pieces. Following the band came seventy girls in their "teens," each dressed in
white, with red and blue sashes, and carrying a red, white and blue umbrella. Next
came the first settlers, who were young men and boys when the first colonists
arrived in 1847. Two of the floats in the procession are thus described by the
Knoxville Express:

"On the first were four young ladies, the Misses Marie Bousquet, Sara Nollen,
Bessie Scholte and May Keables, grandchildren of Rev. H. P. Scholte, founder of
Pella. They were dressed in picturesque Dutch costumes, the helmets of solid gold,
covered with lace caps--that is as near as ordinary English can come in describing
this headgear. Their faces were pictures framed in gold and lace. The rest of the
costumes also were Dutch--girdles, skirts, shoes and sturdy stockings. They
represented a Dutch tea party, the tea served in dainty Delft ware, brought from
Holland fifty years ago.

"On the second float were the Misses Agnes Bousquet, Julia Bousquet, Annie
Wormhoudt, Alice de Pree, Helen Brinkhoff, Bessie van der Linden and Artie van der
Linden. They were dressed in costumes very similar to the ones in the first float,
except that their head plates were of silver, the silver covered with lace. They
represented, in a sense, the industrial women of Holland. They had the
old-fashioned spinning wheels and other contrivances of the past. Some of them
knitted--but none were idle, for idleness is a vice among them. These two floats
were greatly admired and attracted any amount of attention."

One unusual feature of the celebration was that no Dutch flags were displayed. On
St. Patrick's day the green flag of Erin is always very much in evidence in the
cities of the United States, but the committee on decorations decided to put out no
flags except the Stars and Stripes of the American Republic. Individuals were left
to exercise their own judgment in the matter of decoration, but the flag of Holland
was conspicuous by its absence. This attitude of the residents was partially
explained by Rev. J. Ossewarde on Thursday in his address on The Duty of the Young
Toward Americanization. Said he, in referring to the founders of the colony:

"They came not for wealth, which they might in later years enjoy in the parent
country. They came rather seeking a home of refuge, where civil and religious
liberty, denied them in the Netherlands, might be enjoyed, and where those noble
principles and virtues, dear to them as life, might be established, and expanded
and developed. And when they came here they came to become Americans. In choosing
this country as their home and the home of their posterity, they chose also the
American institutions. The moment their feet pressed the American soil they became
American citizens."

Another parade was given on Thursday, preceding the speech making, and at 3 o'clock
P. M. on Friday, the semi-centennial gave way to the reunion of the Seventeenth
Iowa Infantry, in which Marion county was well represented.

The officers in charge of the celebration were: C. Rhynsburger, president; J. H.
Stubenrauch, secretary; G. Van Vliet, treasurer; P. H. Bousquet, marshal of the
day; D. S. Huber and P. H. Bousquet, committee on invitations.

SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Of the Settlement of Pella, Iowa

1847 SEPTEMBER 1ST AND 2ND 1897

And

REUNION SEVENTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY
September 1st, 2nd and 3rd

PLACE OF MEETING GARDEN SQUARE