Chapter Thirteen

HOLLAND IN MAHASKA COUNTY.

Among the makers of Iowa there came in the summer of 1847 seven hundred Holland colonists and settled on what was at that time the principal highway across Iowa, the divide between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers. It was religious persecution that brought them to America. They were dissenters from the established Reformed church and came. to the great west to find a refuge. Of course, many of them came to better their worldly condition, but the founding of the colony had its origin in the inborn desire to be free, which has always. existed in the blood of sturdy little Holland. Hallum says that in Holland self-government goes back beyond any assignable date. Iowa has produced many romances but none of them more interesting than the story of these Pella people.

The Dutch republic has been for long centuries the asylum for the persecuted. The French Huguenots found a refuge in Holland and the Pilgrims and Puritans sailed from its shores to the new world. The Pella pilgrims in Holland opposed the formalities of the Established church. It gave no expression of their faith, being empty and meaningless.

Not being able to bring about any reforms in the Established church, they became Separatists, like the English Puritans under Robinson and Brewster. Several young men who had been trained in the universities and theological schools became leaders of these dissenters. One of these men, Henry Peter Scholte, became a prominent exponent of the advanced thought and the three congregations over which he presided seceded from the state church. He was tried and for a short time imprisoned. Then another long trial that cost him $3,000 to defend himself against his persecutors. He was ordered to vacate his pastorate and soldiers were ordered to the infected district to prevent his peop1e from meeting. He submitted to these increasing indignities with Christian patience and his followers multiplied. "They came to feel the longing for a new fatherland." A commission was appointed in 1846 to receive applicants for emigration, everyone of which, if not wdl known, were required to bring certificates as to their Christian conduct and character and also as to their worldly condition. A permanent organization was formed and prepations were made for the emigration in the spring of 1847. Four ships departed' for America between the 4th and IIth of April of that year. Many pathetic scenes are described on leaving the Fatherland. Family bonds were broken. There was much to urge them forward and many dear ties to be broken on leaving the home of their childhood.

Of the four ships, only one made the trip in twenty-six days. The other three were at sea from thirty-six, to forty days. On the voyage a temporary government was instituted on each ship. Order and cleanliness were strictly enforced. We are told that the crews of the four vessels were deeply impressed with the daily religious services and exceptional decorum. The sailors could not understand why they were compelled to leave their native land. When the ships landed at Baltimore the health offiers were so pleased with the cleanliness of their ships that they omitted the usual inspection, saying, "Oh, these emigrants are all right." One of them added, "Welcome to America." Strangers in a strange land, as they were, this greeting was a joyous note to them under the circumstances. They supposed they were coming to a wilderness and had brought with them all manner of household goods, chests, cabinets, plows, farm wagons - all of which could have been purchased in St. Louis. They had much to unlearn and many more things to learn. They journeyed by the primitive American railroads and canals to Pittsburg, thence by steamer on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to St. Louis.

The journey was tedious and wearisome to these peasant people. The cars were so small that they scarcely accommodated eight persons with comfort and were drawn up steep grades by stationary engines. The emigrants were unaccustomed to mountains. There were no hills in the home land. They were accustomed to canal boats but these were so different. American boats climbed mountains by means of locks, crossed rivers and viaducts and passed through tunnels under mountains.

They were three weeks in making the journey from Baltimore to St. Louis. They reached St. Louis early in July. It was three months since they left Holland. Twenty had died on the sea voyage and four since they left Baltimore. They remained in St. Louis during July and a part of August. The weather was extremely hot to them and their accommodations were poor, but they were thankful for the cordial American welcome everywhere. One of the St. Louis Presbyterian churches was thrown open to them during their stay and they used, it for both church and Sunday-school services.

The newspapers of the cities through which they had passed had published the report that they were possessed of much wealth and these rumors caused them to have to pay higher prices for what they needed than were paid by other emigrants who had the reputation of being in poor circumstances.

In truth, they had with them quite an amount of money, all in gold, which they kept guarded very closely. Money was extremely scarce at that time in the west, especially West of the Mississippi. At St. Louis H. P. Scholte, the president of the colony, joined them, after having made a tour of a number of the eastern cities in the interest of the coming settlement. He was much gratified at the cordial welcome extended to his countrymen everywhere he went. In New York he met many of the descendants of the Hollanders whose ancestors had come to America some two hundred years before.

From St. Louis they sent out five spies to report on a suitable place to fornl their settlement. Missouri was objectionable because of the slavery question; Illinois was seriously considered and it is stated that the town of Nauvoo, which had just been abandoned by the Mormons, was offered to them at a bargain. From the first Iowa had been regarded with favor and the commissioners to this state went to Fairfield to counsel with General Van Antwerp, who had charge of the government land office. The Dutch name attracted them. While there they met the Rev.M. J. Post, a Baptist missionary, in whom Mr. Scholte says he "noted the hand of God." Having been all over the. New Purchase, he persuaded the commissioners to visit the divide in Marion county, which he called the "garden spot of Iowa." The commissioners were pleased with the beautiful rolling prairies, and accordingly bought two civil townships of land, paying the government price, $1.25 per acre. This done, they returned to St. Louis to bear the good news to their people.

All were thoroughly glad to be on the move and a steamboat was chartered from St. Louis to Keokuk. They left St. Louis Saturday afternoon and reached Keokuk on Monday morning. Impressive religious services were had on Sunday. In the addresses the colonists were compared to the Israelites entering the promised land. At Keokuk they purchased horses, oxen and wagons, into which their goods were loaded. They paid for everything in gold, much to the delight of the Americans, who were little accustomed to see so much £noney in the west. The seven hundred strangers attracted no little attention and their outfit formed quite a procession.

Some amusing things occurred as they were preparing for their overland journey. Mr. Matthias De Booy purchased a team and wagon for $250 and loaded up his household effects and family ready for the march. But when the word of command was given his team refused to move a step. Persuasion and argument failed and he was about concluding that he was the owner of balky horses when an amused bystander assured him that his team was true and faithful, only they did not understand the Dutch of their new master, whereupon the stranger took them in hand, and speaking to them in the vernacular of the country, they at once started off so vigorously that the driver became fearful he should not be able to make them understand when to stop.

Up the Des Moines valley they came, some riding in wagons drawn by horses and others in carts drawn by oxen. To the scattered settlers they seemed a strange people speaking a strange language. Some rode on horses and many were afoot, the men in velvet jackets and the women wearing caps and bonnets. This young army of emigrants must have passed through Oskaloosa. After some days of travel they came on August 26, 1847, to a level place on the prairie ridge, where a hickory pole had been planted deep into the sod, and nailed across the top of it was a shingle and on the shingle the single word "Pella." It was September and they had come to the end of their journey. They set about digging cellars and buildirig dugouts for winter protection. From a saw mill at some distance they obtained lumber to build the first house, a long structure with upright boards and divided into compartments for each family. Prof. Newhall, a pioneer correspondent of the Burlington Hawk-Eye, who passed by the settlement some weeks after the Hollanders had arrived at their destination, writes thus of the new race which he found on this Iowa prairie: "The men in blanket coats and jeans were gone and a broad-shouldered race in velvet jackets and wooden shoes were there. Most of the inhabitants live in camps, the tops of their houses covered with lint cloth, some with grass and bushes, the sides barricaded with countless numbers of trunks, boxes and chests of the oddest and most grotesque description. They are all Protestants who have left their native land, much like the Puritans of old, on account of political and religious intolerance and persecution. They appear to be intelligent and respectable, quite above the average class of European immigrants that have ever landed on our shores."

Many things were done at Pella which commend themselves to our highest and best civillzation. They made provision before all else for the worship of God, for the instruction of their children, and for citizenship. Busy as they were, they observed the first Sunday in Pella, and have never neglected that sacred day since.

It is worthy of note that when some two hundred of the men took the oath of allegiance to their adopted country only two of the whole number made their mark.

For centuries in Holland it has been laid down as one of their laws that education is the foundation of the commonwealth. In the years that followed large additions were made to the colony. The community has prospered and has been greatly enlarged. Instead of the two original townships the settlement is now nearly forty miles long by ten or fifteen miles wide. They are always buying land but seldom sell. The language of the home, in most cases is still Dutch. English alone is taught in the schools and is used in almost all public addresses and sermons.

The number of Hollanders in Mahaska county is estimated to be about three thousand. They are found mainly in Richland, Black Oak and Scott townships, with a goodly number in Prairie, Madison and Garfield. They are an u~pretentious but prolific people. Strictly upright in everything, strict in their religion and sincere in all things. Their homes are kept clean and wholesome. These are qualities of a high type of citizenship.

On the first and second days of September, 1897, the people of Pella celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their settlement. Ten thousand gathered where the first seven hundred halted and began the conquest of the wilderness in 1847. Only a few of the pioneers remained. It was a memorable occasion for the descendants of these pioneers.

Their personality as a people has been much changed since the coming of their fathers. In another century or more they will have become gradually absorbed and lost in the great American family.