Van Raalte’s Settlement at 150
Author: Paul Trapp
Original Publication Date: March/April 1997
It was dark when the seven cold
and weary travelers arrived at the Old Wing Mission near Black Lake. These
fugitives from religious persecution and economic distress had traveled with
Dominie Van Raalte by ox-drawn sled twenty-four miles from Allegan. The
arrival of these Netherlanders on February 9, 1847 marked the settlement of
the kolonie at Holland, Michigan, 150 years ago.
The Netherlands, with its long
history of tolerance, hardly seems the place one would flee to avoid
religious persecution. Yet for a short period after the French Revolution,
religious dissent was punished. In 1815, following Napoleon’s defeat at
Waterloo, the Prince of Orange returned from exile in England to rule as
William I. The new king was both well meaning and obstinate. A year after
taking the throne, he issued an ecclesiastical constitution designating the
Hervormde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) a state-supported institution.
Following the ideals of the Enlightenment, the Hervormde Kerk no
longer insisted on the old confessional standards. Instead, it taught that
Jesus Christ was an ethical teacher who preached that mankind could become
righteous by following higher moral principles. These ideas clashed with the
fundamental Reformed idea of a fallen humanity that could do good only
through God’s grace.
In 1834 a revival movement
among the plain folk of the countryside and small towns led to the
Afgescheiden, a movement calling for a return to the teachings of the
Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort. These
pious poor also objected to the use of hymns, for they thought that only the
Psalms, inspired by God, could be used in worship. One of the members of
this movement was Albertus Christiaan Van Raalte. Born in October 17, 1811
in Wannepervaen in the province of Overisel, Van Raalte studied for the
ministry at the University of Leyden. He planned to become a clergyman like
his father. Because he had joined the Scholte Club at the university, which
had challenged the state church, he was declared unfit for the pulpit and
denied ordination. When Dominie Hendrik DeCock, leader of the Afgescheiden,
was removed from the pulpit, his followers held a secret meeting of pastors
and elders in 1836. They seceded from the Hervormde Kerk and formed
the Gereformeerde Kerk (the “true” Reformed Church). Van Raalte
joined the secessionists and served a number of seceding congregations
before accepting a call to Arnhem in 1840.
Following the secession,
persecution and harassment began almost immediately. It was illegal for more
than twenty people to meet together for any unauthorized service. When
secessionists met in homes and barns, their meetings were broken up by the
authorities and neighbors who resented nonconformists. The pastors were
fined and, when they refused to pay, jailed. Van Raalte spent three months
in jail. The followers were forced to quarter soldiers in their homes, were
frequently fired from their jobs and were denied any governmental benefits.
Harassment failed to destroy the movement, and the steadfast faith of the
persecuted attracted converts.
By the mid-1840s persecution
had eased though religious fervor remained, but that was not the only factor
motivating migration. The Netherlands, once a great commercial nation, had
fallen behind England, the world’s new industrial leader, creating fewer
opportunities for the working class. In 1830 Catholics in the southern
provinces revolted against the king. When attempts to suppress the revolt
failed, Belgium won its independence. The revolution was costly and the poor
were heavily taxed. Then came the final blow. The potato famine generally
associated with Ireland, struck the Netherlands and Germany particularly
hard in 1845 and 1846. The potato was the food of the poor and the failure
of the potato crop threatened the lower classes with starvation.
Letters from successful Dutch
immigrants in America stirred the masses. Secessionist church leaders,
including Van Raalte, were at first reluctant to abandon their homeland. But
as dreams for a new beginning grew among the parishioners, many began
leaving on their own. In April 1846 Van Raalte and his brother-in-law,
fellow secessionist Reverend Antonie Brummelkamp, met with the congregation
in Arnhem to organize a mass movement to America. The constitution,
Foundations of the Society of Christians for the Emigration of Hollanders to
the United States of North American, clearly defined their intentions and
designs. “The first mission is to create a colony that is Christian.
Therefore it is recommended to the Committee taking care of the acceptance,
help and sending of emigrants, to find such ‘salting’ elements for the
colony as are necessary to insure a Christian majority.”
The society determined who
settled in the colony, or Kolonie, by maintaining control of land
distribution. Money would be collected from donors and those interested in
settlement. Land would then be purchased in large blocks and distributed to
the faithful; others would be excluded by denying them the opportunity to
buy this land. From the beginning it was the society’s goal to help the
deserving poor of the congregations by advancing money for passage, which
they would repay with twenty percent of their earnings.
Van Raalte’s vision was even
more expansive. He saw the formation of a central town (de stad) and
as new groups of settlers arrived, they would form new communities. Each
would have its own church and school, but the towns would be linked
economically and socially to the central town. This expansive Kolonie
would help the immigrants maintain their Dutch heritage and Reformed
traditions.
In June 1846, two months after
the society was approved, Van Raalte wrote the letter “To the Faithful in
the United States of America” and sent it to the Dutch churches in New York.
Fortunately, the letter ended up in the hands of Reverend Isaac N. Wyckoff
in Albany. Touched by Van Raalte’s description of conditions in the
Netherlands and his plaintive plea for help, Wyckoff had the letter
translated and printed in the Christian Intelligencer, the paper of
the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in America. Following its publication,
Wyckoff helped organize the Protestant Evangelical Holland Emigrant Society
in Albany to provide aid to the anticipated immigrants. A similar group was
founded in New York City. He wrote Van Raalte, urging him to send three
individuals ahead to search for a suitable site in the Midwest.
Van Raalte had not waited for a
response to his letter. On September 24, 1846 he left Arnhem, leading a
party of fifty-six souls. On October 2 they boarded the Southerner.
The dominie and his family stayed in a cabin while the remainder of the
party traveled below deck. When the Southerner arrived in New York,
the fifty-four poorly prepared Dutch (two had died during the
forty-seven-day voyage) were met by Thomas De Witt, pastor of the Collegiate
Church, a Reformed congregation. De Witt had been in the Netherlands earlier
in the year and was aware of the seceders’ struggles. The immigrants were
warmly received and helped aboard a steamboat that carried them to Albany.
There Wyckoff greeted the little band and encouraged these pioneers to
travel to the Midwest. He suggested they settle in Wisconsin, where a number
of Hollanders already lived.
After a short stay in New
York’s capital, the party boarded a train for Buffalo. Although impressed
with the Hudson River steamboats, Van Raalte had little good to say about
American railroads. Everything was cheaply built and the railbed had no
protection. The ride was rough and long due to delays caused by rain. Rain
even leaked into the cars. Reaching Buffalo, they were anxious to leave
quickly, hoping to reach Wisconsin before the Great Lakes froze. Storms on
Lake Erie delayed them, prompting some members of the party to find jobs in
Buffalo where they remained until spring. On November 27, the reduced party
boarded Eber B. Ward’s Great Western and steamed toward Detroit.
During the three-day journey,
Van Raalte wrote Brummelkamp a letter, recording his early impressions of
Americans. He was dismayed at the number of predatory scoundrels who tried
to take advantage of the immigrants struggling with a strange tongue in both
New York and Buffalo. On board he was struck by how fast Americans ate, that
meat was served at every meal and how few vegetables were eaten. No
deference was given because of social class, and people paid little
attention to how well others were dressed. Anyone who could pay his way was
equal. People were hospitable, but Van Raalte heard few compliments. He also
noted with interest the number of individuals who read newspapers.
At Detroit, Van Raalte’s party
learned that since it was so late in the season, the Great Lakes were
freezing, and no boats would leave for Milwaukee until spring. Traveling by
land was too expensive since the railroads did not extend beyond Kalamazoo.
Van Raalte found rooms for his family, but the poor Dutchmen traveling with
him were divided. Some found shelter in a Detroit warehouse; ten families
accepted E. B. Ward’s offer to work on a steamboat he was building at St.
Clair, in exchange for room and board. Since these Dutch immigrants had few
skills and didn’t understand English, they were assigned the most menial
tasks.
At this time Detroit was the
state capital. When state leaders learned of Van Raalte’s plans to establish
a Dutch colony, they urged him to consider Michigan rather than continue on
to Wisconsin. Michigan was anxious for settlers. The state’s growth had been
slowed by the financial fiasco created when its internal-improvements plan
collapsed. The state was discredited when it repudiated its bonds; without
transportation, few people moved into the interior. Ships sailing from
Detroit through the Straits often continued to the western side of Lake
Michigan since there were more settlements in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Van Raalte was both befriended
and strongly influenced by Detroit attorney Theodore Romeyn, a descendent of
early Dutch settlers in the East. He had ties to the Reformed Church and
spoke Dutch. Van Raalte was also aided by the Reverend George Duffield of
the Presbyterian Church. Some of their arguments were legitimate; others
were balderdash. Michigan maintained close ties with eastern markets that
would strengthen as roads were developed and railroads completed. On the
other hand, western trade would be tied to the Mississippi River and New
Orleans, where slavery would be confronted. Western Wisconsin had few
settlements, making travel and trade difficult; eastern Wisconsin had a
mixed population of immigrants that might be indifferent toward the
religious Netherlanders. Michigan, however, was populated by old settlers
from the East who were more scholarly, enterprising and religious. They
would appreciate and respect Dutch immigrants. Michigan’s forested lands
would be inexpensive to farm and would provide more building materials than
the prairie. Michigan was healthier, for the southern Wisconsin climate was
too hot for immigrating Hollanders. Van Raalte was convinced to at least
explore sites in Michigan.
The good dominie was introduced
to Allegan judge John Kellogg, who jumped at the opportunity to show him
potential sites in western Michigan where large tracts of land were still
available for reasonable prices. As 1846 drew to a close, Kellogg led Van
Raalte on an exhausting eleven-day trek through deep snow, examining sites
in Kent, Allegan and Ottawa Counties. As soon as he saw it, Van Raalte was
convinced that the east end of Black Lake (present-day Lake Macatawa) was
the ideal location for his Kolonie. The lake emptied into Lake Michigan so
it would make a good harbor. He was not a farmer but thought the sandy soil
was similar to his homeland. The forest would be easy to clear and the wood
would be useful for construction and fuel.
The location was relatively
isolated so the immigrants would not be disrupted by outsiders. But Grand
Rapids, Grand Haven and Allegan were near enough to provide supplies. Only
three buildings stood in the area; the cabin of Isaac Fairbanks, the frame
house of the Reverend George Smith and a mission church for the three
hundred Ottawa who lived in the nearby wigwam village called Ningwegah or
Old Wing. Most of these Indians, led by Chief Waukazoo, had been converted
to Catholicism by French priests, but the U.S. government had sent Smith, a
Congregational missionary, to assimilate the Ottawa while Fairbanks taught
them to farm. The Indians had relinquished most of their lands by treaty and
received a pension of about eight dollars a year. They lived peacefully,
trying to retain their traditions and follow time-tested practices and
generally ignoring Smith and Fairbanks’ efforts.
Once he had decided upon this
site, Van Raalte moved quickly. Traveling north he met with the Reverend
William Ferry, founder of Grand Haven, then returned to Detroit with Judge
Kellogg. A committee of seven prominent Michiganians was formed, who pledged
themselves to aid Dutch immigrants moving west and to help Van Raalte secure
land. His funds had dwindled to four hundred dollars, so the committee
bought land from the state and federal governments and held it in trust.
Three thousand additional acres were obtained on credit from a family in New
York. By late January, property was secured and it was time to prepare a
place for his flock and other immigrants arriving in New York.
The ten families living in St.
Clair were contacted and told they could be the first to move to the new
site. Six pounced upon the opportunity, gathered their goods and moved to
Detroit. Aided by Romeyn, they boarded a Michigan Central train and arrived
in Kalamazoo on February 5. Members of the Presbyterian Church sheltered
them for the night and arranged for sleighs to transport them to Otsego and
then to Allegan where Van Raalte and Kellogg waited. They arrived on
Saturday, rested on the Sabbath, then met on Monday to discuss their course
of action. The women and children remained in Allegan while five men—Evert
Zagers, Egbert Frederiks, Hermanus Lankheet, Jan Laarman and Willem Notting,
whose wife accompanied them as cook—traveled with van Raalte to Holland to
construct shelters for the families. After traveling by an ox-drawn sleigh
over a primitive road blazed through the forest, they arrived at Smith’s Old
Wing Mission late that night. Van Raalte stayed with Smith; the others slept
on the floor of Fairbanks’ cabin for the next two weeks. With the help of
two hired American workmen, they cut a road northward from the mission until
they reached the cedar swamps along the Black River. After raising a
sixteen-by-thirty-foot cabin, they sent for their families.
Six families crowded into that
first shanty. A second shelter was begun for other families, expected soon.
On March 10, as the rest of Van Raalte’s original party still waited to
come, fifteen others arrived and moved into the second cabin. They had left
Rotterdam on October 13, arrived in New York on December 21 and took the
train to Buffalo. After walking all the way to Detroit, they traveled by
train to Kalamazoo and on to Holland. Upon learning that another party would
arrive from St. Louis, the men tried to build a shelter at the mouth of
Black Lake. They gathered boards from the deserted townsite of Superior and
along the lake Michigan shoreline, but the work had to be abandoned for they
had no nails.
Holland, the central town, was
laid out and lots were being sold, but those who arrived as intact
congregations with their own dominie chose outlying sites. The best
organized of these groups came from the Zeeland province, led by Dominie
Cornelius Van der Meulen and financially supported by Jannes Van de Luyster,
who had sold his farm to provide passage for the group. Distressed by the
conditions in Holland and hoping to maintain their independence, this party
moved northeast to form a community named for their province. Maarten Anne
Ypma, leading a congregation of Frisians, established Vriesland. Calvinist
secessionists from Germany—closely tied to the Dutch by geography, language
and tradition—formed Graafschap, south of Holland. By the end of 1847 there
were also settlements at Drenthe by individuals from that province who
sought better farmland than Holland could offer. Jan Rabbers, one of those
who had walked from Buffalo, picked a site on Frenchman’s Creek to build a
mill. His town, Groningen, became best known as the site of the first
Veneklaasen brickworks. In 1845 Overisel was formed by refugees from north
Holland led by the Reverend Seine Bolks, who first came to take the pulpit
at Grafschap. After examining the area, Bolks sought farmland with more clay
for his parishioners. That year Noord Holland and Noordeloos were also
settled. Gradually, Dutch communities dotting western Allegan and Ottawa
counties included Ventura, Fijnaart (East Saugatuck), Zutphen, Bokulo (Borculo),
Crisp, Bentheim, Zoetermeer (Beaverdam) and Rusk.
These Hollanders had a
difficult first few years. By August, fifteen hundred Dutch had migrated to
the area. Those who arrived expected to move into established communities
with streets, stores, houses and parks. What they found were a few primitive
shelters already filled to capacity. For months newcomers lived in
blanket-draped hemlock bowers similar to Indian wigwams. The unusually cold,
wet summer and Van Raalte’s lack of insight in choosing his site exposed the
residents to hordes of mosquitoes from the swamps and wetlands. Combined
with the lack of adequate shelter, high losses from diseases were
guaranteed. Hunger was common. Most of these immigrants were so poor that
relief communities in New York paid for their transportation west. Many
could not afford to have food brought in from surrounding communities. Even
potatoes at one dollar a bushel were beyond their means. Eating parched
corn, new to their digestive systems, only increased their suffering. Many
immigrants died that first tear and were buried in the woods until a
cemetery was platted.
Building cabins proved
difficult. Coming from settled country villages in the lowlands were few
trees grew, the Hollanders had no skills as woodsmen. When they first tried
to fell trees, they girdled the tree and hacked away indiscriminately until
the tree plunged to the ground. Often the falling trees injured the inept
axmen or crushed the shelters they were constructing. The situation improved
once hired American workmen showed them how to clear the forest.
Organizing work and assigning
responsibilities also proved difficult. The state formed a township when the
Dutch were about to move into the area. Since they were not citizens and
didn’t understand the language, the Hollanders could not vote or participate
in township government. At first everything fell upon Van Raalte’s
shoulders. As the burden grew, new arrivals proved less likely to submit to
his authoritarian decisions. Early in 1848 the men of the community met as
the volksvergadering, an extralegal body. At these meetings, similar
to the New England town meetings, decisions were made regarding community
regulations, schooling, building roads and bridges, as well as digging a
channel. Every able-bodied man was expected to work on community
improvements. A foreman or contractor was selected who assigned workdays and
tasks. Those who shirked their duties were fined. The first major project
was building a bridge across the Black River to improve access to Grand
Haven.
The entrance to Black Lake and
a buildup of sand at the channel forced boats to anchor in Lake Michigan. A
scow brought goods ashore when the lake was calm. Van Raalte attracted
government attention to the need for harbor improvements. A government
engineer examined the situation, and following his recommendations, Congress
appropriated funds to open the channel so steamboats could dock at the
townsite. After President Franklin Pierce vetoed the internal-improvements
bill, the settlers grabbed their tools and deepened the channel to allow
shallow draft vessels into Black Lake.
One situation that the
volksvergadering did not deal with effectively or fairly was
relationships with the Indians. The Ottawa had been helpful to the settlers
as they struggled to adapt to a new environment. The Dutch were not hostile
or brutal—they simply treated the Indians as nonentities. Indians complained
to Van Raalte that after they had hung venison from trees, the settlers cut
it down and took it home for their families. The dominie paid the Indians
and criticized his congregants’ behavior from the pulpit. His admonitions
fell on deaf ears. Some Hollanders did have to pay for the Indians’ bark
vessels stolen and used as troughs to feed pigs. In the spring of 1847 the
Indians planted their crops and then left for the summer, expecting to
return and harvest their corn in the fall. The settlers, thinking they had
abandoned the area, appropriated the cleared fields for their plantings. Van
Raalte needed all the assistance the Reverend Smith could give him to
resolve that crisis. By 1849, the Indians had their fill of the Dutch. They
sold their land claims to Van Raalte, gathered their dead and moved north,
away from the intruders.
Faith kept these pious
Hollanders going during the hard early years. In Holland itself, the
faithful gathered outside Van Raalte’s cabin to worship during the spring
and summer of 1847. As fall approached it became obvious that a place of
worship was needed. A large log chapel (thirty-five by sixty feet) was built
in what is now Pilgrim Home Cemetery. This structure was used as a church
and school for nine years. In 1856 the congregation, then known simply as
the People’s Church, moved into a new Greek Revival building (now used by
Pillar Christian Reformed Church). The sixteen-inch-square timbers for the
post-and-beam framework were cut and squared in the forest and then hauled
to the building site in central Holland. The six massive pillars were
fashioned using a large cedar post in the center and then covered with
staves like an elongated barrel. By this time there were sawmills in the
area but no planing mill, so each interior board was planed by hand. The
interior was painted and stenciled. The town bell was mounted in the belfry
where it rang in the morning to call men to and from work and for
emergencies and special occasions.
Throughout the Netherlands,
Protestant churches placed a rooster above the steeple or belfry to
differentiate them from Roman Catholic churches, which used crosses. The
four-foot-high rooster on Holland’s church was hammered out of two copper
sheets by local craftsman Egbertus Vander Veen, who then soldered the pieces
together. Vander Veen wanted the rooster to serve as a weather vane, but had
no bearing to allow the shaft to turn. He inserted a wine bottle with a
concave bottom into the rooster and ran the shaft into the inverted bottle.
The rooster turned in the wind for over one hundred years.
Church services in the
nineteenth century lasted three hours. The sanctuary pews were divided into
three sections. As they entered the church the women and children found
seats in the wide center section while the men and older boys sat in the
narrow sections along both walls. The men thus enjoyed fresh air during the
summer and heat from the three stoves along each wall during the winter.
During the long service, the men stepped outside—ostensibly to check on the
horses—but also to take a smoke. During these services only Psalms were sung
(no hymns until 1934). Peppermints became an important part of worship
because they served as a diversion for the children, who sat through the
entire service. The sermon lasted one and a half hours and always contained
three points. At the start of the first and second points, the young
worshippers were given a peppermint. The third candy was greeted with
delight because it meant the end was near. After the service the families
enjoyed a picnic lunch outside before reentering the building for another
service that focused on one of the fifty-two Lord’s Days of the Heidelberg
Catechism.
Piety did not imply
peacefulness. These Dutch dissenters were stubborn. They had seceded once
and would do so again. In 1849 the Reverend Wyckoff of Albany visited
Holland to check on the Kolonie’s progress and to invite the churches to
join the Reformed Church of America (RCA). Following Wyckoff’s invitation,
the seven Dutch congregations, strongly influenced by pastors who were
grateful for the eastern churches’ aid, voted to join the RCA. There were
dissenters from the start. Some thought the RCA was too closely tied to the
Dutch Hervormde Kerk from which they had fled. Others felt the RCA
was not faithful to the catechism and creeds and they allowed hymns to be
sung during worship.
The most divisive issue was
membership in Masonic lodges. A number of parishioners feared the lodges’
secrecy, seeing conspiracy in the Masons’ silence. Some believed that
Masonic rituals detracted members from true forms of worship. In 1857 the
Noordeloos, Graafschap and Grand Rapids congregations seceded from the RCA
to form the Christian Reformed Church (CRC); they allied themselves with the
Gereformeerde Kerk—the Afgescheiden church in the Netherlands. After
Van Raalte’s death in 1876 his church split over the issue of Freemasonry.
In 1882 the majority of the congregation, primarily later arrivals to the
area, voted to withdraw from the RCA. Two years later it joined the CRC. The
minority, mostly original settlers and their descendants, remained loyal to
the RCA. They met together and built a church on the next street corner.
This created a unique situation: two congregations on the same block were
both named the First Church, and both claimed to be Van Raalte’s followers.
Van Raalte was a strong
proponent of education. Fearing that public institutions would not propagate
his view of Christian faith, he promoted religious schools. With the aid of
the churches in the East he helped form the Holland Academy in 1850, three
years after the first settlers arrived on the shores of Black Lake. The
school prepared settlers’ sons to enter Rutgers College and New Brunswick
Seminary. In 1858 Van Vleck Hall, the first permanent building for the
academy, was opened on a five-acre site donated by Van Raalte. Ten years
later, the academy expanded to a four-year liberal arts institution and was
renamed Hope College. The name was derived from Van Raalte’s statement “This
is my Anchor of Hope for this people in the future.” In 1884 the Western
Theological Seminary opened in Holland to prepare ministers for the Reformed
Church.
While one of Van Raalte’s goals
for the Kolonie was to protect settlers from outside influences, he also
hoped that they would learn to adapt to the political and economic realities
of their new land. He studied English during the transatlantic crossing and
by the time he reached Buffalo, he knew enough to get by. The people
remained dependent upon him because they stubbornly resisted learning the
language. Some parents sent their adolescent children to Kalamazoo and Grand
Rapids where they worked for Americans and sent their earnings home to
support the family. While working as domestics, this generation learned
their employers’ language and customs. From the 1870s to the 1890s, when
jobs were scarce in Holland, immigrants worked in the lumber camps and the
factories in Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. They maintained their
religious traditions, but adopted their neighbors’ speech and habits. They
continued to resist change. When that part of Van Raalte’s church, now known
as Pillar CRC, adopted English as the language for worship in
1915—sixty-eight years after the church was founded—seventy-five members
walked out in protest.
Holland’s first settlers were
godly, but lacked many skills needed to succeed in a new environment. Many
were illiterate, unwilling to learn the language and hampered by a rural
European mentality that left them vulnerable and reliant on strong
leadership. Van Raalte’s strong personality provided that paternalistic
leadership, which helped the Kolonie endure and the people survive.
Eventually, resentment against him grew. His economic successes from land
sales and other investments created animosity as well. When Van Raalte,
weary of controversy, visited the old country in 1866, there are indications
he hoped for a call to a church in the Netherlands or even South Africa. He
returned to Michigan and became embroiled in a controversy over Holland’s
incorporation as a city. Van Raalte resigned from the church ministry and in
1867 tried to establish a new colony in Amelia, Virginia. He struggled there
for three years before giving up and returning to Holland.
A double tragedy struck in
1871. On the last day of June his wife Christina, who had been in failing
health, died. A few months later, fire destroyed Holland. The fall weather
had been hot and dry, turning the forest refuse littering the countryside
tinder dry. Small fires in the area raised little alarm among Hollanders
until that fateful Sunday, October 8—the same day Chicago burned. Sparks
ignited the huge bark piles at the tannery on the west end of town. Pieces
of blazing bark, blown by strong winds, set ablaze wood buildings and plank
sidewalks through the center of town. By Monday night the conflagration left
most of the town in ruins—over three hundred buildings burned, leaving
hundreds homeless. Only one person died, but damages totaled about $900,000.
Insurance covered only $35,000 of the losses. Van Raalte’s church survived,
along with Hope College, the railroad depot and a smattering of houses. At a
public meeting the day after the fire, Van Raalte again rallied the people,
closing with the words “With our Dutch tenacity and our American experience,
Holland will be rebuilt.” Generous donations from around Michigan and the
nation poured in, enabling much of the community to rebuild in time for its
twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in 1872.
On that disputed election day
in 1876 when Rutherford B. Hayes gained the presidency, Dirk Van Raalte was
elected to the Michigan State Legislature. He had little opportunity to
celebrate, for that same day his father died. Holland put aside past
animosities and mourned his passing. Schools closed and businesses shut down
on the day of his burial. A private funeral was held in his parlor before
the body of Albertus C. Van Raalte was carried to the church. About half of
the assembled citizenry could fit inside; the remainder listened from
outside as Reverend Pieters, Van Raalte’s replacement, gave his sermon in
Dutch. Dr. Phelps, president of Hope College, preached a second sermon in
English. A hearse pulled by four black horses, followed by eighty carriages,
led the funeral cortege to the Pilgrim Home Cemetery where Van Raalte was
laid beside his wife hear the site of the first log chapel.
Although Van Raalte’s death
ended an era, Holland retained its unique Dutch heritage until the
mid-twentieth-century. Dutch was commonly spoken by the older generations.
Dutch names filled the phone book. Other churches were formed, but they were
overshadowed by the Calvinism of the Reformed and Christian Reformed
churches. On Sunday everything was closed except the churches. The local
radio station broadcast Detroit Tiger games only six days a week.
People of other ethnic
heritages moved into the area. First immigrants from other European
countries appeared. After World War II, large numbers of Spanish-speaking
people came first to work in the fields and stayed when industrial work
became available. Today, Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of Holland’s
population. After the conclusion of the Vietnam War, local churches extended
support to Asian refugees, who now comprise a growing faction of the
population. In the last few years the African American population has
increased as families, many from Chicago, have arrived seeking new
opportunities as did their Dutch counterparts one hundred and fifty years
earlier.
During the twentieth century,
efforts have been made to reinforce the community’s awareness of its Dutch
heritage. The late Willard C. Wichers of the Netherlands Information Bureau
helped preserve artifacts reflecting Holland’s past. He was also the key
figure in bringing DeZwaan, a four-hundred-year-old Dutch windmill, to
Holland. Around 1930 the annual tulip festival was initiated, curiously
enough by Lida Rogers, a non-Dutch Holland High School biology teacher. The
festival features klompen dancers in wooden shoes with hundreds of
high-school students participating in a great community activity. The
Hispanic and Asian faces among the klompen dancers is a true sign of
the ethnic diversity the area now embraces.
This study was begun by Hero
Bratt and completed by Paul Trap after Bratt's tragic death in an automobile
accident in April 1996. Both were teachers until their retirements, Bratt at
Holland Christian School and Trap in the Grand Haven Public Schools. |
