Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012 Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 pagepage 8pa pagege 23 (616) 526-6313 Origins is designed to publicize 2 From the Editor 21 History Preserved and advance the objectives of Allison DeWaard The Archives. These goals 4 Jacob Quintus and the include the gathering, Sheboygan Nieuwsbode 25 James Koning Memoir (1906) organization, and study of Hans Krabbendam Robert P. Swierenga, editor Nella Kennedy, translator historical materials produced by 11 Dutch-American Identity the day-to-day activities of the Politics: Christian Reformed Church, The Use of History by Dutch its institutions, communities, Immigrants and people. Hans Krabbendam

Richard H. Harms Editor Hendrina Van Spronsen Circulation Manager Tracey L. Gebbia Designer Harry Boonstra Janet Sheeres Associate Editors James C. Schaap Robert P. Swierenga Contributing Editors HeuleGordon Inc. Printer ppageage 34 page 40

31 My Recollections of Holland 45 Book Notes in 1852 George Edward Holm 46 For the Future upcoming Origins articles Cover photo: 38 Immigration Journey Under Sail 47 Contributors The masthead from the Eugene Westra and Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode Robert P. Swierenga from the editor . . .

described by Edward Holm of his visit then unpacked these there for use to Holland, Michigan, in 1852 when until we return to the renovated space he was eighteen years old. in May. By the time you read this we are scheduled to be back in the newly Available On-Line renovated space and will gladly give The update of the Banner Index of vital you a tour. In the fall issue we will records was updated with 2011 infor- present a visual tour of the new facili- This Issue mation and published on our website ties. In the current issue Allison DeWaard, (http://www.calvin.edu/hh/Banner/ We processed the papers of Andrew a student at Dordt College, tells the Banner.htm). Barnes, a specialist in the history of story of her family’s efforts at farm- Christian mission work in the Sudan. ing near Columbus, Montana. Hans News from the Archives The papers contain many original Krabbendam, Assistant Director of A portion of our time since last fall documents and unique secondary the Roosevelt Study Center in Mid- that would otherwise have been spent sources on the CRC mission efforts delburg, the Netherlands, presents the processing collections was devoted beginning there in the 1930s. We life of Jacob Quintus, who published to moving collections. Late in the also opened for research the personal the fi rst Dutch-language newspaper in fall, phase 1 of the Heritage Hall/Rare papers of Rev. Bartel Huizenga, his- the United States and described how Books renovation was completed and tory professor Henry Ippel, economics Dutch identity came to be defi ned we moved all of the college records, professor John Tiemstra, as well as among immigrants in North America. Christian Reformed Church congre- the fi rst day postal covers collection Next, we present two accounts of the gational records, genealogical materi- by John Cevaal. Work on the transla- immigration experience during the als, and approximately two-thirds of tion of the Holland, Michigan, Central middle of the nineteenth century, the our reference collection into the new Avenue CRC minutes through 1927 fi rst written by Eugene Westra and space in preparation for the phase 2 continues, as does keying in data of Robert Swierenga, who also intro- work. We boxed the remaining refer- vital records information from the duced the second account by James ence material and all of our offi ce fi les Banner, and family data in the Calvin- Koning. Lastly, we include events for moving to the Surge Building, and ist Contact. Work has also begun on

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organizing the records of the church 1847-1857, at a conference in rec- Our volunteers include Rev. Dr. Paul plants in the CRC Home Missions col- ognition of the 200th anniversary of Bremer, Mrs. Willene De Groot, Mr. lection as well as the extensive papers the birth of Dr. A. C. Van Raalte. He Ed Gerritsen, Mr. Fred Greidanus, Mr. of Dr. Vernon Ehlers who served on was one of six presenters asked to Ralph Haan, Mrs. Helen Meulink, Rev. the Kent County Board of Commis- participate at both the conference in Gerrit W. Sheeres, Mrs. Janet Sheeres, sioners, in the Michigan Legislature, Holland, Michigan, and the following and Mr. Ralph Veenstra. and in the US House of Representa- week in Ommen, the Netherlands. As tives. part of this, media in both locations Endowment Fund Noteworthy among the archival ac- interviewed him, and a Dutch transla- Currently our endowment fund cessions were twenty-one boxes from tion of his presentation was published and operating fund have a value of CRC Home Missions and six boxes online by the Trouw. The full research $492,921. Of this, $100,000 will be from the college Provost. The Home paper will be published in a book used to offset the current renovation Missions material contains signifi cant of proceedings produced by the Van project, but our annual subscription information on church plants dur- Raalte Institute and the Free Univer- rate remains at $10, even though ing the past four decades. Among the sity of Amsterdam. $10 no longer covers the cost for the personal papers received were those two mailings a year. As always, we of geologist Clarence Menninga and Staff are grateful to our supporters, many a signifi cant addition to the papers Richard Harms is the curator of of whom contribute well above the donated by Diet Eman, who worked the Archives; Hendrina Van Spron- subscription cost.D in the Dutch resistance during World sen is the offi ce coordinator; while War II. Wendy Blankespoor our librarian and cataloging archivist is on leave, Publications Diane Vander Pol has joined the staff In early November Richard Harms for several months; Laurie Haan is was invited to present a paper based department assistant; Dr. Robert Bolt on his research on the tensions among is fi eld agent and assistant archivist. Dutch immigrants in West Michigan, Our student assistant is Ben Rietema. Richard H. Harms

3 Jacob Quintus and the Sheboygan Nieuwsbode Hans Krabbendam

acob Quintus (1821-1906), son of Ja teacher in a small village in the Dutch province of Zeeland, has been largely forgotten in the Netherlands. In the United States his editorship of the fi rst Dutch-American newspaper (1849-1861) saved him from oblivion. One might argue that Quintus was not unique, since many other publica- tions were launched in the immediate years, but his publication was the fi rst successful enterprise and acted as an inspiration to others who recognized the Sheboygan Nieuwsbode as the model for the Dutch-language press in the United States. The activities of Quintus reveal, in detail, the stream of information between the sources of emigration in the Netherlands and settlement areas Jacob Quintus (1821-1906), from the Dutch in the United States. While the corpus province of Zeeland, edited the fi rst Dutch- of the fi fty-some Dutch-language pub- American newspaper (1849-1861). Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand lications has been well documented, Rapids, Michigan. little is known about the motives, the instruments, and the decisions an Finally, there is an additional aca- editor made. Quintus’s work reveals demic reason for a renewed interest in detail his selection decisions, while in his life. One of the new questions his later editorial work confi rmed that in migration history focuses on the he was an irrepressible newspaper- connections between areas and people man. that transcend national boundaries His career documents the role and national origin: the issue of trans- of non-clergy in the pioneer phase nationalism. Early ethnic newspapers Since 1990 Dr. Hans Krabbendam has of Dutch immigration. Further, the functioned in this space between two been with the Roosevelt Study Center location of this fi rst newspaper offi ce nations and the way in which editors in Middelburg, The Netherlands, cur- is signifi cant and Quintus’s move such as Quintus advanced transna- rently serving as its assistant-director. He is the author of several books and to Michigan helps to explain why tional connections helps to under- numerous articles in the intersections though the Badger State had been the stand this process. of Dutch immigration history, religious destination of the early immigrants, history, and Dutch-American relations. Michigan became the center of Dutch Origins immigration in the US. Jacob Quintus was born in

4 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

Zonnemaire, on the island of Duive- kee); Jan Kotvis land, the northern most part of the and Pieter Lank- province of Zeeland, on Christmas ester from Middel- Eve 1821. He was the youngest son of burg, south of this Jan Quintus, who died before Jacob’s city in Franklin fi rst birthday. At age ten his mother Prairie. In 1845, Neeltje Slagboom (1792-1831) also similar groups passed away, leaving Jacob an orphan. from western Thanks to an earlier marriage of his Zeelandic Flan- father, who was sixty-fi ve when Jacob ders had founded was born, he had enough relatives in “Town Thirteen,” the province to take care of him. A two years later number of them were craftsmen living renamed “Town in Zeelandic Flanders,1 others were Holland,” south teachers. The Quintus family was part of Sheboygan, of the lower middle class; they owned and then named their home in Zonnemaire, ten acres Oostburg. The of farmland, and some stock in rural expectations for industry.2 the development Jacob followed in the footsteps of of Wisconsin were his late father and became an assistant high; Scholte and teacher in Haamstede on the island of Van Raalte intend- Quintus was born in Zonnemaire, on the island of Duiveland, in the Schouwen. At age eighteen he entered ed to settle in the northern part of the province of Zeeland. the lowest category of teachers, an state, until Ameri- assistant to a teacher. While he served can contacts persuaded them to settle Among the travelers was the thirty- alternately in various regions where in Iowa and Michigan, respectively. one-year-old Frans van Driele (1816- his relatives lived, he became an as- The departure of the large group of 1900) from Goes, who was very much sistant teacher on his native Schou- 457 from the center of the province, like Quintus. Van Driele came from wen in 1847. Jacob had ambition, but headed by Seceders in April 1847, a family that had lost a parent and lacked opportunities. He had acquired made a deep impression on Jacob. had learned at an early age to support diplomas to teach foreign languages, His brother-in-law, Leendert Dooge, himself. He worked as a baker’s ap- but the economic crisis kept many who was a painter and an emigra- prentice in various places and later as children out of school and prevented tion agent, made him aware that a traveling salesman in haberdashery him from earning further promotion. emigration was a viable solution for and books. He used his savings for the Practical, well-informed, a well- the economic stagnation in Zeeland. trip to the United States and would connected person, full of initiative, His friend Pieter Souffrouw added become a leading Dutch community and with a good sense for business, valuable personal experiences. This leader and elder in the Reformed Quintus in the late 1840s was inter- watchmaker had returned from Wis- church in Grand Rapids. ested in emigration, the talk of the consin to bring his mother, two broth- The party sailed from Zeeland on town, especially in Zeelandic Flan- ers, and four sisters to the American 6 August 1847 on Charles Humber- ders, where laborers had been leaving Midwest. On 10 July 1847, Souffrouw ston. A strong countering wind in the for New York and Wisconsin before and Dooge placed an announcement English Channel stranded the ship on Dutch immigrants under the leader- in the Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode, a sand bank close to Calais. The pas- ship of the ministers Albertus Van recruiting passengers for a quick de- sengers were rescued and set ashore at Raalte and Hendrik Scholte launched parture in August. A group of eighty Calais, where they were treated well the era of large-scale Dutch migra- artisans and small businessmen from with bread and warm milk, and then tion. Wisconsin had attracted many Axel, Oostburg, Terneuzen, Zierikzee, continued their journey via Le Havre. settlers from Zeeland, who settled in Bommenede, Goes, and Zonnemaire Quintus’s knowledge of French and the Milwaukee area: Gerardus Brandt (all towns in Zeeland) joined the two. German was useful when talking to from Kapelle in Bethlehem (or “Town This exodus was a business enter- the authorities and negotiating with Eight,” eight miles north of Milwau- prise and not religiously motivated. the other, mostly German, immigrants

5 The masthead from the Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode. Zierikzee is just south of Zonnemaire also on the island of Duiveland. Image courtesy of the author. to fi nd an alternate ship. This resulted sold three-month subscriptions to To Wisconsin in their departure on Robert Parker, the Dutch periodical for $1.10. This Quintus’s departure from New York which fi ve weeks later, on 27 Sep- Dutch newspaper from his home fi t into the typical pattern of Dutch tember, brought the company to New region had a circulation of 1,500 and immigrants. Most of them had suf- York.3 was a commercial success. It vented fi cient funds for passage, but not to During the trip Quintus had grown the frustrations of the Dutch who buy property upon arrival. A tempo- as a leader and after arriving he were dissatisfi ed with the economic rary stay in the East, building canals continued to seek opportunities as stagnation and high taxes in the or railroads, generated the capital an information broker for his fellow Netherlands which did not benefi t the to invest in farms and businesses in countrymen in Albany, where his citizens.6 the Midwest. Frans Van Driele, for brother-in-law Dooge acted as agent Since the weekly importation of instance, had labored on the Delaware for immigrants en route to Buffalo.4 Dutch newspapers was costly and time & Hudson Canal for nine months be- They became partners who contracted consuming, Quintus tried publishing fore he moved on to West Michigan.8 with a person in New York to ar- a Dutch-language newspaper in New Quintus traveled to Sheboygan, range transportation for immigrants York State. However, he had to aban- where members of his immigrant to Albany. They made reservations on don the project when other publishers party had settled. It is likely that canal boats to Buffalo and lake vessels set up De Nederlander in Noord-Ameri- he had an eye on Pieter Souffrouw’s on the Great Lakes. In the process ka (The Dutchman in North America) sister, Catharina, whom he married Quintus taught the new arrivals the and ruined the reputation of such shortly after his arrival in the spring basics of the English language. This enterprises by depositing subscription of 1849. project was successful because many money, publishing eight issues, and When he arrived in Sheboygan, Dutch immigrants, while literate, then canceling the operation—to the the town had just 700 inhabitants. He lacked English-language skills. Soon disappointment of their subscribers.7 realized that his clientele needed more he published a Dutch-English diction- Quintus realized that a trustworthy than the (old) news from Zierikzee. ary as part of this instruction.5 enterprise could work and discovered So, on 16 October 1849, he launched The Dutch immigrant group in that the West offered a faster growing his own newspaper, only changing the Albany was diverse and transient. market and therefore was more prom- place name to the Sheboygan Nieuws- It wasn’t until 1859 that they or- ising than New York. He decided to bode, the fi rst Dutch-language news- ganized their own congregation. move to Wisconsin to join his future paper published in North America. Quintus’s many contacts and the in-laws in the spring of 1849 and there He built it into a business, opened a need for information led him to sell determined to make a second effort printing shop, and offered additional the Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode in the to realize his plan to provide Dutch services as a notary public. Quintus United States. On 24 July 1848 the immigrants in the US with news about joined his brother-in-law Souffrouw newspaper announced that J. Quintus their homeland, their new environ- in local politics. They both supported in Buffalo (and in Albany in 1849) ment, and each other. the Democrats against the Whigs and

6 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

hoped to increase Jacob’s business and Van Raalte, spread the word and United States. He closely monitored enterprise in this way. whose persuasive powers made them the immigrant fl ows as he had done The Sheboygan Nieuwsbode began into two prominent leaders in other back home, where his brother-in-law as a double-paged newspaper with aspects of immigrant life in their com- Leendert Dooge had been an immi- news from Dutch immigrants in the munities. However, there were differ- grant agent. In Wisconsin Quintus Sheboygan area, local advertisements, ences with Badger State immigrants printed statistical overviews for the and summaries of the news from who did not necessarily share the state which kept readers informed Dutch and American newspapers. same religious aspirations as their kin about new business opportunities. Within a year the size doubled to in Michigan and Iowa. Instead of min- In addition to his printing business, four densely printed pages. Quintus isters, Dutch business leaders, such as Quintus sold coffee and Dutch gin. In recruited an extensive network of lo- Quintus and Milwaukee lawyer and 1855 he was ready for expansion and cal correspondents to provide infor- Dutch consul Gijsbert van Steenwijk, he dropped the name Sheboygan from mation and retailers (often the same were instrumental in promoting the title and hoped to attract a broad- person) to distribute his newspaper. settlement in Wisconsin. er clientele with the name Nieuws- He wrote the copy and reprinted Quintus’s Wisconsin promotion bode.12 More than other newspapers, articles from other sources. A short praised the state’s export routes for Quintus's newspaper looked beyond poem illustrated this method: “De its mining and agricultural products, the horizon at railroad planning, new Redacteur zit neer, met kranten over- via the Great Lakes to the East or legislation, the court system, educa- laden, Bijna verdwaald in ’t nieuws, via the Mississippi in the South and tion, and promising new economic van alle nieuwsbladen.” (The editor West. He announced that large tracts activities such as growing tobacco or sits down, burdened by many news- of land were still available and cheap. producing cheese. papers, almost lost in the news from The air was much healthier than in While the Nieuwsbode had many all the periodicals.)9 Thanks to his Michigan, which was plagued by American features, there remained circle of mostly Zeeland agents, who “fever and ague” caused by stagnant much continuity between the Zierikzeesche and the Sheboygan Nieuwsbode. As the Zeeland news- paper took sides for the workers in their struggles with owners, Quintus supported the Democrats against the aristocratic Whigs. At the beginning of 1850 he wrote: “. . . we believe that each reader has long felt that we adhere to the teachings of Jef- ferson . . . . He, the true democrat, acknowledges all the classes of his fel- low citizens, and treats the poor with The fi rst issue of the Sheboygan Nieuwsbode. Notice the similarity with the Zierikzeesche equal respect as the rich. He spreads Nieuwsbode. Image from microfi lm in the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. with speed the truths of the demo- received a free subscription as com- water in that tree-covered state. He cratic faith and contributes to the pensation, Dutch immigrants received claimed that this reason had encour- maintenance of the correct principles information about the movements of aged hundreds of Michigan citizens and the everlasting continuity of our their ilk. He gradually expanded his to move west. Even more promising free institutions and laws.”13 sources from only Zeeland to Ameri- for farmers was that the states of Iowa Of course his preference was also can newspapers and used his Buffalo and Wisconsin would soon be con- guided by the profi tability of political contacts for news about the East. Of nected to the East via railroads.11 connections. Local newspapers could course he promoted Wisconsin in his Through the years, Quintus devel- only survive thanks to printing gov- newspaper and sent copy for publica- oped a good compass for economic ernment documents which were al- tion in his native country.10 opportunities and political currents. located as political gifts to supporters. In promotional aspects Wisconsin He maintained an excellent national Quintus’s efforts to run for local offi c- differed from Iowa and Michigan, newspaper network, both in the Neth- es failed, even though he also printed where ministers, particularly Scholte erlands and increasingly within the the English-language Democratic

7 The 16 January 1855 issue of the Nieuwsbode, when Quintus dropped the geographic limiter of Sheboygan from the masthead. Image from microfi lm in the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Secretary. In 1854 he joined the Re- ers found jobs in the publican Party out of frustration with city’s factories and slavery, but possibly also in aspiration workshops. Also, the of elective offi ce.14 He served as clerk surrounding area was of court for two years, but was defeat- prospering and the ed and he returned to the Democratic hopes of a good port Party in 1857 because of the radical increased the pros- ideas on abolition, a campaign against pects for a Holland immigrants, and opportunism by the harbor.15 Republicans. These shifting political In the spring of allegiances made his readers nervous 1858 Quintus decided and many canceled their subscrip- to sell his newspaper tions. The political vicissitudes were a to his German coedi- foreboding of more change. tor and translator, A. During the economically unstable Pott, and take his 1850s, Quintus concluded that family on a trip to Sheboygan was not the best loca- the homeland. The tion to realize his ambition. In May summer of 1858 was 1857 Quintus visited Grand Rapids, a turning point in his Michigan, and became convinced that life. Not often did this city had a great future and would immigrants decide to develop into the second largest city return to their na- in the state, thanks to its cheap and tive country so soon abundant waterpower, cheap building for a visit. On 3 June materials, and developing rail connec- Quintus, his wife, and tions. He saw three railroads approach four-year-old daugh- the city and connect the various cor- ter Jennie landed in ners of the state, generously funded Rotterdam and visited by land grants. The city boasted relatives in Zeeland excellent educational opportunities, a for three months. variety of churches, and well-stocked After their return to department stores, among them one the US they settled called the “New Dutch Store” in the in Grand Rapids.16 city center, owned by his brother-in- Whether the econom- Advertisement by Quintus for his printing services. Image courtesy law Leendert Dooge. Many Holland- ic crisis and the crop of the author.

8 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

failures of 1857 stimulated his depar- Reformed church ture, or whether he had alienated his for the mystic readers by moving back and forth be- group of the Swe- tween the Democratic and Republican denborgians. The parties, or whether his decision was thirtieth anniver- triggered by his political defeat, or his sary of the found- failing health, is not easy to say. Most ing of the Dutch likely all of these factors added up to settlement on the his decision to move and it appeared fi rst of October to be a good one. 1877 took place Quintus did well in Grand Rapids in his home at 18 where he continued to deal in news- Prospect Street, papers. For seven years he published in Grand Rapids’ the Americaansche Stoompost (Ameri- best neighbor- can Steampost) from 1859-1866, and hood.20 once again in 1884 with the Nieuwe After the death Courant.17 Because only one issue of of his wife Catha- A 2008 image of the house Quintus lived in after he moved to Grand this later publication survived, little is rina in 1903, Rapids, Michigan. Image courtesy of the author. known about his publishing activities Quintus moved in Michigan. However, the Stoompost in with daughter Jennie in Plainwell, who represented them in the state and closely resembled the Nieuwsbode. De- Michigan, where he died in 1906, at maintained unity in times of pressure. spite the term “American” in the title, the age of eighty-fi ve. He had shown The average Wisconsin immi- it brought mainly a variety of Dutch that it was also possible to make grant had suffi cient means to sur- and European news stories, listed new connections among the Dutch immi- vive without the strong community immigrants and lost relatives, clipped grants outside the religious networks support present in other states. But stories from other Dutch-American and that a newspaper in the Dutch the fact that railroad lines connect- periodicals, and printed many com- language was a necessity.21 ing the Sheboygan area to eastern mercial announcements. It claimed and western markets were estab- the largest circulation among Dutch Conclusion lished relatively late, and the lack of newspapers in the Union. There was Jacob Quintus’s departure from symbiotic (and mutually benefi cial) more continuity with the Wisconsin Wisconsin ended the Dutch-language relationships between urban and rural period in Quintus’s efforts to combine press in the state for fi fteen years. It settlements—as in Michigan between commercial, editorial, and politi- would be 1878 before another Dutch- Grand Rapids, Holland, and their cal initiatives. As in Wisconsin, his language periodical, De Standaard, satellite villages— capped the growth political career in Michigan quickly would be printed. This newspaper in Wisconsin. These developments faded. Though he served as school served Flemish and Dutch Catho- attracted immigrants who were less supervisor in 1861, he failed to be lics. In the meantime the center of interested in following strong cleri- elected to other offi ces.18 In contrast, the Dutch Protestants had become cal leadership so that churches were his business enterprise fl ourished. He fi xed permanently in Michigan. The not able to generate further cultural dealt in real estate, opened an offi ce Sheboygan Nieuwsbode had not in- development. as a notary public (mainly to retrieve tended this shift, but contributed to it It is unlikely that editor Jacob inheritances in the old country), sold nonetheless by reporting on the suc- Quintus was aware of all these factors, life insurance, and was an agent for cesses of the Dutch there and in other even though he had the best overview various shipping companies. Accord- places. The Dutch Protestant colony to compare the conditions in the vari- ing to the tax assessment records his in Wisconsin developed differently ous Dutch settlements. His experi- property jumped from $500 in 1850 from those in Michigan and Iowa. The ences demonstrate the differences to $6,000 ten years later and $40,000 pioneers there did not settle with an in the Dutch immigrant experience. in 1870.19 He remained at the core overarching plan for the development His unique Sheboygan Nieuwsbode of the Dutch (business) community, of the area, as in Holland and Zee- did not survive the Civil War, but though religiously he moved a bit land, Michigan, and Pella, Iowa. They other periodicals took over the role outside the mainstream. He left the lacked strong and visionary leaders in the Dutch-American community.22

9 school books, Bibles, maps, stationery land, on 8 Oct. 1824, where she later and planned to publish a Dutch almanac kept a store. The 1850 census listed in 1849. Quintus explained in the pref- a son of two years old: John Varded. ace that the demand for this dictionary He died young, as did two daughters, surpassed the supply from the Nether- Suzanne M. Quintus who died on 13 lands. Mar. 1851, eight months old; and Jane 6. Jan van Damme, “De standenmaat- C. Quintus on 3 Sep. 1853, ten months schappij in de Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode, old. Sheboygan County Historical 1844-1846” (MA thesis, Radboud Uni- Society, Burial List Wildwood Cemetery, versiteit Nijmegen, 1978). Sheboygan Co., Wisc., block 4. A third A bookplate from one of Quintus’s books that 7. Prospectus published in 1848 ac- daughter, Jennie, was born in 1854. The is now in the collection of the Grand Rapids cording to the Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 16 second son John was born on 7 Apr. Public Library. Image courtesy of the author. Oct. 1849. 1859 and became an engineer. Zierikzee- 8. In the fall of 1851 Leonard (Leen- sche Nieuwsbode, 5 Jun. and 3 Jul. 1858. The fi rst successful Dutch-American dert) Dooge moved to Ravenna, close to 17. The only surviving issue of the editor began his enterprise copying Muskegon in Michigan, and later moved Stoompost is the one of 27 Dec. 1865 a Dutch example, then adapting it to to Grand Rapids. Lucas, Dutch Immigrant preserved in Clarke Historical Library, o Memoirs, 1: 356-358. Mount Pleasant, Michigan. American experience. 9. Cited in J. Breur, “De Sheboygan 18. Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode, 27 Sep. Nieuwsbode. Het eerste Nederlandstalige 1884. In 1862 Quintus lost the campaign nieuwsblad in de Verenigde Staten 1849- as the Democratic candidate for clerk Endnotes 1861” (MA thesis, Radboud Universiteit of Kent County to Peter Pierce with 1. The southernmost portion of the Nijmegen, 1991). 2,568 to 3,152 votes and in 1866 Pierce province on the border with Belgium. 10. Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode, 17 Oct. defeated him again with 4,129 to 2,619 2. Zierikzeesche Courant, 27 Oct. 1850. votes. 1837. 11. Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 9 and 16 19. CD-ROM Immigration Records: 3. Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode, 26 Aug. Apr. 1850. Dutch in America, 1800s (Novato, CA: 1847 and Jacob Quintus, “Een terugblik 12. Ibid, 3 Mar. 1855. The Learning Company, 2000). over vijftig jaren,” (An overview of fi fty 13. Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 29 Jan. 20. Dwight Goss, History of Grand years) De Grondwet, 21 Nov. 1911. 1850. Rapids and Its Industries (Chicago: C. 4. Henry S. Lucas, ed., Dutch Immi- 14. The fi rst issue of the Democratic F. Cooper, 1906) 863-864, and Albert grant Memoirs and Related Works, 2 vols. Secretary appeared on 7 Oct. 1853, but Baxter, History of the City of Grand Rapids (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1955; repr. Grand it folded after a year. The State His- (New York and Grand Rapids: Munsell Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997) vol 2: 294-300 torical Society of Wisconsin in Madison and Company, 1891). and 435-439. preserves the one and only copy. Quintus 21. Sheboygan County News, 28 Feb. 5. H. Picard, De Hollander in Amerika. became the secretary of the County Con- 1906. He was buired in Hillside Ceme- Leerwijze der Engelsche taal door H.P.; ten vention of the Republicans on 25 Oct. tery, Plainwell, Michigan, in Allegan dienste mijner landgenooten ter drukking 1854 (Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 31 Oct. County, the home of his daughter Jennie overgegeven door J. Quintus, onderwijzer 1854). The voters elected him on 7 Nov. who had married Dr. Arthur Hazelwood. in de Engelsche, Hollandsche en Fransche 1854 as Clerk of Court with 930 to 737 22. Robert Schoone-Jongen, “De talen (The Dutchman in America: Teaching votes (Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 14 Nov. Volksvriend and Dutch-American Con- method of the English language by H.P.; 1854), but he was defeated in 1856. nections,” in Robert P. Swierenga, Jack printed for my fellow countrymen by J. 15. Sheboygan Nieuwsbode, 16 Jun. Nyenhuis, and Nella Kennedy, eds., Quintus, teacher of the English, Dutch, 1857. Dutch-American Arts and Letters in and French languages) (Buffalo, NY: O. 16. Pott returned the newspaper to Historical Perspective (Holland, MI: Van G. Steele, 1848) 77 pp. Steele printed, the Republicans, but it folded on 8 May Raalte Press, 2008) 183-190. bound, and sold books in the center 1861. Jacob’s wife Catharina Wilhelmina of Buffalo at 206 Main Street. He sold Souffrouw was born in Oostburg, Zee-

10 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

Dutch-American Identity Politics: The Use of History by Dutch Immigrants

Hans Krabbendam

n 1991 Guy Vander Jagt, Republi- It’s sort of your State.” This example Ican Congressman from Michigan, of irrefutable logic persuaded Bun- succeeded in securing 220 signatures ning and many others to sign, and from his colleagues in the House President Bush Sr. duly elevated 16 of Representatives to send a resolu- November to the status of commemo- tion to President Bush asking him to ration day for the ethnic heritage of declare 16 November “Dutch-Amer- the estimated 8 million Americans ican Heritage Day.”1 In an interview identifying with their Dutch roots.2 Vander Jagt revealed that not all of his Vander Jagt admitted that he had colleagues signed because they felt so initiated this act to please his Dutch close to the Dutch, but because they constituency, but it did not achieve could not resist Vander Jagt’s ora- the desired success. torical wit. He remembered how he approached Congressman Jim Bun- Immigrant Strategies ning, a former baseball pitcher, who In 2000 the Norwegian literary histo- rian Orm Overland analyzed the strat- egies used by non-British immigrants in creating their homes in the United States.3 He asserts that immigrants participated early in the modern process of identity politics, because they were caught in the middle be- tween being foreign in America and equally foreign in their home coun- tries. Whatever they decided about maintaining or surrendering their old culture, they met critical responses from their relatives or their surround- ings. A way out of this tension was Guy Vander Jagt (1931-2007) was born in to create mythical stories connecting Cadillac, Michigan, and represented Michigan’s their group’s heritage with America. 9th Congressional District, 1966-1993. A Overland identifi ed three types of skilled public speaker, Vander Jagt also served myths available to the immigrants: a as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Image courtesy of foundation myth that claimed a share the Joint Archives of Holland. in the origin of the United States, a myth of sacrifi ce that emphasized the refused to sign saying, “I don’t do that contribution of immigrants in Amer- sort of thing,” and how he responded ica’s wars, and an ideological myth with, “Come on Jim. You pitched for that asserted that an immigrant group the Detroit Tigers. Detroit is Michigan had an American disposition (usu- and Michigan is Holland, Michigan. ally love of freedom and democracy)

11 before it had even emigrated. These Anglo-Saxons myths were common ingredients in determined the the popular and fi liopietistic histo- choice of argu- ries and commemorative addresses of ments: Midwest- Euro-American groups from 1870 to ern and eastern 1930, the decades of massive Europe- reactions could an immigration, and were often used differ. Immi- in combination. Ethnic leaders de- grant groups ployed these strategies to strengthen preferred to use their group’s self-respect and a sense the foundation of continuity in order to prevent their myth, followed group from anonymously sliding into by the myth of the amorphous American society. sacrifi ce and This common pattern among ideology myth. European immigrant groups did not We will see mean they showed solidarity with one that different another. Foundation myths of one sections in the group competed with similar myths Dutch-American of another in order to move a step subculture chose up on the ladder of privilege. When different strate- Norwegian-Americans promoted gies. Leif Erikson as the “discoverer” of Not only re- the New World, Italian-Americans cent immigrants considered this act an embezzlement used their heri- of “their” Columbus. Swedes tried to tage to demand push Finns out of the celebration of more respect. the founding of New Sweden because Simultaneously, Image courtesy of the author. Finland was not an independent na- organizations tion in the seventeenth century. Nor of respectable descendants of colo- workers proved to be imaginary, apart were these invocations always suc- nial immigrants emerged explicitly from a few ads and popular songs. cessful. Germans during World War I to protect their specifi c heritage, and Jensen explains the persistence of this unsuccessfully deployed arguments of later in the twentieth century foreign myth by showing the strong ties of sacrifi ce in order to keep their place governments discovered the same working-class solidarity among the in the pecking order. The Irish were strategy to strengthen diplomatic Irish, which had strong and effective fi rst in developing a myth of ideology, and economic relations. Around the collective bargaining strategies. This based on their fi ght against the British World War I, the Dutch minister in helped them to gain and keep consid- and their struggle for freedom. The Washington faithfully attended the erable political power. The “No Irish tenuous nature of this myth is evident annual meetings of the Holland and Need Apply” myth might very well when we fi nd no welcoming recep- Netherlands Societies in his region, have been meant to issue defensive tion for the Irish upon their arrival on singing the praises of the Netherlands warnings not to break these bonds American soil in the 1840s and 1850s as the “Holy Land of Modern Europe” of solidarity by accepting jobs from as “freedom fi ghters.” (to quote an Oxford don) and rais- Protestants or others outside the circle Not all uses of history were mono- ing emotional support for the Dutch of control. This “negative” myth was lithic within one ethnic group. Class position.4 not in competition with the “positive made a difference: typical working- Apart from these three positive home-making” myth; on the contrary, class socialistic sympathies did not myths, immigrant subcultures created it emphasized the perceived unfair- encourage these myths, since these negative myths. A key example of this ness that the Irish were wanted in the myths destroyed labor solidarity. The category is the “No Irish Need Ap- American army, but not in regular location of the settlement, the interac- ply” story, deconstructed by historian jobs. tion with surrounding ethnic groups, Richard Jensen.5 This widespread The value of historian Overland’s and the presence of the dominant belief in the signs rejecting Irish analysis is that it transforms the

12 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

meaning of ethnic celebrations in the the Synod of Dordt, they strengthened American historian John Lothrop United States from rear-view mirrors the traditional Dutch element in the Motley.7 For almost seventy-fi ve of nostalgia to windows on the future RCA, while their benevolent assis- years this book fi xed the image of the as instruments to make America tance helped the progressive agenda Netherlands in the English-speaking home. of advancing humanity.6 world, even though it was not as well Moreover, while one could con- researched as his later books. The Dutch History Surfaces clude that groups most under pres- impressive sales of this book were a The rise in popularity of Dutch his- sure in American society would turn result of the parallels readers saw be- tory was not exclusively an immigrant to these historical strategies fi rst, tween the Dutch and American wars prerogative. Historian Firth Haring the evidence suggests no immediate of independence and the increasing Fabend has shown that the revitaliza- link between nativism and an effort tension between the American North tion of the Dutch tradition took place to claim a part in America’s heritage. and South. The work also took an an- in the early nineteenth century, when For instance, the publication of the ti-Spanish and anti-Catholic perspec- members of the Reformed Dutch fi rst Dutch-American newspaper (the tive, both well accepted in the United Church (now the Reformed Church in Sheboygan Nieuwsbode) in 1849 was States during the nineteenth century. America—RCA) created romanticized more a result of the recent wave of Motley hoped to liberate the English- models of the old Batavian tribes and immigrants who needed a channel speaking world from its concentration listed and adopted the positive quali- of communication than of emerg- on itself. He provided the arguments ties of the Dutch, partly to counter ing nativism. One could assume that for the ideological parallels between once a group reached the status of the Dutch and American Republics acceptance, these three myths lost and was aided by Douglas Campbell their usefulness. This appears not to who, in his book on the Puritans have been the case, since these dynamics contin- ue to function in offi cial diplomatic exchanges, and they continue to be revived at the building of inter- national relations. While Wash- ington Irving had placed the New Cover of John Lothrop Motley’s Netherland Dutch The Rise of the Dutch Republic, in a comic light in published in 1856, defi ned the his Knickerbocker image of the Netherlands in the Painting by Phillips Melville, of brig Andrew Doria receiving a salute English-speaking world. tales, the Dutch from the Dutch fort at St. Eustatius, West Indies, 16 November 1776. The reputation had Grand Union fl ag is fl ying at Andrew Doria’s stern and on her foremast. the dominion of the British tradition. received a seri- Courtesy of the US Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC. Public domain image. This revival of Dutch heritage was ous and positive used by those ministers who wanted correction in the late 1840s thanks in England, Holland, and America, to resist the Americanizing infl uences to the publication of The History of published in 1892, denied the British of revivalism and ecumenicalism New Netherland by an Irish-American, the honor of having nursed American that were confronting the traditional Edmund B. O’Callaghan, which institutions.8 identity of the church. The arrival provided a factual treasure trove for The celebration of America’s of a new wave of pious Dutch immi- the foundation myth. The impact of centennial in 1876 and the profes- grants in the 1840s enabled the RCA O’Callaghan’s work was surpassed sionalization of historical studies in to placate both sides. By welcoming by the even more popular The Rise the US followed, further kindling the Dutch settlers, loyal to the Acts of of the Dutch Republic in 1856 by the interest in the discipline. In the 1880s

13 the awareness of the historical ties York in 1885 was a reaction of the songs focusing on ethnic superiority between the US and Holland were re- Old Dutch colonial elite to the over- such as:13 discovered and published. In 1881 an whelming forces of industrialization American minister in the Netherlands, and immigration. Its establishment “I’m a Van of a Van of a Van of a Van James Birney, retraced the evidence of resulted from a court case where the Of a Van of a way back line; when Commander Johannes de Graaff lawyers and judges were all “Vans”— of St. Eustatius, a Dutch possession in Van Siclen, Van Allen, Vanderpoel On every rugged feature ancestral the Caribbean, to the returned salute and Van Vorst.11 The membership glories shine; of the American brig Andrew Doria by requirement of the newly founded And all our band in kinship stand fi ring the cannons of Fort Oranje, the society stipulated descent from the fi rst international acknowledgment New Netherland Dutch before 1675 With all that’s old and fi ne; of the independence of the United established a class barrier to prevent I’m a Van of a Van of a Van of a Van States on 16 November 1776, and at recent immigrants from joining. The the end of the decade the ceremonies society served to collect information of a Van of a way back line.” at Plymouth, Massachusetts, trig- about the Dutch in America, write its gered one of his successors, Samuel history, and promote the principles These patricians used the foun- R. Thayer, to make an effort to erect a and virtues of the Dutch ancestors, dation stories of New Netherland monument for the Pilgrims’ departure and drew more than two hundred as ammunition in progressive poli- in Delfshaven, close to Rotterdam.9 members in its fi rst year. The Dutch tics. In 1903 Robert B. Roosevelt, Also international affairs contrib- consul general uted to the growing awareness of Planten provided Dutch ethnicity. The Boer Wars of the replicas of histori- early 1880s and in particular those of cal artifacts which the 1899-1902 years fed feelings of served as symbols ethnic solidarity with the descendants for the courage of of the Dutch in South Africa, who the Dutch shown played the heroic role of the under- in defending civil dog. The horror stories about the and religious liber- concentration camps where innocent ties.12 Soon chap- women and children suffered aroused ters of the Holland an anti-British sentiment that lasted Society were until after World War I. The fi nancial founded in other and protest campaigns to support the cities with a sizable Boers further strengthened the ties Dutch-American with the Netherlands, where similar population. sentiments gained ground. The Boers To solidify stood for the virtues of faith and cour- their Dutch roots, age, with which the Dutch liked to a group of fi fty identify. Since the Netherlands was members visited A woodcut of Halve Maen (Half Moon) that Henry Hudson sailed up the not a signifi cant factor in European the Netherlands river named in his honor. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, politics at the time and the Dutch- in the summer of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Americans were a small minority of 1888 and were the population, the Boer cause served fêted by mayors and businessmen. former American minister to the in both places to strengthen their The society delighted in drawing Netherlands, a founding member position.10 publicity to its opulent dinners. of the Holland Society and uncle to They re-enacted Dutch customs in President Theodore Roosevelt, used Holland Society food, drinks, smokes, ornaments, the commemoration of the fi rst city In the mid-1880s societies were and songs. Apart from the valuable charter of New York in 1653 to attack founded with the mission to preserve publication of Dutch primary sources New York’s control by corrupt bosses Dutch heritage. The founding of the from the colonial period, the patrician in Albany. He drew from the Dutch venerable Holland Society of New Holland Society members composed heritage to claim the city’s “birthright

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of independence and self-reliance.”14 while he believed American society was the strongest advocate of rapid This triggered a discussion to memo- was a “positively Christian society.” Americanization in his denomina- rialize this legacy by raising funds for Moreover, Mulder regretted that this tion. Beets composed a “Song of a statue of William the Silent, which extreme position broke the unity in the Holland-Americans,”23 praising took more than twenty years to arrive the Dutch community by excluding Dutch-Americanism on the occasion and fi ve more years to be erected on some, as had happened in Overisel of the semi-centennial celebration of the campus of Rutgers University.15 where the CRC had withdrawn from the Christian Reformed Church in They also anchored the Dutch-Amer- the celebration because there was no 1907. Beets’ song was singled out by ican legacy to locations in the Neth- religious component.20 the publisher not only because it was erlands. In 1914 the “Dutchophile” The most public platform for considered real poetry, but especially Congregational minister of Anglo displaying the Dutch heritage was the he felt it would “fi ll a long felt want in descent William E. Griffi s boasted of Chicago Columbian Exposition in social gatherings of our people.” The having erected ten monuments in the 1893. The Dutch presence at the Chi- song was the fi rst entry in a collection Netherlands in towns with links to cago World’s Fair consisted of a few of Dutch religious songs with English American history.16 The Society also exhibits of contemporary economic translations, but this one had little initiated and sponsored the celebra- artifacts such as a herring schooner religious wording. It connected the tion of the expedition of Henry Hud- and a cocoa mill. The main attention colonial Dutch with the nineteenth- son, who was commissioned by the was drawn to the 332 paintings—dis- century immigrants in singing the Dutch East India Company in 1609, played across 9,300 square feet—of praises of the United States. The and had a replica built of the Halve old and new masters. The paintings second stanza draws the attention Maen. However, the mingled celebra- were exuberantly received and stood away from a glorious past to a prom- tion of Hudson with Robert Fulton’s in stark contrast to the old-fashioned ising future, while the fi fth and fi nal fi rst steamship to navigate the Hud- uniforms of the Dutch in the military stanza prayed to “Infuse the best of all son River obscured the Dutch element parade, which failed to fi ll the specta- our past, the noblest of out traits, into beyond recognition.17 tors with awe. Art surpassed history the life, into the deed of our United as the vehicle of ethnic pride. States!” Though the lyrics created a Midwestern Dutch At the fair George David Birkhoff distance from the old country and The fi rst wave of Dutch immigrants attempted to draw attention to 31 Au- made an emotional appeal to embrace arriving in Michigan in the 1840s did gust, Princess Wilhelmina’s birthday, America, it also bonded the Dutch- not need to explicitly confi rm their as a day of festivities.21 Celebration Americans of all generations together, loyalty to their new country since of the day did not catch on until the because they were the only ones to most of them felt at home in America. next world’s fair in 1933. The prepa- sing it. The song worked because the They faithfully celebrated the 4th of ration and presentation of the Dutch tune was that of the old Dutch nation- July.18 Zeeland became aware of the legacy at the world’s fairs of 1893 and al anthem, “Wien Neerlands bloed in de importance of its history in 1879, 1933 triggered the founding of several aderen vloeit,” a typically nationalist when thirty-two men founded the Dutch clubs in Chicago, such as the song with some racist undertones, Oude Settlers Vereeniging to write their elitist Holland Society in 1895 and the settlement’s history. Its fi rst serious more humble Saint Nicholas Society Come ye who boast of Dutch descent, celebration was the fortieth anniver- in 1905, but none lasted long.22 Their Sons of New Netherland, sary of the founding of their town in programs were heavily laden with And ye who reached our friendly shore 1887.19 historical references to William of Or- Resistance against Americaniza- ange and fully exploited the common with western pilgrim band tion was felt most in circles of the ideological basis of the Netherlands Unite with us in festive song, Christian Reformed Church. In 1887 and the United States. one of its ministers in Classis Hol- Song which the heart elates land stated that 4 July was a necessary More Distinction And sing the praises of our land evil. De Grondwet Editor L. Mulder After the turn of the century the claim protested against this judgment and of Dutch distinction became more Our own United States, considered it a result of a misunder- explicit. The purest form of identity Our own United States. standing among the Dutch about politics was drafted by Christian the gap between church and society, Reformed minister Henry Beets, who We love the land across the sea

15 We glory in its past; in America has been a patriot of the the Dutch with respect to American noblest type.” His argument was fully public opinion. In the uninformed We pray for its prosperity, historical: The Dutch had not only American mind the difference be- May it forever last! founded New Amsterdam, but had tween the neutral and Dutch and But tho we love old Holland still, come in the shape of the Pilgrims, Germany was hard to discern since who were thoroughly Dutchifi ed, and German immigrants in Pennsylvania We love Columbia more, in the person of William Penn, who had long been identifi ed as “Dutch.” The land our sons and brethren fi ll had a Dutch mother, to fulfi ll an im- Moreover, because of the Boer Wars, portant role in keeping America pure the Dutch were “enemies” of the From east to western shore, and orderly.26 British, who along with the Ameri- From east to western shore.24 Similar stories reached far and cans, ultimately, were part of the determined the positive sentiment Allied defense of democracy. On the In the same year that this poem toward the Dutch in other parts of the West Coast, Henry A. Van Coenen was published, Professor Nicholas M. Midwest. Vice Consul Gerrit Klay of Torchiana, a former cowboy turned Steffens of Western Theological Semi- Orange City, Iowa, reported in 1931 businessman and Dutch consul, gave nary in Holland, Michigan, expressed that the obedient Dutch had not been an overview of the state of trade the pride of his ethnic group when he involved in any criminal court cases in between the United States and the addressed the crowd at the celebra- the past three years. “This is in accor- Netherlands in 1918. He embarked tion of the sixtieth anniversary of the dance with a remark made by Presi- on a course of cultural diplomacy, colony. He claimed that the Dutch dent Hoover not long ago: ‘The Dutch since he was aware of the fact that had become excellent citizens because descendants over here are never in “public opinion will act very largely they had preserved the good parts of prison and never in the poor house.’”27 as a jury of future trade relations.”30 their Dutch character. He continued Though many Dutch like to read these He had no doubts about the positive with a disdainful comment on the remarks as signs of their moral supe- judgment of the American press on inferiority of the recent immigrants riority, they were actually results of a the Netherlands. Confi dently he an- from East and Southern Europe: “Per- settlement pattern with a strong social nounced, “American public opinion haps it is good that Italians, Hungar- cohesion, caused by the dominant will do justice to the Netherlands and ians, Greeks, Polaks, and Russians family migration to rural areas within its people for two reasons: Because do not establish settlements, but are a tight religious framework. this public opinion is American, soon swallowed up by the mighty The young generation inculcated and therefore fair, and because the American spirit, but when immigrants these ideas: William C. Walvoord Netherlands people deserve it.”31 arrive from countries, whose citizens exemplifi ed the heroic Dutch past He made a fi ne effort to raise per- have something to offer that is wise that the students embraced at Hope sonal sympathy for the venerable and to preserve, then it is a blessing for College, Holland, Michigan. In Feb- learned prime minister, the agonizing themselves as for the Americans, if ruary 1908 this Wisconsin student young queen, and the well-beloved they come as the Hollanders came in won the oratorical contest with a tale former minister to the United States, AD 1847.”25 on the Siege of Leyden, “Heroism, Loudon, married to a most estimable At the same occasion Reverend sacrifi ce, and nobleness of purpose American lady. He parried the criti- Matthew Kolyn defi ned the mission are qualities which characterize not cism of Dutch trade with Germany of the Hollander in America in a only the defense of Leyden, but . . . during the Great War by claiming combination of all three myths: “We [t]he American Revolution, qualities this was the right of a neutral power are persuaded that the Hollander in which are essential to every struggle and necessary to provide consump- America has come to stay. His infl u- for true freedom.”28 In the same year tion articles for its own population. ence is to be powerful and lasting; it Ladies’ Home Journal Editor Edward W. Van Coenen realized that a histori- has been known and felt during the Bok awarded a prize to Hope student cal appeal to the United States for three centuries that have passed since George F. Huizinga for his essay on the many services rendered to it by his coming. His name is written large what the Dutch had contributed to the Holland in the past would not work upon the pages of American history. development of the American West.29 in this situation and he derived his His love for and devotion to the new arguments from common values fatherland have been unquestioned. The Great War of personal and political liberties. In peace and in war, the Hollander World War I increased the stakes of Moreover, he capitalized on anti-

16 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

German feelings in the United States by suggesting that trade opportuni- ties for Dutch products in America were promising if they were of established Dutch origin. And for his own regional audience he added that California ports were the logical and promising destination for the resurg- ing colonial trade and he encouraged American businessmen to set up banks and transportation lines and invest in the Dutch East and West Indies.32 Similar arguments confi rm- ing the mutual attachment to liberty, peace, and justice were made on the East Coast, where Counselor of the Netherlands Legation in Washington During World War I a wave of super patriotism and anti-German feelings swept the United States. For the fi rst time Dutch young men joined the US military in large numbers as indicated in the William de Beaufort aimed to clear photo probably taken at Fort Custer, west of Battle Greek, Michigan. Image courtesy of the Archives, the Dutch reputation by stating, “Our Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. common past has no drawback in the realization of our common present.”33 a sophisticated effort to prove that need for an explicit ethnic identity. This emphasis on common values the Dutch Calvinists had a demo- Most nineteenth-century Dutch echoed the approach of Theodore cratic practice, even if they did not immigrants had a strong religious Roosevelt, who toasted the Dutch wholly subscribe to the principle of attachment, which offered a sense of in America at the 1890 dinner of the sovereignty of the people. But the belonging and which neutralized the the Holland Society in New York by most important feature remained the fear of being absorbed in America extolling the virtues of assimilation display of objects to stimulate pride without leaving a trace. The Chris- and using the colonial Dutch as his in the achievements of the Dutch tian Reformed were more interested evidence. He said: “The thoroughness pioneers and emphasize “the spirit in justifying their existence than in with which the Hollander has be- of Ebenezer, the spirit which enabled making ethnic statements. come Americanized, and the way in our fathers, wherever they settled to For the Americanized Dutch with which he has ceased being anything build happy homes and become use- weak religious attachments the his- but an American makes him invalu- ful citizens.”35 torical roots gained importance. Es- able as an object lesson to some of pecially for recent arrivals, the public the races who have followed him to Sections and Strategies reference to Dutch historical fi gures America at an interval of about two How, when, and where did the or events extended their own lineage centuries.”34 Dutch-Americans use which strategy and suggested antecedents for their The elaborate celebration of the to prove they belonged in America? present involvement in America. centennial of the Dutch colonies in According to Overland, the desire of Their efforts to solidify their position 1947 revisited the contribution of the the Dutch was weak, “Dutch im- had been prepared by historical re- Dutch to America. Willard Wich- migrants themselves do not seem search and a rediscovery of the Dutch ers headed the committee and got to have felt a great need to trumpet roots in the mid-nineteenth century. the Netherlands government heavily their own colonial presence.”36 His These circumstances bore the signs of involved, so much that some locals supporting evidence is a 1921 edito- patrician ethnic societies. Simultane- felt the Dutch had taken over the rial in Onze Toekomst claiming that ously the Midwestern Dutch reached celebration. The Dutch used this the main contribution of the Dutch a series of commemorative years that event to strengthen the cultural ties in America was the planting of True propelled self-refl ection. Outside with their most powerful liberator, Religion (i.e., the Christian Reformed pressure was only felt during the whose people still lent material as- Church) and he is only partially First World War. sistance to the impoverished Dutch. right: the stronger the religious The three regions with Dutch- Philosopher Marten ten Hoor made identity of a group the less it has a American settlements all used history

17 and ideology to identify themselves. by the ladies with the question: ‘How But since the situation in each region is dear little Holland?’ I am sure these differed, they used these arguments people feel genuine sympathy for with differing emphases. On the East my country. However, I take excep- Coast, the Dutch of colonial lineage tion. . . . It is not geographic dimen- used their heritage to advance politi- sions, but strength of character of the cal goals. In the Midwest (and be- people that fi xes a country’s place in yond)37 the more recent immigrants the family of nations.”40 referred to Dutch history to advance In the Dutch case, not attacks from moral values, while the most recent outside prompted the use of these arrivals on the West Coast employed strategies, but trends in society, one the glory of the Dutch empire to of which was simply to emulate the stimulate commercial activities. The birth of other ethnic societies.41 The foundation and ideological myths Dutch echoed the positions in the were used most, while the Dutch dominant culture, in fact confi rm- contributions to America’s wars were ing the hegemonic nature of Anglo much less prominent.38 The ideo- culture by supporting it with their logical myth proved most rewarding own heritage. For instance, during since it did not need such strong the Spanish-American War in 1898, historical facts—although the Dutch the Holland Society of Chicago used Spring festivals focused on tulips became possessed an abundant share of that the Dutch struggle against Spain to synonymous with American views of the evidence—and could be more easily support the “liberation” of Cuba.42 Netherlands, although they bore little used in drawing parallels between Similarly, the Tulip Time festivals resemblance to anything in the Netherlands. Dutch and American history to stress confi rmed the Americanness of the Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. common virtues.39 Dutch-American subculture, pro- The colonial Dutch had been fully moting its virtues, drawing from a consumer culture and emphasiz- accepted and so the three myths were historical justifi cation, and present- ing the business ethic of America. It used mainly to counter belittling by ing a well-known stereotype in its confi rmed American stereotypes of Anglos. As the Dutch minister A. C. fi rst six decades.43 These festivals nostalgia, simple life, and primary D. de Graeff told his Dutch-American strengthened the cohesion in their colors, as Suzanne Sinke and others audience in 1924: “So often in Wash- community, while simultaneously have noticed. o ington society I am greeted socially strengthening the ties with the

Endnotes 1. This date referred to 16 November think that many Americans outside the edu/~rjensen/no-irish.htm. 1776 when the batteries of the Dutch Dutch subculture noticed this event. 6. Firth Haring Fabend, Zion on the castle on St. Eustatius fi red the fi rst sa- Not even the New York Times reported Hudson: Dutch New York and New Jersey lute to the fl ag of the rebellious United the introduction of this day. in the Age of the Revival (New Bruns- States. The government of the Dutch 3. Orm Overland, Immigrant Minds, wick: Rutgers University Press, 2000) Republic waited until 1782 to offi cially American Identities: Making the United 8-19, 44, 70, 214-216. recognize America’s independence, but States Home, 1870-1930 (Urbana, IL: 7. Alice P. Kenney, Stubborn for the commercial base in the West Indies University of Illinois Press, 2000). Liberty: The Dutch in New York (Syra- was quick to accept a virtual real- 4. Addresses of Netherlands Society of cuse: Syracuse University Press, 1975), ity—the Americans needed arms and Philadelphia, 155, 159. Sweden started 191-196. O. D. Edward, “John Lothrop munitions. to contact the Swedish-Americans only Motley and the Netherlands,” in J. 2. Martin Witteveen, “The Dutch in the 1930s, when the Swedish govern- W. Schulte Nordholt and Robert P. Sentiment of Guy Vander Jagt,” DIS ment needed to strengthen the bilateral Swierenga, eds, A Bilateral Bicentenial: Magazine, December 1997, 8-17. Van- relations and used the commemoration A History of Dutch-American Relations der Jagt used his Dutch background in of New Sweden as a welcome and posi- 1782-1982 (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, his keynote address at the Republican tive event. 1982) 171-198. National Convention in Detroit in 1980 5. See his annotated and illustrated 8. The Puritan in Holland, England, to nominate Ronald Reagan. I do not online publication at http://tigger.uic. and America: An Introduction to Ameri-

18 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

can History, 2 vols. (New York, Harper variety of twelve immigrant groups. The 24. Henry Beets, Herinneringen. Hol- & Brothers, 1892). Dutch (mostly colonial) were portrayed land-American Songs. Holland Songs with 9. Papers Relating to Foreign Rela- in the November issue, “The Dutch in English Text Series 1. (Chicago: Paul H. tions of the United States 1881 (Wa- America,” 238-242. Scholarly atten- Wezeman, 1907). It was the opening shington, DC, 1882), 847-851 and 1889 tion for the Dutch element in America song in the Semi-Centennial Commis- (1890) 640-641. was given in the American Historical sion, Gedenkboek van het Vijftigjarig 10. Thanks to Michael Douma’s un- Association Report for 1909 (1911) by Jubileum der Christelijk Gereformeerde published paper “Holland Michigan and the Dutch historian H. T. Colenbran- Kerk A.D. 1857-1907 (Grand Rapids: the Boer War,” (Hope College 2003) der, “The Dutch Element in American 1907), reprinted in Walter Lagerwey’s and Hans Ester, “Met Louwrens Pen- History,” and Ruth Putnam, “The Dutch collection, Neen Nederland, ‘k vergeet ning naar het land van de verbeelding: Element in the United States,” 193-201 u niet een beeld van het immigrantenle- De Nederlandse liefde voor Zuid-Afri- and 205-218. Colenbrander refuted the ven in Amerika tussen 1846 en 1945 in ka,” Transparant 11.3 (August 2000) distorted views of Campbell. verhalen, schetsen en gedichten (Baarn: 4-9; Chris van Koppen, De geuzen van 17. Lincoln Diamant, Hoopla on Ten Have, 1982), 62. It was sung at the de negentiende eeuw. Abraham Kuiper the Hudson: An Intimate View of New 400th commemoration of the birthday en Zuid-Afrika (1992). De Grondwet, York’s Great Hudson-Fulton Celebration of William of Orange on 24 April 22 February 1881: Poem to endorse a (Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain 1933 in Chicago, but not at the visit of petition to support the Boers. Press, 2003). Princess Juliana on 12 May 1942. The 11. David William Voorhees, The 18. The fi rst written record dates Wien Neerlandsch Bloed was sung at Holland Society: A Centennial History from 1853. De Hollander 5 July 1872. the sixtieth anniversary of the Holland 1885-1985 (New York: Holland Society This was evident in 1872 when the and Zeeland colonies held in Zeeland of New York, 1985), 6. Of course, the regional celebration of the 4th of July in August 1907 and was replaced by the St. Nicholas Society was founded fi fty took place in the town of Zeeland, historical Wilhelmus of Nassau in 1933 years earlier, in 1835, but this society which was visited by many citizens of as the Dutch National Anthem. was more a mock-society with a high Grand Rapids. The Hollander noticed 25. N. M. Steffens, “Het zestigjarig degree of entertainment and socializing that the community had not celebrated feest,” Historical Souvernir of the Cele- in the tradition of the Knickerbockers. the twenty-fi fth anniversary of its settle- bration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the 12. Ibid, 31. ment, but that it had not prevented the Colonization of the Hollanders in Western 13. See article in New York Times, 11 organization of Independence Day to Michigan (privately printed, 1908), 113. January 1890. be a success. Since the Netherlands did 26. Matthew Kolyn, “The Hollander 14. Robert B. Roosevelt, “The Oldest not celebrate a national holiday, the in America,” ibid, 55-64, quote on 59. Charter of New York,” Theodore M. festivities on 4 July are already a sign of 27. Nationaal Archief, Den Hague, Banta, ed., Yearbook of the Holland Soci- Americanization. Inventory 2.05.13 Gezantschap VS, ety of New York (1903) 234. The society 19. De Grondwet, 11 March 1879 and 406 Orange City, 1919-1934, report to continued to provide a platform for 19 July 1887. De Hollander, 8 July 1874, the Minister in Washington, 5 January political networkings as became clear in gives the typical program of Indepen- 1931. 1924 when the president of the Holland dence Day in Holland, with music, 28. William C. Walvoord, Windmill Society of New York spoke at the Neth- drama, food, and patriotic speeches Memories: A Remembrance of Life in a erlands Society of Philadelphia annual about the American Revolution. De Holland-American Community Before banquet to encourage its members to Grondwet of 10 July 1883 called for a the Turn of the Century (Cedar Grove, help build a more effi cient railroad con- serious celebration of the principle of Wisconsin: Villager Publications, 1979) nection with New York City. the sovereignty of the people, which 57-58. The lecture was published in the 15. Voorhees, Holland Society, 66-68. had its precedent in Dutch history. Anchor, April 1908, 5-10. 16. Addresses of the Netherlands 20. De Grondwet, 7 June 1887. 29. George Ford Huizinga, What Society of Philadelphia, p. 76-81; W. 21. http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/bookfair/ the Dutch Have Done in the West of the E. Griffi s, “Thankful America,” The ch21.html#735. United States (Philadelphia: privately Outlook 106 (10 January 1914) 88-90. 22. Robert P. Swierenga, Dutch Chi- printed 1909). A Banner editorial by See also Annette Stott, Holland Mania, cago: A History of the Hollanders in the Henry Beets congratulated the winners, 78-100. Griffi s believed that he had to Windy City (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, but regretted that the contest was not correct the fervent sectionalism dis- 2002) 526-550. extended to include Calvin College as played by New England, because he was 23. He perfected his argument for well (21 January 1909). Arnold Mulder convinced that the true unifying forces Dutch pride in his often recycled lec- received the second prize. in the United States were found in the ture “Why we of Dutch descent claim a 30. H. A. Van Coenen Torchiana, The Middle States, which had a stronger modest place in the sunshine of respect Future of Trade Between the United States Dutch infl uence. Recognition of the of our American nation with its various of America and the Netherlands and Its European contributions to the United national origins,” of which several edi- Colonies: A Short Study (San Francisco: States was a rather common feature; tions survive, most recently from 1934. Holland-American Chamber of Com- see the series of Herbert N. Casson in Henry Beets Collection, Heritage Hall, merce, 1918) 9. See also the address of the 1906 volume of Munsey featuring a Calvin College, box 24, folder 3. the Dutch minister in Washington to

19 the Netherlands Society of Philadelphia, Algemeen Handelsblad, 1947). University of Kansas Press, 2002) 9-32. 23 January 1919 (Addresses, 217-231). 36. Overland, Immigrant Minds, 78. The German-Americans succeeded in 31. Van Coenen Torchiana, The 37. The Dutch communities in New 1987 to have 6 October proclaimed as Future of Trade, 11. Jersey, most notably Passaic, Paterson, “German-American Day,” commemo- 32. A similar connection between Lodi, and Prospect Park, resemble the rating the landing of the fi rst group ideology and commerce was made by midwestern attitude. See Gerald F. De of German immigrants in 1683 in Bremen skippers in 1846 when they Jong, “Dutch Immigrants in New Jersey Philadelphia. See Don Heinrich Tolz- advocated a steamboat connection Before World War I,” New Jersey History mann, The German-American Experience between New York and their city, which (1976) 94, 69-88. (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2000), would bring many Germans with a 38. One example of Dutch- 364-366. The proclamation emphasized dem ocratic tradition to the United Americans fi ghting in the wars of the the German contributions to American States. M. Walker, Germany and the American Republic is the song by Isaac culture, such as the Christmas tree, the Emigration 1816-1885 (1964). Van Coe- Rusling Pennypacker, “The Dutch on kindergarten, music, science, democra- nen combined a business prospectus for the Delaware,” adopted as the offi cial cy, and the complete integraton of the the Dutch East Indies with a statement song of the Netherlands Society of German-Americans (the single largest that the Netherlands was not a small Philadelphia in 1894, which recalls that ethnic group in the nation). country in the title of his book Tropical the Sons of the Beggars of the Zuyder 42. Overland, American Minds, 123. Holland: An Essay on the Birth, Growth Zee crossed the Delaware with Wash- 43. Suzanne Sinke, “Tulips are and Development of Popular Government ington and fought against Robert Lee. Blooming in Holland, Michigan: Analy- in an Oriental Possession (Chicago: Addresses Made at the Annual Meetings of sis of a Dutch American Festival,” in University of Chicago Press, 1921). the Netherlands Society of Philadelphia. Michael D’Innocenzo, a.o., Immigration Van Coenen had been born in the East Bellevue-Stratford Hotel 1913-1930, 11. and Ethnicity: American Society- “Melt- Indies. This society was founded on 23 January ing Pot” or “Salad Bowl” (Westport 33. Addresses of Netherlands Society 1892, on the day commemorating the 1992) 3-14. Janet S. Sheeres, “Klom- Philadelphia, 1920, 247. Union of Utrecht in 1579. In 1913 the pendancing through America,” in Larry 34. New York Times, 11 January society sponsored the erection of a J. Wagenaar and Robert P. Swierenga, 1890. monument for Pieter C. Plockhoy in eds., Dutch Enterprise: Alive and Well in 35. Marvin Lindeman, “A Non- Zierikzee, honoring him as the founder North America (n.p., 1999) 71-82 for an Hollander Looks at Holland”; Willard of Swaanendael, Delaware, and as a overview of all tulip festivals and Dutch C. Wichers, “Celebrating the Centen- “Pioneer of Christian Civilization.” ethnic celebrations. As no Italian in nial of Dutch Settlement in Michigan, The city of Holland observed Deco- Europe celebrates Columbus Day, nor The Observances at Holland”; Marten ration Day to honor its dead soldiers Norwegians the Seventeenth of May, ten Hoor, “The Dutch Calvinists and of the Civil War (De Grondwet, 29 May while a variety of nationalities join in American Democracy,” Michigan History and 5 June 1877). The Holland Soldiers’ the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, Tulip 37 (1947), 405-416, 458-461, and Union was founded in early 1875 and Time was not an original Dutch festival, 353-366, respectively. See also Henry S. in 1894 a monument was erected at the but a 1929 invention combining a Lucas, Ebenezer, Memorial Souvenirs of Pilgrim Home Cemetery. fair with economic self-promotion. the Centennial Commemoration of Dutch 39. William E. Griffi s went as far as Overland is quick to note that celebrat- Immigration to the United States held in to describe Holland as a republic that ing ethnicity remained a middle-class Holland, Michigan 13-16 August 1947 invited a prince as its sovereign (Ad- affair. The working class sought refuge (New York: The Netherlands Informa- dresses 1914, 70). Griffi s went around in unions rather than in ethnic clubs, tion Bureau, 1947) 40. Even the liberal Holland to place ten tablets in various which reverberated with progress, suc- Dutch daily Algemeen Handelsblad is- cities with sites of relevance to Ameri- cess, and patriotism. Geneviéve Fabre, sued a special booklet to commemorate can history. Jürgen Heideking, and Kai Dreisbach, the emigration of 1847 as a tribute to 40. Ibid, 357-358. eds., Celebrating Ethnicity and Na- the descendants of the Dutch immi- 41. Frank Van Nuys, Americani- tion: American Festive Culture from the grants. J. A. Schroeder, Secession and zing the West: Race, Immigrants, and Revolution to the Early Twentieth Century Emigration 1834-1847 (Amsterdam: Citizenship, 1890-1930 (Lawrence, KS: (New York: Berghahn, 2001).

20 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

History Preserved Allison DeWaard

Now Is the Time to buy your ticket and travel to COLUMBUS, MONTANA (sic), land of good success and personal happiness. Here is an opportunity to gain possession of your own farm. Don’t listen to those who are afraid of this. One who thinks good fortune does not accompany him, never gets ahead. Consider the many good opportuni- ties which in that way pass us by. Do you want to improve your condi- tion? Then write us immediately for more information about Columbus, Montana; it is a success. This message is intended for every renter who does not get the desired advantage from someone else’s land. Come with us to Columbus. An excursion on the fi rst and third Tuesday of each month. Travel expense is very low.1

rive down I-90, and take exit Already in early June the ground D408 at Columbus, Montana.2 is dry and cracking. The wind blows Continue through town, and turn incessantly, and the land holds vari- right onto Rapelje Road, just past the ous shades of brown and green. Next cemetery. After thirteen-and-a-half to the cattle gate, among some tall miles, turn left onto the recently- prairie grasses, lies what appears to be named Stagecoach Road. Drive for a pile of wood. After a second glance, several miles down the dirt road, however, it is evident that it is nothing clunking over three cattle guards. From a distance, watch for two chimneys to appear among a grove of dying Allison DeWaard, from Lynden, Wash- caragana trees.3 ington, is graduating this May from Upon reaching Dordt College with a major in English the closed cattle Secondary Education. She was married 12 May and moved to Sioux Center, gate, you will Iowa. She would like to thank all her have to park teachers along the way: without them, your vehicle she would never have gotten this far. and continue on Stage Coach Road as it leaves Rapelje Road. Several miles down Stagecoach foot. Road is the former Abram Kornelis farmstead. Image courtesy of the author.

21 a single hinge. The steps are gone, and grass has taken root in the dirt fl oor. The nails on the roof all stick out by an inch or two, having been slowly pushed loose as the heat contracted the wood. And yet, half-a-dozen jars The remains of the Kornelis house among the caragana trees and lilac remain on the bushes. Image courtesy of the author. The cast iron hand pump, installed pantry shelves, in 1943. Image courtesy of the proof that life once existed in this dry the Kornelis children are still engraved author. and deserted place. there–KK, TK, HK, NK, JK, GK, and of the sort: it is Abram Kornelis’s road To the east lie a woodshed and an LK.5 A plus sign appears after my grader from 1926. Abram Kornelis was outhouse, although it is no ordinary grandmother’s initials, but the initials my great-grandfather.4 outhouse: it has two seats, rather than that reportedly once followed have Continuing down the dirt drive the typical one. The wind, however, been carefully erased. She will not you will stumble upon an abandoned howled one too many times, and both reveal the youthful admirer’s identity. house. Over sixty-fi ve years ago this buildings have collapsed after tilting It was not, after all, my grandfather. house held life; now the windows are too far for too many years. Returning to the house, beware of broken or missing, their sashes are Now, walk to the east for ap- rattlesnakes basking on the rocks of cracked, the paint has faded to noth- proximately one mile. As you walk the coulee walls. Once back at the top, ingness, and the boot box that was alongside the coulee, watch out for further east you can see Battle Butte in outside the door has been reclaimed the small cacti that litter the ground, the distance, rising above the arid land by relatives. Peeking through the win- the only plants dows is almost like entering another that seem to world. Old tin cans and broken glass fl ourish in the shards are scattered across the disin- dry and rocky tegrating linoleum, the wallpaper is soil. Be wary of bubbling off the walls, the furniture is cow pies as well, long gone, and the doors eerily hang although, like open. This house was built with care- everything else, ful hands, a perfectionist’s hands, and they are mostly all that remains is an empty frame, dried up and a photo album whose pictures have scorched by the scattered to the wind. relentless sum- The lilac bush on the south side mer heat. manages to produce some leaves Venture down Initials scratched into sandstone including those of Kenneth, Thomas, and a few blossoms, despite years of into the coulee, Henrietta, Niecha, John, Gertrude, and Louis Kornelis. Image courtesy of neglect. The water pump installed in a place where the author. 1943 stands stoically outside the front cottonwood trees door, its handle hanging limply off grow beside a creek that fl ows only a that stretches on endlessly. Looking to the side. A few yards to the south few short months of the year. Under a again at the forsaken house as you is an almost unrecognizable pantry rocky overhang there is a fl at sand- approach it, let the wind whip through and root cellar that tilts heavily to the stone rock, and on the surface of this your hair and listen to the history that right, its wooden door hanging on rock time stands still. The initials of fl oats on the breeze.

22 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

Years ago, advertisers like the Dyke, had also been lured to Montana. Spoelstra Realty Company of Chicago He was given photographs of wheat so lured people to this land, promis- tall a car was barely visible behind the ing prosperity when all that existed bountiful crop. Little did he know that in Columbus, Montana, were rocky the bottom half of the car had been fi elds where only a handful of rain removed, more than exaggerating the fell every year.6 Peter Spoelstra adver- wheat’s height.12 Sid married Jessie’s tised with photos of homes, barns, sister, Gertie, in 1921. and luscious crops that were never Abram built this now-abandoned real.7 The land was painted as a para- house for his wife, Jessie. Together dise, but it was, at least to those who they battled crop failure after crop came, far more of a wasteland. failure; together they raised their ten Settlers moved to Montana for children, and together they watched many reasons, but everyone had an The two oldest Kornelis children, Ken and Tom, their two-month-old son, James, die idealistic vision based upon the lies of during the 1920s. Image courtesy of the author. of pneumonia in 1923; and together unscrupulous land agents. The Spoel- they fed their family on egg and cream stra Realty Company placed most of Abram and Sid lived in a dugout on money. Together they built a home their advertisements in the offi cial this homestead; and today their cattle whose foundation rested on God’s periodicals of the Christian Reformed brand, KXK, can still be seen inscribed faithfulness. Church, The Banner and De Wachter, on a sandstone rock alongside the Because of the dry climate, traces of catching the hearts of Dutch immi- driveway. grants.8 A Christian Reformed church Three years was established near Columbus in after arriving in 1915 as Dutch settlers sought for hope Montana, Abram in a desolate land. fell in love with Abram Kornelis (1884-1971) left Jessie Van Dyke. Joure, Friesland, the Netherlands, in They married in 1910, attempting to outrun a broken 1917. Jessie Van heart. To ensure his safety, his younger Dyke’s father, brother, Sid (1887-1988),9 went along Thomas Van to America and together they worked in New York and California. After a Sisters Niecha and return visit to Holland in 1913, they Gertrude doing the wash during came back to America in April 1914 the 1940s. Image with plans to settle on the West Coast, courtesy of the but they didn’t make it that far.10 author. Abram and Sid stopped to visit a relative in Columbus, Montana, and the two also be- came captivated by Montana’s promises and low prices. They began home- steading in May 1914. Section 6, R1N T20E, was Ken on the hay rake with horses Vic and Sadie; Uncle Sid is on the tractor with Fido in 1944. The Montana land was suitable now home.11 for grazing animals and growing hay. Image courtesy of the author.

23 mmoved to nearby LLynden.13 He Endnotes passedp away 1. De Wachter, 5 July 1916; advertise- ini 1971, she in ment translated by author. 2. In south-central Montana. 1984.1 Despite 3. Caragana or Siberian pea shrub theirt many hard- is a species of legume that can grow ships,s the Kor- to a height of twelve feet or more. It nelisesn remained was used by settlers of the West for windbreaks, erosion control, to help fi x rootedr in their nitrogen into the soil, and its pods could faith,f and their be eaten. descendantsd 4. He was born Abe Kornelis to prospered.p Kornelis Jacobs Kornelis and Nieska Klieuwes Brouwer. In the United States Today, back at the surname is also spelled Kornelius. thet homestead, 5. Kenneth, Thomas, Henrietta, Nie- lookl across the cia, John, Gertrude, and Louis; Henri- horizon.h Grasses etta is the author’s grandmother. 6. Rob Kroes, The Persistence of The pantry and root cellar remains, with its door hanging on a single hinge. sways in the Ethnicity: Dutch Calvinist Pioneers in Image courtesy of the author. wind like waves Amsterdam, Montana (Champaign: Uni- on the sea, and versity of Illinois Press, 1992) chapter 3, Abram Kornelis’s home can be seen in the sun beams down from the enor- “Windmills in Montana,” 26-42. 7. David Zandstra,. “Paradise Lost: the house that still stands today, a cen- mous sky. Today, the Kornelis home- Columbus, Montana.” Origins (Vol. 11, tury later. To comply with homestead stead is owned by a cattle rancher, No. 1), Spring 1993, 36-44. laws, my great-grandfather planted and the fl oor of the place Abram once 8. Ibid. over 900 trees of fi ve different variet- called home is covered with old knick- 9. Born Siebe. ies, but they stand dried up in perfect knacks and tin cans. Look around—it 10. David A. Kingma, Possessing the Land: The Holland Settlement of Colum- rows beside the house. When Abram’s is hard to imagine this unforgiving bus, Montana 1915-1940. 2nd ed. 1993. family grew, he added two bedrooms, land supporting a farming family. The 11. Ibid. and with them came a second chim- advertisers had painted a false picture 12. Ibid. ney; now, the chimneys both stand as of prosperity to attract settlers like the 13. Ken Kornelis. Telephone inter- view with the author, 24 October 2011. pillars atop the roof, though several Kornelis brothers, and while these lies bricks have fallen to the dusty ground. were eventually what drove Abram The Kornelis family lived off land to abandon his homestead, this arid that could not be farmed no mat- climate is what allowed his house to ter the equipment. But in 1944 they be carefully preserved. decided to leave; auctioned off most It is time to leave this dried-up of their possessions; and moved to land. Walk back through the cattle Sumas, Washington, leaving behind gate, making sure it is securely closed. the false promises and dashed dreams. Return to your vehicle, and slowly By 1939 most Columbus residents had drive away, allowing the dust to swirl abandoned their homesteads as well as up and envelop the scene in the their church; it had closed. rearview mirror. Once the dust settles, Abram continued to farm in it will be as if no one visited. Time Washington, but on a smaller scale; will continue to pass on the deserted he raised a few cows and chickens. homestead, and the heat will continue He worked as a custodian for the to preserve my great-grandfather’s Christian school and the Christian history–a history of hardships, pov- Reformed church in Sumas, soon erty, and desolation. becoming eligible for social security. A history of family, of perseverance, Ultimately, he enjoyed living in Wash- and of faith. ington and in 1959 Abram and Jessie My family. o

24 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

James Koning Memoir (1906) Robert P. Swierenga, editor Nella Kennedy, translator

Editor’s introduction James Koning (2 November 1833 — died at sea a week before docking in 22 September 1914) came as a four- New York on 1 June 1848. Anna Vander teen-year-old to the Holland Colony of Stel, age 46, a servant, came along to the Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte in the help Neeltje nurse her sick infant and summer of 1848, along with his par- namesake, and care for three-year-old ents and siblings from Zuid-Beijerland, Arie. The couple had been married on Province of Zuid-Holland. As the family 19 October 1826. Before emigrating, left the Netherlands it included father six of their children had died at birth or Johannes (Jan), age 50 (born February shortly afterward. James was baptized 1798); mother Neeltje nee Schelling, as Jacobus and called Kobus for short. age 42; Jacobus, age 14; Pieter, age 11; In America, he eventually took the Eng- Arie, age 3; and Neeltje, age 1½, who lish name “James.”

ohannes Koning was a blacksmith followed by days with little wind, but Jin Zuid-Beijerland, in the Province still “a sky-high sea” to remind them of Zeeland. This sizeable town lay of the tempest. Koning related to his astride the north bank of the Hollands grandchildren that the sailors stood Diep, ten miles below Rotterdam. by with axes to cut the rigging loose Koning arrived in Michigan with if the masts broke. The voyage took suffi cient monies to buy both a lot in thirty-fi ve days, somewhat longer town and a farm. than normal but not remarkably so. Offi cially, the Koning family be- To reach West Michigan the fam- longed to the national Hervormde ily followed the usual water route Kerk, but when they settled in Hol- up the Hudson River by steamboat Robert P. Swierenga is the research pro- land they had joined the 1834 Seced- to Albany, via the Erie Canal by a fessor, at the A. C. Van Raalte Institute, ers that had left the national church. horse-drawn boat to Buffalo, and Hope College, and professor of history The family crossed the ocean on the through the Great Lakes by lake emeritus at Kent State University. He is Danish sailing bark, Helene Catherine, steamer to Chicago, and then across the foremost scholar in Dutch-American departing from Rotterdam on 1 April Lake Michigan to Holland. Since the studies, a frequent contributor to Ori- 1848 and arriving in New York harbor channel into Black Lake (now Lake gins and is currently completing work on a history of Holland, Michigan. on 5 June. Macatawa) was only two to three feet The memoir describes the stormy deep, the party had to board fl atboats Cornelia “Nella” B. Kennedy is the fi rst three-day crossing of the English or rafts to get ”across the bar.” Men former archivist, art historian, and Channel and into the Atlantic, the used wind power or long poles to lecturer in Dutch language at North- western College. Since the beginning of nine-day layover at Falmouth, Eng- propel the boats and rafts along the 2010 she has served as senior research land, to take on fresh drinking water lakeshore for the fi ve-mile trip to de fellow and offi cial translator at the A. and more large stones for ballast, and Stad. The Holland Colony was about C. Van Raalte Institute, Hope College. then the diffi cult ocean voyage. The fi fteen months old when the Konings ocean voyage began with a storm, arrived; it was a work in progress,

25 with travel on 8th Street still impeded by stumps. Settlers met the Konings at the waterfront, introduced them to will- ing helpers, and advised them about buying land for a farm. They arrived just when the Ottawa Indian band at Old Wing Mission, located three miles southeast of Holland (on present-day 40th Street a mile east of Waverly Avenue), decided to sell their lands and relocate to the north country at Little Traverse Bay. The mission stood on fertile bottomland along the south branch of the Black River. The Indi- ans were asking the going price of $5 per acre for their partially improved lands, and Koning was interested. Isaac Fairbanks, the government agricultural agent at the mission, had appraised the property. Rev. George N. Smith, government schoolmaster and preacher at the mission, was willing Koning’s lot in Holland is indicated on this 1866 map (Market Street is now Central Avenue). Map to sell his eighty acres, but Koning courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. demanded the eighty-acre parcels on both sides so his sons could each as his offer to the Mission Indians, but on the lot they had purchased in 1848 have eighty-acre farms. But the Indian he also got a place to live and a cash from Van Raalte located on the south- owners did not want to sell. So the crop to harvest that same season, all west corner of 9th and Cedar (Cen- deal came to naught, despite the best for an additional $100. It was a better tral) streets. When Johannes Koning efforts of Rev. Smith. deal. died unexpectedly in 1852, his widow Koning then looked nearby for Within a few months, Koning and moved back to the farm and worked it a larger farm. With the help of the a neighbor replaced the shanty with a again with their children. English-speaking Hermanus Does- “plank house” constructed of sawed On 8 November 1855, James Kon- burg, one of the fi rst teachers of lumber. A big barn came next, but ing was married by Rev. Van Raalte to Holland and the future publisher of within a year the city’s fi rst newspaper, De Hollander health prob- (1851-1865), Koning found the two- lems forced hundred-acre, partially improved farm Koning to turn of an early German settler, Gilbert over the farm Cramner. The German had come from to a tenant, Kalamazoo in 1843 and wished to J[ames] Vander return there. The farm lay in Section Sluis and his 36 of Fillmore Township, Allegan wife. The teen- County, one mile east of the present age children Niekerk Christian Reformed Church remained on and a mile north of the mission. the farm, but Koning paid $1100 cash for the farm, Johannes and including a log shanty, a team of oxen Neeltje moved Built 1844-1845 for Reverend George N. and his wife Arvilla Powers Smith, the Wing Mission, located near the border between Ottawa and and plow, a sleigh, livestock, a wood to Holland. Allegan counties, was the fi rst structure in the Holland area that the Dutch lot, and the crops growing in the fi eld. They had a immigrants encountered. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, The per-acre price of $5 was the same house erected Grand Rapids, Michigan.

26 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

wouldw remain prominentp in thet Holland areaa for many generations.g The familyf belonged tot Third Re- formedf Church. CeceliaC died 22 AugustA 1908, anda James died ono 22 Decem- berb 1914. Both area buried in PilgrimP Home When Holland was founded, a span of oxen was still the principal form Cemetery.C of animal power in Michigan. Derk Gringhuis illustration courtesy of the In 1907, both Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Holland and Gezina (later Cecelia) Albers (born 8 Zeeland commemorated the sixtieth November 1832), daughter of Geert anniversary of their founding. Gerrit Jan and Alida. The newlyweds lived Van Schelven, editor of Holland’s De on the family farm for two years, until Grondwet [The Constitution] and the 1857, when James and Gezina moved town’s chief historian, encouraged to Holland, where James got a job many old settlers to write their mem- driving the Holland mail stage. Ac- oirs, many of which he published in cording to his obituary in the Holland the newspaper in the next years. It Daily Sentinel, Koning brought mail is likely that Van Schelven prompted from Grand Haven once a week and James Koning to put pen to paper, passengers and freight twice a week.1 but the “Memoir” was not published The 1860 census lists his occupation in De Grondwet. Judging from the as “mail carrier.” writing, Koning’s penmanship was Koning gave up driving the stage good, and he was able to articulate his and opened a general merchandize experiences quite well, even without store on 8th Street, which was lost the use of periods or commas. The in the 1871 Holland fi re, including frequently misspelled words and lack Advertisements for land. Image courtesy of the counter and fi xtures, valued at of paragraphs indicate that he had the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, $400.2 By 1880 Koning worked in not fully mastered the rules of spell- Michigan. a stave factory in town, as did his ing and grammar in his elementary second son Peter, and in 1900 James schooling. Archives of Holland. Rev. Osterhaven, was a watchman in a factory (the Mina (Mrs. Ekdal) Buys of another descendant, was a professor census occupation is “night engineer Holland, Michigan, a direct descen- at Western Theological Seminary. factory”). dant, donated the original manu- Henry S. Lucas might well have The couple lived in Holland for script, along with a 1996 translation included this memoir in his two- more than half a century at 93 West by Eltine De Young-Peterse, to the volume compilation, Dutch Immigrant 13th Street, and Cecelia bore eight Archives of the Holland Historical Memoirs and Related Writings (Assen, surviving children, six sons and two Trust. Nella Kennedy, chief transla- Netherlands, 1955; revised edition, daughters — Gerrit, Johannes (John), tor at the A. C. Van Raalte Institute Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, Jacob (James), Pieter (Peter), Alber- of Hope College, has re-translated 1997), but the document was still in tus (Albert), Frederick (Fred), and the document. A second copy of the the hands of the family. We publish Neeltje (Nelly). This “quiver” full of memoir is in the Rev. Dr. M. Eu- it here to make it available to a wider sons ensured that the Koning name gene Osterhaven Papers at the Joint readership. Any fi rst-person account

27 that contributes to the Van Raalte family, was trav- opus is worthy of publication, let eling with us. alone the vivid picture the memoir One whirlwind gives of the ocean crossing and of tossed the ship early life in the Holland Colony. completely to one side, so that Memoir we had to rest James [Jacobus] Koning, born on the our feet against second of November in the year 1833, the crates on left the Netherlands in the year 1848, our side, and the with his parents and two brothers bed against our and sister. The sister [Neeltje] died backs. on the ocean a week before arrival in Towards New York, at the age of nine months. morning it She was born 23 August 1847.3 A calmed down brother named Pieter was born 1830,4 and then we An illustration of chopping trees and cutting logs by Derk Gringhuis from and brother Arie, born the 18th of found out that Holland’s Heritage published by the First National Bank of Holland, Michigan. February 1845. All were born in Zuid we were on our Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Beijerland, Province of Zuid-Holland, way back to England. It was only then ships were of the same size as the ves- Canton of Oud-Beijerland, District that we found out in what distress sels here on the lake, of the small two- Court of the City of Dordrecht. Father we had been. The carpenter, who had masters sort. The advantage was that was born in Numansdorp and Mother stayed on deck, told us the story. The all the large water containers were in the village of Klaaswaal, both in the name of the ship was Helene Cathe- emptied, and fi lled again with good province of Zuid-Holland. Her name rine. He told us that sailors stood next spring water, so that we enjoyed hav- was Neeltje Schelling. to every mast, with an axe in hand, ing good water for the entire journey. The 1st of April 1848 we left Rot- to be ready to cut the rigging in case Nobody was allowed to disembark, terdam with the ship—a Danish the masts broke and fell overboard, so everyone had to stay on board. bark—and so to Hellevoetsluis, and so as to free the ship from the masts. But when the captain went ashore, into the English Channel. After a day The ship had lost all its masts the year Father asked permission to join him and a night of sailing, we were on the before. because he wanted to buy some provi- ocean. The following night it began After having sailed for three days sions, for we did not like hard tack. to storm and the hatches were closed, into headwinds, we arrived in Fal- He was granted permission, and he and anyone who wanted to be on mouth [Cornwall], England, in a took along one other person from deck had to stay there. Everyone was cove, surrounded—except for where among those that he took with him to below deck, except for one: a carpen- we had arrived—by large, rocky, high America. Father had paid the costs [of ter from Arnhem who already had hills. We then found out about the the journey] for four families. I had been in America and who, with his reason for the return. We did not have the privilege of going along. All of the eenough bal- town of Falmouth is hilly, full of large llast. Space was rocks, even the streets. First I did not ccreated in the know what the clattering sound was llowest part of that I heard when a woman passed tthe ship, and we me, but I soon found out that she sspent nine days wore spikes underneath her shoes so lloading big, that she could climb the steep places. hheavy stones. Once on board again, we set sail on TThese had to the sea the following day. We had to bbe transported struggle with storms and headwinds. bby small ships, When the storm died down, there was ffor we were no wind, but sky-high seas. By the aanchored there. time the sea became calm, another Map courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. TThose small storm and headwind would pick up.

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rrods wide [66 Schaap began to give up, and consid- ffeet] from Kant- ered returning. But our guide, after eers’ hill to what long pleading that the land which he wwas called the wanted to show us was so good, old sswamp. The Schaap decided that he and I would ttrees were then return to Pouw Stavast’s house—and ccut in lengths there to wait for the others, with tto enable the Pouw’s wife. oox cart to get Shortly before evening they re- tthrough. At the turned to us, and Schaap and Father ttime there was debated behind the log cabin whether oonly one ox they should go to Pella, Iowa, to- tteam in Hol- gether to see fi rst how it was there. I lland. [It be- could go with them but I had to keep llonged] to old quiet, because they had not wanted to BBakker [likely go so far into the forest. Schaap had Derk Gringhuis illustration of the market in Holland courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. WWillem], who two adult sons and two daughters, later lived in and a son, Jan, who had come here a This was repeated until the month of Port Sheldon for several years. Old year before, with Van Raalte. That son June when we arrived in New York. man [Edward] Harrington [Sr.], who had twice claimed eighty acres from From there we took the steamer to lived on land away from town, also the government. That land lies half a Albany, and from there the canal boat had a team of oxen. That place of mile from where the Niekerk church to Buffalo, and from Buffalo by steam- Harrington is now just outside the is located now. But Schaap did not er to Chicago. From there we traveled town borders. Our family—father, like that land; it was sandy and a large by vessel to the Kolonie of Rev. Van mother, three brothers and the ser- portion was cedar swamp. Nowadays Raalte, but we struggled many days vant girl—could sleep in the attic of that is the best land. After having to be able to anchor there. Twice we the old baker Jan Visser. During the talked it over with his sons and wife, entered Grand Haven [harbor], and day [we used] a shanty, made from he decided to settle there, and so for several days we sailed back and poles and hemlock bark, to cook nothing came of the trip [to Iowa]. forth near Holland, until at last the food. We spent several weeks there, Father heard that the Indian minis- lake calmed and we could anchor. for we were waiting for old man Otto ter [George Nelson Smith] was going In the morning Jacobus Vinke, and Schaap, for he and his family, and to depart for the north woods with Jan Vinke, and Fillip Flipen [likely some others, had departed later. the Indians, and that he wanted to sell Philip Philipsen], and the old Bosma When they arrived, all of them his farm. He had lived here for several [likely Auke Bosma] came with two went to look for land. In those days years already, and had been sent here fl at boats to the side of the ship, and there were two surveyors, [Bernar- by the government to minister to the with much exertion and might they dus] Grootenhuis and Voorhorst [Jan Indians. Old [Isaac] Fairbanks was took all belongings, and us, from the Verhorst], who were acquainted with sent by the state to teach the Indians ship. At night we arrived in Holland, the sections of land. We had Voor- how to farm, but the Indians had no in the forest. Father and our fam- horst guide us through the forest by interest in that, and did nothing but ily were able to stay with baker Jan means of the compass, and Father hunting and trapping. Visser, who came from the same town Schaap, two adult sons, Visser, Pouw Hermanus Doesburg, son-in-law in the Netherlands as we did. A log [Paulus] Stavast, and I all went along. of Schaap, had been my teacher in house had been built, with a hemlock Stavast had lived here for a year al- the Netherlands. He and his fam- bark roof, located on the hill which ready; he had come with Van Raalte, ily had come along with Schaap. He is now River Street, near the rolling as had Jan Schaap. P. Stavast had forty could speak several languages. He mill. Others could go to fi nd a place acres of land at the Drenthe road, two took Father with him, and we went to sleep there, and cook food in the miles from Holland. The man who to the minister to the Indians. It was forest during the day. was our guide took us in a south- three miles from Holland, now on the Everywhere there were woods. eastern direction from Holland and, Allegan road, and on the county line Trees had been cut on 8th Street, four after walking about six miles, old man between Ottawa and Allegan counties.

29 The farm was eighty acres in Allegan planed. The chimney in the corner of Michigan. After six years, Fen- County. Because Doesburg could talk of the house was constructed of fi eld nechien, the older daughter, came [English] with him [Rev. Smith], stones and clay, and on the top of it to visit her father, married here and Father agreed to take the land for that pieces of split wood, piled on top of did not return [to New York]. A year price on the condition that he could each other, to a height above the roof later the younger daughter, Cecelia, have the acres adjacent to it, which line, and then sealed with clay. came to visit her father and married amounted to twice eighty [160 acres]. We had to make do with this until me here. She arrived here in April, They agreed on fi ve dollars an acre, all Father built a new plank house the and on 2 November we were wed by of it forest. That land belonged to the following year. Father and one of our Rev. Van Raalte. We lived on the farm Indians, but because they were leav- neighbors, three-fourths of a mile from 2 November 1855 until 1857, ing anyway, the Reverend thought the from us, were the fi rst among the and then went to live in Holland. deal would be possible. But, after in- farmers to build a plank house. A year We have lived here now for fi fty-one quiry, they did not want to give it up. later he had a big barn constructed for years. After a marriage of about fi fty- Father wanted to have thrice eighty the cattle. When all of that was fi n- three years, Cecelia died, on the 22nd acres, because he had three sons, and ished, Father became ill and had the day of August [1908]; on the 2nd of in that way each of them would have land worked on by someone else, and November it would have been our a farm of eighty acres. went to live in the city of Holland. It fi fty-third wedding anniversary. Six Father gave up asking the surveyor was called the “city of Holland,” but sons were born during that time, and for information and he began to con- it was all woods. Furthermore, after two daughters, namely Gerrit, John, clude, as he thought, that it was land Father arrived here he had already James, Pieter, Albert, Frederick M. [probably the additional 160 acres] purchased a lot and had a house built and Nelly. Our fi rst daughter died at belonging to speculators who had on it. It is the lot that is now on 9th eighteen months. o claimed it or otherwise had bought Street and Central Avenue, on the government land for one dollar and southwest corner. twenty-fi ve cents an acre. That was Father suffered from headaches, Endnotes all that the government charged for and the doctor called it drops on the 1. 22 December 1914. 5 2. “Property Losses in the Holland land. Then Father heard of someone brain. The pain radiated from the Fire of 1871, by Street,” Archives, Hol- who had been in the woods for years head to the heart, and he died unex- land Historical Trust, Holland, Michi- in order to hunt and trap. He already pectedly, having been here for only gan. had cleared twenty acres of land, and four years. Then my brothers, mother, 3. Offi cial Dutch records have her birthday as 24 August 1847, had cut down ten acres of woods and I began to live on the farm until http://www.genlias.nl/nl/searchDetail. years ago. Then Father went there, 1855. jsp?val=23&xtr=16789652&vgr=3, con- three miles east of Holland. When Then I married a daughter of Geert sulted 27 February 2012 at 11:58 a.m. we arrived there, Father bought two Albers of Nieuwe Pekela, in the Prov- 4. Johannes and Neeltje had three sons named Pieter. The fi rst was born hundred acres for $1100, and a team ince of Groningen, who, with her fa- 9 August 1821 and died 1 November of oxen, a wagon, sleigh, cows and ther, a sister, and a brother, had come 1831; the second was born 14 August young cattle, some farm tools, and to America the same year [1848]. The 1832 and died 13 September 1832; and the crops in the fi eld. We were aided father left his two daughters in New the third was born 23 August 1836 and survived. by Doesburg. Fairbanks and some- York, and came here with his son of 5. This appears to have been the one else had appraised it and Father about twelve years, looking for land. mid-nineteenth-century medical prog- bought it all. He then left again for the Netherlands nosis for severe infl ammation of the There was a log shanty on the land to get more people, who included his brain, like encephalitis or meningitis. that he [the settler] had built himself, brother-in-law and sister, who had a with a door and window in it—with- big family comprised of all boys. Also out an iron hinge or a nail. The roof a sister came along. He [Albers] had was made of split oak planks, three left his son here with friends until his feet long, fastened with wooden pins return from the Netherlands. between two trees, and a white ash When he returned, his daugh- fl oor, split from one log three to three- ters did not want to come along, and-a-half feet thick. It was chopped but preferred to stay a while in New with an adze, just as if it had been York, rather than live in the forests

30 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

My Recollections of Holland in 1852 George Edward Holm

[The manuscript was published in the Grand Rapids Democrat just after Holm returned from Holland’s Semi-Centennial cel- ebration on 26 August 1897, reprinted in De Grondwet in 1911. editor]

nent the semi-centennial cel- very well the coming in of the colony Aebration at Holland yesterday and the coming out of the foreign set- are a few recollections of my own tlers among the farmers of Byron and which may not be uninteresting to parts adjacent for such things as they your readers. were obliged to have to work with or At the time the Holland colony was live on, to wit: oxen, cows, corn, pigs, established by Rev. A. C. Van Raalte potatoes, sheep, etc., before they had in 1847, I was a farmer’s boy in the raised anything of their own, and I township of Byron,1 Kent County, remember, also, that our farmers were where Father, at that time, had been always very glad to see them, for a a resident two years, and I remember purchase by any of the newcomers

George Edward Holm was still living in Kent County, Michigan, as late as 1920 and working as a farmer. No further data has been found about him. The route Holm took to visit the Holland Colony in 1852, just fi ve years after the Dutch led by Rev. A. C. Van Raalte arrived. Map courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

31 If he had left to the years of waiting which fi ll droppedd out of so large a space in every boy’s life who thet moon he has some big thing to do and watches couldc not have out for time to bring him his opportu- interestedi me nity. more,m and to So my time came at last, fi ve years visitv him in that later, in the fall of 1852. wonderfulw settle- I was eighteen; I was my own man; ment,m and see I had some well-earned money in himh at home, my pocket, and I had not forgotten becameb one Holland and would visit this foreign ofo the leading country and see these curious people ambitionsa of in their own famous colony. mym backwoods At that time there was far from A story-and-a-half log house built just outside Holland. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. life.l It was so being any sort of a decent road from much talked Grandville to the colony. I was an of anything we had to sell always about, and for the fi rst year or so we expert woodsman and cared little for brought the gold, the ten-guilder gold saw some of them so often; and now roads when I wanted to go anywhere, piece being the most common, in and then some adventurous young but I must have a comrade and so, for exchange for what they bought. man whom I knew had actually “been company, persuaded a young farmer The farmers in those days seldom to Holland” that it seemed as though friend, about my age, Otis “Ote” Free- saw any gold, or but very little money if I did not go there also there would man3 by name (I think he is living of any kind, and you may well guess be a void in my life which nothing yet) to be my companion during the that the queer, oddly-dressed strangers else could possibly fi ll. It would be so voyage, and together we shouldered from over the sea were welcome guests much like visiting a foreign country, our rifl es and trucked out westerly to the farmers of our region who had you know. through the woods to fi nd a way, or anything to sell. Pictures of Holland in my old geog- make one, to Holland. I also remember with what wonder raphy always had a windmill promi- Think of that now, ye scorching my boyish eyes watched the peculiari- nent in the foreground. cyclers who think nothing of a run ties of these, to me, queer people, and ddown there and with what amazement I would see bback the same them haul out their leather purses and dday a wheel,4 count out the gold for every purchase; oor ye happy nor was it long before nearly every OOttawa Beach- farmer had exchanged something or eers who leave other for some of their golden guil- yyour pleasant ders. hhomes in Grand In my boyish mind the Hollander RRapids and was a mine of wealth—they were over- aalight at your fl owing with sacks and bags of gold ccottage door six and they at once became to me, a won- mmiles beyond derful people. Whenever I saw one HHolland in an of them he at once became a magnet hhour. Behold the which collected the curious boy about An early log house, near Holland, typical of the early structures built by the cchanges time him, that I might study his ways, his Dutch immigrants once they learned how to build log structures from their hhas wrought— dress, and hear him talk, for sure, was American neighbors. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand and how little it he not a man who had recently sailed Rapids, Michigan. is you know of over the great ocean, all the way from Would this Holland in Michigan the pleasures of pioneering. continental Holland, to become a have a windmill? Verily, how could I Freeman’s people had dealt a good citizen of Michigan and help found a ever enjoy life unless I went to see? deal with the Hollanders. My friend remarkable colony at Back Lake?2 Yes, I would go; but when, or how was Ote could talk with most of them

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ini 16477 — just nearly a century and a half before and ttwo hundred which (according to our notes made yyears prior to at the time) “still regulates the sun tthe settlement and tears the moon wide open.” oof the Michigan His daughter9 also, who was a rosy HHolland colony. cheeked young maiden of sixteen, IIts staunch cov- showed us many old country articles eers were half an of head gear, one single ornament of iinch thick and gold being valued at $250,10 together iit was bound with any other thing quaint and aand clasped queer, because we had never seen the aall over with like before. She then opened a large ssilver, and if I cupboard and exhibited some three rremember right hundred Sunday school books, which A drawing of the log school built by colonists. Image courtesy of the iits central clasp the children of New York had given to Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. was fastened the children of the “Drent settlement” with a lock and wherever that was.11 quite well, and besides, he knew key. And the pictures that were in The books, she said, “were the best some of the Zeeland farmers, and at that book! Why, I almost think I am of all,” and thus do worthy pioneers the cabin of one of them was where looking at them yet. And in it, as a fi nd many aids. we brought up at the end of our fi rst part of it, there was also a wonderful But I must not linger too long, day’s jaunt, tired, wet, and hungry, map, showing what was known of the though, indeed, my fi ve years’ dream for a damp November snow had been Americas, for the western continents of a “foreign shore” was now being coming down all day, and our tramp had then only been discovered 155 realized and my weariness had faded had been “through bush and brake” years. Except for the Holy Land I had completely out. without much thought, or care, for never seen any kind of a map in a We retired at bedtime and were up roads. Indeed, the most welcome road Bible before. This one showed New- before the sun, for the strange city was the unblazed forest path, for the foundland, with a strip of Canada, was still half a dozen miles away, and roads of those days, in that region, at as far west as the Niagara Falls, the that was the acme of my dream. that season of the year, were double ocean coast from the St. Lawrence Our kind host and his family gave roads, that is to say there were always River to Florida, the golf (sic) of us the pleasant “stirrup cup” of cof- two, where you found one, and one of Mexico, Mexico, Southern Califor- fee, and the simple breakfast of their them was usually a foot or two below nia,8 with the northern part of South people, while Otto accompanied us a the other. Therefore the woods walk- America and the West India Islands. mile on our way to be sure we took ing was much more preferable.5 There have Our good host’s name was Yn- been some tema—which I do not suppose I spell changes in correctly.6 He had a son about our age, American whose given name was Otto, who had maps since mingled with the Yankees enough that day! to speak English very well, and I Mr. Yntema remember we were made very wel- also had a come, indeed; also that the provender watch which was abundant and good, and that the was nearly evening passed very pleasantly. The related to this distinguished (?) young visitors were venerable book entertained by the exhibition of many in point of quaint and curious things which had age—a watch been brought from the old country, purchased The fi rst church building in Holland located on the site of the current Pilgrim Home Cemetery on 16th Street, west of Fairbanks Avenue. Van not the least among which that inter- by his great- Raalte’s home was a few blocks north of this church. Image courtesy of the ested me was a huge Bible published grandfather Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

33 the right path, bade us a cheery good- the windmill. You could not keep joys of my journey, nor have I ever bye, urging us to call on our return me away from it another moment. seen anything since in that time equal and tarry yet another night. Indeed, it was a wonderful thing to to it. I brought it away with me and Now, as some of the descendants of me. It was a sawmill, and I think have it in memory still; though in this family are doubtless living in that there was also a simple run of stone my many subsequent visits to Hol- township yet, I desire to thank them for grinding corn, and as the mill land in after years I was never able again for the pleasant and profi table was not running that day it was open to tell where it stood. I do not think evening spent with them in their pio- for inspection. I went all over it. The I was there again for nearly twenty- neer cabin 17 November 1852. tower must have been seventy-fi ve or fi ve years, and then everything was We struck the village of Holland eighty feet high, for it is down in my changed. at the head of Black Lake at about notebook that I climbed nine pair of My trip had not been in vain. I had 10 o’clock in the morning, and as we stairs or ladders, before I came out on found the windmill, and my last view did not leave it until near four in the the balcony which surrounded its cap, of it, as we left the village that after- afternoon, we had ample time to “do” on a level with the pinion of those noon, I thought very like the pictures the town. Yes, and as sure as I am an mammoth wings, which had a sweep in my old geography, as it stood in honest historian there was the Dutch of at least a hundred feet. The frame- relief against the western sky and the windmill! Surely I was on the dikes work of these great sails was light ex- great lake beyond. of the old land only, perhaps, this one cept the main arms, and covered with Another thing which interested was not built for pumping. sailcloth, when in operation, arranged me very much was a monstrous clock It was nearly a mile to the hotel; in some way so they could be furled in the watchmaker’s shop. The sun, and I, therefore, reserved its examina- when there was too much or too little moon, and some of the stars circled tion until after dinner, as, unlike the wind to run the mills properly, or round its honest face from east to erratic Don Quixote, I could not think when idle, as at the time of our visit. west in quiet succession, while it also of attacking a windmill on an empty From the balcony I could see Lake had a calendar arrangement which stomach. ttold us the year, Holland village at that time was mmonth, and fi ve years old, and contained six or dday, and I shall seven hundred inhabitants. There llong remember were seven stores, two hotels, a bak- tthe day I was ery, a tinner’s shop, a tailor shop, a tthere—18 No- clock and watch repairing and jew- vvember 1852. eler’s shop, besides various mechani- MMy notebook cal shops, and wagon and blacksmith ssays so, and shops, such as became any new II’ll make my village where there are no idlers. It ““happy David”12 also had a church which cost $800, iit is true, as it a school house, and a printing offi ce. wwas the fi rst We were in most of these places dur- rrare thing of the ing the day, concerning some of which kkind I had seen, permit us to speak later on. aand you may be In the printing offi ce we found two In 1851 this building became home to the Pioneer School in Holland. It had ssure I was going intelligent lads fourteen or fi fteen been built in 1847 to house orphans from the epidemic that year but was not to remember it. years of age, and I still have among needed for this since families took in all these children. From an illustration Calendar clocks in Wynand Wichers, A Century of Hope, 1866-1966 (Grand Rapids: Wm. my relics some “dead” copy in the B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968) 30. are now as com- Holland language which one of the mon as mos- boys gave me, which at that time was Michigan, six miles away. It was the quitoes, but they were not forty-fi ve a great “take” for me being in a for- fi rst view I ever had of it and that was years ago. eign language. Candor compels me to another big thing, though I had sailed Truly this Holland was a wonderful say I have never read it. its entire length some seventeen years country. As soon as we had put away our before, when less them half a year old. I remember also, that we made dinner we made a straight wake for This giant windmill was one of the several attempts to buy something,

34 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

but as the tinner had no tin sidesad- tered. Very few of them were helping the two bright boys we found in the dles,13 or the wagon maker any car- “hold t’other fellow up.” And as to printing offi ce, both of whom spoke riage plows,14 or the blacksmith any Domine Van Raalte’s church that was English fl uently. They had great faith ready-made snow shoes, we went, as something very grand for the time, in in the future of Holland and, as I we came, empty-handed, except for an architectural way. We were fortu- remember, were strong in the faith rifl es and supplies of the staff of life, nate enough to fi nd it open, with the that Congress would soon grant them procured from the bakers. sexton in attendance cleaning up, a suffi cient appropriation to make an To look back at it now, our boyish sweeping out and dusting, and so, elegant harbor there—one of the best, pranks were at once impertinent and without let or hindrance, we walked in fact, on the Michigan shore—but, if silly, but it was such fun to see those in. The sexton greeted us pleasantly, alive now, those lads must be looking honest mechanics stare at us when but do not recollect that we attempted for it yet, as I do not recall that Con- they came to understand our absurd any conversation with him. The gress has ever done any such thing. requests. They were men who never church was a block-house, built of Nature long ago seems to have done joked, if, in fact, they knew what a square-hewn timber, and for size was its full share to that end, but mighty joke was, their lives had been, and perhaps 50x70. Inside it was very like little help has it had from any other were, too much in earnest for any other churches; although at the time source, as such meager appropriations such nonsense, and if it were possible I was not very familiar with them as have ever reached that point, have I would even now beg their several except that in the roof were two great been but driblets, scarce suffi cient to and collective pardons for any annoy- ventilating fl ues. I remember to have keep the sand out of the nose of their ance we possibly gave them that No- thought them very warm blooded still prospective excellent harbor; vember afternoon. If they aand yet, perhaps, enough thought of us the second ffor some congressmen to time after we were gone, hharp on when he wanted they probably voted us a tthe Holland vote. I told the pair of harmless lunatics bboys I hoped they would who did not know what we gget it, but that I did not were talking about, and so bbelieve it would bother suffered us to go in peace. tthem very soon, as Frank Perhaps it was the wind- PPierce was president, and I mill that had loosened our nnever took any stock in his tongues. I have often been ddesire to improve the rivers called a windmill since, aand harbors of the North. I but, somehow, never took tthink they must be waiting much pride in it; not as ffor that appropriation yet.15 Built in 1851, the house of Derk Te Roller, at the corner of Central Avenue much as I ought to have and 9th Street, was one of the buildings that Holm would have seen. The But, as this is not a po- done, considering how house was destroyed in the 1871 fi re along with much of the city. Image litical essay, we will hasten many years I had yearned courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. on through the snowstorm to see one. to our camp on Black River, The weather that afternoon was worshipers, but, perhaps, they were remarking, as we leave the pioneer not the most pleasant of November not much used in winter, or, perhaps, village, that we do not remember to days. There were occasional snow that was the plan in the old home have found but two streets in it, and squalls, the sky was heavily overcast, country—but, doubtless, they knew this we named respectively Stump and toward night it set in for a steady their needs much better than I—so street and Mud street, for reasons storm, but this did not balk us of our we departed without suggesting any which would have been apparent had intent to camp that night on the bank alterations. you traveled them in the fall of 1852. of Black River. I presume there are many of the Our “camp” on Black River was At that time many of the houses in present residents of Holland who will an improvised affair. I don’t know the village of Holland were built of remember this pioneer church. how far it was from the village, but logs, though, perhaps a majority of One thing more before leaving the we arrived there just on the edge of a those in the immediate village were village on our return trip. dusky, stormy evening and, under the frame. They were all a good deal scat- We had quite a pleasant chat with arching hemlocks and cedars, where

35 explorer, on occasional shot at a gleaming pair of occasion, would eyes in the woodsy blackness beyond be glad to get? It the circle of our campfi re it more with was a rare treat. the expectation of scaring than killing As we had noth- any of the fi erce howlers with which ing to hurry us we were surrounded. We kept our fi re and no dishes going and did not even climb a tree. to wash up, or At about 3 o’clock we broiled and table to clear devoured the balance of our game away, we broiled and were ready for marching orders at and ate, and the fi rst crack of day. We saw no sign ate and broiled, of wolves after daylight except their for nearly two tracks in the snow, at a safe distance, happy hours, all about our camp, which we left making the wild without regret. Derk Gringhuis illustration of the market in Holland courtesy of the woods resonant At 10 o’clock we secured a break- Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. with shouts and fast at a Hollander’s cabin on the far song. Had there frontier of the colony, and that night storms or snow never come, soon been any settler within a mile or so lodged with a Yankee friend within had a roaring fi re going. Our camp they must have thought pandemo- fi ve or six miles of Freeman’s home, was near a deserted clearing, with the nium had broken loose down by the mine being several miles further on. ruins of a shanty thereon, from which sluggish river. It was a great lark. And thus it was that not until we laid in an ample supply of fuel and It must have been about 9 o’clock about noon of the fourth day from our prepared to be comfortable. when it became apparent we were starting out, I sat down with “Ote” For beds we abstracted some of to have company. The lads in the to dinner in his own home, as I had the roofi ng of the aforesaid shanty, printing offi ce, when we told of our often done before, and while we did to wit: two huge slices of hemlock camping idea, had warned us of the ample justice to what was set before bark about four feet long and three wolves but what did we care when us, entertained the family with the feet wide. These had curled up quite we heard them howl, either in answer history of our grand expedition to a bit, like a concave lens, and when to the delicious odor of our broiled Black Lake. laid up, “slantingdicular” against the game supper or the song and shout Such was Holland forty-fi ve years roots of a tree, with a big fi re in front of the campers. It did not matter. The ago, and one of the ways of getting and a covering of hemlock boughs ten branches hung low on the trees which there. feet above you, became a warm, dry embowered us, and wolves do not For myself, I felt abundantly paid nest—fi t for any explorer returning climb trees. We had a good fi re, plen- for my trip, and I have never been from a foreign shore. We camped thus ty of fuel and ammunition, and so there since without thinking of my for the fun of the thing—not because let the “varmints” howl, if it pleased youthful visit, or looking in vain for we had to—and, behold, even to this them. Noise seldom kills anyone, and “Stump street” or “Mud street,” for day, that camp is called “The Camp of your wild wolf is as big a coward as in my mind wandering whither had the Valley.” your human one, if you face him and fl own the mighty windmill, which Our next business was supper, and tell him you do not care a fi g for his was such a marvel of unchained two or three squirrels and a partridge, music. I had camped among them power in my boyish eyes. which our rifl es had gathered in, were before and all we cared about it was Once, more than twenty-fi ve years soon dressed and broiled on crotched that it meant a watchful night for two after my fi rst visit, being booked for sticks, with no salt or seasoning ex- weary young fellows who had been on a stump speech at Holland I prefaced cept ashes and smoke. As we broiled their feet since 5 o’clock in the morn- my talk with a lively reference to the we caught the savory drippings on ing. All there was of it we must woo old-time tramp and what I saw, and large slices of Dutch bread, and as Nature’s sweet restorer as homeopath how it impressed me, at the time, these drippings dripped deliciously, doctor gives his pills—alternately. So with pleasant comments on the prog- what more was wanting to make that we took turns standing guard through ress they had made, to the great de- repast such as many another weary the long night, and if we took an light of my audience. In that audience

36 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

sat many a grand gray head who was cut on that stormy November day in the printer spoke of in ‘52—why this there when I came out of the woods ‘52, when my friend and I made our city, founded upon principles of the with my rifl e in November 1852. tramp to the famous colony. staunchest integrity and ever main- And now it is fi fty years since they At that time Grandville was a smart tained along the same line, should not fi rst came, and forty-fi ve since I fi rst village and it was a somewhat mooted be the Chicago of Michigan, with a visited them, and to-day the stranger question whether Grandville or Grand port suffi cient for all the commerce of would be very far from taking that Rapids was to be the coming city the Great Lakes. thriving city for a foreign port. of the Grand River alley. It is not so Yet another fi fty years—though The wild woods where we camped, mooted now. Holland has long since we be not here to see—Holland will begirt with howling wolves, have been taken its place among the thriving remain, nor is there any reason why swept away. The small openings in the cities of Michigan, with its college, its it should not be the principal lake- woods, here and there, miles apart, extensive business houses and im- shore city on the eastern coast of Lake where the pioneer colonist started his mense factories, its more than health- Michigan. farm, have melted into each other, ful and pleasant summer resorts, there That is where I put it and I’m not and the bright village of Zeeland now is no reason in the world—when to take it back. o stands where, possibly, not a tree was they get that harbor appropriation

Endnotes 1. In the southwest corner of the 1834 in Friesland, the Netherlands, and were not visible to any but the closest county, adjacent to Ottawa County. was given the name Otte. family members. It was the means to 2. Now Lake Macatawa. 7. This was almost certainly an early store surplus value; gold not needed was 3. Born November 1834 in New edition of the Statenvertaling (states added to the helmet, or in times of need Hampshire. In 1900 he was living in translation) or Staten Bijbel (Dutch for it was clipped from the helmet. Nelson Township, in northern Kent States Bible) ordered by the govern- 11. Drenthe, Michigan, is in south- County. ment of the Protestant Dutch Republic eastern Zeeland Township, approximate- 4. During the 1890s the safety and the fi rst Dutch translation of the ly fi ve miles from Zeeland, and about bicycle (both wheels the same size) Bible from the original languages, fi rst three miles south of the route Holm and became the item for younger people to published in 1637. Ote had traveled. Holm probably didn’t own. Grand Rapids had its own facto- 8. Southern California probably know of the place because of the dense ries, banked wooden race track, and two refers to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. forest cover at the time. Today the ter- magazines devoted to the “wheel craze.” 9. Sjouwke, later in Michigan, Susan rain is open farm land. 5. At that time of the year the wagon Yntema. 12. Probably Holm means “affi davit.” trails would be very muddy and walking 10. For centuries, women of means 13. A tin storage box. on solid earth was preferred to having from the province of Friesland wore 14. A harness component. every step sink into the ooze. a helmet of gold covering the crown 15. In fact, since 1867 the US Army 6. Holm had the correct name. This and back of their heads, and often Corp of Engineers has been responsible was Hessel Ottes and wife Klaaske Dou- with golden rosettes at each ear. Since for dredging the channel between Lake wes Yntema. Otto was born 7 January women wore lace caps these helmets Michigan and Black Lake.

37 Immigration Journey Under Sail Eugene Westra and Robert P. Swierenga

ntil steamships replaced sail- ous shipping companies fanned out Uing vessels in the second half across Europe, selling tickets to pro- of the nineteenth century, crossing spective emigrants. The major Dutch the Atlantic to America could be a shipping fi rms were Wambersie & life-or-death decision for emigrants. Crooswijk and Hudig & Blokhuizen, Most were landlubbers who feared both of Rotterdam. Rev. Albertus Van the sea. They thought long and hard Raalte hired Hudig & Blokhuizen in before deciding to board a three-mast 1846 for his group of one hundred freighter as “human cargo,” along on Southerner. In 1847, Wambersie & with a hundred or more passengers Crooswijk offered to bring emigrants of all nationalities and social classes, to New York “as cheaply as possible— for a journey of forty to sixty-fi ve in fact, for 30 guilders [about $12] days, depending on wind and waves. each.” Transatlantic ticket prices in During the 1840s some ten thousand 1846-1850 ranged from 30 to 45 guil- Dutch emigrants embarked from Rot- ders [$12 to $18] per person, with an terdam and Amsterdam for the United additional sum of 35 guilders [$14] States.1 for provisions while aboard ship.3 The Netherlands and American Food for the voyage was the governments both enacted laws to responsibility of each passenger, ac- safeguard the passengers, but the cording to lists of provisions provided legislation always lagged behind the by shipping companies. The ships actual conditions, as the shipping provided potable water held in wine companies stayed one step ahead vats; as a result, the water picked of the regulators. The sailing ves- up a vinegar fl avor. The ships also sels were poorly managed, and port supplied bitters (for seasickness), authorities sometimes rejected a lemons, prunes, herring, and beer vessel as un-seaworthy just before for birthday parties and celebrations. departure and the passengers had Cholera, small pox, diphtheria, and to fi nd another ship. Most emigrant other diseases often resulted in death, ships were three-masters, could carry so stones or sandbags were also taken three to four hundred tons, and were aboard for burials at sea.4 The mor- built to carry freight, particularly tality rate was an awful prospect for bulk products from North America. the sea journey, as high as 6 percent When emigration began to increase, in 1847 during the peak of the Irish the cargo holds were modifi ed to ac- famine migration. In later years the commodate passengers for the return rate dropped to 2-3 percent. Fortu- Eugene D. Westra is a retired social trip. Carpenters built crude wooden nately, the better general health of the studies teacher from Holland Christian High School. He is a 1960 graduate of bunks where the passengers slept Dutch and their penchant for clean- Calvin College and earned his MA de- and stowed their luggage. Shipboard liness enabled them to cheat death gree from the University of Wisconsin- conditions were crowded, dirty, and more often than emigrants from other Madison. unhealthy.2 countries. A tally of the Dutch on the Shipbrokers representing the vari- US ship passenger lists in the 1840s

38 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

their money and their time, and I fear they would be none too good to rob him of his luggage if they could get a good opportunity . . . . These men are worthless vagabonds.8 It was a common practice for im- migrants to secure a letter of intro- duction from some offi cial in order to avoid runners and to meet helpful contact persons. Remeeus described his letter from the commissioner of emigration at New York, which simply requested persons “to help us on our journey as quickly and as cheaply as Map of the water route from New York to Holland, Michigan, via the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and Great Lakes. Map courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. possible and protect us against swin- dlers.”9 found only 147 died en route, a rate During the sea voyage the im- With the opening in 1855 of the of only 11 per 1,000. Over two-thirds migrants passed the time seeking fi rst government immigration pro- were children under the age of four- information about docking in New cessing hall, Castle Garden, on the teen. The inland journey westward York, making arrangements for their tip of Manhattan Island, only licensed via the Erie Canal and Great Lakes baggage, fi nding an immigrant hotel, agents were allowed to sell tickets also took a toll, although no mortality and buying tickets for the trip inland. for steamboats, canal boats, hotels, statistics were kept. After 1850, with Frequently, the captain or crew would and stevedores. Immigrants were also the coming of steamships and new offer advice about these concerns. given health checks and advice from regulations, deaths at sea dropped Johannes Remeeus, aboard the Fedes immigration offi cials. dramatically.5 Koo en route to Boston in 1854, wrote Other than bad weather, the mo- of such help. Immigration Agencies in New York notony of the ocean passage was bro- Rev. Thomas De Witt, pastor of the ken only by passing ships, sightings When we were drawing near to Boston Marble Collegiate Reformed Church of large schools of fi sh, mealtimes, the captain called me to his cabin. It in New York City, and members of his was diffi cult for us to understand each congregation formed the Netherlands Sunday religious services, psalm- other, but he informed me that he Society, which arranged for trustwor- singing, simple children’s games, and would gladly map out for us our trip burials at sea. Almost every passage inland. He advised that we should not thy Dutch-speaking agents to meet encountered severe storms. Jan W. listen to anybody—English, Germans, every ship at the docks and direct Bosman, bound for Milwaukee, writes Irish, or Hollanders—no matter how their kin to a hotel for the night or of his experiences aboard the Revenue, elegantly they might be dressed or place them directly on board a night sailing from Rotterdam to New York. how refi ned their manners. I informed steamboat to Albany. The aid soci- my fellow passengers about his sug- ety was independent of the church, The American ship had a German gestions and nearly all of us accepted although church members served on captain. them.7 the board and supported it fi nancially. We went on board on 25 April, The same captain warned of “run- Rev. De Witt used the pages of the of- in the evening. Our quarters were ners” who would board ships as they fi cial church paper to solicit funds for hardly fi t for passengers. Such was the 10 stench below deck that my wife’s fi rst docked and sell unnecessary services the support and aid of immigrants. thought was that she could not stand at exorbitant prices. J. B. Newhall of- De Witt informed the wider Re- it. . . . There were fully 100 passengers fered a clear warning about such swin- formed Church membership about between decks . . . . All went prosper- dlers in his Hand Book for immigrants: the aid society in the 4 February 1847 ously at fi rst, but later we had storms issue of the denominational newspa- and contrary winds. Our small vessel There is likewise a class of persons in per, the Christian Intelligencer: frequently was engulfed by the sea. all the large Atlantic cities (more es- On such occasions, one heard groans pecially New York) called “runners,” Public attention has lately been and anguished cries, as one can read- a set of harpies who make a trade of aroused to the destitute and unpro- ily understand.6 fleecing and robbing emigrants of tected condition of [Dutch] emigrants

39 way to the Midwest. A key group in Detroit was a committee of seven men established on 11 February 1847, following the arrival and win- tering over of the Van Raalte group.13

The Journey Inland After the initial reception by Rev. De Witt’s committee in New York City, the immigrants were taken to a steamboat for the trip up the Hud- son River to Albany. The boats ran at night and meals were served on board. When the Hudson froze over in the dead of winter, the immigrants Located in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City, Castle Garden became took the train to Albany, which ran an immigrant receiving center in 1855, welcoming more than 8 million immigrants before it was along the opposite shore. The train closed on 18 April 1890. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. was more expensive, despite being unheated, and upon arrival the im- arriving on our shores, who, until him by Rev. Van Raalte, leader of the migrants had to carry their luggage within a short period had no point fi rst large Dutch group, which arrived across the ice to the city of Albany.14 where to apply for advice and protec- in late November 1846, requesting the Anne De Vree emigrated in 1846 tion; consequently, they too often fell Knickerbocker into the hands of designing persons, whose chief object was to plunder Dutch to assist them of the little money they pos- the young Dutch sessed, and under the pretense of immigrants. friendship, offering advice which too The response often led to ruin. to Van Raalte’s Information having been received “Appeal to the that some ten thousand emigrants Faithful in the were about leaving the Netherlands for this country, affords us much plea- United States” sure to observe, that a few gentlemen, was warm and natives of Holland, have formed an inviting, as seen association, called the “Netherland in an editorial Society,” which must be of great ad- in the Christian Castle Garden began as Castle Clinton, a fort built to defend New York vantage to their protection and guid- Intelligencer of Harbor during the War of 1812. The fort closed in 1824 and was reopened ance, as well as for others who may 26 November by the city as Castle Garden, a cultural center and theatre. Image courtesy hereafter migrate from that part of of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Europe, whence they arrive equally 1846: strangers to our language and our customs, and requiring the aid which Come on, friends, though we have no and wrote about steamboating on the will now be extended for their wel- money to bestow, we can direct you to Hudson during the winter: fare, and especially to protect them suitable locations, give employment against innumerable frauds which to your mechanics, furnish land for We left New York by steamboat and emigrants have heretofore been the you farmers to cultivate till they shall went up the Hudson River. I cannot get lands of their own, and aid you in victims of.11 recall how far we steamed, but I re- various ways, so as to make your cir- member that we were caught in ice so cumstances comfortable, and expedite De Witt’s society became linked that we had to travel further by rail- those important objects you have in road, which had just been fi nished. We with Wyckoff’s organization, the Prot- 12 view in leaving your native country.” then proceeded to Albany where we estant Evangelical Holland Emigrant arrived late in the evening of Decem- Society of Albany. Wyckoff, pastor of Revs. Wyckoff and De Witt estab- ber 24, 1846. To get into Albany, we the Second Reformed Church of Alba- lished a network of immigrant aid had to walk over the ice, because the ny, had responded to a letter handed societies to speed the Dutch on their ferryboat was frozen fast in the ice. But

40 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

the Lord was with us and guided us, so that we all arrived safely.15

There were many obstacles that confronted the immigrant over which a society of helpful people had no control. Natural barriers of rivers, waterfalls, ice and snow presented a challenge for the faith expressed by Anne De Vree. At such times the aid and guidance was provided through faith and confi dence in God. The city of Albany was the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal. The canal offered the most inexpensive mode of Drawing of canal boat traffi c on the Erie Canal. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. travel to the West. Immigrants from northern Europe came to Albany by on Erie Canal boats for the trip to The horses were going nearly always rail from the port of Boston or by Buffalo, New York, a journey of ten on a walk in the day time. I walked a steamboat from the port of New York. days to two weeks, depending on good deal of the time by the side of Arend Jan Brusse, a Dutch immigrant traffi c and water levels. Ole Knudson the boat. It was a slow and tedious on his way to Milwaukee, wrote of the Nattestad, a Norwegian immigrant to way of traveling. Our daily fare on the trip via Boston. “At Boston we were Wisconsin who traveled on the Erie boat was bread and milk, which we put into the cars of a freight train that Canal in 1837, described the canal bought along the route of the canal. slowly took us to Albany. Arriving at boats in detail. “In the afternoon we After being a week on the canal boat Albany we had to stay there for a day, went on board on the canal boat here we reached Buffalo.”19 and stopped at a German hotel. While in Albany. These boats are all the For a more expensive option, the there the Rev. Dr. Isaac Wyckoff same size. They are about 30 ells long immigrants could travel by train passed by. Hearing us speaking Dutch, [about 93 feet] and 5 ells wide [about through New York State to Buffalo he stopped and took some of us to his 8 feet] with room for freight in the and avoid the slow and monotonous home.”16 center and a cabin at each end with canal trip. The train trip lasted two Dutch American residents of Al- costly curtains in bany advised the newcomers regard- the windows and ing travel on the Erie Canal. A former painted fl oor Amsterdammer said, “Don’t be afraid with carpets; the on account of your baggage. If it has other furniture been put on the car in Boston, it will in the rooms was arrive in good order at Buffalo. But for the most part as soon as you reach Buffalo you will polished.”18 have to look after it in order to have The canal it shipped across the Great Lakes.” boat company Advice like this brought confi dence expected only and security to the immigrant. Yet, moderate pas- concerns were still present upon hear- senger traffi c, ing news about a cholera epidemic and by 1846 the in the western states. News like this boats were over- A drawing of river traffi c at Albany, New York. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. brought on depression, but the meet- crowded and ing of old acquaintances and greeting the conditions gave much discomfort. days, in contrast to the two weeks on new friends gave relief from the ap- Arend Jan Brusse traveled the canal in the canal.20 prehension.17 1846 on his way to Milwaukee and he The Erie Canal boats stopped The immigrant aid society of Al- wrote of his experience. “At Albany frequently to take on supplies along bany secured steerage or deck space we got on an immigrant canal boat. the way or to be locked up or down.

41 The immigrants went ashore and two thou- purchased their own food from stores sand pas- that specialized in the canal trade. sengers, but In many of the towns adjoining the the crowded canal, Hollanders had settled and es- deck al- tablished farms and businesses. With lowed less letters of introduction from Wyck- than fi ve off, the immigrants sought out these square feet future compatriots for assistance and per pas- guidance. Many hailed from Gelder- senger for land and Zeeland. As historian Henry sleeping. Lucas noted: “It seems only natural The trip to conclude that Zeelanders from to Detroit western New York who had already lasted two become more or less Americanized days and a should . . . help other Zeelanders night. Fuel coming directly from the Netherlands, stops for many of whom tarried for some time wood were Derk Gringhuis drawing of a schooner off the channel between Black Lake (Lake in Pultneyville, Rochester, and other made as Macatawa) and Lake Michigan. Image courtesy of the Archives, Calvin College, places.”21 The other places were East needed at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Williamson and Lancaster, which Cleveland were located ten miles east of Buffalo. and Toledo. Sunday layovers were the railroad to Kalamazoo, the western At every canal stop the Dutch immi- common. Often the immigrants found terminus in late 1846. Winter travel grants found sympathetic Hollanders Hollanders in these cities and present- made the railroad a necessity. The Erie to give support and helpful advice ed them with letters of introduction and Kalamazoo Railroad (later the about handling the baggage in Buffalo from Wyckoff to obtain advice and Michigan Central) was built in 1840 and how to secure passage from Buf- assistance.24 and was the fi rst rail line west of Buf- falo to Detroit. Wyckoff also sent letters of intro- falo.27 Upon arrival at Buffalo, Dutch duction to contacts in Buffalo, Detroit, These railroads were used by the immigrants were advised to collect Kalamazoo, and Chicago, requesting Committee of Seven, an immigrant their baggage and remain with it until that they assist immigrants on their aid group at Detroit, then the state booking passage on a lake steamer or westward lake journey. One was Isaac capitol, formed to expedite the move- schooner. The schooners went under Van der Poel at Buffalo, who helped ment of Dutch immigrants to Michi- sail and were slower, taking about immigrants negotiate contracts for gan. Attorney Theodore Romeyn, of four weeks on average from Buffalo steerage space.25 Dutch American ancestry, led this to Chicago. A cabin was available for Once the immigrants were aboard committee, which enlisted the sup- $20, which was a reasonable cost for the “lakers,” captains showed an inter- port of the major political leaders. immigrants.22 est and concern for the naïve new- Rev. De Witt related Van Raalte’s ex- Steamboating on the Great Lakes comers. E.B. Ward, captain of Great periences in a report in the Christian began in 1818, with side-wheel pack- Western, the vessel that carried Van Intelligencer. ets that carried twenty passengers. By Raalte’s group to Detroit in November 1836 ninety steamboats were arriving 1846, even hired the immigrants to On reaching Detroit, he [Van Raalte] was kindly received by ministers and at Detroit in May and, soon after that, work in a shipyard at St. Claire on a Christians there; provision was made one hundred boats arrived every day. steamer he had under construction. for the temporary accommodations of By the 1840s, steamers were equipped Some ten families that remained in his family, and letters of introduction were given to him, to ministers and with propellers. In 1846, there were Detroit received hospitality from a laymen in the interior of the state and approximately 250,000 passengers Congregational minister.26 farther west. He writes that he was arriving and departing Buffalo.23 The During the shipping season, the uniformly received with kindness, and steamer Madison was the largest on lake steamers and schooners sailed that Evangelical Christians cherished and expressed a lively interest in the the lakes, with a length of 210 feet and through the lakes to Chicago. Immi- proposed settlement of religious emi- a breadth of 52 ½ feet. It could carry grants who could afford the fare took grants from Holland.28

42 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012

The immigrants bound for Milwau- tion in its tracks for a time. Of the and recommendation speeded them kee via Chicago needed little hospital- twenty-four Dutch survivors, genealo- westward, from De Witt in New York ity in the Windy City. The shipping gists at the Sheboygan County His- City, Wyckoff in Albany, Van der Poel companies simply transferred baggage torical Society have determined that in Buffalo, Romeyn in Detroit, and to schooners or steamers without their offspring today number 4,000. Rev. Ova P. Hoyt in Kalamazoo. Dutch incident. By this time, the immigrants The number of Dutch Protestants in settlers who had arrived earlier also had learned the “ropes.” The supply the Sheboygan area would be double extended aid and advice along the of food lasted easily until the im- or triple that number but for this di- way. This truly human response to the migrants reached their destinations, saster. 30 Eventually, the Gelderlanders “stranger” and “sojourner” strength- since seasickness had greatly reduced and Zeelanders kept on coming, and ened American society. The acts of their appetites. soon the villages of Oostburg, Cedar kindness woven into this immigrant Johannes Remeeus recalled the trip Grove, Gibbsville, and Alto became story enrich the meaning of the lifted to Milwaukee in 1854. thriving agricultural centers.31 lamp beside the golden door. o

Finally we were on the boat. They Conclusion collected our tickets and then threw The waterway journey from the Endnotes them away. There were few pas- Netherlands to the American hinter- 1. Robert P. Swierenga, “Journey sengers, and not many of them im- Across,” in Swierenga, Faith and Family: migrants. The day was sunny and lands was a rigorous test of human Dutch Immigration and Settlement in the beautiful. We were so tired that we endurance, resourcefulness, and faith. United States, 1820-1920 (New York: fell asleep and consequently saw little Infants, children, and the elderly were Holmes & Meier, 2000) 122-150. of Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes at the greatest risk of dying en route. 2. Bertus Harry Wabeke, Dutch are bodies of fresh water. But ships Emigration to North America, 1624-1860 During the seven- to twelve-week trip (New York: Netherlands Information sailing on them frequently encounter from the home village to the destina- dangerous storms—as serious as those Bureau, No. 10, 1944) 108. on the ocean, and thousands of immi- tion village, the immigrants encoun- 3. Swierenga, “Journey Across,” 128, 130. grants have found untimely graves in tered many unexpected hardships and 4. Paul J. Schreiber, Centennial His- 29 tragedies. In many respects, the fi rst the waves of these lakes. tory of the Town of Randolph 1849-1850 Dutch emigration wave of the 1840s (Randolph, WI: Randolph Advance, The period from 1845 to 1855 was came a decade before steamships and 1950) 22. marked by very heavy traffi c on rivers railroads greatly eased travel. By 1860, 5. Swierenga, “Journey Across,” 139- and lakes by steamboat. Storms and the railroad trunk lines to the Mid- 141; Wabeke, Dutch Emigration, 109. 6. Jan W. Bosman, “My Experiences,” fi res took a toll in lives during these west were complete and immigrants in Henry S. Lucas, Dutch Immigrant years. The greatest tragedy suffered could reach their fi nal destinations Memoirs and Related Writings, 2 vols. by any immigrant group arriving in with relative ease. (Assen: Van Gorcum & Co., 1955) vol. America during the nineteenth centu- It has often been said that the 2, 88-89. 7. Johannes Remeeus,”Journey of an ry occurred off Sheboygan, when the Northern European emigrants came Emigrant Family, 1854,” ibid 91-109 propeller steamship Phoenix caught to America and established them- (quote, 101). fi re from an overheated boiler due to selves without assistance from the 8. J. B. Newhall, The British Emi- negligence by the captain and crew, populace or government offi cials. This grant “Hand Book” and Guide to the New and the vessel burned to the waterline States of America, particularly Illinois, was not true for the Dutch. Through- Iowa, and Wisconsin (London: T. Stutter, several hundred yards offshore during out their journey, they received guid- 1844) 75. the early morning hours of Sunday, 21 ance, advice, spiritual encouragement, 9. Remeeus, “Journey,” in Lucas, November 1847. Of 277 passengers and material assistance. Emigrant aid Dutch Immigrant Memoirs, 2: 101. in steerage, 219 died, including 145 10. Henry S. Lucas, Netherlanders societies, both in the old country and in America (Ann Arbor: University of Dutch immigrants, mostly from the the new, abetted the travelers. Sea Michigan Press, 1955) reprinted (Grand villages of Winterswijk, Aalten, and captains, with some notable excep- Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987). Wisch/Varsseveld in the Achterhoek tions, gave consideration and advice. 11. Lucas, Dutch Immigrant Memoirs, region of the Province of Gelderland. When the ships docked at New York vol. 1, 30-31 (quote, 30). 12. Ibid, vol. 1, 25-26 (quote, 26). It took several months for the news or Boston, aid groups and benevolent 13. Robert P. Swierenga, “Decisions, to reach relatives and friends in the individuals found accommodations Decisions: Turning Points in the Found- Netherlands, where it spread quickly and transportation for the Dutch ing of Holland,” Michigan Historical and literally stopped further immigra- immigrants. Letters of introduction

43 Review, vol. 24 (Spring 1998) 48-72. Settlers in Milwaukee,” Wisconsin 26. Ibid, 74. 14. Jan Hendriks Stegink, “Relation Magazine of History, vol. 30 (Dec 1946) 27. “Centennial and Pioneer Notes,” of My Journey to America,” in Lucas, 174-183 (quote, 178). Michigan History Magazine, vol. 20 (Au- Dutch Immigrant Memoirs, vol. 1, 127- 22. Lucius G. Fisher, “Pioneer Recol- tumn 1936) 452. 136, esp. 133. lections of Beloit and Southern Wiscon- 28. Thomas De Witt, Christian Intel- 15. Anne De Vree,“My Experiences,” sin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. ligencer, 11 Mar. 1847, in Lucas, Dutch ibid, 292-299 (quote, 298). 1 (Dec 1917) 266-286, esp. 268. Immigrant Memoirs, vol. 1, 34. 16. “Arend Jan Brusse, “Reminis- 23. Gustave W. Buchen, “Sheboygan 29. Remeeus, “Journey,” ibid, vol. 2 cences,” ibid, 45-49 (quote, 46). County,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 108. 17. Remeeus, “Journey,” ibid, vol. 2, vol. 25 (Jun 1942) 425-443, esp. 427; 30. The defi nitive history is: John 91-109 (quote, 103). O. Turner, Pioneer History of the Holland Textor, Phoenix: The Fateful Journey 18. Ole Knudsen Nattestad, “De- Purchase of Western New York (Buffalo, (Sheboygan: Sanderling Press, 2004) scription of a Journey to North Ameri- 1850) 643. 196, 230-35; Conrad Vandervelde, Saape ca,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 24. L. B. Swan, Journal of a Trip van der Veldewopkje Dykstra Descendants 1 (Dec 1917) 167-186 (quote, 167). to Michigan in 1841 (Rochester: The (Emporia, KS) viii. 19. Brusse, “Reminiscences,” in Herald, 1904) 12; Remeeus, “Journey,” 31. Robert P. Swierenga, “Building Lucas, Dutch Immigrant Memoirs, vol. in Lucas, Dutch Immigrant Memoirs, vol. the Reformed Church in Early Wis- 1, 46. 2, 105; Bosman, “My Experiences,” ibid, consin,” Origins, vol. 27, no. 2 (2009) 20. Remeeus, “Journey,” ibid, vol. 2, 90. 35-44. 104. 25. Henry S. Lucas, Netherlanders in 21. Henry S. Lucas, “The First Dutch America, 125.

44 Volume XXX • Number 1 • 2012 book notes

“Pope of the Classis?” Faith, Family, and Fortune: The Best of The Leadership of Reformed Upbringing and The Reformed Journal Albertus C. Van Raalte in Calvinist Values of Highly James Bratt, and Ronald A. Wells, eds. Dutch and American Classes Successful Dutch-American Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Leon van den Broek Entrepreneurs Publishing Co., 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8028-6702-5 Holland, Michigan: Van Raalte Press, Peter Ester 2011 Holland, Michigan: Van Raalte Press, $20.00 Paperback ISBN 978-0-9801111-5-6, available 2012 through the Hope-Geneva Bookstore ISBN 978-0-9801111-6-3, available $10.00 Paperback through the Hope-Geneva Bookstore $10.00 Paperback

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

The New Jersey Dutch by Richard Harms Frisians: Destination–Paterson, New Jersey by James J. de Waal Malefyt Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary Rev. A. C. Van Raalte’s view on Slavery Volume XXX • Number 2 • 2012 by Michael Douma

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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 XXX • Number 1 • 2012