Settling South Holland

Let's say you are living in the Netherlands in the 1840's. You own and work a farm that had been in your family for many generations. Your family is here. All your friends that you have. Your church. The school where your children attend. Your livestock. Your tools for farming. And probably you have no money. You are a subsistence farmer. Then you and your wife decide to sell your home and land and almost everything you own and you buy passages to America. A new world. Start a new life. Wilderness land that must be cleared and tilled to survive. And the climate will be much harsher than you are accustomed to. You must build some kind of shelter right away to protect your family from the weather. Took a lot of courage. Courage to face the difficulties of nature. Courage to survive. Strength of will and physical strength. The opportunity was there and they took it. Why did they do this? Leave their comfortable home in old Holland and come all the way to South Holland, in America and start over. Motivated by freedom. Freedom in their religion. And political freedom. And they liked the larger land holdings than they had in Holland. Untilled, fertile land. Lots of land for their children to have farms. It was a moment in time. Never to come again. Beautiful America. The land of the free. The Dutch emigrants making a new home. Thank you for the help in sharing your knowledge: Bill Paarlberg Glen De Young P. J. Ettema Reinhout Joan Van Haren Ralph Paarlberg Luke Schaap Staff of South Holland Library South Holland Historical Society In memorium Ross Ettema author, historian, geneologist