Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-04-17
BETWEEN TWO RIVERS.
! The Hollandsrs in Iowa. 4
v A Dutch Colony and Some \!
" thing About Their Mode K
N of Life. !;
BY ALIEN. MILLER.
Copyrighted, 1902, by Alex. Miller.

America IS the refuge of the perse-
cuted of all lands. AS a result there
are settlements in every State that
are che exact counterpart of some for
eign country. Even in New York City
certain localities are known as for
elgn sections. Nationalities settle in
the same neighborhood. Those bound
together by ties of friendship and
blood and religion frequently, if not
generally seek to settle in the same To-
callty. In the cities there are the
German settlements and the Bohe-
milan, the Chinese and the Greek, the
Jewish and the Polish. In the rural
districts it is similar. only being by
necessity more isloated, there is not so
much known of them
Iowa has several of these colonies.
composed Of people from one country
originally. While they have grown
away from many of their old Gus
toms and modes of life. yet they all
retain enough of the original to be in
Gensely interesting to the student of
human nature in all it's forms. For
that purpose visited the Holland Col
ony, in Marion County. The capital
Of the Colony is Pella, although not
the capital Of the county 1t is the
central town and the original town
Of the Holland settlement in Iowa
While I visited the Colony and got
much Of my information first-handed
from the people some of it l take from
the Annals OF Iowa, an article written
by Cyrenus Coles. now editor of the
Cedar Rapids Republican.
The Hollanders came to the New
World to seek a refuge from the per-
secutiOns of religion. They We're dis
senters from the Dutch Reformed
Church. Upon what grounds they dis
sented [ do not know, and besides it
would not materially benefit this brief
account of the Hollanders in Iowa.
Briefly stated. the Dutch left Holland
in 1917 for the New World
After a voyage in sailing vessels
lasting from thirty to fifty days they
arrived at Baltimore Thence they
came by boat railroad and canal to
st. Louis. From there they came to
keOkuk by steamer on the Missis-
sippi. It must have been in the days
when Mark Twain was learning to be
pilot that the Dutch came up the
river, although he probably did not run
across any Of them. When they land
ed in keokuk their peculiar garb, the
men in knee breecheS and silver buck
led shoes and the women in caps and
strange bonnets. were sight for the
small boys of Keokuk that pleased
them exceedingly. and have no kind
OF doubt that the urchins followed
the strangers around town as they
would a circus. The American youth
is much the same whether you find
him in keokuk OF in PeIla. They
bought teams and wagons in KeOkuk
to drive across the country to where
the settlement had been located by
the spies sent out ahead, after the
manner of the Israelites, who had sent
spies ahead to spy out the land Of Ca
naan. One incident shows the anus
ing side of their journey into a strange
land and among total strangers, all
FOR conscience. One man had bought
a team Of very good horses and hitch
ed them up. When he spoke to them
they didn't move. He kept convers-
ing with the horses in the Dutch Ian
guage, but they stood stock still. He