The Dutch in the Calumet Region

The Calumet region was settled by the Dutch in the 19th century. The area’s loose boundary runs from what today is part of Chicago’s South Side, to the western border of Griffith, Indiana, forming a Dutch crescent along the southern edge of Lake Michigan that includes the communities of Roseland, South Holland, Lansing, Munster, and Highland. (Courtesy of Kenneth J. Schoon.)

The travelers who would soon become the founders of Roseland, Illinois, loaded their belongings onto a Frisian barge on April 14, 1849, in preparation of the first leg of their journey to America. Being that the 15th was a Sunday, the group attended church and then boarded the barge to prepare for the early-morning start down the Dutch canals. (Courtesy of the Bult family collection.)

Hendrick De Jong’s daughter, Engeltje, once recalled how her father had to walk in front of their oxcart as they made their way from Chicago to their new home, in order to break a path through the tall prairie grass. It has been said that the De Jong home (pictured) was built close enough to the river so that one could fish from the front porch. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

South Holland farms of 160 acres or more were hard to work and, as a result, were broken up into more manageable sizes, to be divided among the sons. A plot of 20 to 40 acres was the perfect size for truck farming. When there were no more parcels to be handed out, many Dutch sons moved east to Lansing and Munster. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

In this view looking east from the present-day site of South Holland’s library, a crop of onion sets has been harvested and arranged to dry. South Holland was surrounded by onion fields for years. In the distance is the First Christian Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Roseland, Illinois, Pella, Iowa, and Holland, Michigan, along with South Holland, all started out as Dutch farming communities at about the same time. The first three communities became more industrial-based much earlier than did South Holland. The church, a unifying factor within South Holland at this time, is a major part of its unique history. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

For the Holland colony that Albertus van Raalte (1811–1874) founded in Michigan, the land needed clearing before it could be farmed. Much of the Calumet region, however, was ready for the plow. Teams of oxen were used at first, but they were later replaced with horses. It seems that the oxen did not understand Dutch. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Arie De Ruiter (1858–1942), shown here at work on his South Holland farm, married Jannegje Rietveld (1860–1936) on October 5, 1880. His parents were among the group that came from Giessendam, Zuid-Holland, in 1848 with Rev. Willem Coenran Wust. Also accompanying Reverend Wust to Illinois were the families of Jakob De Vries and Roel Van Vuren. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The trip to Chicago often involved a two-day effort, with an overnight stay in Chicago. Arie de Ruiter, whose home is shown here, became confused as to what day of the week it was and arrived back in South Holland as his neighbors were going to church. As can be imagined, this did not sit well with the church elders. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

E.K. Leep (1876–1958), seen here at left, harvests carrots on his farm in Highland, Indiana. E.K. was born in Sint Annaparochie, Friesland. He was the second of eight children of Klaas Leep and Klaaske Prins. He came to the United States in 1893 and married Jennie Devries (1879–1924) in Chicago on May 8, 1902. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

A truck from the Witvoet Trucking fleet rolls down Torrence Avenue in Lansing during a parade. Witvoet Trucking was started by brothers Gerrit (1901–1989) and Boyd Witvoet (1905–1993) in 1946. Gerrit met his wife, Irene Mossell (1904–1994), on the Hoxie Farm, where both of their families were living at the time. Boyd married Sadie Ooms (1910–1976) on August 29, 1929. (Photograph by Donald Henry Bult.)

The Van Willigans Bantum store was built in 1947 by John Van Willigan (1911–1970) and his brother-in-law Martin Elzinga (1908–1996). It stood on the corner of Lincoln Street and Kennedy Avenue in Highland. This photograph, taken in 1963, shows the rebuilt storefront that was necessary after a 1958 fire. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

John Gouwens (1864–1945) and Cornelia Paarlberg (1866–1934) were married on May 19, 1888. John’s father, Cornelis Pieters Gouwens (1827–1891), arrived in New York from Lekkerkerk, Nederlek, Zuid-Holland, on July 5, 1848, and made his way to South Holland, Illinois, where he met and married Cornelia Ravesloot (1833–1901). (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

On September 10, 1873, Arie Baardwijk (1840–1915) obtained a grocer’s license; the store he opened, Baardwijk’s, remained in business until 1946. This photograph shows the Baardwijk store as it looked in the early 1900s. Arie was married to the former Jannigje Jonker (1842–1926). (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Eldert Monster arrived from the Netherlands on July 5, 1855, with his second wife, Neiltje, three children from his first marriage, and his new in-laws, Antonie and Jannigje Bouman. In 1860, the Monsters Americanized their name to Munster. Shown here is the Munster home, which was located on Ridge Road. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

Wausau Lumber & Coal was founded in 1882 as the John Schilling Lumber Company by a group of South Holland investors. In 1895, John L. Vinke founded his coal company, and the two companies merged in 1900 under the Schilling name. In 1902, the Wausau Lumber Company of Harvey, Illinois, was purchased, and the name was changed to Wausau Lumber & Coal. In 1905, the Harvey yard was sold to the Chicago-Riverdale Lumber Company. In 1917, John L. Vinke bought the controlling interest from his associates. Wausau Lumber & Coal is still in business in South Holland, at 236 East 161st Place. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The Vander Molen homestead and farm stand was located at 2024/26 Ridge Road, across from Wicker Park in Highland. David and Jeanete Vander Molen originally lived there; later, Reinder and Kate Vander Molen bought the house and lived there. They operated the farm stand in the summer and sold Christmas trees seasonally. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

Bartel Hanzes Zandstra arrived from Friesland, the Netherlands, on March 21, 1889. After living for some time in Roseland and then in Thornton, Zandstra began farming vegetables in Highland. Today, Zandstra’s Greenhouse, located at 10202 Kennedy Avenue in Highland, is run by his descendants. It has one of the largest greenhouses in Northwest Indiana, with more than two acres of space. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

The West Roseland Grocery Store, located at Wentworth Avenue and 109th Street, was built by Pieter Bult and his sons. Seen in this photograph, two of his sons, Henry (far right) and Frank (second from right), worked as butchers in the store. The upstairs apartments were occupied by members of the family, including Pieter and his wife, Petronella, their daughter Diwertje “Delia,” and her husband, Alla Van Alsberg. Also living there were Henry and his wife, Hillegonda “Alice,” and their small child Petronella, who would marry Peter Boonstra in 1911. (Courtesy of the Bult family collection.)

The founders of Munster built their houses on the ridge and farmed the land between the ridge and the Little Calumet River. Many garden crops were grown, especially cabbage and onions, the smell of which was common to the region well into the 20th century, as the Schoon and Jansen children shown here could attest. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

This building, housing De Vries Motor Sales, was built in 1928 by Harry Olthoff and Henry Rietvelt. It was located on 159th Street, just east of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad tracks. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

In this c. 1905 photograph, Peter J. Kooy stands in front of the grocery store he built in 1904. The building is still located at 2813 Jewett Street in Highland, Indiana. It later became the Cloverdale Grocery and, as of 2014, was still in use as the Primitive Peddler Gift Shop. Peter’s grandparents, Peter and Gertrude Kooy, settled in the region in 1855. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

This store was owned by Peter De Young and, later, his son Henry (pictured). It was located near present-day 16000 South Park Avenue. The building was later moved to Route 6, west of 16000 South Park Avenue, and was known as Speyer’s Store. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The Klootwyk General Store is shown here as it looked in 1905. The business was located on the left side, and the Klootwyk home is on the right. The Klootwyk children, Peter and Mary, can be seen standing in the front of the store. As of 2014, the building was still standing at 619 Ridge Road in Munster, Indiana. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

Dave Rinkema is ready for a day of peddling fruits and vegetables in the industrial towns south of Chicago. Note the fly nets on the horses. As the horses walked, the tassels moved, chasing the flies away. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The home of Goris Van der Sijde (1828–1909) was located on the southwest corner of 111th and State Streets in Roseland. Goris was born in Numansdorp, Zuid-Holland, and came to the United States with his family in 1849. In 1860, the area’s first post office opened in his store. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Martin Jabaay (1906–1994) stands in front of the barbershop he opened in 1927 on his father’s farm along Ridge Road. Jabaay married Gertrude Seeman (1905–1997) on January 22, 1930. His grandfather Arie Jabaay (1818–1900) and his great-grandfather Dingeman Jabaay (1796–1872) were among the first of Munster’s Dutch settlers, in 1855. The original Dutch spelling of their name was Jabaaij. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

Much of Munster was swampland before real estate speculator Aaron Hart discovered the art of ditch digging. Hart had acquired 20,000 acres of wetlands property in and around present-day Munster. With hand shovels and a plow, Hart and his crew dug a ditch from the swampland south of the ridge, through the ridge, to the Little Calumet River, which drained the marsh and created some of the best farmland in the region. Hart’s Ditch still flows along Munster’s eastern edge. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

Schoon’s Ditch, which runs along Fisher Street in Munster, Indiana, was dug by hand by Pieter Schoon and his sons. Going north, the ditch connects with Hart’s Ditch. Schoon’s Ditch still drains much of southwestern side of Munster today, including the land occupied by Munster High School and the hospital. (Photograph by the author.)

This is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry P. De Young. Henry (1865–1914) married Johanna Cornelisdr Tanis (1865–1939) on April 8, 1886. The couple is standing on the far right in this photograph. Their son Peter is on the far left, and son Dirk is third from the left. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Peter Van der Griend (1886–1952) is planting tomatoes with son Robert and daughters Cora (left) and Carrie (right). Peter married Maaike “Maude” Van Deursen (1891–1971) on June 15, 1910. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The process of binding corn is illustrated on Reinder Van Til’s farm about 1930. Reinder (1882–1966) was born in the village of Grootegast, in the Dutch province of Groningen. His first wife, Lamke van der Velde (1882–1918), was born in the village of Lucaswolde in Groningen. She is at rest in Hope Cemetery in Highland. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

Hay was a necessity of life for the early Dutch settlers. The hay had to be cut with a scythe and loaded by hand. This was only one of the labor-intensive jobs that were a normal part of everyday life on the farm. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

William Van Til (1908–1973) digs a home basement with a team of horses and a slip scoop in Highland, Indiana, around 1937. In 2007, his daughter, Marian Van Til, published a biography of George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel: A Music Lover’s Guide. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

Peter G. De Boer (1850–1921) stands with his wife and children in front of the family grocery store at 10544 Wentworth Avenue in Roseland. Shown are, from left to right, Peter, Harry, Elizabeth (1852–1920), Annie, Govert, and Gerrit. Peter married Elizabeth Brennema in 1876, and they came to America in 1887. They are both at rest in Mount Greenwood Cemetery in Chicago. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

The Dutch Valley Growers was a group of South Holland onion-set farmers that formed a cooperative in 1933. Their motto remains to this day “Dutch Pride in Every Bag.” Walter De Graff, Ted De Graff, William Gouwens, Howard Pals, and Arnold Dalenberg were among the organizers. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The J.P. De Young Store, run by Jacob De Young and located at 158th Street and Chicago Road, was home to the town’s post office for a while. The area formerly known as De Laage Prairie become South Holland when the post office was installed in Pieter De Young’s store in 1869. Pieter was Jacob’s father. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Pleasant View Dairy got its start when Nicholas E. and Hilda Leep bought a dairy farm near Lowell, Indiana, in 1928. Today, the Pleasant View Dairy operates out of a 30,000-square-foot plant on Highway Avenue in downtown Highland. The dairy sells most of the milk it processes to the Strack & Van Til stores. Behind the counter are Bud Leep and Betty Van Dyke. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

Roseland began as de Hooge Prairie (High Prairie), then it became Hope. Finally, it was named Roseland in 1873 at the suggestion of James H. Bowen, president of the Calumet and Chicago Canal & Dock Company. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

The original Dutch settlement comprising 160 acres stretched east from State Street to Indiana Avenue and south from 103rd Street to 111th Street. By 1890, all of Roseland had been annexed into Chicago. This postcard from that period shows Michigan Avenue at 112th Street. (Courtesy of the Calvin College Archives.)

Standing in front of her home is Dora Schoon (center), with her two daughters Jacoba Schoon (left) and Mary Schoon Jaabay. Dirk and Dora Schoon’s home stood at 304 Ridge Road in Munster, where an Applebee’s Restaurant is now located. (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

The Gerbrand and Mary Kooy home at Ridge Road and Jackson Street in Munster is seen here in 1905. Mary was born in Reusel-de Mierden, Noord-Brabant. She was the only child of Jacob Schoon and his first wife, Elisabeth Bronder (1832–1862). (Courtesy of the Munster Historical Society.)

This stone on the property of the First Reformed Church of South Holland is the centerpiece of the Jan and Aagje Ton Memorial Garden. The plants selected for the garden are native to Illinois, and the boulder is a 9,000-pound hulk of limestone from the nearby Thornton quarry. Jan Ton was one of the founding fathers of High Prairie, now the Chicago neighborhood of Roseland. Jan originally settled on farmland on the north bank of the Calumet River that is now part of Riverdale. In the days before the Civil War, Jan joined with other abolitionists, including Cornelius Kuyper, and established an Underground Railroad station. Between 1849 and 1865, seven of Jan’s siblings also immigrated to the Roseland area. (Photograph by the author.)

Standing in front of the Harkema Grocery Store in Highland are, from left to right, Peternell Blom, Sam Van Til, and Billy Harkema. William Lodewyk Harkema (1882–1966) and John Groot (1893–1954) ran the store as partners for a time. (Courtesy of the Highland Historical Society.)

Roseland was a farming community until the late 19th century, when George M. Pullman built his failed workers’ utopian town to feed labor to his railway car factory, located between Roseland and Lake Calumet. Roseland was annexed into Chicago in 1892. (Courtesy of the Lansing Historical Society.)

This home is on property that is a part of the land purchased by the Widow Paarlberg in 1847. The main character in Edna Ferber’s fictional account of the early days in De Laage Prairie, So Big, was based on the Widow. The family of her son Pieter presented this home to the South Holland Historical Society in 1970. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The Van Oostenbrugge Centennial Home, located at 444 East 157th Street in South Holland, was built in 1858. It was restored in 1975 by the South Holland Historical Society. Jan and Evertje Van Oostenbrugges arrived with their three children from Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1856. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

After local farmers began raising onion sets in 1892, South Holland soon became known as the “Onion Set Capital of the World.” By 1940, about 2,500 acres were devoted to onion-set farming, and the area was producing more than 1.5 billion annually. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

The Calumet region, with its light, sandy soils, was well suited for the production of garden crops, especially onions. In South Holland, the eventual change to onions led to the onion-set farmers and co-ops that kept agriculture a major factor in South Holland until after World War II. (Courtesy of the South Holland Historical Society.)

Among the early Dutch settlers of the Lansing area was the Ooms family. Adam (1825–1885) and Janna (1835–1895) Ooms arrived from the Netherlands in 1866 and rented a farm on the Little Calumet River just west of Torrence Avenue. They raised potatoes, oats, and corn. The family also had about 15 milk cows. This photograph shows an early Lansing street scene. (Courtesy of the Lansing Historical Society.)

This advertisement from the centennial book (1854–1954) of Lansing, Illinois, illustrates just how much Dutch culture had permeated the region. Many of these Dutch-themed businesses still dot the landscape. Note the special accommodations for those with long beards. (Courtesy of Carol Krencik.)

Albertus Van Raalte led the Dutch immigrants who founded the city of Holland, Michigan, in 1846. Hendrick Pieter Scholte led 800 Dutch in 1847 to Iowa, where they created the town of Pella. They were seceders from the Church of the Netherlands. If these leaders had not seceded in 1834 and eventually immigrated to the United States, the history of the Calumet region may have been very different. (Photograph by the author.)