Life in the United States

According to Robert Swierenga, “most European immigrants, including the Dutch, were rural folk from isolated areas. They valued an ordered, traditional society based on family, village and church. When these people emigrated, they sought to transplant their village cultures, religion, and family networks”. This was especially true of the Dutch. “Most were not innovators, but rather conservatives seeking to maintain their culture in a new environment, where they could enjoy greater economic and religious freedoms”. Swierenga, even remarked, about it in his books. He said that the Dutch Protestant immigrants were the most “clannish” of all the European peoples.

For our De Jong immigrants the village is well documented; Pella. The family network will become clearer upon reviewing a map outlining where they lived. The specific church is unknown. Individual family members were affiliated at one time or another with churches of the Reformed and Christian Reformed denominations. However, no conclusive evidence has been found identifying a single church as the immigrant De Jong family’s church. 

The church affiliation was important. Swierenga stated “although economics tended to explain the why of emigration, religion tended to explain the how.  Religious institutions facilitated the move, guided people to specific destinations, and influenced the pace of adjustment to the new land”.

According to Swierenga, the church community, was a “shelter in a time of storm, a provider of benevolent and charitable services, an employment agency, and the center of social and cultural life.  Religious faith offered stability at a time when most immigrants were feeling a sense of loss and rootlessness”. 

What I can say with some confidence is that the De Jong family likely received some housing and employment support from friends or relatives upon their arrival in Pella. They probably received some assistance from the same people they corresponded with when they topic of emigration was discussed initially; either directly or through a church. This was the way of the Dutch. Because they likely arrived in Pella in late spring, Martinus and Gysbert could have found work as farm laborers until they could get their own farming operation started the following spring. 

Over three quarters of seceder immigrants in the period 1857-1880 joined the fledgling Christian Reformed Church (CRC) upon arrival or shortly thereafter. And a surprising one half of Dutch Hervormde Kerk immigrants also joined this church. The CRC was clearly seen as the preserver of the Dutch Reformed heritage. Whereas, the Reformed Church was perceived as promoting a quicker assimilation into mainstream American life.

To my knowledge, there were no Reformed or Christian Reformed churches in immediate proximity to where the De Jongs lived in the mid to late 1800s. The closest churches were in Pella. 

I have been unable to determine conclusively which church in the Pella area the De Jong family attended. 

I can, however, make the following statements with confidence.

Between the years 1868 and 1881, all three of Pieter Sr.’s youngest daughters were married by Rev. Egbert Winter, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Pella. Their husbands were already members of First Reformed Church when they married. However, their De Jong wives did not become members of First Reformed Church when they married. They waited several years before becoming members. 

There was no record of Pieter De Jong Sr., Martinus De Jong, Gysbert De Jong, or Pieter De Jong Jr. being members of either First Reformed Church or First Christian Reformed Church.

There was no record of Pieter Sr. or Martinus De Jong being members of Third Reformed Church.

Records from Marion County show that Gysbert De Jong and Adrianna Van Gorp were married by Rev. Antonie Betten Sr. in 1869. Rev. Betten was a protégé of Henry Scholte, Pella’s founder. However, Betten split with Scholte in 1855 and pastored the Pella Christian Church for several years after Scholte was asked to leave. The Pella Christian Church was not associated with any particular denomination. Its also not clear that Betten was still active in this Church in 1869. He certainly was not the pastor. He owned a store in Pella. After 1860, he seems to have taken on a role as a pastor to the community, but did not affiliate himself with any particular church

Church records show that Gysbert De Jong became active in the Third Reformed Church in the 1880s. . Several of Gysbert De Jong’s youngest children were baptized in Third Reformed. The Pella Christian Church disbanded about the same time. This could be a coincidence.

Pieter De Jong Jr. and Anna Ten Bosch were married by the Pastor of Third Reformed Church in 1881.

Hugo Kuyper served as executor of Pieter De Jong Sr.’s estate. Hugo’s wife was the sister of Rev. Antonie Betten Sr.

All of Pieter Sr’s children and grandchildren, with the exception of Martinus De Jong’s descendants, consistently indicated an affiliation with the Reformed Church in the Census records of the early 1900s. Martinus’ children generally indicated an affiliation with the Christian Reformed Church. Martinus’ children, Peter J. and Arie C., were initially members of Third Reformed Church in Pella in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Later, when they moved across the Skunk River to the Peoria area, they were leaders in the founding of the Peoria Christian Reformed Church. Their sister, Gysbertje Pothoven, was also a member of this Church.

Pieter De Jong Sr., Martinus De Jong, Gysbert De Jong, Pieter De Jong Jr., the sisters and their husbands all eventually established farms in close proximity to each other, approximately three miles east of Pella, in Black Oak township in Mahaska County. Black Oak Township was named for the 600 acre grove of black oaks located in the county. Coincidentally, the grove included portions of Pieter Sr. and Gysbert De Jong’s farms. 

During the period 1866 – 1890, the De Jong families expanded their farming operations. Most of the expansion was funded through mortgages, with the financing obtained through private individuals. 

There are also many instances where land was bought and sold between the families.

For the most part, the families farmed in close proximity with each other. The lone exception being Pieter, Jr., who left for Nebraska in 1888. 

The next generation, Arie C., Peter J., and others, had to look for affordable land further from Pella. 

Although some remained in Black Oak Township, others began to farm in Richland and Prairie townships of Mahaska County.