Pioneer Stories

In the winter of 1875–76, Albert Kraker worked for four months making wooden shoes. To do so, he needed specialized tools called “spoons” or drill knives to hollow out the inside of the shoe.

Lambertus Scholten was born in Laketown Township to Bentheimer immigrants. His memoir adds more details to the story of the immigrants’ lives in the mid–1800s, and the early days of Graafschap, Michigan.

Harm Masselink served in the Hanoverian Army but missed the Battle of Langensalza. After serving in the Prussian Army, he emigrated to Michigan, USA.

Christa Brinker’s article includes Albert Kortmann’s detailed account of the family’s Atlantic crossing in January of 1954.

Nancy Chapel (Nadia Chaplya; Nadija Tschaplja) was born on December 31, 1924 in a small hamlet in the northern part of the Ukraine. She lived in the Ukraine until she was 18 years old. As a child, she suffered much. Her life was full of hardship and horror. She experienced hunger, homelessness, and abuse.

This 1877 room and board agreement between Gerrit and Katie Lemmen and Hendrik Ten Brink was cut short by unforeseen events.

Fenigje Lemmen emigrated from Laar to Graafschap, Michigan with her son Berend Jan’s family in 1857.

It must have been in the winter of 1849–50. The snow lay deep, the way still untrodden, when a five­–man group decided it was in their interest to visit their neighbors and to make a trip to Saugatuck—or rather, they were forced to do so.

Rieks Bouws wrote down his recollections at the urging of Rev. R.T. Kuiper, pastor of the Graafschap Christian Reformed Church.

There was a little boy running in wooden shoes on a deck of the Steamship Friesland on 20 August 1892. This person was Albert Bielefeld, the 3 1/2–year–old son of Evert Bielefeld (32 years) and Ennegien Bielefeld born Schultink (35 years). This courageous little family left their home in Hoogstede–Bathorn, Kreis Bentheim, Germany, to come to America.