success in saving souls. Some had so moved him as a boy in Orange assurance of the converts’ deep com- City. It is understandable that the mitment to Jesus Christ, DeWitt displeasure Beets says he felt upon insists, needs to be there before the reading Deep Snow affected the design sacrament can be received. “Just as the heavens were raining help,” help ” he of Kuipers’s second novel, a fact that Jonah’s gourd was swift, pretentious, says, when foodstuffs descend from Kuipers himself admits in a personal and a blessing in a weary land,” the the gray and snowy skies. Grandma letter to Dr. Beets: old missionary says, “so these [early] insists, “It was the white man’s God converts inspired me with new cour- who sent the ravens.” As you know, [Chant of the Night] is age. But the cup of joy had its bitter Kuipers clearly knew how to meet a direct answer to your criticism of dregs,” he goes on to explain to the the fi ctional expectations of his audi- Deep Snow that no clear-cut accep- younger missionaries. “The gourd ence. But in Deep Snow, we can only tance of Jesus Christ is indicated in had its deadly worm gnawing at its conclude that he must have deliber- our former book. In this new story very vitals. The day of these converts ately determined not to meet those we meet a true convert and see some of his trials. Perhaps the strongest was short.” Then DeWitt delivers the expectations. Instead, he fi nishes the point is that he becomes a convert not title line: “The chant of the night won novel in a fashion that demanded a because of any one missionary made out.” In the battle for souls, Native level of interpretation at least some of such a superb approach, but because ways seem overwhelmingly power- his readers weren’t likely to perceive, God himself determined His word ful. The “Chant of the Night” is the 10 a demonstration of what he and all should not return void. fearsome challenge the mission faces the Zuni missionaries were experienc- every day. ing with such a dearth of baptisms. It’s clear, at least if we believe him, At the same time, however, Chant that Kuipers stayed up late during of the Night is an even more open tes- Dr. Beets, Deep Snow, and the darkest nights of the Depression timony to Kuipers’s immense regard Chant of the Night and plotted out a “mission story” that for the Zuni people. The story begins We know very little about how the would, if nothing else, satisfy Beets’s in ambiguity and paradox. A Zuni novel was received; denominational displeasure. What Kuipers knew he man named Laha, frantic, comes to publications did little book reviewing, needed to create in his second novel the mission house to cut a lock of hair and Zondervan has kept no record of was a Zuni character who would from the old missionary, De Witt, be- sales. Within the CRC, it’s fair to say “stand as a soldier of the cross.” For cause Laha is convinced his daughter’s people bought books not because the that, of course, he had few fi ctional sickness resulted from DeWitt’s earlier books were estimably reviewed, but prototypes. But the fi erce determina- visit to their home. Traditional heal- simply because they were denomina- tion he asserts to Beets, I would argue, ing ritual insists that his daughter will tional books, about CRC people, for meant the novel itself, as a novel, get better only if her father burns a CRC people, and by CRC people. would suffer. lock of hair from the offending visitor. What we do know is that Henry Chant of the Night draws its title A handyman and general mechanic Beets, Chairman of the Board of from what the missionaries attribute at the mission, a man named Dirks, Missions of the CRC, overseer of to the stubborn appeal of traditional hears Laha’s plea and insists that no all denominational mission efforts, Zuni religion, something deeply right-thinking Christian could pos- Kuipers’s immediate superior, was disturbing and almost unfathomably sibly abide such an obviously pagan

11 request; giving Laha a lock of hair serves as guide on the hike up Toa bute. There are moments in the nar- would be aiding and abetting the Yallone. rative when Kuipers stops everything, enemy and perpetuating the sinful Of interest to the mission person- picks up a camera with a wide-angle belief that Native rituals have medici- nel is the story of the warrior Ahay- lens, and simply describes, in great nal power. ooteh, at the Shrine of the Ancients detail, what he thinks must be seen, However, DeWitt allows Laha to atop the mountain. When they arrive, and appreciated, at that moment. cut a few locks and take them home one of the teachers who has come When he does, his use of narrative for the purging ritual. Dirks grouses, along spots an ant hill beside the altar distance (the proximity of the nar- but DeWitt, who’s lived among the and mocks the gods for allowing a rative voice to the action itself) gets Zuni for years, insists that if he hadn’t congregation of insects to desecrate pushed into god-like omniscience as given up a few locks of hair, and if the such an honored holy place. he looks down from what seems some daughter would die, the viability of Ametolan is incensed: “I want you distant mesa. His motivation is clear the mission and the Gospel it carried to know this is holy ground to my and commendable—he wants us to would be in jeopardy because the people,” he says. “You come up here see what he sees and to respect what people would believe that everything and think you own all. You walk ev- he does. Here is part of one of those connected with the mission was bad erywhere. You do not think. No, you long and descriptive passages, this one describing the Pueblo before one of its most important dance rituals:

Thus the summer solstice was ushered in. Each walked a straight road that would be pleasing to the departed ones who were about to return and heap upon every true believer their blessings of growth, moisture, and fe- cundity. For four days no one bought, sold, or traded. For four days each guarded his tongue and there were no quarrels. For four days no one looked at the other with desire. For four Toa Yallone, the sacred mountain of the Zuni, seen from the village. Image courtesy of Heritage Hall, days after taking their offerings each Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. thus guarded his thoughts so that the sweet savor of his prayers might not medicine. What begins the novel is are Americans. Listen! Do I make fun be dispelled by an evil heart, a cutting a moment when mission personnel of your Jesus?” tongue, or a wishful eye. make paradoxical decisions that those Then, Kuipers writes, “There was unpracticed in the world of compet- silence, awkward silence.” The fi nal sentence is lovingly ing cultures and traditions would The fi rst four chapters of Chant of decorated, beginning as it does with simply assume to be erroneous, if not the Night offer two stories meant to the chorus-like repetition he’d begun contrary to scripture, as Dirks obvi- document the complexity of mission three sentences earlier. That sentence ously does. work in the Zuni Pueblo. From early suspends the usual grammatical pat- Kuipers follows that vignette on, Chant of the Night seems as much tern with an additional prepositional with a story that features unwitting about mission work as it is about phrase, then and only then offers disrespect for Zuni culture. Mission unthinking Anglos who cannot or subject and verb complex (“each personnel, on a day off, hike up Zuni’s will not respect Native cultures and thus guarded”) and adds a dependent sacred mountain to experience the beliefs. clause including a double negative for view and better understand tribal his- Exposition is almost always an emphasis and a series of noun phrases tory, motivations clearly sympathetic. enemy of plot movement in fi ction. in parallel structure. There’s nothing We are introduced to Ametolan, a Exposition is time and place and idea; complex or fancy about the sentence, young man not unlike Koshe in Deep plot is pages turning. Chant of the but the care Kuipers took in its con- Snow, a Haskell Indian School gradu- Night’s problems as a novel stem from struction arises from his respect for the ate the missionaries want badly to too much exposition, which is, at the Zuni people, and even their abiding take hold of Jesus Christ. Ametolan same time, its most fascinating attri- faith. It’s a delicate, beautiful sentence

12 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

that describes what Kuiper himself must have observed as, in the dance’s own way, delicate and beautiful. That kind of nuanced regard is in every nook and cranny of Chant of the Night, taking up so much space that any sustained plot seems almost non- existent. His efforts to answer Beets’s specifi c public criticism isn’t the only mission Kuipers seems driven to accomplish in his second novel. He seems even more convinced to teach his readers something substantial he’s learned at Zuni, that life there is often good and honest and marked by deep devotion, even if that devotion is pagan. Still there is this matter of es- Cornelius and Martha Kuipers. The children (with his fi rst wife, Lois) are Eloise, Albert L., C. tablishing “a soldier of the Cross.” Keith, in back, and Carol, seated in front. Image courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Kuipers knew that he needed a Rapids, Michigan. conversion, a baptism, because only a baptism would satisfy Beets, who and a baptized Christian, who became because God himself determined His clearly wanted—and presumably one just a few days before he died in word should not return void.” other readers might have desired—a 1927. To accomplish that, Kuipers im- soul saved for Jesus. Tamaka’s role in the novel is as a ports an experience he went through In Chant of the Night, Kuipers benefactor, not unlike his prototype, at the Zuni Mission, when Dekman, obliges in a way that actually adds to a man whose friendship binds him to the young missionary (someone like the novel’s appeal and interest, largely the mission personnel in ways that Rev. Hayenga) proposed bringing in because it comes so unexpectedly. other Zuni do not. Just exactly how Native missionaries from the Hopi Some novelists claim that great plots Kuipers uses fi ction in his character- reservation, converts they hoped are those whose memorable surprises ization of Tamaka isn’t clear; what is would fi nd more success with the are, oddly enough, both perfectly obvious is that in many ways Nick Zuni people because they too were shocking and completely understand- Tumaka and Nick Tamaka are the Native. Think of them as guest pas- able. Novelists want their readers same man. tors, or revival preachers—new and fuming at plot twists, not because Kuipers’s response to Dr. Beets, we Native voices in the proclamation of readers don’t like them but because need to remember, has two assertions: the Gospel. they did not see those surprises com- fi rst, that his second novel, Chant of DeWitt, the old missionary, is wary, ing—and they know they should the Night, is a response to his criti- unsure of what additional baggage the have. Surprise is at the heart of good cism of Deep Snow’s inability to offer itinerant preachers might carry into plotting, and surprise is at the heart of readers a true, obvious “soldier of the the Zuni Pueblo. If DeWitt errs on the the conversion Kuipers needed in his Cross,” a Native man or woman who side of caution—and I believe that second novel. has accepted the salvation offered by Kuipers would have us think so— The character he uses to become “a Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. then the young idealist Dekman lacks soldier of the Cross” is Nick Tamaka, Kuipers goes on, however, to ex- suffi cient foresight; the conservative is a character who has an obvious proto- plain how he determined to do what too conservative and the progressive type in Nick Tumaka (note the vowel Beets requested: “In this new story we is too progressive. All have sinned in change), a benefactor of the Zuni Mis- meet a true convert and see some of Chant of the Night, not just the hea- sion who sold the denomination its his trials,” he told Beets. “Perhaps the then Zuni. property in the earliest years, a trans- strongest point is that he becomes a The revival is set, the Hopis ar- lator who helped both Vander Wagon convert not because any one mission- rive, and meetings burn with fervor; and Hayenga learn the Zuni language, ary made such a superb approach, but but disaster results when the Zuni

13 determine that the Hopi missionaries had, at the same moment, convinced The years away from Zuni are frauds, capable of rank deception Nick Tumaka that he was a child of What Kuipers was learning—both in order to obtain what they desire God and prompted his wish to be in graduate school as well as on the from mission personnel. While they’re baptized. job once he’d left the university—is capable of preaching the Gospel, they Kuipers does not, this time, want relevant because it was during those don’t live it. Their escape from Zuni his readers to miss the irony. De- years that all three novels were writ- occurs under the cover of darkness, Witt is amazed, shocked—as are his ten. He himself explains his fi ve-year so greatly are they hated. readers. He “was no longer following hiatus from Zuni Christian Mission by The whole episode makes up a Tumaka’s words. He sat up, surprised, way of the Great Depression. Simply signifi cant portion of the novel, and it startled. Had that Hopi song actually put, denominational offerings could feels for all the world like disaster, the touched one heart?” He is dumb- not pay the salaries of the personnel at good name of Zuni Mission tragically struck. “Had those words which rang the Pueblo: the staff had to be reduced undercut by the seemingly purposeful out in every meeting challenged Nick to keep the operation solvent. There hypocrisy of the Hopi revivalists. The Tumaka? Had everything not been in were three Kuipers children by 1933: Zunis laugh in derision; the mis- vain after all?” Calvin Keith, born in Colorado in sionaries are mortifi ed at their abject And the answer to that entire list 1926; Albert Lynn, born at his moth- failure. of questions is yes. When Kuipers er’s maternal Colorado home in 1928; Then in chapter nineteen, Kuipers tells Dr. Beets “that the strongest and Eloise Marie, born in 1930 at turns to Nick Tumaka, benefactor and point is that he becomes a convert Rehoboth Hospital. Times were tough. translator, who is on his deathbed, not because of any one missionary Financial hardship was the rule DeWitt visiting him. Tumaka tells the made such a superb approach, but during the Great Depression, in New story of an old storekeeper for whom because God himself determined His Mexico and throughout America; it’s he once worked. Once, unknowingly, word should not return void,” he is not particularly surprising that life he was cleaning out a drawer full of making the case for the deep impor- away from Zuni was hand-to-mouth mice when he discovered pages the tance of the work at Zuni, even when for a young couple with three kids, mice didn’t destroy, pages of the Bible. supporters back home were fi nding the oldest just seven years old. Kui- “So I say if the paper on which we it diffi cult to continue to fi nance an pers describes these years this way in wrote God’s Word was so very strong, operation with such meager results the notes he wrote up to summarize sure God is much stronger,” Tumaka in terms of souls saved for Jesus, a his life for his children: “1933— says. Then, he delivers the most theological principle he made just moved to Albuquerque and survived signifi cant line: “So tonight I come to as clearly in Deep Snow: “Salvation by doing odd jobs while attending U tell you that I believe God’s Word.” belongs to the Lord.”11 of NM.” While Tumaka has been faithful to But Chant of the Night is not Nick Son Keith, the oldest, remembers the mission and the missionaries, he Tumaka’s story. Neither does it belong living in tiny apartments behind the has never professed his faith with that to Ametolan, who has his own score front desks of motels where Mom and kind of candor. “Here was an answer of troubles in the novel. Nor is it Dad cleaned rooms. Kuipers himself to prayer,” Kuipers writes. “Nick was DeWitt’s story or Dekman’s or Dirks’s. lists his income during his graduate fi nding his Master, not in name only, The novel’s lack of a central character school years $75 a month while a but in the reality of inner soul experi- almost guarantees that it will carry “Fellow” in the psychology depart- ence.” no clear central confl ict either—and ment, and an “assistant instructor” in Ironically—and surprisingly—mo- it doesn’t. That means to the reader education, while he wrote his thesis tivation is also more immediate than it, quite simply, is a novel less uni- and took his degree. a childhood memory of a job in a fi ed and hence less satisfying. Deep During these years—and these trading post. “’I feel like a fl ower all Snow seems to me to be a better novel years only—Casey Kuipers turned to faded and brown, just ready to throw simply because it has a more clearly fi ction writing, all three titles pub- away. Then I think of what I heard defi ned protagonist and a more uni- lished by Zondervan between 1934 this week that we must work before fi ed plot structure. What I’m arguing and 1937. When exactly he wrote all gets dark for us,” he says, indicat- is that Beets’s completely understand- each of the novels is not clear; but ing that the very same revival that able chagrin with Kuipers’s fi rst novel his son Keith remembers, as a child, had dirtied the name of the mission determined that Casey Kuipers’s sec- waking up late at night in those motel itself and the cause of Christ himself ond novel would be less convincing. apartments and overhearing Mom

14 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

and Dad going over manuscripts line Kuipers, 85, at his by line, discussing, presumably, form desk with a typewriter and a dictionary. He and content. Perhaps Casey Kuipers continued to write turned to writing novels in an attempt after the 1930s, but to make some additional money. That no longer any fi ction. it happened is questionable. Image courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin It’s worth noting that Deep Snow College, Grand was the fi rst novel Zondervan ever Rapids, Michigan. printed with illustrations, pen-and- ink drawings that were done by Lois Nelson Kuipers, making that novel a team effort; Chant of the Night was the fi rst novel Zondervan published with photographs, “Designs by Lois Nelson Kuipers,” the frontispiece an- nounces. It’s also interesting to note that Kuipers subtitles Deep Snow, “an Indian Novel,” because later on in his There’sThere’s more that could be said argument related to intelligence i life he calls all three “mission novels.” about the bibliography; but what is testing, specifi cally the relationship There is a difference, as I’ve sug- suggested both by its inclusion and its between the content of the questions gested: the plot of Deep Snow is more content is that C. Kuipers, novelist, and the answers given by Anglo and tightly constructed and unifi ed. From may not have been thinking about a Native students. In the abstract to a critical point of view, most readers readership that was exclusively CRC. that dissertation Kuipers describes the would agree that when he wrote the This “Indian novel” may well have research question this way: “Indian novel,” he was doing his best been intended for a larger audience, work. If his second novel is unifi ed by the audience he may have been reach- The purpose of this investigation was anything, Chant of the Night is more ing in the newspaper columns and to construct an intelligence test uti- broadly about life at the Zuni mission. magazine articles he was writing dur- lizing more of Indian culture than is We should mention that Deep Snow ing this time. Whether a traditional commonly found in intelligence tests, includes a bibliography, an inclusion CRC audience would have looked for and to ascertain whether such an ad- dition materially infl uences either In- Kuipers himself recognizes as uncom- suggested readings from the pens of dian or white performances.12 mon at the end of a novel. Kuipers cultural anthropologists who were prefaces that bibliography with a list not connected to Christian mission- In short, in 1934, Casey Kuipers, of acknowledgments to those who ary work and may have even been helped him, specifi cally “my Indian opposed to Christian missionaries on graduate student and novelist, was friends who have made this story pos- the reservation is questionable. Deep investigating the effect of cultural sible.” Then he explains himself: “It is Snow is more of “an Indian novel” bias in intelligence testing, writing questionable whether a bibliography than it is “a mission novel.” materials that factored Native Ameri- be necessary at all for a work of fi c- During his years at the university can culture into the content with an tion,” he says, and goes on to say that (he completed his undergraduate eye toward evaluating differences in interest in Native culture and iden- degree in 1933 and his master’s in outcomes based specifi cally on race. tity is rising among his readers. “The 1934), he was writing novels at night Both the argument and the methodol- listing which follows by no means and cleaning motel rooms during the ogy of his thesis clearly suggest his exhausts the fi eld, rather it is sadly day, while Mrs. Kuipers was waitress- interest not only in Native history limited by facilities and time at my ing and attending classes herself. To and culture, but also in equality for disposal. The recent increase in out- understand what is in the novels and indigenous people. The nature of that standing works of research and fi ction their method of their construction, research reinforces the suggestion that of the Indian Southwest is indicative it is helpful to look at what he was the novels are as much about his abid- of a growing interpretation of racial studying and what he was reading. ing interest in the Zuni people as they esteem and helpfulness.” Casey Kuipers’s thesis tested an are about missionary work.

15 During those years, Kuipers environments would alter Native life less. He encourages Koshe to take remained a Christian believer and and culture. It seems clear that what part in Shalako, the most revered of missionary, working at a CRC mission he calls the “statistical assignments” the annual Zuni religious rituals, and project in Cañoncito, New Mexico, he was doing for the Bureau of Indian thereby triggers the crisis that will about an hour or so west from Albu- Affairs would teach him far more determine the direction of Koshe’s querque, where he held Sunday wor- about Native life than he’d known faith—will it be Jesus or will it be ship services in the Chapter House. before—and in a variety of locales/ Zuni? “Depression times made return to reservations. There is more of Kuipers’s BIA Zuni unlikely,” his daughter Emily Why he was led to work for the experience in Roaring Waters. Ko- wrote, in summary, when she de- government at that point isn’t clear, she takes a job with agriculturalists scribed the places her family lived and although he admits in his resume that determined to create a reservoir on her father worked, “so after schooling returning to Zuni wasn’t an option the reservation, believing stored was fi nished, [he] obtained govern- in 1935. The motivation could not water will make Zuni herdsmen more ment positions for fi ve years with the have been money since he made, as effi cient and thus more successful Bureau of Indian Affairs.” He and the he noted in his resume, forty dollars at sheep production. White, racist family lived in Denver for most of a month less than he’d made at Zuni neighbors oppose the dam, fearing the those years, where Carol was born in when he departed the Pueblo in Janu- Zuni’s increased power; but even the February 1939.13 ary of 1932. The research was a job, Zuni traditionalists oppose the project Just one of the many programs and unemployment at the time was also because a dam was not previously designed by New Deal researchers rampant. ordained by the gods. His work with during the mid-30s was titled “The It’s hard not to believe, however, the BIA had to have put him in very Indian Reorganization Act,” a pro- that both his educational and psy- similar diffi cult situations on a num- gram designed to reinvigorate life chological research, as well as his ber of Native reservations. on American reservations, rather four years of experience at the Zuni What I suggest is that the fi ve than continue the failed legacy of the Pueblo, made him a desirable candi- years Kuipers spent away doing mis- Dawes Act (1888), which had priva- date for a government position that sionary work likely increased his tized land holdings on reservations required experts like him to deter- interest in and dedication to Native and failed to accomplish any of its mine the effects of changes that would American history and culture. If the goals, while deeding even more Na- occur with new programs in sheep stereotyped missionary of the era is tive land to white homesteaders. production or water management, for someone dedicated only to saving the President Franklin Roosevelt, instance. souls of the lost, Kuipers isn’t that through the work of Bureau of Indian Clearly, what Kuipers was learning stereotype. Affairs (BIA) Chairman John Collier, during his years away was much more Two strong characteristics of his signed what is often referred to today about the people he served in the three novels work together to make as “the Indian New Deal” in June Zuni Pueblo. them less than stellar. The fi rst is of 1934, at the time Deep Snow was his abiding interest in the culture he published and Kuipers was fi nishing Roaring Waters, the last novel almost had to oppose as a Christian his graduate degree. What specifi cally The experience Kuipers had with missionary; that interest alone made Kuipers notes about the positions he cultural anthropology and anthropol- it diffi cult for him to create a Native held from 1934 to 1939—“Statisti- ogists during his fi ve years with the character who would, as his evan- cal assignments” with TC [Technical Technical Cooperation people within gelical readers might have expected, Cooperation] -BIA Dept of Agri.”— the BIA creates a specifi c character in abandon his cultural identity and requires some historical background his third and fi nal novel, Roaring Wa- become a kind of Christian Kuipers to unpack. ters (1937), when, for a few chapters, may well have himself found diffi cult Designed to enhance opportuni- we meet a man named, oddly enough, to imagine, or even to stomach. ties for Native people on reservations, Shoshone, a kind of Emersonian The other imperative that made the “Indian New Deal,” among other transcendentalist, a 1930s hippie, an it diffi cult for him to write a good things, teamed anthropologists with anthropologist who cares only that novel was his commitment to satisfy scientists, agronomists, economists, the separate cultures sweetly embrace. Beets—and presumably others like and others to try to determine how Shoshone touts a cultural relativism him—who wanted Kuipers’s novels to signifi cant change in reservation that Kuipers obviously fi nds feck- end with the formation of a “soldier

16 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

of the Cross.” Kuipers didn’t do that in Shalako, Koshe and his friend exactly the kind diffi cult position he exactly with Chant of the Night. It had Narcisco are determined to play the wants him in: “Koshe, torn between to be important to him to accomplish esteemed roles they’re assigned by the white man’s way and the Native what Beets wanted in Roaring Waters, tribal elders. Once again, Kuipers of- way, saw no way out, no middle road. so he did it. Or tried. fers lengthy explanations of Shalako ‘They [Narcisco’s parents] don’t want Perhaps the fi rst piece of advice I that are interesting anthropologically, the doctor,’ explained he. ‘They’ve got ever received from a fi ction writer was but they soon become the windy ex- good medicine, they say.’” to put a sticky note up on the top of position most readers scan, searching Koshe then takes the responsibil- my computer screen with just three madly for plot. ity attributed to healers upon him- words, “Tell the story.” Avoid too self: “Suddenly, an inspiration struck many words, too much exposition, him. Yes, he would hurry home for too much angst about style, too much his sacred pouch, and he would pray elaboration of character—“just tell for Narcisco. Surely, he was now a the story,” he insisted. Hlewekwe [medicine man] himself . C. Kuipers, novelist, found it in- . . . He himself would make Narcisco creasingly diffi cult to “tell the story,” well!” so much so that his eventual move It’s hard to imagine a reader who away from fi ction is not surprising. wouldn’t guess at that point that Zuni Also Prays (1947), ten years Narcisco is going to die. Koshe tries later, is not a novel. to secure a traditional cure, Kuipers In Roaring Waters Kuipers brings showing the reader how in lavish Koshe back, but it’s not the Koshe description. But Koshe is going to who selfl essly braved the deep snow fail and does. Narcisco dies, Koshe’s to bring life, but a boy, an almost Rev. Kuipers in New Mexico, 1970. Image name plaintively on his lips. juvenile Koshe, who throws a tantrum courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Lanting, the missionary, conve- when he totally misreads the relation- Grand Rapids, Michigan. niently happens by and, in the silence ship between She With the Mellow death creates, reads Psalm 90, and “it Voice, the girl he adores, and a Navajo Narcisco is one of the dancers seemed that the sobbing ceased.” bully and bigot named Naswood, whose offi ce it is to demonstrate how At a moment in which Koshe was someone no one, even fellow Navajos, swallowing a sword—something of a most confi dent of Zuni tradition, can stomach. Koshe’s childishness is wooden stake—will testify to the pow- his good friend Narcisco died at his engineered and unconvincing. er of the healers and gain blessings hands. The whole incident is manu- Kuipers wants to get Koshe bap- from the gods, who will, in turn, fi ll factured in a fashion that carries no tized, so he carries a preordained the reservoirs with rain for the grow- surprise. agenda into the story that creates ing season. But problems arise. “There Koshe realizes—after saying it critical problems: characters fl atten was a sudden movement, frantic alarm before thinking it—that he’d return into objects when they’re meant to at one end of the line,” Kuipers writes. to school in Albuquerque rather stand for ideas; plots disentangle and “The old men did not see it; their than prepare for an esteemed place don’t surprise if they carry a fated heads were thrust back. But Koshe in the tribe. But his dilemma isn’t design; settings thin into theater fl ats. saw it. Narcisco, his friend Narcisco, over. Alone in the sand dunes, he It’s hard to sing when you preach. Ko- was reeling, a stream of bright, red experiences his epiphany amidst a she’s witless rejection of She with the blood gurgling from his mouth.” dust storm that he compares with Mellow Voice suggests that Kuipers Koshe worries about his friend’s the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee and has other designs in mind than being signifi cant injury, with good reason. at that moment remembers an old true to a character who has already The next day, Narcisco’s condition ap- hymn—“Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a undergone a life-changing experience; pears to have worsened. One day an weary land/A shelter in the time of he wants to be true to an act this Anglo trader drops by and has a look. storm.” novel is going to map out—a happy “He has quinsy, I’m telling you,” the “Early that afternoon the sun ending, a baptism. trader says. “He will choke to death if broke through,” Kuipers writes. “The After Shoshone, the anthropolo- you don’t call a doctor.” sandstorm eased, and with it went the gist/villain, urges him to participate Kuipers has placed Koshe in tempest in Koshe’s heart.”

17 The major confl ict is resolved; the baptism of a professing Zuni, Nick cal; interestingly, what follows is not: Koshe is home. Casey Kuipers has Tamaka, who, sadly, dies very soon af- “He [Casey] had a very hard time delivered what his friend Dr. Beets ter the sacrament is administered. C. staying away from the various cer- had determined he should, “a soldier Kuipers’s last novel, Roaring Waters, emonies himself.” of the Cross.” even more directly answers Beets’s His daughter’s memories summa- In all likelihood, the trajectory of criticism and returns to the young rize what the novels reveal—C. Kui- Koshe’s story in Roaring Waters met man whose heroic actions served as pers, novelist and missionary, found with many readers’ approval. Still, just the climax of Deep Snow, follows him Zuni culture interesting, absorbing, as in Chant of the Night, the mission- back into the centuries-old attraction ary is not the agent of Koshe’s conver- of the tribe’s native religion, and then, and very rich. Even though as a de- sion to the Christian faith. when tradition fails to heal his friend, voted Christian missionary he found Judged on the strength of its story, pushes Koshe to accept “the God himself in a position of having to op- Roaring Waters seems, of the three of the white man” and become “the pose the elaborate masks and kachina novels, least successful. Koshe’s com- soldier of the cross” Dr. Beets wanted dancers as boldly pagan, he found ing to Jesus plays itself out predict- Kuipers to create. himself deeply attracted to the old ably. Two signifi cant characteristics mar way, the Native way. Because he was, the literary achievement of Cornelius and because he nurtured that attach- Kuipers the novelist Kuipers. One of them is the need ment in his education and in the jobs Kuipers’s three mission post novels to create a story in which there is a he took in the years when he wasn’t weren’t must-reads in the 1930s, and baptism. The other, perhaps just as at Zuni, the years in which he became this reappraisal, eighty years later, signifi cant, is Kuipers’s own fascina- a novelist, those novels carry a heavy will not send anyone to rare-book tion with and love for the Zuni people load of exposition as he tries—as he websites in hopes of buying the set. and the culture that is, at once, the does clearly and with less diffi culty in The novels he and his wife churned enemy of Christian evangelism but out in those late night sessions in also wonderfully fascinating to a man Zuni Also Prays—to be sure that his tiny motel-offi ce apartments, the kids who took a great deal of interest in novels artfully and compassionately asleep behind them, are not remark- the nature of that culture. display a way of life he had to oppose able for their imaginative plotting or In the centennial anniversary book but couldn’t help loving. sparkling rendition of character. On celebrating the history of Zuni Mis- When Casey Kuipers, who by then the other hand, they are, I’m sure, sion, Carol Kuipers DeVries, Casey had become Rev. Casey Kuipers, left what Casey and Lois Kuipers wanted. and Lois’s daughter, tells a story about Zuni for the second (and fi nal) time, . . . at least to a point. Shalako, the most signifi cant reli- he wrote the news story in The Chris- I am asserting that the novels gious event of the Zuni calendar. Her tian Indian himself (December, 1954) become less accomplished—less parents, she says, generally forbade and summarized his work: “Truly, nuanced, less character-driven—as her from attending the ritual danc- life on a mission fi eld such as Zuni is Kuipers asks them to carry more ing; it was, after all, a powerful pagan not easily explained or described in implacable “Christian” agendas. He show, the public event that almost of words,” he wrote, despite his contri- had to have understood Henry Beets’s necessity had to be opposed by the critique, probably heard it elsewhere missionaries.14 bution of four books and innumerable as well, especially after Deep Snow In this case, however, one of Carol’s articles. “It does not require, fi rst of was released. His readers, supporters friends, also a missionary’s daughter, all, the bravery of a moment; rather, of the Zuni mission, expected some- is given permission to attend. Carol it takes the patience of waiting year thing other than an indeterminate begs her parents to allow her to go as after year in spite of unfulfi lled hopes end, just as they anticipated many well. Denying her the opportunity, she and dreams.” more baptisms than the mission was says, wasn’t easy for her father “be- That, I think Casey Kuipers would registering. cause he was himself very interested say—and did—is the truth about Zuni Chant of the Night acknowledges in the Zuni culture and religion, and and the Zuni Mission.n that criticism and retells an actual had studied it until he became quite story from the history of the mission, an expert.” That quote is parentheti-

18 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Endnotes 1. Brothers David Cornel De Jong Grand Rapids, Michigan. and Meindert De Jong, ed. 7. “Today in New Mexico,” Albuquer- 2. A transcript of the interview is que Journal, 17 December 1933, 6. in the Cornelius Kuipers Collection 8. Grand Rapids: Van Noord Publish- (#159), Heritage Hall, Calvin College, ing, 1921. Grand Rapids, Michigan, box 1 folder 9. Henry Beets, “Book Review,” Mis- 19, ed. sionary Monthly (February 1934), 45. 3. When I did a search for Zuni Also 10. Kuipers to Henry Beets, 12 Prays, Kuipers’s last book, the closest November 1934; Henry Beets Papers, copy I could fi nd belonged to the library Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand of his own alma mater, Northwestern Rapids Michigan. College. Written inside the cover is “C. 11. Ibid. Kuipers, Class of ’17,” obviously a dona- 12. Cornelius Kuipers, “Preliminary tion by the author. Results of an Intelligence Test Based 4. Henry Beets, Toiling and Trusting: on Indian Culture,” University of New Fifty Years of Mission Work of the Chris- Mexico Press, 1934 [Reprint of master’s tian Reformed Church among Indians and thesis], 3. Chinese (Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids 13. Kuipers’s children have copies Printing Co., 1940), 208. When review- of materials presented to them by him ing Kuipers’s second novel, Chant of the and then compiled in an unpublished Night, Beets twice misspells the author’s personal history titled “The Family of name as Kuypers; “Book Review,” Mis- Cornelius Kuipers, 1898-1989: Pictures sionary Monthly (February 1935), 45, and information from old family fi les.” 46. At the bottom of the page, it reads, 5. See: John C. DeKorne, Navajo and “Compiled November 1992 by Eloise Zuni for Christ (Grand Rapids: Christian VanderBilt [a daughter].” Reformed Board of Missions, 1947). 14. Carol DeVries-Carlson, “Carol’s 6. See Cornelius Kuipers Collection Shalako Adventure,” a typed paper in (#159), Heritage Hall, Calvin College, possession of the author.

19 Simple Farm Life—Graafschap, Michigan1 Carolyn Van Ess

The Brink farm on Graafschap Road. Image courtesy of the author.

ur family lived far out in God’s attended and welcomed a number of Ocountry where wild fl owers the children born to Bert E. and Mary and thick green grass lined the gravel Brink. After each birth, Mama had to lane behind our home. Our family’s remain in bed for ten days. During farm was located fi ve miles south of that time Grace bathed the newborn Holland and fi ve miles northeast of and helped with all the other chores As the memoir notes, author Carolyn Van Ess grew up in rural Allegan Saugatuck—as the crow fl ies—on and needs of a growing family. My County, south of Holland, Michigan. Graafschap Road. We knew who was oldest sister, Ann Lucille, also helped After school, she worked as a hospital in every car, truck, horse, wagon, or Mama with us “young-uns,” doing nurse, geriatric nurse, private duty tractor that passed our house. housework at a young age. She re- nurse, and hospice nurse. She and her husband, Richard, have four children, John and Grace Bouws lived direct- called she missed many days of school twelve grandchildren, and three great- ly across the road; they were like our in order to help with the work. I am grandchildren. grandparents. Because Dr. Thomas sure we had at least two babies in didn’t always make it on time, Grace diapers constantly. Ann Lucille longed

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the back porch stood the tall, stately windmill that pumped water to the 30-gallon water tank on the kitchen counter. The overfl ow was used to feed the barn animals. The back door led into the kitchen, whose large wood-burning range stovepipe carried the smoke up the chimney. This stove wore many hats. When it heated our kitchen during the cold months, we loved it. We had to tolerate its heat during the hot “dog days” of summer. The large grey teakettle whistled non- stop as long as the fi rewood was red hot, and the stove’s reservoir heated our water. On Mondays, laundry day, pots and kettles heated the extra hot water needed for the wringer washer and rinse tubs in the wash room. For many years this wonder range BertBert and Mary Brink and their thirteen children. Image courtesy ooff the author. cooked, baked, or heated every meal three times a day for the entire fam- for a sister but had four brothers be- I replied, “I’m number nine; maybe ily. We hung all the laundry outside fore a sister was born. they forgot.” She responded “Oh, and, when necessary, fi nished dry- During their fi rst eight years of ouch.” My husband found humor in ing it above or near the range on a marriage, Mama had four children, this. wooden clothes rack. In order to iron and then six more between March All of us learned to work at an the clothes, we heated the fl at iron 1931 and November 1936; all ten early age. After breakfast, chores on top of the stove. Before church on were born at home. Then “three little included feeding the animals, milking Sundays, the wave iron was heated on girls,” as we called them, were born in the cows, cleaning the stables, and the stove, too, so that my sisters and I the maternity home on 17th Street in then later in the day planting crops could curl and wave our hair. Holland, between 1939 and 1942. The or harvesting them, depending on the Last but not least, Saturday eve- thirteenth and last, Pearl, was named season. Everyone worked and enjoyed ning was bath and shampoo time. because Mama was pregnant during learning at the same time. Papa, by My older sisters would haul out the the attack on Pearl Harbor.2 example, taught us how to do every large metal laundry tub, place it in the I was born in 1935, ninth in order task. Before he was married Papa corner near the range, stoke the fi re to of birth. Many years later I needed planted gladiolus bulbs. Now, with all heat up the kettles and pots of water my birth certifi cate in order to obtain the kids, he had the “manpower” to needed, and then, one by one, we a passport because we were fl ying increase his yield. This kept us busy would shed our dirty outer shell. But, to Mexico. We went to the Allegan all year. In the spring we planted the as soon as the weather was warm, our County Courthouse, where my certifi - bulbs and bulblets. All summer we older brothers drove us to Goshorn cate read “Baby Girl Brink.” The clerk weeded the plants. In August we cut Lake3 after supper for our shampoos said, “By law, I can’t issue one unless the blossoms, packed the car full, and and baths. On one occasion, while you are registered in Lansing.” I told sold them for fi fty cents a dozen on standing between Nathan and Andy her that I had a driver’s license and two different corners in Muskegon. on the dock, they shoved me into the nursing license issued by the state, In the fall we dug up the bulbs and deep part of the lake. Down, down, but it didn’t matter to her. We waited sorted them in the basement accord- down, I plunged, thinking I was about forty-fi ve minutes for her to ing to size, and my brothers packaged drowning. When I surfaced, they said, change “Baby Girl” to “Carolyn.” The them for shipping. “Now you know how to swim,” and person at the desk said, “Wow, this is Our home was a typical two-story that was true! the fi rst time I’ve ever heard of that.” farm house. About 15 to 20 feet from There were tough times starting

21 29 October 1929, and they went on would read one chapter from the King for many years. Our parents had James Version of the Bible and would many mouths to feed! We grew all also close breakfast and lunch with our vegetables, had an apple orchard, prayer. Mama said the prayer after two pear trees, and a plum tree, and supper. I remember her voice often the chickens supplied eggs and meat. broke with emotion while she talked The guys milked cows and butchered with God about any serious problems steers, pigs, goats, and cows for meat. concerning us or others. There were Andrew reminded me that he and two unspoken rules in our home— Nathan had to milk the goats every clean your plate, and you don’t leave day. At times we’d have a pair of baby the table before devotions were over. goats. They were so darling with their Every Sunday morning we piled cries of “bah-bah-bah,” but, like baby into the car to go to church. There chicks, piglets, puppies, calves, and was no nursery at church, so Mama kittens, though so cute when they stayed home with the little ones and are new, they all grow up. Nathan or the newest baby. She didn’t go out un- Andy would milk Mama’s goats using til several weeks later, when the baby a Karo syrup can for a pail and then By the time the author began attending was to be baptized. The “mama-to-be” bring it in for Mama. She could drink Graafschap Christian Reformed Church, the stopped going out in public when her front entrance had been enlarged from that it as is—warm, frothy, and smelly. We pictured here in 1935, but the remainder of next pregnancy began to show. were told that Herb and Nathan were the structure was the same. Image courtesy of Every Sunday morning at 9:00 and slow to gain weight as babies and Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, again at 9:30, our janitor would pull grew better on goat’s milk. Michigan. down on the heavy rope making the Farmers were unable to pay their cast-iron bell ring and echo through mortgages, money was tight, prices the two beds. Ann Lucille was mar- the countryside. The large bell sat in fell, even renters were told to move ried by the time Pearl outgrew the the belfry encased in a stately steeple out unless they could pay their rent, crib. On the way to the boys’ room pointing heavenward. On Sunday and few could fi nd work. Papa was was a small foyer with the “pot,” if morning Graafschap Church would blessed; although for three years he needed during the night. In the boys’ fi ll to capacity, and the long pew up was unable to make a payment on the room were two regular-sized beds front near the pulpit seemed to be forty-acre farm, his creditors remained plus one smaller one that perfectly waiting for the Brink family. We never patient. We all learned to live frugally: fi t under the window. Andy had the heard anyone say it, but as we fi led “waste not, want not.” Our parents daily chore of emptying the “pot” in in at the last minute, many thought, taught us by example—if there is a the outhouse—a small stand-alone “Now we can start.” The services were will, there is a way. We were taught to building in the back, open day or somber and stiff. Reverend Harry never give up; defeat was not an op- night, summer or winter, known as Blystra led all three services on Sun- tion, and we all had to work together the “two-seater,’’ the ‘‘privy,’’ or . . . . day: the morning and evening services in order to survive. During the deso- We used the Sears Roebuck catalog were in English; the afternoon service late years of the Great Depression, in place of toilet paper. After stacking was in Dutch. While the organist everyone was poor, and we all wore all of the dishes after supper, Berdella played, the elders marched in and sat hand-me-down clothes and shoes. and I would sit in the outhouse and together. We sang from the Psalter We learned to respect our teachers, chat, hoping that someone else would Hymnal. There was no choir. During pastors, and elders. Our parents felt do the dishes. Our mama had lots church we would each get a white that those in authority were always of patience and knew that we would peppermint. We all attended Sunday right. If the school board members eventually get them done. school and catechism classes with our came to tell Papa about one of my For all three meals, the family sat own age group. Life was simple; we brothers’ deeds, they knew that they around our extra-large oblong table, knew God was real. He was present would receive their punishment as with the younger kids sitting on the in our church, home, and even in our soon as the men left our yard. bench on the far side. Papa always school. In Westview School, grades The fi rst bedroom upstairs was for opened with prayer before breakfast, 1-8, our teacher began the day with the girls—three of us slept in each of lunch, and supper. After meals he a prayer, and then we would sing

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hymns. The teacher would also close on prayers to our Great Physician began running straight at me down the day with prayer. for healing. If one child happened to the driveway of a farm! I was shak- We would usually walk to and from escape a disease such as scarlet fever, ing, petrifi ed, and began running. school and then change our clothes my brother Willard said that it would Finally, one mile from our home, I to work. Depending on the season, come back and strike our family saw Willard looking for me at West- we canned fruits, vegetables, pork, two times. Public Health Nurse Miss view School. When Willard saw me or beef, our only way of preserving Westveer visited our family frequently, he said, “You are too quiet. That’s why food for the long winter months. Our giving Mama some good advice. With we didn’t miss you.’’ As we turned the the second round of scarlet fever she comer near home, my siblings were posted a sign in our window “Under playing ball without me. I am not sure Quarantine,” so the ten older ones which hurt more, the mad dog or the moved to our rented house down the fact that no one had missed me. gravel road where Ervin and Ann Lu- With a few exceptions, everyone in cille were in charge. We heard about the family worked hard all the time. all the fun they had, but by bedtime One of the exceptions was when our Andy and I got homesick and went aunts and uncles came over with their back to get scarlet fever. Many years kids on Friday evenings. We would later I met Miss Westveer visiting her play kick-the-can or hide-and-seek. relatives at our church, and I asked Later, after eating snacks, we would her if she remembered the Brink fam- play hide-the-thimble, Rook, or Old ily. “Oh, my, yes, I surely do. I loved Maid. Uncle John and Aunt Dena your big family. Your mama always Genzink had ten kids, and she made gave me beautiful fl owers.” ground bologna sandwiches and Rev. Harry Blystra (1891-1974) My siblings and I always walked chocolate cake. Their house was our was the pastor of Graafschap Christian Reformed Church for the mile to Westview School, but the favorite place to visit. We could go fi fteen years, 1932-1947. Image family drove the three miles along to visit only if we had a cousin near courtesy of Heritage Hall, Calvin Graafschap Road to church. I don’t our age; this limited how many went College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. recall how old I was when one morn- in the one car. Sunday was the only brothers would go outside and pre- ing the family drove off without me day of the week that we played. On pare the fi elds for cultivating, plant- after the church service! I started Sunday afternoons we played bat and ing, or the harvest; plus they cared for walking to the comer and then down ball in our neighbor’s pasture. We all the animals. We always had horses, the hill. In those days, everyone’s didn’t have any gloves and just one cows, pigs, goats, and chickens. We dog was free to roam and watch over bat and one ball. We played by our had a team of big heavy-duty work their land. I was a stranger to them. own rules and had fun choosing sides; horses; we called them “plugs.” Our Suddenly, a huge brown barking dog fi eldstones were used for the bases. very fi rst brand new orange Model B AnA Allis Chalmers Allis Chalmers tractor was purchased Model B tractor in 1939; everyone was thrilled with like the fi rst tractor owned by the Brink its power. family.f Public In my large family there were many domain image. accidents, sores, boils, and almost all the childhood diseases. To treat many symptoms, the folks used old home remedies like Vicks VapoRub, Watkins liniment and salve, bag balm, Epsom salt soaks, and rest, and a warm fl an- nel diaper made swollen cheeks from the mumps feel better. Dr. Thomas was seldom called—we usually played the waiting game. We relied

23 We had some exciting, down-home, morning in preparation for soup for Mama made headcheese;4 she tough games. dinner. We grew our own vegetables, cooked it while we were at school. Mama baked white bread two times even enough for the winter and spring She put it in loaf pans after thickening per week. I am ashamed to say that months. Root vegetables—carrots, it with wheat fl our and adding diced when Mr. Jacobs, our bread man, potatoes, and turnips—were kept liver, salt, and pepper. We had it for stopped to see if the Bouws and Brink covered with soil in bushel baskets breakfast, fried on both sides, and it families wanted some baked goods, that were stored in the basement. This tasted pretty good. We also sliced side the packaged loaf bread looked so kept them nice and fresh. pork, fried it well, and then dipped yummy. Occasionally we could buy When Papa and my brothers a slice of bread into the grease and two-day-old sweets. Papa shopped for butchered either a pig or a cow, after added Karo syrup or honey. The pails groceries each week to get staples, like the guts were removed, the carcass that contained syrup became our twenty-fi ve pounds of fl our, oatmeal, was halved and hung up in the barn lunch pails: remember “waste not, raisins, crackers, rusks, sugar, Karo to age. The fi rst evening supper meal want not.” Our usual breakfast was syrup, honey, and nuts. We baked after slaughter meant fried liver; we cooked oatmeal with brown sugar and corn bread in a large heavy-duty fry all liked this tender meat. After the fresh milk. pan on top of the stove. We would carcass aged a bit, the brothers would Ann Lucille, being the oldest fetch as much kernel corn from the carry each half of the animal to be daughter, helped raise all of the granary as we needed, grind it fi ne, processed to the kitchen table. They younger children. I doubt if Ervin, and add eggs, milk, and a little baking would cut it up like stew meat; the just eleven months older and a strong- soda. Bake, and serve warm, adding sisters would then pack it in two- willed child, was any help to her. I milk as desired. Berdella started cook- quart glass jars, add one teaspoon of think all twelve of us younger than ing around age ten. The brothers said, table salt, apply the red rubber seals him would agree. Ann Lucille knew ‘We never had such good cooking!” around the mouths of the jars, tightly how to do everything. Marjorie said, She made the best soups and sauces, screw on Mason lids, stoke up the ol’ “She taught me how to sew and mend delicious cookies, and frosted cakes range, fi ll the copper boiler half full of clothes at an early age.” Berdella and for Sunday afternoon coffee time. water, add thirteen jars of meat, cover, I wore the nice dresses she made to All the rest of our food was organi- and then boil them for three to three high school. My very fi rst new coat cally grown. Our brothers milked the and a half hours. was bright blue and all mine at age cows and brought the milk to the This canned meat was delicious; fi fteen, as a senior in high school. kitchen; we had no refrigeration or it required only a warm-up, and the After Aunt Kate passed away, freezer. The milk we didn’t use was thickened juice made the best gravy. Mama watched over Uncle John added to a huge 30-gallon milk tank We would dig kept in the coolest corner of the barn. some potatoes, Our milkman would pick it up every pull a bunch of other day, but never on Sunday. We carrots, make gathered eggs daily from the chicken coleslaw, add coops. The chickens could roam in- fresh tomatoes, side or outside, which means the eggs and our meal and the meat were organic. Mama was ready for cleaned each egg and packed the fresh a group. Years eggs daily, and then Papa would bring later, Willard them to Hamilton (Michigan) Farm and Jerry ground Bureau for cash and purchase extra meat into ham- animals or farm equipment. Every burger with a Saturday evening Papa would chop large handmade the heads off one or two chickens, grinder, and let them fl op in the grass, heat the then Berdella water to boiling, pour this over the prepared some chickens, and then pluck their feath- good, new Sisters, Gloria (left) and the author, on the hood of their brother’s 1949 ers. We’d remove their innards and dishes like chili Lincoln. Behind is the gravel lane mentioned by the author. Image courtesy then soak them in water until Sunday and spaghetti. of the author.

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(Hesselink). I went with her to clean house for him. He once gave her a $20 bill, which was generous, com- ing from him. When we arrived home she cleaned out her apron pockets, losing the $20 bill in the fl ames of the cooking stove. Mama or Ann Lucille would allow us to skip school in order to help houseclean in the spring. We didn’t have a vacuum cleaner. We would drag rugs outside and hang them on the clothesline and, with a hand beater, beat the dirt out of them. When we cleaned the boys’ room, their third mattress, being three-fourths of a regular-sized bed, required fresh straw from the straw mound once per year. Afterwards it looked softer and smelled better. Miss Schevink’s 1949 class in Westview School. The author (back row, third from the right) and Father was a hard-working busi- her siblings Nathan, Berdella, and George comprised one-fourth of the class. Image courtesy of the nessman; he gave the Lord our fi rst author. fruits, never leftovers. One Thanks- Chicago stockyards to buy beef cattle. on 7 December 1941 Japan bombed giving worship service he handed The truck was at Tucker’s Garage to Pearl Harbor. We joined the Allies in a each of us a $5 bill to put in the of- get the brakes fi xed, but Papa was dangerous, widespread global war that fering plate. I remember thinking, are determined to drive the following day caused life to change. Factories had we going to have enough for dinner? even though the mechanic was not yet to make things for the war effort; silk Shame on me! Of course, we always fi nished with the brakes. Andrew, at and later nylon was needed to make had a huge stuffed turkey with all the trimmings. When the brothers and sixteen, drove in the heavy downtown parachutes. Women began to work Papa butchered an animal, a portion rush-hour traffi c. Even riding the the evening shifts. This was neces- was taken to Rev. Blystra’s family, brakes with all his might, he couldn’t sary to feed their families, as the men along with fresh vegetables. We were come to a complete stop entering an were inducted to serve our country. all taught to live frugally, to make do intersection. Car sales to civilians were put on with what we had. The country was slowly recover- hold from 1943 through 1945. Gas, I think every one of us enjoyed ing from the Great Depression when sugar, coffee, processed foods, and getting a good deal. Papa went often The Westview to car, cattle, and farm auctions; he School was the only sure knew how to bid with the nod school building in the former Allegan of his head. Herb talks of driving County School the truck to Grand Rapids, as Papa District 19 and would buy fresh fruit at the early- stands on the east morning market to sell again back side of Graafschap Road, north of in Saugatuck. They would leave by 140th Avenue in four in the morning. When Papa got Allegan County. It sleepy, he’d say to Herb, “I am go- was also known as ing to take a nap, so you drive now.” Klomparens School and Becksvoort This was before Herb turned fi fteen. School. Image He remembers he could barely see courtesy of the over the steering wheel and work the author. fl oor pedals at the same time. Years later, Andrew went with Papa to the

25 meats were some of the items rationed 1945. We all celebrated at Graafschap sixty acres were being cultivated. Our with stamps. Mama would give some Church in the evening; as the bells brothers cleared more of the woods in neighbors stamps when we didn’t tolled, we gathered in praise to God order to cultivate more for planting need all those issued to us. for PEACE!!! This event marked crops. Our fi rst expedition, new to These were tough, serious years. the only time we rode to church on all of us including the cattle, I think, Many of our young men died.5 If they our fl at-bed work truck, and Nathan was driving the twenty head of cattle served overseas, they might be gone recalls we even went to downtown from our home on Graafschap Road for three years. Surface mail was the Holland to cruise down 8th Street the four miles south and then another only form of communicating with honking the horn. What fun! That mile west along the Old Allegan Road family and friends. Many women was known as V-J Day—Victory over (now 136th Avenue)6 in the spring waited years to marry their “man in Japan Day. Families with sons serv- to the hip-roof barn and the endless the military.” This war was vicious, ing in the military were given red, pasture land. Every once in a while a rightly named World War II. Loved white, and blue banners about 10 few cattle sneaked into a nearby corn ones often didn’t hear from those in by 12 inches to hang in the window, fi eld. The neighbors did not appreci- service for long periods of time. Some with a star for each person serving ate one bit the stray cattle helping were notifi ed that a loved one was their country. We proudly hung our themselves to their harvest. In the fall “missing in action,” like our cousin banner in the front window with two we drove them back to our own farm. Jim Genzink. This war cost more than blue stars hanging from a gold-braid For years before this, Papa rented the federal government had spent cord. Each week on the way to church land for growing gladiolus bulbs, as since 1776. we passed by a family who had lost a our soil was clay and they needed Ervin loved airplanes and wanted son, and his blue star was replaced by sandy soil. This rented land was perfect—our business grew, and we to become a pilot, so he volunteered a gold star. Afterwards, many of our all enjoyed the landscape, the acres of to serve in the Army Air Corps (later servicemen would not discuss what woods, and lots of places to explore. Air Force). Herb was deferred from they had heard or seen in battle. At the new farm, our work routine service until 1944, when Uncle Sam During the war our government changed. After we fi xed our lunch knew there were two other brothers, promised farmers that if they would for the day—usually cooked rice Willard and Jerry, to help on the farm. increase their production and buy with raisins and our drink, a mix Mama prayed every day after supper twenty more milk cows to help pro- of ginger, sugar, and vinegar—Papa for the safety of Ervin serving in the vide food for our people, their sons and the brothers would hitch up our Air Force and Herb in the Army, while would be deferred from the military. team of horses to the wagon. Papa her voice broke, fi ghting back the This led to our family working a would sit on a 30-gallon barrel while tears. Then, after prayer, she would new farm. The new farm we called driving the horses, and our needed read their letters to us. While Herb “the plains” or “the bulb fi eld,” and supplies for a big day of work were on was sailing to Japan, the peace treaty Mama called it “the sand farm.” The the wagon. We all sat on the wagon’s was formally signed on 2 September farm consisted of 240 acres, but only edges with our legs hanging down. In The Union Stock working the gladioli, the older broth- Yards in Chicago ers would plant and drive the horses during the 1940s, once the largest (later tractors). The work was varied, meat-processing but there was enough for everyone. area in the world; During our lunch breaks we the yards closed in explored the gully, fi nding springs 1971. Public domain image. trickling slowly down the hillside, the water fi nding its way to the shal- low creek, fl owing over the stones and making the water crystal clear. We waded into the creek to cool off and then cupped our hands to drink the cool water until our thirst was quenched. Looking up, we could see a variety of beautiful trees towering

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over the wildfl owers and tall grasses. Zeeland. All at once, bang, boom, work force, and the business expand- We had found an enchanted forest— bang, boom; we all must have hit the ed. Our brothers learned all the ins what fun! The brothers checked if sign. The horses were spooked and and outs of farming, and many years the cattle were inside their fences. We reared up on their hind legs. Lucky later fi ve of them became successful girls found large areas of clean beach for us Papa got them calmed down, or farmers. sand, just like at Saugatuck Oval.7 we would all have had to walk home. In 1944 Ann Lucille married This was great for bare feet; I think all Andrew received the punishment Jack Kraal; he had been discharged summer we all walked without shoes. because his older brothers fl ed the from the service due to suffering a Wandering farther north, we found scene. We girls hit the chicken sign sunstroke while in California. After a wild blackberry patch; the berries as well, but I don’t recall ever getting Herb had completed his tour of duty were juicy and big. We picked them punished like he did. in 1946, he convinced Papa that we and decided to bring containers in or- der to take them home for meals and canning. Sometime later we found that winds had drifted the sand and covered the berry patch, killing the entire patch. But, walking to the east we found a smaller area had sprung up, giving us their tasty big blackber- ries. Willard told me that our govern- ment gave us 10,000 red pine seed- lings to plant; in time, as they grew taller, they stopped the shifting sands. Many years later, those twigs grew to be fi fty to sixty feet tall; some are still standing to this day. Andrew remem- bers that when his older brothers were spreading manure with pitch- A Michigan gladioli fi eld, like those cultivated by the Brink family. Public Domain image. forks, he begged for Nathan’s three- tined fork in order to try it himself. At a young age our brothers needed indoor plumbing and a full With all of his might behind the fork, learned to drive all of our machin- bathroom, and that we needed to he pitched the fork right through his ery—tractors, trucks, and cars— have the kitchen remodeled. Wow! great toe, and was unable to pull it sometimes stretching in order to see No more heating water, an automatic out. Nathan was able to pull it out on over the hood and reach the fl oor shower, and a fl ush toilet. We even re- the same slant it went in. Herb had pedals at the same time. We girls placed the Sears catalog with nice soft the motorcycle there, so he was ready didn’t learn how to drive as early as toilet paper. When Ervin returned, he to bring the injured one home. As the boys. But one afternoon at the went to Calvin College on the GI Bill; Herb revved up the motor and began bulb fi eld, Papa said to me, “We have he married Laura Briggs in Graafschap to move, Andrew fl ipped over back- too many vehicles here, so you have Church. At the reception, I can’t recall ward to the ground. to drive the car home, but watch for what was served but remember that Once, when riding home from the the highway.” Scared was not the right Laura played her violin and sang bulb fi eld after a usual good day’s word to describe me; petrifi ed, yes! “The Love of God” beautifully. Laura work, Papa was driving the horses I don’t think we had our horses any graduated from King’s College in New while sitting on his barrel; he was longer, or they would have beat me York State. In 1949, Ervin also gradu- unaware of our plans. We had each home. ated from King’s College as a minister picked up a stone to throw at a large Father was an excellent farmer of the Methodist Church. metal sign placed near the intersec- and businessman; the gladioli were in Papa was a good steward of his tion of Highway US 31 and Graafsc- demand as bulbs, and as fl owers for success. He gave back to the Lord hap Road. It was a sign advertising weddings and funerals, both dur- as he was blessed; his favored giv- chicks from some hatchery near ing and after the war. We had a large ing was to the Back to God Hour,

27 Oval Beach in second fl oor of an elderly woman’s Saugatuck is home on College NE, just north of located near the former outlet of the Highland Park. She charged me $8 per Kalamazoo River week for the bedroom, and I shared into Lake Michigan. the family bathroom downstairs. I lived on tomatoes and pears until she told me I could store milk or what- ever in their refrigerator. I did have reservations regarding the bachelor son who also called this place home. The long walk to classes in the fall was lovely. My boyfriend drove me home each Friday night for the weekend; the evenings were spent studying. After I had moved in, the la- dy’s married son came back home. He was strange, weird-looking, bearded, a curious type of person. After sharing with my sister Marge my dilemma of the scary guy living downstairs, she asked her sister-in-law, Ann Vannette, Graafschap Church,hdHlld and Holland fromfthjillhihfld the junior college, which fueled if I could live with her until I found Christian Schools. In 1949 Nathan my dream and spurred me on to fi nd a better place. Ann lived close to the and I were the last to graduate from a way to save the tuition and enroll as junior college in a beautiful apart- the eighth grade at Westview School. a nursing student. ment on the tenth fl oor in Park Place Papa helped our church buy a school Mr. Bransburger, a local farmer in overlooking the big city. Ann was bus for students bound for Christian Saugatuck, hired me for the summer. I generous enough to share her beauti- High, including Berdella, Nathan, and worked twelve-hour days at fi fty cents ful home with me at no cost. me. The rest, Andrew, Gloria, June, an hour picking fruits and vegetables Next I lived with the Obermans, a and Pearl, went to different elemen- and then selling them at his roadside Jewish family who resided in a sub- tary schools but rode the bus. When stand. By the end of the summer, I urban two-story home on Alger SE. I was a high school senior, our eldest had earned enough for tuition as well In exchange for babysitting services for their two little daughters, I re- niece, Anita, daughter of Ann Lucille as room and board to live in the city. ceived room and board. Mr. Oberman and Jack, rode the bus to kindergarten All my life I had lived near Holland, worked in Grand Rapids and drove since they lived near us. rarely venturing past the boundaries me to junior college each day. After In May of 1953, after graduating of our farm except to attend church class I rode the public bus back to from Holland Christian High School, and school. I had been to downtown their home. In addition to my babysit- my sister-in-law Laura told me about Grand Rapids only a few times in my ting, Mrs. Oberman offered to pay me a full-year course in practical nurs- life, and the prospect of actually living $5 to clean her house on Saturdays, ing at Grand Rapids Junior College. in a large city seemed overwhelming which I gladly did. I used this money Upon investigation, I learned that the to me. for my daily bus fare as well as for tuition was $165, in addition to the My fears were dispelled by my dear an occasional trip to Holland on the cost of textbooks, which was $10, sister-in-law, Mary Brink, who lived train. and the cost of my nursing uniforms. in the Grand Rapids area and knew I spent the fi rst four months at I had always worked on the family the city well. Together we searched junior college taking classes, and farm, along with my siblings, and the “rooms for rent” ads in the Grand the remainder of the year working we did so without pay. It was hard Rapids Press and drove around town directly with the patients at St. Mary’s to imagine saving enough money for to fi nd an appropriate and affordable Hospital, full time for $8 per day. this, but I applied anyway. In June place for me to call home. My fi rst The hospital’s main entrance was on 1953 I received my acceptance letter living arrangement was a room on the Cherry Street; just inside the front

28 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

hallway stood a statue of Jesus with morning to the Cherry Street entrance fl ickering candles at his feet. In the of the hospital. After work, Joan and Endnotes dark hallway this appeared a bit eerie I rode the bus home, talking, laugh- 1. This article is excerpted from the to us, not being familiar with the ing, and retelling the events of the day author’s much larger memoir, titled “My Medical Memories”; a copy is available Catholic tradition. We learned that a as nursing students. These were busy in Heritage Hall, Calvin College, Grand mass card could be purchased from months, full of surprises for us. Rapids, Michigan. the priest, who in turn would light a In September 1954, we both gradu- 2. Bert Brink and Mary Beld were candle and pray for a departed loved ated at the age of seventeen. We were married in 1921 and had thirteen children: Ervin (1922), Ann Lucille one. I learned so much that year and not eligible to take the State Board (1923), Herb (1925), Willard (1928), also developed friendships that would exams until our eighteenth birthdays Jerry (1931), Marjorie (1932), Berdella last a lifetime. (mine was in November and Joan’s (1933), Nathan (1934), Carolyn (1935), One of my classmates, Joan Rem- was in December). We could take Andrew (1936), Gloria (1939), June (1941), and Pearl (1942). melts, invited me to live with her them the next January. Finally our 3. The lake is just north of Sau- family during our hospital internship birthdays came, and we made plans gatuck, Michigan, and was a few miles and to this day remains a dear friend. to go to Detroit to take our exams. west of the family’s second farm. They lived in a large home on Burr At the hospital we met a girl named 4. With the addition of fl our to the mixture this dish was scrapple, which Oak NE. Years later she admitted Estelle, who knew the area well. She is often also called headcheese, but true never even asking her parents, just had failed her boards the year before. headcheese does not contain fl our. [ed.] knowing it would be a fi ne arrange- The three of us boarded the train for 5. Due to a variety of circumstances, ment. The rent was $11 per week, Detroit. She was instrumental in mak- no accurate death numbers during WW II are possible, but US military deaths which was a small price to pay in ing the arrangements for us to stay at were about 407,000 of the 22-30 million exchange for the security of a won- a hotel, and she recommended a res- military deaths worldwide; another 38- derful home, her generous parents, taurant. This was my fi rst experience 55 million civilians died during the war. Jay and Kate, the company of her staying at a hotel. I passed the exams 6. The farm was located where the brothers, the companionship of my and returned to Grand Rapids, nearly Ravines Golf Course is today. 7. The municipal beach on Lake friend, my own room, and good meals broke, and ready to begin my nursing Michigan in Saugatuck, Michigan. shared together. As if this weren’t career. I was hired by Sr. Charlene, enough, their neighbor, who worked to work on the orthopedic fl oor at St. in Grand Rapids, gave us a ride each Mary’s Hospital.n

29 Journalist, Author, and Zionist —Pierre Van Paassen

Gerlof D. Homan n the 1930s and 1940s Pierre Van he was exposed at an early age to IPaassen was well known as a jour- the ideas of the Enlightenment by nalist and author, and as probably his “Uncle Kees.” Although he made numerous references in his writings to the most outspoken and prominent “Uncle Kees,” he had no such uncle. gentile Zionist of his time. He was Most likely he was exposed to the born in Gorinchem (also Gorkum, world of the Enlightenment when he about twenty-fi ve miles east of Rot- was in his twenties. terdam), the Netherlands, in 1895, as He attended a Christian elementary school, a local gymnasium, and for four years a secondary school that emphasized classical studies. He later made misleading claims about formal training. He did not attend the famous Erasmiaans Gymnasium in Rotter- dam, and he may have taken some courses at the Faculté libre de théolo- gie Protestant de Paris. He did not, as is reported in the New York Times obituary (9 January 1968), graduate from the École pratique des hautes études. Van Paassen was well-read but mostly self-taught. Pierre Van Paassen’s publicity In 1911 the Van Paassen family photograph. Image courtesy of the immigrated to Toronto, Canada, most author. likely for economic reasons. In To- Pieter Antonie Laurusse van Paassen. ronto he may have attended Victoria College, a Methodist institution, but His father, Adriaan van Paassen, was there is no evidence he did. He did of Flemish descent, and his mother, have contact with local Methodists Antonia Sizoo, of Italian Waldensian and decided to become a lay pastor descent. They owned a small pottery under the auspices of the Methodist store.His given name was Pieter, and church. First he went to Edmonton, he referred to himself as both Pieter Alberta, and later to Porcupine and and Pierre, but he used the latter when Gerlof D. Homan has previously Timmins, Ontario.3 But after a few 1 published in, among other periodicals, writing. He grew up in a very strict years he left the ministry and in 1914 Origins, Pro Rege, and DIS Magazine. Calvinist home where much was married Ethel Ann Russell. Not much He is an emeritus professor of forbidden; almost everything was con- later he was the father of Antonia history at Illinois State University, sidered “sin, sin, sin,” he lamented. In where he taught European History, (Molly). At that time he was em- Contemporary History, and the History fact, his life was overshadowed by a ployed as a munitions worker. But in of Peace. He continues his research into “cloud of gloom,” and man was con- July 1919, casting aside his previous- Dutch and Dutch-American history sidered a miserable sinner “doomed ly-held beliefs of Christian pacifi sm, topics. to hellfi re under the curse of original he enlisted in the Canadian army.4 sin.”2 But Van Paassen also claimed He served in France on the western

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Van Paassen’s fi rst book, Days of Van Paassen’s account of the To Number Our Days, published in Published in 1943, The Forgotten Our Years (1939). coming of anti-Semitism to 1964, details Van Paassen’s life as a Ally, detailing the contribution of Germany between the two world journalist during the 1930s. Jews to the war effort, became a wars, published in 1946. best seller. front with the so-called Foresters do- power in January 1933 Van Paassen dismissed by the Star. He was accused ing mostly railroad construction. He warned against the dangers of Na- of reporting on the Spanish Civil War did not fracture his left arm during tional Socialism. The Nazis, he wrote, while staying in his apartment in Paris the collapse of a tunnel, as he later reminded him of the racist KKK in and of anti-Catholic bias in his dis- alleged, but fractured it during boot the United States. Their weapons patches. Most likely it was the latter camp.5 It is quite possible he enlisted were terror, intimidation, and decep- charge that was the more important; in order to escape an unhappy mar- tion, and he warned that Hitler, a the Star did not want to alienate its riage, since he and Ethel later separat- man without a program save “hatred, large number of Catholic readers.10 ed and still later he married his fi rst ignorance, and vulgarity,” was driv- Van Paassen, with a left-wing politi- cousin, Cornelia (Coralie) Machelina ing a great and disillusioned nation cal persuasion, was very critical of Sizoo, also born in Gorinchem.6 to perdition. Furthermore, he warned Catholic support of the Spanish right- against the Hitler ideology that wing conservative insurgents, led by Journalist numbed the critical faculties of the General Francisco Franco, against the Upon his return in 1919, he decided German masses, taught them hatred, democratic, republican government in to embark on a career in journalism, and drove them into “tantrums of fury Spain. a task for which he was well-suited against other nations.”8 While report- as he had considerable linguistic and ing for the Star, he often detailed Nazi Zionist writing skills. He worked for various brutalities in Germany, making that His dismissal meant more or less the newspapers such as the Toronto Globe, paper one of the few to do so. Because end of his journalistic career. Subse- the Atlanta Constitution, the New of his reporting, Van Paassen claimed, quently, he devoted much time to the York World, and the Toronto Star. The he was one day attacked by some Zionist cause and to writing several liberal Star seemed to be the right fi t storm troopers and spent a night in books. His fi rst book, Days of Our for him. In the course of his journal- a Munich jail. But he also claimed Years (1939), is partly autobiographi- istic career, Van Paassen traveled to with “supporting evidence” that he cal and decried the unstable post-War various parts of Europe, the Middle spent eleven days in March 1933 in European world. It was an instant East, Russia, and Africa and became the Nazi concentration camp Dachau. bestseller and went through twenty- well known in the journalistic world. Van Paassen also tried to predict Nazi two printings by 1943.11 It made Van In fact, staff at the Star welcomed him foreign policy, which he believed was Paassen a well-known public fi gure with a party and were dazzled by sto- aimed at establishing German world and much-sought-after speaker. His ries of his journalistic exploits.7 domination.9 next book, That Day Alone,12 was Soon after the Nazi assumption of In 1936 Van Paassen was suddenly mostly about life in Gorinchem.

31 Much of it is fi ctitious, however, as Van Paassen had come to appreciate is the case with Earth Could Be Fair: the trials and triumphs of the ancient A Chronicle (1946),13 and To Number Israelites. Although he resented the Our Days (1964). Earth Could Be Fair many restrictions of his Calvinist purportedly tells the story of Gorin- faith, he considered Calvinism to be chem’s war-time experiences and was the heir of Judaism. “As the son of based, Van Paassen claimed, on many a Bible people,” he looked forward letters from relatives and others in the “with lively anticipation towards the Netherlands, but the account is totally fulfi llment of the age-old dream of the fi ctitious. Jewish people.” He also considered Much of his time and energy in the Palestine his spiritual home. Both Ju- late 1930s was devoted to the Zionist daism and Calvinism, he asserted, had cause. Zionism was the international contributed signifi cantly to Christian movement for the reestablishment civilization.19 Visits to Palestine in the of a Jewish state in Palestine.14 The Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), 1920s also infl uenced his thinking. the French artillery offi cer Dreyfus affair particularly stimulated of Jewish background whose He described the Jewish economic im- the growth of the Zionist movement. trial and conviction in 1894 on provement he saw as one of the “won- Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish captain charges of treason infl uenced ders of his age.” At the same time he in the French army who was falsely Van Paassen’s move toward felt the Jews had contributed to the Zionism. Public domain image. accused of espionage in 1894 and sen- emancipation of the native Palestinian tenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s peasants.20 Island, French Guiana. When further tions, such as the Zionist Federation Van Paassen also claims he was evidence proved Dreyfus’s innocence, of America, were founded in support infl uenced by the Dreyfus affair after the French army and government of the creation of this state. A number having seen a movie on these dra- initially were unwilling to reopen of Christians and statesmen, such as matic events four times. Van Paassen the case: protecting the honor of the British Prime Minister Lloyd George also had some contact with the local French army was more important and US President Woodrow Wilson, Jewish community because of his than establishing justice, it was ar- also advocated in favor of this. mother’s and other Calvinists’ efforts gued. Well-known author Émile Zola The cause received considerable to convert them to Christianity. Van was among those who tried to obtain impetus in 1917 when the British Paassen’s credibility in the matter is justice for Dreyfus. Later the case was government issued the so-called further compromised by his subse- fi nally reopened and Dreyfus was ex- Balfour Declaration, which expressed quent description of the local Jewish onerated.15 During this entire episode, the British government’s support for community’s destruction during the France, a democracy, witnessed an establishing a Jewish homeland in Holocaust, when about one-half of outburst of virulent anti-Semitism. A Palestine, at the time when the British the Gorinchem Jewish community solution seemed to be the creation of army was approaching Jerusalem.17 perished, supposedly based on let- an independent Jewish state. After World War I, Palestine became ters from the Netherlands, as pure In 1897 Theodor Herzl and oth- a mandate of the League of Nations to fi ction. 21 ers founded the World Zionist Or- be administered by Great Britain. Dur- Instead, Van Paassen seems to ganization, which advocated for the ing the years between the two world have embraced Zionism because of creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, wars, a large number of Jews settled in his humanitarian impulses, as others in an area about as large as Mas- Palestine, signifi cantly spurred as the did during the 1930s who organized a sachusetts. The 1914 population of Nazi persecution of the Jews began. number of committees in the United this area totaled about 800,000, of Confl icts arose between Arabs and States, some of which were supported whom 650,000 were Muslim Ar- Jews as a result. In order to appease by Christian Zionists. He had great abs, 80,000 Christians, and 60,000 the Arab nations, Britain decided in sympathy for the persecuted Jews, Jews. Many of the latter had recently 1939 to limit Jewish emigration to who, he felt, needed a homeland come from Russia and Eastern Eu- 75,000 and to create a bi-national where they would be free. To him, rope.16 In the United States, which state by 1944, decisions that did not Zionism was the “Social Gospel of by 1900 had a fairly large Jewish please Zionists.18 Judaism.”22 population, various Zionist organiza- As a boy growing up in Gorinchem, In the 1920s and 1930s Van

32 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Paassen spoke to various Christian was making an important economic 1946, when the Institute granted that and Jewish congregations about Zion- contribution.27 “Dutch Calvinist Unitarian,” who had ism and joined the short-lived Pro- Van Paassen was very pleased been a “magnifi cent, doughty, fi ercely Palestinian Federation of the United with the establishment of the State of eloquent defender of Jewish rights” States.23 In 1941 he joined the Com- Israel in May 1948. The Jews now had the honorary degree in Hebrew let- mittee for a Jewish Army for State- reappeared on the scene of history, ters.32 This honorary degree fi lled a less and Palestinian Jews. He made a he felt.28 Like most of his contempo- signifi cant “gap” in his life; he had few public appearance on behalf of raries he did not believe Palestinians never had the benefi t of much formal that committee; and in December of had been driven from their homeland education except for a few years of that year was chosen to serve as its by the Israelis during the brief war secondary school and perhaps some chairman.24 Many American Zionists between Israel and the Arab powers, academic work at Victoria College. supported the idea of a Jewish army 1948-49. He asserted that the Mufti In spite of his claims to be a gradu- to fi ght alongside the Allies against ate of the Erasmiaans Gymnasium in Nazi Germany. But they did not want Rotterdam and the École pratique des to press the British too much, given hautes études in Paris, this degree was Britain’s diffi cult position vis-à-vis the only one he received. the Arab powers and its important role in defeating Germany. But others Author and Unitarian Minister in were determined to press the British. the Post-War Era Among them were delegates of the In the years after World War II, Van Irgun Zwai Leumi [National Military Paassen continued writing books and Organization], a Jewish Palestinian a few shorter pieces, most of which underground organization that often had a religious content. One of the conducted acts of terror against Jews, most interesting was A Pilgrim’s Vow, Palestinians, and the British. Van in which he takes the reader on a Paassen became so frustrated and dis- pilgrimage through the Holy Land couraged with their infl uence and tac- to visit many biblical sites.33 He also tics in the committee that he resigned wrote a biography of the Italian mar- in January 1943, accusing them of tyr Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), “fascist” methods. He also resigned This 1951 essay explains Van Paassen’s who was executed for his criticism of because he was not made of the “stuff move toward pacifi sm. widespread abuse and corruption in that makes leadership” and felt very the Catholic Church.34 In Why Jesus awkward as a goy (Yiddish for gentile) Died, Van Paassen blames not the Jews in a dispute among Zionists.25 of Jerusalem and spiritual leader, but Roman offi cials for Jesus’s execu- He remained active, however, on Mohammad Amin al Huseyani had tion. According to Van Paassen, the behalf of Zionism. In September 1943 been responsible for the Arab fl ight.29 Romans considered Jesus a subver- he wrote an open letter on behalf of Evidence revealed since has demon- sive, a dangerous agitator, a messianic the Emergency Committee to Save strated this was not the case.30 rabble-rouser, and a seditionist who the Jewish People to US President Van Paassen believed Israel would might try to replace the empire by the Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime be a model nation and laboratory theocracy of Yaweh. Furthermore, he Minister Winston Churchill, asking where humankind’s problems would rejected the “metaphysical person” of them to establish an inter-government be tested.31 Aside from the satisfac- Jesus who emerged from the creeds; agency with powers to rescue the Jew- tion he derived from the creation of to him that person was a symbol bor- ish people in Europe and to open the the State of Israel, Van Paassen also rowed from Greek philosophy and “doors of the Holy Land to its chil- gained personal recognition from his mythology. Van Paassen also rejected dren.”26 In the same year he wrote the Zionist endeavors. He had always had, what he called the “myth” of the res- bestseller The Forgotten Ally, in which according to fellow Zionist Joseph urrection.35 he stressed the importance of the Brainin, “a great suppressed desire” to Why I Became a Unitarian explains Jewish contribution to the war effort. receive an honorary degree from the his rejection of the “petrifi cation of Many Jews were serving in the British Jewish Institute of Religion in New the American people’s innate reli- army, he pointed out, while Palestine York. This wish was granted on 9 June gious sentiments” and the “creedal

33 churches.” He wanted to belong to a “militant church,” which by progres- Endnotes sive social action demonstrates that it 1. In the Gorinchem Gemeente “The Danger to the World Peace,” in Archief [County Archive], Van Paassen’s Pierre Van Paassen and James Water- did not look upon the concept of the name is registered as Pieter Antonie man Wise, eds., Nazism: The Assault on kingdom of God as a miraculous fairy Laurusse van Paassen. Autobiographi- Civilization (New York: Smith and Haas, tale or a recompense in a vague here- cal details of Van Paassen’s early life can 1934), 226. after. . . .” His ideal church was one be found in at least three of his books: 9. Van Paassen, The Time Is Now! Days of Our Years (New York: Hillman- (New York: Dial Press, 1941), passim. advocated by the Dutch Remonstrant Curl Inc., 1939); That Day Alone (New 10. Ross Harkness. J.E. Atkinson of theologian and Christian pacifi st York: Dial Press, 1941); and To Number the Star (Toronto: Toronto University Gerrit Jan Heering (1879-1934), a Our Days (New York: Scribner’s, 1964). Press, 1963), 301-305. church that entered the arena of life to The accounts vary on details in places. 11. Van Paassen’s fi rst four books 2. Van Paassen, Days of Our Years, sold one million copies. Newsweek, 6 overcome the institutions of injustice, 21-24. May 1946. exploitation, discrimination, and vio- 3. Toronto: Archives United Church 12. (New York: Dial Press, 1941). lence of this world.36 Apparently Van of Christ. 13. (New York: Dial Press, 1946). Paassen had returned to his pacifi st 4. Van Paassen asserted he was There is a Dutch translation of Earth shamed or forced into enlisting by a Could Be Fair: A Chronicle (De aarde roots. Not surprisingly, Van Paassen furious super-patriotic mob, Days of zou schoon kunnen zijn (Amsterdam: was ordained a pastor by the Unitar- Our Years, 64-65. Details on his military Spieghel, 1947). ian Church on 20 January 1946. In career can be found in Ottawa: Canada 14. There is a considerable amount this capacity he often spoke to various Library and Archives. RG 150. Accession of literature on the Zionist movement. 37 1992-93/166-30. Regimental no. 249785. Very helpful was Raphael Patai, ed., audiences. 5. Ottawa: Canada Library and Ar- Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel (New Van Paassen was a prolifi c writer chives. RG150. Accession 1992-93/166. York: Herzl Press, 1971), passim. who used his journalistic skills to Box 9908-30. Regimental no. 2497852. 15. There is a large amount of litera- warn against the dangers of National For some reason, Van Paassen informed ture on the Dreyfus affair. A good intro- enlistment offi cials he was born in Go- duction is Guy Chapman, The Dreyfus Socialism and to speak on behalf of rinchem, Belgium. He also gave 1894 as Trials (New York: Stein and Day, 1972). the persecuted Jews. Unfortunately, the year of his birth. 16. Ilan Pappe, A History of Modern much of his other writing has lim- 6. Details on Van Paassen’s personal Palestine: One Land Two Peoples (Edin- ited historical value as he tended to and domestic life are confusing. He and burg, UK: Cambridge University Press, Ethel were married on 5 May 1914. 2004), 73. fi ctionalize events and individuals Most likely Pierre and Coralie began liv- 17. Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour including aspects of his own life. That ing together in the early 1920s and mar- Declaration: The Origins of the Arab- was especially true of his Gorinchem ried in 1940. Current Biography (New Israeli Confl ict (New York: Random stories. Considering this kind of York: Wilson and Company, 1942), 856. House, 2010). According to Pierre’s grandson, Hugo, 18. J.C.Hurewitz, The Struggle for disposition, one may rightly question when Pierre and Coralie were unable to Palestine (London: Schocken Books, the veracity of his other writings. His fi nd their marriage certifi cate one day, 1976), 94ff. contributions to the Zionist cause they decided to (re?) marry in 1940. 19. Van Paassen, Days of Our Years, were valuable, but, like many of his Most likely that was fi rst time they 351ff. were married. Pierre and Coralie raised 20. Ibid. contemporaries, Van Paassen had Hugo, son of Pierre and Ethel Russell’s 21. Van Paassen, Earth Could Be Fair, not thought enough about the con- daughter, Antonia Molly. However, 470ff; Bart Stamkot, Geschiedenis van sequences of implementing Zionist Hugo was told Pierre and Coralie were de stad Gorinchem (Amsterdam: Bert ideals. He was also a bit unrealistic his parents and Antonia Molly his sister. Stamkot, 1987), 96. Some of the details of this family history 22. Van Paassen, Jerusalem Calling! if not naïve about Israel’s future and came from the author’s correspondence (New York: Dial Press, 1950), 228. its place in the complex world of the with Hugo Van Paassen and the latter’s 23. Van Paassen, To Number Our Middle East.n daughter, Julie Plyler. I cannot thank Days, 249ff; and Paul C. Merkley, The Julie Plyler enough for all her help to Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891-1948 unravel some family mysteries. (London: Frank Cass, 1998), 106-113. 7. Hugh W. Morrison, “Pierre Van 24. Congressional Record, 77th Paassen’s Rise and Fall with the Toronto Congress. First Session, 87, part 13 Star” and “Van Paassen’s Last Supper.” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Unpublished mss. Ottawa: Canada Offi ce, 1941), A34537. Library and Archives. RG 30. Series E 25. Pierre Van Paassen, “Letter to the 408. v 7. Editor,” The Protestant, April 1944. 8. Star, 29 March 1933; Van Paassen, 26. Van Paassen, “Letter to the

34 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Editor,” The Answer, September 1944. 27. Van Paassen, The Forgotten Ally (New York: Dial Press, 1943), passim. 28. Van Paassen, Jerusalem Calling! 218. 29. Ibid, 176-177. 30. Ilan Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: One World, 2006). 31. Van Paassen, Jerusalem Calling! 232-234. 32. Correspondence on this matter is in New York: Archive Jewish Institute of Religion MS-19. Box 7, fi le 6. 33. (New York: Dial Press, 1956), 34. There is a Dutch translation titled Een ongewoon reisverhaal: Een pelgrim- age door het Heilige Land (The Hague: Boekencentrum, 1959). 34. A Crown of Fire: The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (New York: Scribner, [1960]). 35. Why Jesus Died (New York: Dial Press, 1949, passim. Van Paassen’ s views were infl uenced by Charles Guignebert (1867-1939), a prominent French historian who wrote on the life of Jesus and the history of the early Christian Church. 36. Why I Became a Unitarian (Bos- ton: American Unitarian Association, 1950). His concern for peace was also expressed in his essay Peace is Possible (Boston: Community Church of Boston, 1951). Gerrit Jan Heering (1879-1935) was a Remonstrant theologian and minister who taught at the University of Leiden. He was the author of De Zonde- val van het Christendom: Een studie over het Christendom, staat en oorlog (The Fall of Christianity: A Study of Christi- anity, the State and War) (Arnhem, Van Loghum Slaterus], 1923). In it he makes a plea for Christian pacifi sm. The book went through fi ve editions between 1928 and 1981 and was translated into Danish, French, German, and English. The Remonstrants seceded from the Gereformeerde Church in 1619 over the issue of predestination. 37. Archives of the Unitarian Church, Andover Harvard Theological Library, Boston, MA.

35 An Immigrant with Pretensions1 L. Vogelaar

[ieter] Court Van Woerden was Pieter is in the tenth generation of Pwell known, and even notorious, this tree. In the United States he in the Dutch-American community embellished his heritage by claiming around 1910. In the Netherlands he to be from an ancient Dutch family was known for preaching, practic- tracing back to the Duke of Woerden, ing medicine, fi ghting against the use whose linage traces back to the elev- of alcohol, and speaking about the enth century. Dutch royal family. Although able in When Van Woerden was a teenager, some of these pursuits, he was not he ran away from home and sailed on trained or qualifi ed in all and, when the Westernland, bound for America. his shortcomings made life diffi cult in He had mailed a letter to his father the Netherlands, he emigrated to the apprising him of his intentions. The United States. father cabled New York, notifying the Van Woerden, whose given name authorities of the situation and asking The elder Pieter van Woerden was Pieter, was born on 20 June 1866 that they take his son into custody, (1830-1906). Image courtesy of in Delft, the Netherlands. He was the which they did. He was duly returned the author. seventh of fourteen children born to the Netherlands on the same ship. to Pieter Van Woerden (1830-1906) After his return he may have studied and Lijgina van Driel (1836-1913).2 chemistry, although the evidence The elder Pieter, also from Delft, for this isn’t certain. As an adult he worked in the fl ax seed oil indus- moved to the small city of Buren in try and served on the city council. the province of Gelderland and is Lijgna van Driel was from Bleiswijk, listed as the owner of the windmill a village about eight miles due east of “The Prince of Orange,” 1891-1893. Delft. The Van Woerden family can be Of Van Woerden’s fi ve broth- traced back to 1570, and the younger ers who lived into adulthood, three

L. Vogelaar (1967) from Scherpenzeel, the Netherlands, is a journalist of the Reformatorisch Dagblad. Since 1987 he has also published many books and articles about history, especially of the Gereformeerde Gemeenten in the Netherlands and their sister church in the United States and Canada, the Netherlands Reformed Congregations (NRC). Built for the Red Star Line in 1883, SS Westernland sailed between Antwerp and New York or Philadephia, with stops at Southhampton and Liverpool. Public domain image.

36 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

became well known in church or preached in a church service in the 1897 at a gathering of the Order of business circles. The oldest, Hugo room above the “Meat Hall” in Rot- Good Templars in Rotterdam. The Cornelis (1857-1912), was director terdam. Reportedly he was a gifted one-half million members of this of the Algemeene Landsdrukkerij public speaker and could make listen- fraternal order worldwide advocated (National Printing Company) in Den ers laugh or cry.3 In both 1892 and against drinking alcohol. Members Haag. This company published the 1893 he received a call from Maas- promised to never again drink, serve, Staatscourant, the offi cial periodical sluis, probably to be an evangelist or trade any alcohol. The Netherlands of the national government. Cornelis or exhorter (lay preacher), calls he had six of these lodges. Ultimately, Bernardus (1860-1932) moved to fi nally accepted. Van Woerden came to conclude that Akkrum, Friesland, and became a One of Van Woerden’s biggest it was better to remove wine from the 5 wholesaler of butter and cheese. His problems in Maassluis was the abuse celebration of the Lord’s Supper. company’s large building still stands of alcohol. On 5 April 1895 he was a He became known for speaking on there, with the Van Woerden name topics in addition to abstaining from in large white letters. He became alcohol. In November 1895 he spoke well known as C. B. Van Woerden in Rotterdam to the watergeuzen6 Sr, translating books by English and society Pro Patria, whose principal Scottish theologians into Dutch, as aim was to commemorate the House did his son C. B. (Cor) Van Woerden of Orange, the Dutch royal house. On Jr. They did not attend a church, 13 January 1896 he spoke on “The instead read printed sermons in their press and its errors watched from home. Another brother, Jan Cornelis an anti-socialist view.”7 On 1 April (1870-1935), became a merchant in 1897 Van Woerden spoke briefl y but the sugar trade and was called “Sui- powerfully at the freedom monument ker-Jan” (Sugar John). In the Nieuwe in Rotterdam in commemoration of Kerk in Delft there is a memorial of the 325th anniversary of the liberation Jan’s work as president of those who of Den Briel, the fi rst city taken from maintained the church buildings. the Spaniards by the watergeuzen. A IJsbrand (the second sibling with this newspaper described it as a “short name, 1875-1941) operated a success- speech sparkling of patriotism.”8 He ful bookstore in Chicago for a time recalled the battle for independence before returning to the Netherlands. and the courage of the watergeuzen, Jacob (1865-1941) lived a respect- who fought with the slogan “God, able but modest life. The three sisters, Orange, and the Netherlands.” He Catharina Alida (1862-1903), Maria At the left, Pieter van Woerden (1866-1946) closed, wishing well to the queen of Elizabeth (1864-1949), and Jannetje with his brother Cornelis Bernardus (1860- the Netherlands. Before he was able to Lijgina (1868-1885), did not marry. 1932). Image courtesy of the author. fi nish, all the hats and caps fl ew into Pieter was twenty-fi ve when he the air as the audience shouted three married Jacoba Maria den Hartog on speaker at the fi rst public meeting of times “Oranje boven!” (Literally the 13 January 1892 in Maassluis, her the Christian Geheel-Onthouders (To- House of Orange is the best, similar to home town, equidistant from Delft to tal Abstainers) Society Eben-Haëzer Long live the House of Orange). 9 the northeast and Rotterdam to the in Rotterdam. In September of that He apparently also served a con- east. Their two children were born in year a newspaper reported that Van gregation just south of Rotterdam. A Maassluis: son IJsbrand Johannes (29 Woerden, who was becoming well newspaper indicated that on 26 July December 1892) and daughter Lijgina known for his public speaking, was 1897 Van Woerden preached his fare- (28 February 1894, died 26 June invited by the Christian Young Men’s well sermon and was given a beauti- 1894). Society Paulus to speak in Kralingen. ful Staten Bible10 as a remembrance. There he pleaded for total abstinence Touched by the many tokens of love Preaching and Public Speaking and strongly emphasized the harmful and affection, Van Woerden thanked During the early 1890s Van Woerden effects of drinking alcohol.4 The mis- the meeting, Psalm 68:10 was sung, became involved in ministry. There ery caused by alcoholism was also the and everyone was wished the Lord’s is data that in September 1892 he subject when he spoke on 2 February blessing. Less than two months later,

37 unclear, but in December the judge Canada and the United States. In in Vianen, south of Utrecht and thirty some cases it is unbelievable how they miles east of Smitshoek, assessed have reached their goal.)”15 Van Woerden a fi ne of 100 guilders There are reports that a “Rev. P. Van or thirty days in jail, for unlawfully Woerden” preached in Muskegon, practicing medicine.14 Michigan, in 1903, probably in the He emigrated to the United States church that had become vacant after in 1902, where he took up his previ- Rev. M. H. A. Van Der Valk returned ous activities, preaching, practicing to the Netherlands in 1902. On 3 medicine, fi ghting against the use July 1905, the consistory of the of alcohol, and speaking about the Netherlands Reformed Congregation Dutch royal family. A. Dingemanse, an (NRC) on Division Avenue in Grand immigrant from Vlissingen living in Rapids recorded in its minutes that Denver, may have being referring to the consistory of Fremont, Michi- Van Woerden when he wrote, “He had gan, wrote that they had accepted been an assistant teacher in the prov- Dr. Van Woerden as minister, and he ince of Zuid-Holland, but he wanted had been installed by John Van Den 16 to be a minister and therefore he came Broek. After this was discussed, the to America. (At the moment there consistory unanimously decided that Pieter van Woerden after he had run are so many preachers who come to Elder Merison would tell them that away to the United States and had been since they had their own minister, sent back. Image courtesy of the author. the pulpit via astounding means in the union between Grand Rapids and Fremont to share a minister had come an announcement was published that to an end.17 a church building would be built in Shortly after this Van Woerden Smitshoek, also south of Rotterdam, must have adopted the name Court, in which Evangelist Van Woerden for from this time forward he was would preach regularly and that usually cited as P. Court Van Wo- land for this had been purchased. In erden, as is the case in the 1906 anticipation of the construction of the minutes of the synod of the Christian evangelism building, regular wor- Reformed Church (CRC).18 The rea- ship services were held on Sundays son for the name change is not clear. in an empty building belonging to After a few years, Van Woerden left Mr. Van Ekelenburg.11 An indication the small congregation in Fremont of the interest in the preaching by and settled in Grand Rapids, where he Evangelist Van Woerden is that pew reestablished his ties with the Neth- rental produced much more income erlands Reformed congregations there than previously. Only a week later the in 1909.19 newspaper reported that Van Woerden In Grand Rapids Van Woerden was looking for another (probably ran afoul of the law and was tried for larger) building.12 practicing medicine without a license, as had been the case in the Nether- Misfortune and emigration lands. In Superior Court, Cornelis In spite of evangelism work and well- Meyer, the father of the child who was received public speaking, his personal a victim of Van Woerden’s medical life was troubled; his marriage ended intervention, was the main witness for in divorce on 8 October 1901 in Den the prosecution. Meyer admitted that Haag.13 The divorce meant he was he knew that Van Woerden was not no longer accepted as an evangelist, An advertisement from De Grondwet a licensed physician when he asked featuring Van Woerden’s chemistry and he left the Smitshoek evangelism work for Dr. Was, 18 December for his help. When it was too late, society. What he did next for work is 1909. Dr. George Baert from Zeeland20 was

38 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

asked to come, who remained until the child died. Van Woerden respond- ed that he did not serve as a physician as Meyer knew that very well. The Grand Rapids Press of 15 December 1906 reports that Van Woerden was found guilty and, three days later, fi ned $100 for practicing medicine without a license. He moved to the Chicago area and in 1907 is listed as a pastor from the Roseland Neighborhood of Chicago when he established a Dutch Reformed Church in Win- nipeg, Manitoba.21 The congregation later was served by Rev. John Van den Broek (from August 1907 un- til April 1908).22 In May 1908, Van Van Woerden with his second wife, Martha Wiersema, and their sons, Peter Woerden, almost forty-two, married (left) and Cornelis. The photo was taken at their home on Pettibone Street in Crown Point, Indiana. Image courtesy of the author. twenty-fi ve-year-old Martha Wierse- ma (1883-1976) in Chicago. She had Dutch American Society. In June 1910 He keeps the laws of the country been born in Pieterburen, Groningen, a meeting took place in the vestry of strictly and does not act as a doctor. the daughter of Kornelis Wiersema the Reformed Church on 62nd Street Dr. J. W. Was, who had heard praise of and Kornelia van der Schaaf. Martha’s with Van Woerden presiding. The the great competency of Van Woerden brother Nicholas and sister Gertie also in the examining of the urine for a purpose was to establish a Christian lived in the United States, in Ever- long time already, has hired him for Anti-Saloon Society.24 Van Woerden green Park, Illinois. Van Woerden and that. The great success which Mr. Van was the founder and president of the his second wife had two sons: Peter Woerden always has had, does not society, which also opposed prostitu- Cornelius (1910-1987), and Cornelis fail to happen again. Great crowds of tion, gambling, and crime. people fl ow towards Dr. J. W. Was to Martinus (1914-1984). In 1909 and 1910, Van Woerden’s bring their urine and to have Mr. Van In the summer of 1909, Pieter’s photo appeared almost weekly in Woerden examine it. . . . younger brother, IJsbrand (1875- an advertisement in De Grondwet in 1941), emigrated to America. He mar- which he offered his services for the In a later advertisement Van Wo- ried Wilhelmina Dorothea Van Der analyzing of urine as part of the ser- erden’s credibility was attested by not- Plas (1877-1927) and later Hendrika ing that he received a very high salary J. Bolink. IJsbrand opened a book- vices provide by Dr. J. W. Was. This store in Roseland.23 He also probably newspaper announcement in 1909 from Dr. J. W. Was. But “Time and published a few sermons of Pieter’s. was as follows: again it is alleged, both by doctors But, IJsbrand did other things as well. and others, that Dr. J. W. Was knew It is handy to know for the inhabitants In 1914 he applied for a patent for nothing of the practice of medicine, of Lansing and surroundings, that the and that the urine examination by “certain new and useful Improve- famous specialist in the urine research ments in an Egg-Testing Apparatus.” Mr. P. Court Van Woerden can be con- Van Woerden was a swindle. Others He received this patent in 1915. sulted every Wednesday in Lansing at disagreed. Apparently, Van Woerden Shortly after that he returned to the Mr. C. de Kreek’s place. Mr. de Kreek did act as a doctor, for after a young Netherlands. lives in the house of Mr. A. de Heus, man in Chicago passed away, his On 28 May 1909 Pieter Van Wo- who trades vegetables, onions, etc. brother-in-law blamed Van Woerden. erden spoke to the Roseland Health In the old country, Mr. Van Woerden There are claims that Van Woerden has been a doctor for years. He was Insurance Society about “Willem studied at the University of Illinois one of the doctors who discern the 25 I, Prince of Orange, Father of the character of the disease from examin- in Chicago. On 16 September 1910, Fatherland” and later on the same ing the urine. In the U.S. Mr. P. Court Onze Toekomst announced: “We are topic to the Chicago branch of a Van Woerden may not act as a doctor. happy to report that Mr. P. Court Van

39 have been organized after Rev. Van den Broek died on 8 February 1913, and his church group disbanded. Ac- cording to Robert Swierenga’s Dutch Chicago, a short-lived Dutch Holland Presbyterian church was established by Van Woerden, an Englewood physician and lay cleric, in 1913 on the South Side.29 Like Van Woerden’s wife, most of the members of this new congregation came from the province of Groningen. Together with Rev. A. Lokker from The south and west façades of the Van Woerden Warehouse at Galemaleane Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Rev. Isaac 6, in Akkrum, Friesland. The Van Woerden name is on the front (east) Contant from Lodi, New Jersey,30 Van façade. Public domain image. Woerden served unaffi liated congre- 31 Woerden, our well-known Dutch Kruijf, who lived in Delft. Van Wo- gations in Roseland. But Van Wo- chemist and urologist, will be con- erden learned much in the sphere of erden must not have been licensed nected, beginning 16 September, with urinalysis from De Kruijf; he contin- as a minister, for couples whom he the Medical Specialty Company. He ued studies with Dr. Bastiaan de Haan married had to remarry later. He must will now be able to employ his mind from Bleskensgraaf, whose reputation have stayed with the Roseland group in a more extensive sphere, and to be was known throughout Europe.26 In until the 1930s, when elders read of even more help to suffering hu- Grand Rapids, Van Woerden came sermons. The congregation disbanded 32 manity, than heretofore.” to the attention of the Grand Rapids about 1947. Van Woerden’s lack of medical Medical College.27 In Chicago his In 1916 Van Woerden moved to qualifi cations had been recognized services were requested by the Medi- Lake County, Illinois, and the next in both the Netherlands and United cal Specialty Company which, after a February he became an American States, but his ability as a chemist strict examination, offered him a sal- citizen. He continued to work to and his method of urinalysis attracted ary of $5,000 per year for work in the improve social conditions and focused the attention of medical authorities. fi eld of urinalysis. on working with those incarcerated or Even while still a boy, he proved that institutionalized, as well as working he had a natural talent for chemistry Other activities in national and local efforts to amelio- and, according to an advertisement, On 3 June 1911, Van Woerden spoke rate racial discrimination.33 Van Wo- drew the attention of a chemist, De in Holland, Michigan, on found- erden died in 1946 in Crown Point, ingi a colony in Indiana, at the age of seventy-nine. Florida.F He did His widow survived him by more than notn go to Florida thirty years.n himself,h however, butb stayed in Il- linois,l where he becameb involved ini politics, particularlyp the ProgressiveP Party. HeH also founded ana independent PresbyterianP congregationc northn of Chica- After a varied career, Van Woerden enjoyed fi shing in retirement. Image go,g 28 which may courtesy of the author.

40 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Endnotes 1913) had been a minister in Al- nounced on 24 September 1909, “New 1. I am indebted to and thank Rev. blasserdam/Kinderdijk, Gouda, Bookstore. We have often pointed to Gerrit Bieze of Grand Rapids for much Nieuw-Amsterdam, and Den Helder. He the desirability of a good Dutch book information about Van Woerden. Bieze published the periodicals De geestelijke store in Chicago. According to informa- was baptized by Van Woerden in Chi- Wandelaar and Het Olijfblad. In 1887 tion received this desire has now been cago. he emigrated to the United States after fulfi lled. Mr. I. J. S. Brand (sic) Van 2. The fi rst-born, Cornelius Bernar- being involved in marital infi delity. He Woerden, who only last summer came dus, lived just eight days: the ninth, founded an independent congregation from the Netherlands to Chicago, has IJsbrand, lived to be three and a half; in Grand Rapids. Like Van Woerden, he opened such a book store. It is located at and the last two were stillbirths. also advertised his work in medicine. 10727 Michigan Avenue, Roseland. We 3. Informatiuon provided by Th. Van Van den Broek founded several con- trust that Mr. Van Woerden has started Woerden of Lexmond, the Netherlands. gregations in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, this business in the right way and in that 4. Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 7 Sep- and South Dakota. He baptized children case he will be successful. Chicago is a tember 1895. of parents who had not made confession desirable location for such an undertak- 5. Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 3 Febru- of faith and who therefore could not ing.” ary 1897. be baptized in the Christian Reformed 24. Onze Toekomst, 24 June 1910. 6. Watergeuzen (sea beggars) were the Church. Van den Broek made preach- 25. Information of Rev. Gerrit Bieze. rebels who sought independence from ing tours to these congregations and 26. Onze Toekomst, 16 September Spain in the sixteenth century. also published church periodicals for 1910. 7. Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 13 Janu- them. The Fremont congregation may 27. Richard H. Harms, “Whatever ary 1896. have belonged to this church group for a Happened to the Grand Rapids Medical 8. Het Nieuws van den Dag, 3 April short while. College?” in “Wonderland Magazine,” 1897. 17. I described the history of the Grand Rapids Press, 4 December 1988, 9. Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 3 April Fremont congregation in Volume 1 of 39. The college closed in 1905 as the 1897. the series A Memorial Stone Set Up. The Medical School at the University of 10. The Statenvertaling (States Trans- History of the Netherlands Reformed Con- Michigan and the Michigan Medical Col- lation) or Statenbijbel (States’ Bible) is gregations in North America (Norwich, lege in Detroit expanded. the fi rst Bible translation from the origi- Ontario: GA Printing, 2012). 28. The Banner of 26 June 1913 nal Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into 18. Acta der Synode van de Christelijke announced, “A new Holland congrega- Dutch, and was ordered by the govern- Gereformeerde Kerk, 22 June 1906; p. 26 tion was organized in our city, not of ment of the Protestant Dutch Republic 19. I described the history of the Fre- our denomination, nor of the Reformed, fi rst published in 1637. Since then a half mont congregation in Volume 1 of the but of the persuasion. The minister in million copies have been printed and series A Memorial Stone Set Up. charge of this church is Mr. Court Van it remained authoritative in Protestant 20. Richard H. Harms, “The Baerts Woerden, one of the Holland leaders of churches well into the twentieth century. of Zeeland, Michigan, and the Devel- the Progressive Party last fall. Mr. Van 11. Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 8 Janu- opment of Medical Education in the Woerden is a good speaker and preached ary, 15 January, 23 February, and 5 April Nineteenth Century,” Origins (Fall 2013) for a group of people near Fremont 1898, and 7 June 1899. 13-22. about seven years ago.” 12. About 1903, the evangelism 21. “Dutch Church in Winnipeg,” 29. Robert P. Swierenga, Dutch Chi- post in Smitshoek built the Zuiderkapel Winnipeg Tribune, 9 December 1911. cago: a History of the Hollanders in the (South Chapel). Other than newspaper Klaas and Reindert de Vries, Leaving Windy City (Grand Rapids: William B. stories, there are no records from this Home Forever (Windsor: Electa Press Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002) 151. effort extant. Series, 1995). 30. Information on Rev. Isaac Conant 13. Jacoba Maria never remarried and 22. After Rev. Van den Broek returned can be found at http://www.calvin.edu/cgi- died on 4 June 1957 in Driebergen at the to Grand Rapids, the congregation in bin/lib/crcmd/search.pl?ID=369&prevmode age of ninety-six. Winnipeg joined the Christian Reformed =name&termid=380&act=show_details. 14. Het Nieuws van den Dag, 9 De- Church, the second one on Canadian 31. This congregation ceased to exist cember 1901. soil; Nobleford (Nijverdal) in Alberta after members left for Bethany RCA in 15. Bijzonderheden uit het leven en de had been the fi rst one, in 1905. The Roseland, where Dr. H. J. Hager had bekeering van A. Dingemanse, geboren te present Covenant CRC in Winnipeg is a been installed as pastor. Gapinge, eiland Walcheren, Zeeland en merger of this congregation (Elmwood) 32 A young man from this congre- overleden te Denver, Colorado, Noord- and a second-generation immigrant gation, George J. Ossenjuk, became a Amerika (Medegedeeld in brieven aan church that was started in the early Presbyterian minister in 1931. vrienden en uitgegeven door zijne weduwe, 1960s. 33. Evening Tribune, Register-Republic, Kalamazoo, 1921. 23. Onze Toekomst (the Chicago and State Times Advocate, 12 December 16. Rev. J. Van den Broek (1849- Dutch-language weekly newspaper) an- 1930.

41 book reviews

Holland, Michigan: cavalcade of information. Some might facts while allowing him to present a From Dutch Colony to be daunted by this and perhaps even cogent account of complex events. Dynamic City criticize, but this is scholarship that Swierenga begins with the Ottawa will repeatedly be savored. Further, living on Lake Macatawa (also known Robert P. Swierenga the author has divided the work into as Black Lake) when the fi rst Euro- Grand Rapids, MI: topics and sub-topics which, combined Americans arrived. Some may wonder Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. with his engaging writing style, result why there is nothing on the earlier & Van Raalte Press, 2014 in lively vignettes that can be read on woodland peoples known to have Hardcover their own, yet contribute to the larger inhabited West Michigan, since evi- narrative. dence of these people has been found The book can be read for detailed in the Holland area. But such evidence Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, Dean of information on a single topic, such as a is sparse and scattered, compared to Dutch-American Studies and Albertus local congregation like Zion Lutheran sites found elsewhere in southwest- C. Van Raalte Research Professor, A.C. Church, or broad themes such as the ern Lower Michigan or along major Van Raalte Institute, Hope College, religious history of a changing and rivers like the Grand to the north, and Holland, Michigan, spent the past increasingly diverse ethnic community. therefore have received more attention ten years researching the history of Topics in the three volumes include from archeologists. Rather, Swierenga Holland, Michigan. The result of this the coming of the Dutch beginning in focuses on the diversity of the commu- prodigious labor is now available in 1847, the Native People they met and nity from the arrival of the Euro-Amer- Holland, Michigan: From Dutch Colony those who chose to live among the icans forward. He details the diversity to Dynamic City. In 2002 reviewers new immigrants, schools, grassroots among the Dutch immigrants, many admired Swierenga’s Dutch Chicago for, politics, the effects of the world wars of whom had previously traveled only among other attributes, its extensively and the Great Depression, businesses, a few miles from where they were detailed work. Since Holland, Michigan industries, city institutions, down- born. Those from provinces such as is three times longer than the Chicago town renewal, and social and cultural Friesland and Zeeland were as alien book, it is an even more detailed look life in Holland. Robert Swierenga to one another as were people from at a community that began as Dutch- also draws attention to founder Van different foreign countries. In fact, the American and is undergoing signifi cant Raalte’s particular role in forming the two groups spoke entirely different social, cultural, ethnic, and economic city—everything from planning streets languages. And, as Swierenga notes, diversifi cation. The work with its ex- to establishing churches and schools, living among this diversity of people tensive index serves as an encyclopedic nurturing industry, and encouraging from the Netherlands were immigrants history of the community founded in entrepreneurs. from Germany and Scandinavia, and 1847 as well as a micro- and compre- The fi rst thirty-two chapters are chapter three focusses the experiences hensive history of an immigrant com- essays on a variety of historical topics, of Americans among the Dutch. munity in the United States. while the fi nal two chapters deal with Some of the material included will With 2,286 pages of text, 92 pages the present potential of the communi- be familiar to students of history. The of appendices, nearly 900 illustrations, ty. A reader expecting a single histori- life of Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte has and 199 pages of two-columned index, cal narrative may become disheartened already received extensive attention, Holland, Michigan is not a work that when it seems a section may cover as has the religious schism within the can be read in a few sittings. In fact, years discussed in previous sections. community that led members of the attempting to read it as such may well But the author’s episodic treatment Reformed Church in America and lead to being overwhelmed with a avoids overwhelming readers with members of the Christian Reformed

42 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Church in North America to live in viable entrance for ships to the harbor of people are always a challenge: it close proximity and often enmity was diffi cult to construct during the is Garrietta (not Garietta) Schemper with each other. In this case, Holland, mid-nineteenth century and the result (p. 291) and Carolyn (not Caroline) Michigan, serves as a succinct review when this work was fi nally accom- Balfoort (p. 1275). But such do not re- of secondary materials. But most of the plished. Swierenga provides detailed duce the value of this work, and based work presents detailed and insightful descriptions of the development of on past experience the author will views on new topics, such as the three bulk freight, cross-lake passenger do what can be done to correct such chapters on education: public, Chris- service, and the development of resort tian, and post-secondary. Contained traffi c to Lake Macatawa, which was occurrences. The book is copiously here, for instance, is the education the foundation of the still important illustrated with some nine hundred of students with unique needs, the summer tourist industry in the area. images, it is based on meticulous re- effects of the economic crash of the Some information on the summer so- search, and it offers the most detailed late 1920s and 1930s on schools, the cial scene at the parks and on summer history of Holland, Michigan, in print. challenge of dealing with the currency residents like author L. Frank Baum is, These are its merits and its legacy. shortage following the 1933 Bank Hol- unfortunately, not included. Robert Swierenga again has added sig- iday, and the impact and place of the Of course, in an effort of this mag- nifi cantly to historiography in general charter school movement beginning in nitude there are niggling typographi- and to the community of Holland in the mid-1990s. The essay on the de- cal errors that made it into print. For particular. velopment of the Port of Holland has instance, the Ohio sandstone is Berea, a detailed description of the reasons a not Berean (p. 803), and the names Richard H. Harms

43 I Remember When: But narrating the “ordinary” does Throughout the book, Doornbos A Memoir of An Ordinary Life not result in a boring read. The author reaches for two strengths he treasures: weaves contexts in and around his the gift of his Christian faith and Clarence L. Doornbos many interests: education, music, an “understanding of psychology in Grand Rapids, MI: travel, baseball, model trains, rail- dealing with friends, acquaintances, Color House Graphics, 2012 roads, photography, bicycles, long-dis- and students.” Both essentials serve 304 pages tance cycling, automobiles, carpentry, him well in his writing, whether he is $10.00 and home construction. The son of a taking a whimsical look at the home mathematics teacher, Doornbos taught he and his wife occupied as cash- music in Christian schools from el- poor newlyweds in the “Hi-Ho Trailer This book is an encyclopedic recount- ementary through college level. Park,” or remembering a thorny per- ing of ordinary events in the life of an He must have drawn from either sonnel issue during his college teach- ordinary boy growing up in the Chris- a photographic memory or copious ing days, and holding that memory tian Reformed subculture, focusing journals, for he sketches details of only long enough to explain his fam- on family life, Christian school days, ordinary life within an inviting frame ily’s next move back to California. church traditions, and community of time. Not much escaped his no- Any future edition will require events. The narrative spans more than tice. Readers will be reminded of the some proofreading corrections. For fi fty years, beginning with the author’s much-touted but short-lived Edsel, instance, on page 86 there are periods birth in 1940 and ending with his with its chrome “horse-collar grill,” inside and outside the same quota- participation in “Sea to Sea,” the 2007 made by Ford from 1957 to 1960. tion; on page 115 there seems to be cross-country bike tour organized by They will visit the era of weddings and an omission of crucial words; and on the CRC to benefi t charity. Snapshots wedding receptions when brides and page 153 there is a disagreement in and photographs illustrate Doorn- grooms did not incur indebtedness verb te nse. Nonetheless, surveying bos’s memories of ordinary times. His to stage their nuptials. Instead, they the decades with Doornbos affords a settings range from denominational engaged homegrown services and vol- worthwhile and entertaining journey. centers like Kalamazoo, Zeeland, and unteer talent—sometimes with unique Eunice Vanderlaan Grand Rapids, Michigan; Sioux Cen- results. The author recalls a vocal ter, Iowa; and Bellfl ower and Ontario, solo, “In Times like These, Be Very California. Sure,” at his own wedding celebration.

44 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014 book notes

Minutes of the The Enduring Legacy of What’s in a Name? Christian Reformed Albertus C. Van Raalte as History and Meaning of Church: Classical Leader and Liason Wyckoff Assembly, Jacob E. Nyenhuis and M. William Wyckoff George Harinck, editors 1857–1870; General North Charleston, SC: Assembly, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans CreateSpace, 2014 1867–1879; and Publishing Co., 2013 ISBN: 978-1500379957 Synodical Assembly, ISBN: 978-0-8028-7215-p $9.50 Hardcover, 58 pages 1880 $60.00 Hardcover, 518 pages Janet Sjaarda Sheeres, Hendrick K. Harms, Richard H. Harms Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013 ISBN: 978-0-8028-7253-1 $49.00 Softcover, 634 pages

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

Janet Sjaarda Sheeres details the life of Marrigje Hendriks Rook-Vanden Bosch, the wife of the fi rst minister in the Christian Reformed Church

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46 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014

Contributing Sponsors Mr. and Mrs. George J. Vande Werken, Highland, IN contributors Walter and Carol Ackerman, Superior, CO Mr. and Mrs. Allan J. Van Popering, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Charles Alles, Byron Center, MI Mr. Adrian Van Sledright, Caledonia, MI Dr. Kenneth J. Betten, Kalamazoo, MI Sam and Judy Van Til, Crown Point, IN Origins is designed to publicize and James H. and Diane Bloem, Louisville, KY advance the objectives of the Calvin Max and Carol Van Wyk, Grand Rapids, MI Ed and Betty Boersma, Visalia, CA College and Seminary Archives. These Dr. Gene and Sylvia Van Zee, Grand Rapids, MI goals include the gathering, organization John and Sharon Bouma, Holland, MI Mr. Ted W. Vliek, Portage, MI and study of historical materials produced Connie and Roger Brummel, Holland, MI by the day-to-day activities of the Christian Wilbert and Berendina Wichers, Bradenton, FL Mr. and Mrs. Conrad D. Bult, Jenison, MI Reformed Church, its institutions, commu- Mr. and Mrs. Henry I. Witte, Ada, MI nities and people. We invite you to support Mr. and Mrs. Conrad J. Bult, Grand Rapids, MI the continued publication of Origins by Mr. and Mrs. Teunis Witte, Byron Center, MI Mr. and Mrs. John Buursma, Holland, MI becoming “Friends of the Archives.” Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Wybenga, Tallmadge, OH Dr. and Mrs. James A. De Jong, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Jay L. Zandstra, Highland, IN Dr. Daniel and Marian De Vries, Grand Rapids, MI Mary Zwaanstra, Grand Rapids, MI Jan and Jeannie de Vries, Berkeley, CA Enabling Contributor Mr. David B. Zylstra, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Robert Dirkse, Corona, CA Mr. and Mrs. John Meyer, Palos Park, IL Mr. Dale L. Dykema, Newport Beach, CA Contributing Members Friends of the Archives Mark and Ginny Dykstra, South Holland, IL John and Maria Bajema, Rockford, MI Endowment Fund Builders John H. and Marcia R. Evenhouse, Westmont, IL Richard and Cynthia G. Bandstra, Grand Rapids, MI AEGON Insurance Group, Cedar Rapids, IA James and Rosemarie Evenhuis, Novi, MI Audrey and Frank Berkenpas, Grandville, MI Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Baas, Grand Rapids, MI David and Connie Fennema, Durham, NC Mr. and Mrs. Henry Boersma, Marne, MI Robert and Jane Baker Foundation, Kalamazoo, MI Mr. and Mrs. Harold Gazan, Holland, MI Dr. Harmon S. Boertien, Houston, TX Mr. Duane D. Binns, Oak Park, IL Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Geldof, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Richard Boonstra, Escondido, CA Mr. and Mrs. Roger W. Boer, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Greydanus III, Milton, MA Carl and Elizabeth Botting, Ada, MI Dr. and Mrs. Richard H. Harms, Grand Rapids, MI Kay Hoitenga, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Paul L. Bremer, Grand Rapids, MI Holland American Wafer Company, Dr. James and Barbara Hoogeboom, Grand Rapids, Mrs. Ruth E. Brinks, Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids, MI MI Dr. Herman H. Broene, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Peter Huizenga, Oak Brook, IL Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Hoving, Oak Brook, IL Mr. and Mrs. Lester Brouwer, Holland, MI Dr. William Huizingh, Scottsdale, AZ Annette LaMaire, South Holland, IL Elaine and Ralph Bruxvoort, Bloomer, WI Estate of Dick and Dena Kortenhoeven, Highland, IN Mr. and Mrs. Graydon M. Meints, Mesa, AZ Duane and Mona Bulthuis, Ripon, CA Meijer, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Richard Mouw, La Canada, CA Milly and Peter Buma, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Gerald W. Meyering, Denver, CO Tom and Greta Newhof, Ada, MI Mr. and Mrs. Will Byker, Hudsonville, MI Drs. Kornelis J. Storm, Aerdenhout, the Netherlands Ms. Evelyn A. Pastoor, Grand Rapids, MI Wayne and Greta Clousing, Shoreline, WA Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. James Rauwerda, Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids, MI Ron and Cathie Corstange, Hudsonville, MI Mr. Roger Riewald, Thousand Oaks, CA Mr. and Mrs. Claude J. Venema, Jackson, MI Ms. Mary Cremer, Grand Rapids, MI James and Barbara Schaap, Alton, IA Mr. and Mrs. Gary J. Vermeer, Pella, IA Dr. Ivan E. Danhof, Grand Prairie, TX Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Scheeres, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. W. P. De Boer, Grand Rapids, MI Contributing Founders Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, Holland, MI Robert L. and Frances De Bruin, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Dykema, Laurel, MD Mr. and Mrs. William C. Terpstra, Schererville, IN Ms. Helen Den Boer, Clearwater, FL Mr. and Mrs. Bastian A. Knoppers, Oak Brook, IL Steven and Barbara Timmermans, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Ronald De Valois, Lynden, WA Peters Import Marketplace, Grandville, MI Mr. and Mrs. John C. Vander Haag, Sanborn, IA Lucas and Ann De Vries, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Leo Peters, Grand Rapids, MI Benjamin and Debrah Vander Kooi, Luverne, MN Barbara DeWitt, Grand Rapids, MI Clara and Leonard Sweetman, Kentwood, MI Mrs. Kobie Vander Leest, Leduc, AB Henry and Shirley De Witt, Chino, CA Mr. and Mrs. Max B. Van Wyk, Grand Rapids, MI Jan and Gary Vander Meer, DeKalb, IL Hendrik Edelman, New York, NY Mr. and Mrs. John Zonneveld Sr., Laton, CA David Vander Ploeg, St. Joseph, MI Jake and Frances Engel, Ripon, CA

47 Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth D. Engelsman, Centennial, CO Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Mast, Jenison, MI Conrad and Genevieve Timmermans, Grandville, MI Phil and Trudy Erffmeyer, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Harold Mast, Kentwood, MI Dean and Carol Van Bruggen, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Robert Essenburg, Grandville, MI Mr. Gerald Meyer, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Van Dellen, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Mr. and Mrs. George Evenhouse, Wausau, WI Dr. Ted and Mrs. Tena Minnema, Grand Rapids, MI Roger and Joyce Vanden Bosch, Zeeland, MI Mr. and Mrs. Albert J. Griede, La Mesa, CA Dwight and Lois Monsma, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Vander Ark, Grand Rapids, MI Carl and Sandy Gronsman, Grand Rapids, MI James E. and Janice S. Monsma, Medford, MA George and Pat Vander Laan, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Haagsma, Grandville, MI Mr. Bruce Mulder, Grand Rapids, MI Jan and Gary Vander Meer, DeKalb, IL Ulrich and Elizabeth Haasdyk, Calgary, AB Mr. and Mrs. William Noordhof, Lacombe, AB John and Donna Vander Meer, Grand Rapids, MI Ms. Marilyn Heetderks, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. David Ondersma, Holland, MI Dr. and Mrs. Ron Vander Molen, Modesto, CA Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hekstra, Byron Center, MI Robert and Faith Ottenhoff, Shady Side, MD Dr. and Mrs. Gerald L. Vander Wall, Dirk and Gladys Hoek, Modesto, CA Mr. and Mrs. Neal Peters, Hudsonville, MI Grand Haven, MI Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Hoeksema, Jenison, MI Mr. and Mrs. Hendrik Porte, Byron Center, MI Dr. Steve J. Van Der Weele, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. Paul D. and Fannie M. Hoeksema, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. William Post, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Van Dokkenburg, Ralph Hoekstra, Huntington Beach, CA Quentin and Harriet Remein, Bethesda, MD West Lafayette, IN Ms. Grace Anne Hoffa, Kalamazoo, MI Mr. Marvin J. Ritsema, Grandville, MI Dr. John Van Domelen, College Station, TX Dr. Richard E. and Alyce Houskamp, Ada, MI Mrs. Doris Roberts, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. Martin Van Dyke, Denver, CO Dr. and Mrs. Harvey D. Huiner, Lynchburg, VA Al and Rika Scheenstra, Chino Hills, CA Catherine Van Eck, Lansing, IL Harold and Esther Huizenga, Grand Rapids, MI Robert and Francine Schippers, Wayland, MI Dr. Dick and Carol Van Eldik, Gainsville, FL Dr. C. J. Huizinga, Jenison, MI Mr. and Mrs. William C. Schultze, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Larry Van Genderen, Jackson, WY Rich and Jane Iwema, Caledonia, MI Ben and Henny Senneker, Lethbridge, AB Dr. and Mrs. Lambert J. Van Poolen, Loveland, CO Glenn R. Jasperse, Sheboygan, WI Ms. Mary E. Jellema, Holland, MI Mr. and Mrs. P. John Shooks, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Van Tuinen, Longmont, CO Rev. Harvey A. Kiekover, Grand Rapids, MI Carl and Cora Mae Sinke, Grand Rapids, MI Dr. and Mrs. Peter D. Van Vliet, Grand Rapids, MI Hessel and Alice Kielstra, Calgary, AB Dr. and Mrs. Richard D. Sjoerdsma, Racine, WI Evert Volkersz, Stony Brook, NY Mr. John E. King, Wyckoff, NJ Bernie and Melinda Smit, Lafayette, IN Mr. and Mrs. Alvin P. Vos, Endwell, NY Mr. and Mrs. Martin O. Kloet, Simcoe, ON Mr. and Mrs. Albert Snippe, Belwood, ON Bill and Pat Waanders, Grand Rapids, MI Rev. John M. V. Koole, Strathroy, ON Ms. Ann Steenwyk, Oak Lawn, IL Dave and Brenda Wiersma, Tucson, AZ Mr. and Mrs. Randall W. Kraker, Grandville, MI John and Eunice Stegink, Grand Rapids, MI Rev. and Mrs. Homer J. Wigboldy, Lynden, WA Ms. Ardene Lambers, Grand Rapids, MI LeRoy and Anjean Stegink, Grand Rapids, MI Rev. and Mrs. Donald P. Wisse, Wyckoff, NJ Mr. and Mrs. Peter Land, Lowell, MI Mrs. Florence Sterk, Colorado Springs, CO Robert and Joanne Yonker, Grand Rapids, MI Mr. Pierre R. Lettenga, Conrad, MT Dr. Joseph C. Stevens, New Haven, CT Mr. and Mrs. Bernard H. Zandstra, Holt, MI Ken and Ruth. Lobbes, Grand Rapids, MI Richard and Joyce Stienstra, Okemos, MI Kenneth and Elaine Zimmerman, Woodstock, MD

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 XXXII • Number 2 • 2014