KOLONIE LIFE Name: Flora Marincsak

Difficulties and Shortages

Throughout the area food was in short supply, and since there were no roads connecting the new settlement
with Allegan, Saugatuck, or Grand Haven, the settlers had great difficulty obtaining supplies of flour, potatoes, dried
meat, other staples, and even cooking utensils. Oxcarts were frequently used in the more settled regions, but without
roads to travel on, these wooden vehicles would often break axles or become mired in the swampy ground. Men and
boys walked the long Indian trails to the nearby villages, but were limited in the amount of supplies they could carry
back.
Some provisions were transported by flatboat from the mouths of the Kalamazoo and Grand rivers along the
Lake Michigan coast to the Black Lake harbor. Unfortunately, a large sandbar filled the small natural channel where
Black Lake flowed into Lake Michigan, so all goods had to be unloaded from the flatboats, dragged across the sandbar,
and reloaded onto waiting flatboats in Black Lake. This process required several hours and several men- men who
were urgently needed to build shelters for the Kolonie.

Why did the settlers have such a difficult time supplying themselves with food?
Because the area was lack of food and there were no roads connecting, so they couldn't really use their
vehicles, because they often became mired in swampy ground. And the natural channel of Black Lake and
Lake Michigan was filled by a large sandbar, so it was hard to carry the goods to the settlers.

Illness and Despair

The weather in the summer of 1847 was rainy and cool, and a new and unexpected problem arose.
Mosquitoes, which bred in large numbers in the swampy regions near Black Lake, carried a malarial disease that soon
attacked the Kolonie, striking in almost every home. The immigrants were already weakened by months of poor diet,
uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, and crowded, inadequate housing. Because their houses were not well built,
they were often soaked by rainstorms and chilled by drafts. It was not surprising that fevers and other sicknesses
spread rapidly, and a wave of despair swept the small settlement.
At the same time Van Raalte was struggling to solve the community problems of property and food, he was
trying to minister to the many individuals who were sick and dying. The illness that filled the settlement caused daily
tragedies, and the dead were buried in shallow graves, sometimes without coffins, by grieving family members or
friends who were often ill themselves. Van Raalte moved throughout his small settlement burying the dead, bringing
medicine to the sick, and trying to encourage or comfort those who must have regretted leaving a more civilized
existence. His words to them remained filled with hope, though his own heart felt great despair. Recalling this most
difficult time he wrote:
Our trials rose to the highest point during the latter part of that first summer when the entire settlement
became a sickbed and although physicians had been called in at common expense, many succumbed,
especially through lack of suitable houses and properly prepared and adequate food. This heart breaking and
discouraging situation produced a sharp conflict between painful necessity and human sentiment. Never had
I been so near collapse as when, in those crowded log houses, in which each family had to manage to live in a
few square feed of space, I saw how all sorts of family activities- housekeeping, being sick, dying and care of
the dead- had to be discharged. Small wonder that in that hour of trial there appeared traces of despair and
indifference.
But God granted a change!
The sufferers recovered, the autumn was most beautiful, and the winter that followed was unusually mild so
that everybody could continue building and while at work even enjoy meals under the open sky.
Although their suffering seemed to far outweigh the benefits of their new life, the determined Dutch settlers refused to
be defeated. As Van Raalte indicated, the beautiful autumn weather seemed to relieve the scourge of sickness and
revive the immigrants’ sagging spirits.

What conditions in the Kolonie led to the outbreak of disease?

Rainy and cool weather, mosquitoes which carried malaria, weakness because of the lack of food, uncomfortable
sleeping and inadequate housing, dead were buried without coffins.

The First Church

In spite of the sickness and suffering of that first summer, a small group of men began work on a church. Van
Raalte and several others chose a site on high ground not far from his own house. (The site is now part of the Pilgrim
Home Cemetery.)
Before the building was completed, Van Raalte gathered those who were well enough for worship outside his
own cabin. There, on the banks of the flowing creek, the immigrants nurtured their deep religious faith. Egbert
Frederiks recalled:
 The Sundays were to us a real refreshment, and the pithy preaching which we then heard was encouragement
in our labor and our sufferings.
In addition to the worship services, Van Raalte performed several marriage ceremonies, one between Willem Notting
and Jennigje Lasker, the servant who had accompanied the Van Raaltes on the long ocean voyage. By late fall one end
of the Kolonie’s first church was adequately completed. A partition was placed in the center of the 40- by 60-foot
structure, and two stoves were installed to warm the building in the approaching winter months.

Where was the first church in the Kolonie built?

Not far from the house of Van Raltee, a site on high ground,which is now part of the Pilgrim Home Cemetery.

The Volksvergadering
The mild winter of 1847-48 allowed progress in home building and some serious attempts at establishing a
village life. The men began to hold regular meetings, called the Volksvergadering (People’s Assembly), for planning
and problem solving.
The extreme poverty of the immigrants was a source of major concern. Once shelters were built, the settlers
had to find some way to earn money to buy staples and other necessities. By burning logs and stumps, they created
ashes for use in potash and soap; they also amassed cordwood and bark for shingles, all of which they hoped eventually
to market in Chicago.
The lack of roads to the Kolonie prompted the Volksvergadering to begin a Kolonie store that could supply
daily provisions. The group also voted to purchase a sailing vessel to export what few products the Hollanders could
produce and import the necessary supplies for the store. The settlers pooled their money and selected Bernard
Grootenhuis to manage the store and Jan Van de Luyster, son of the elder Van de Luyster, to assist him. Grootenhuis
was assigned to travel east and make major purchases for the store.
Unfortunately the settlers’ first effort to provide for themselves as a community failed. Goods manufactured
in the east were far more expensive than they expected, and Grootenhuis had to charge large amounts to “Van Raalte
and Company.” To complicate the matter, the goods did not arrive in the Kolonie during the first winter when they
were so desperately needed. By the following spring, the entire enterprise had collapsed. In addition, the sailing vessel
Knickerbocker, which had been purchased, proved impractical. The sand bar that blocked the entrance to Black Lake
made loading and unloading costly and time consuming. During the spring the Knickerbocker was sold, and Van
Raalte was left with a large number of unpaid bills in his name.

What was the Volksvergadering?

It was a regular meeting, which was hold for planning and problem solving by the settlers.

What problems did they address?

The source of major concern, the lack of roads, the purchase of a sailing vessel, and the managing of a new store.

What was the result of their efforts?

Goods manufactured were very expensive in the east, and the goods didn't arrive in time. Their enterprise collapsed,
their sailing vessel was impractical, and because of the sandbar they had more expense, and there was a lot of unpaid
bills left in Van Raltees name.

A Town Plan
During the first winter a surveyor named E.B. Basset was brought from Allegan to lay out the village which
Van Raalte and others had now begun to refer to as Holland. Basset placed the center of the village on the neck of land
that lay between Black Lake and the curve of Black River. A central street named River was plotted straight north and
south from Black River parallel to the lakeshore. Crossing River were short streets numbered First through Eighth,
with the main cluster of properties lying on Seventh and Eighth streets and along River Street. A small, marshy road
ran close to Black Lake and was named Lake Street, but it was often too swampy to be used.
Basset also laid out a series of north-south streets running parallel to River. He gave them American names:
Pine, Market, Cedar, Fish, and Land streets. The last four of these have become Central, College, Columbia, and
Lincoln, respectively.
Another surveyor named John Dumont, assisted by Bernard Grootenhuis, helped plot the area between Eighth
and Sixteenth streets. These early planners made provisions for four open market squares, the main one located where
Centennial Park is today. The other three were smaller and located on Fish St.

How was downtown Holland developed?

What was the original purpose of Centennial Park?
It was one of the main market square, and it was the largest.
Important Links

Roads
The task of building roads was a constant burden to the settlement, one which dominated the settlers’ lives for
several years. The earliest roads were merely foot trails, the paths of least resistance through the dense woods. Until
definite roadbeds were constructed, the traveler in a wagon had to carry an ax to clear brush, stumps, and small trees.
Since much of the region was dotted with marshes or swampy lowlands, the determined Dutch had to construct
“corduroy roads.” In this process, long tree trunks were bound together with hemlock branches and piled across
swampy areas to act as a ground-level bridge. The driver of a wagon or cart often had to send someone ahead to test
these corduroy sections, since after heavy rains the logs might be set afloat and the wagon wheels could slip through.
Bernard Grootenhuis reported about the discomfort in crossing a corduroy roadbed:
Just think how it must feel to be seated in a wagon with the wheels bumping regularly from one tree to
another from two to six inches difference in depth and what a shock this would cause. Our trip in 1855 will
serve as an example of this. In 1855 when we came from Detroit we had with us a small boy of nine years.
Such a boy is not usually afraid of bumps, but when we were near Mr. Fairbanks’ farm we were violently
tossed about and bumped by logs and roots of trees. Then one of the wheels fell into a deep rut, and the
violent shock resulted. The small boy, with a deep sigh, said, ‘I wish I had remained at home,’ meaning
Detroit.
In 1848 the state legislature appropriated 4,000 acres for roads in Kent, Allegan, and Ottawa counties. In a township
meeting in the Kolonie, a local highway commission of three people was appointed to oversee the construction of local
roads. But the process was slow, the money remained scarce, and road-building equipment and technical know-how
were in short supply in the region. It took a decade to complete an adequate system of roads in the settlement.

What were early roads like?

They were merely foot trails through the dense woods. Then they made definite roadbeds, because traveling was hard
on the foot trails.

What was a “corduroy” road?

It was a road, made up of long tree trunks, which were bound together with hemlock branches. They used to pile across
swampy area.

The Harbor
Until roads were built, waterways were the main source of transportation in the region. In order for these to serve the
Kolonie adequately, however, the channel to Lake Michigan needed to be cleared and a functional harbor developed.
Van Raalte began requesting government assistance for harbor development very early in the life of the
Kolonie. He carried on extensive correspondence with legislators in both Lansing, the state capital, and Washington.
By 1850 he had traveled to the state legislature and even to Washington D.C., to petition Congress for funds and
engineers to develop the harbor. The mechanisms of government moved slowly, and although funds were voted in
legislation, a change of federal administrations in 1852 caused a reversal of policy, and the promised money was
directed elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Dutch decided to attempt to open the channel themselves. In 1849 a small creek flowed out
of Black Lake north of the present channel. The Hollanders gathered at a place where a large sandbar blocked the
creek. They dug for days, succeeding temporarily in opening a space large enough for a small boat to navigate through.
The channel-opening process must have been repeated occasionally through the next several years. Records show
times when boats unloaded as the Holland village docks and other times when the condition of the channel blocked
them from doing so. Congress did eventually appropriate funds, but the Kolonie’s dream of a harbor was dashed
several times before the project was finally supported and undertaken in 1858.

What was the problem with the channel connecting Black Lake to Lake Michigan?
It was filled by sandbar, and it needed to be cleared, and it needed a functional harbor.

How did the Dutch Immigrants first try to solve this problem?
They tried to open the channel themselves, and they dug for days to make the opening space wide enough for a small
boat.
When did the government finally clear the channel?
In 1858.

A Newspaper
Another important step in communication in the Kolonie took place in 1850 with the establishment of the
first newspaper. Van Raalte realized that his local citizens must begin to understand the lawas of the country and the
state, and that they needed a link not only with the outside news of the region but also, and more importantly, an
internal exchange of information. After several unsuccessful attempts, he was able to convince the firm of Hawkes and
Bassett in Allegan to establish a newspaper in Holland. In the autumn of 1850 the first edition of the Hollander was
published, half in Dutch and half in English, with Henry Post serving as English editor. This paper supplied much
necessary information about taxation and the rights and duties of American citizens to the isolated Hollanders.
However, it also became an arena for editorial complaints and citizen comments, some of which were directed against
Van Raalte.
In 1852 the paper was purchased by Hermanus Doesberg, the schoolmaster and an active participant in local
affairs. Doesberg changed the name to De Hollander and published only in the Dutch language. This remained the
only newspaper in the Kolonie until 1860, when a newspaper named De Grondwet (The Constitution) was formed to
support the Republican Party’s position during the Civil War. De Grondwet eventually was sent to Dutch readers in
several states, and it became the largest circulating Dutch-language newspaper in the United States during the post-
Civil War years.

How did the newspaper connect the Kolonie to the broader American world?
Because of the newspaper, the local citizens began to understand the laws of the country and the state, and they got
informations about the region, taxation and the rights and duties of American citizens.

What is De Grondwet?
A newspaper published in Dutch language by Hermanus Doesberg, and it became the largest circulating Dutch-
language newspaper in the U.S. In that time.

The Reformed Church

Another important link with the outside world stemmed from a visit in the spring of 1849 by the Reverend
Isaac Wyckoff of Albany, New York. Sent by the Dutch Reformed Church of New York, Wyckoff came to assess the
progress of the immigrants he had met so briefly in the fall three years before. His main purpose was to ask these
devout settlers to consider joining the Reformed Dutch Church in America.
The Kolonie members rejoiced at the news of Wyckoff’s coming. They had expected far more support and
friendship from the members of the Dutch church in the east than they had received, and felt quite isolated and
forgotten as they struggled in the Michigan forests. However, linking up with the Reformed Church in the east was not
a step to be taken lightly. Some members of the settlement were uneasy about becoming part of a larger church
membership, owing to the difficulties they had experienced as members of the state church in the Netherlands. The
ministers of the settlement held lengthy meetings on the subject. After much discussion and hesitation, they decided
eventually to join their congregations to the larger Reformed Dutch Church in America.
The decision brought new financial aid to the community. Van Raalte was now able to raise regular sums of
money among churches in the east for help with the development of the Kolonie, particularly for the establishment of a
school to train young men and women in the religious ideals of the Reformed Church.

Why were some members of the Kolonie hesitant to join the RCA?
Because they had bad experiences as the members of the state church in the Netherlands.

How did joining the RCA benefit the new Kolonie?

Their decision brought financial aid to the community.

What Holland institution do you think was founded as a result of this connection?
Hope College.

Recall the most interesting fact you discovered throughout these writings of the early Holland Kolonie.
It was surprising that the settlers enterprise collapsed in (about) 1849, and they waist a lot of money, but they could
survive all the problem and make a great city.