The Albert and Wilhelmina De Jong Family

Name                 Occupation            Date of Birth       Birthplace    Date of Death    Notes                                                      

Albert                 Farmer                     Nov 3, 1867         Iowa                Feb 27, 1901      Buried in Black Oak 

De Jong                                                                                                                                                          Cemetery

Wilhelmina     Housekeeper        Mar 7, 1872         Iowa                1954

(Minnie)

Pothoven

Martinus J.     Son                               Apr 8,1893           Iowa                 Jun 15, 1940    Married Ebeline Hoksbergen. Contracted polio at age 35.

Albert and Minnie were married on March 3, 1892 by Rev Jan. Smit, the pastor of Third Reformed Church in Pella. In 1895, Albert and his family farmed and lived on the Martinus De Jong family farm in Black Oak Township. His mother Grietje lived with them.

Albert, his wife, and child moved to a farm located one mile North of Prairie View, Kansas in an attempt to improve his health. He had tuberculosis. In those days, it was commonly referred to as “consumption”. Dry conditions, such as those in Kansas, relieved the symptoms, to some degree, to those afflicted with the disease. 

Although the exact date of their departure from Pella is not known, I estimate it to be the spring of 1898. Grietje, his mother, sold her farm (which Albert was farming), in October of 1997 and purchased a home in Pellain February of 1898. Grietje’s will, dated April of 1898, lists Albert as living in Prairie View, Kansas. Finally, Albert’s obituary indicates he had been living in the area only a couple of years prior to his death in 1901.

Although his health improved noticeably shortly after his arrival in Kansas, he eventually succumbed to the ravages of the disease. His body, accompanied by his wife and child, and with the assistance of her brothers, was transferred back to Pella for burial.

Albert’s only son, Martin J. De Jong, went on to found the De Jong Greenhouse business in Pella. He was a member of the First Christian Reformed Church in Pella.