With permission from Larry B. Massie
The following are excerpts from "Voyages into Michigan's Past"
If you would like your own personal copy of Larry B. Massie's "Voyages into Michigan's Past", please contact him at:

Larry B. Massie
2109 41st St.
Allegan, MI 49010-8906

WOODEN SHOES IN WILDERNESS

The Reverend Albertus Van Raalte struggled through the waist-high snow. Indian missionary, the Reverend George Smith, and an Ottawa guide broke trail. Van Raalte, weakened by days of exploration in the dense wilderness of northern Alleg an and Ottawa counties, could hardly lift his snowshoes. At times he could make no more than fifty paces before stopping to rest. But even as he rested, Van Raalte scooped through the snow to examine the quality of the underlying soil.

The Dutch pastor liked what he found. The thick growth of virgin hardwood indicated a fertile soil, and the timber would be ideal for fine furniture manufacturing. The tempering influence of nearby Lake Michigan would permit fruit growi ng. The unsettled land around the mouth of the Black River could be purchased cheaply. Perhaps most importantly, the river lay approximately halfway between the more developed Kalamazoo and Grand rivers where, upstream, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids offered markets. Yet the Black River site was isolated enough to allow a theocratic Dutch colony to mature without the interference of the ungodly.

On New Years Day 1847, as local Ottawas marked the holiday by musket fire, Van Raalte selected the site for the city that would be known as Holland.

Conditions in the Netherlands were ripe for a mass migration to America. Like the Pilgrim fathers three centuries before, seceders from the state-sanctioned Reformed Church were persecuted. Deteriorating economic conditions brought abou t by the Dutch manufacturers' failure to compete with English producers were coupled with onerous taxes on food. Unemployment was widespread. In 1845-46, the potato blight that had such a severe effect on Ireland also eliminated this staple foodstuff in H olland.

Van Raalte, a 36-year-old pastor from the province of Overijsel, led 100 followers to emigrate to the land of opportunity on September 24, 1846. They sailed on the "Southerner" from Rotterdam and, seven weeks later, arrived in New York City. Initially, Van Raalte planned to plant his colony in Wisconsin. The immigrants journeyed to Detroit via Albany and Buffalo and prepared to take a steamer up Lake Huron and through the Mackinac Straits to eastern Wisconsin. But the Straits had alread y frozen over, ending the shipping season.

Van Raalte found temporary employment in Detroit for his countrymen and took the Michigan Central Railroad west to the end of the line, Kalamazoo. There he met M.I. Coit and the Reverend Ova P. Hoyt, a Presbyterian minister. They and ot hers, eager to secure for Michigan a better share of the settlers that had been bypassing the state for western lands, promoted local advantages. They convinced Van Raalte that western Michigan with its established population, "better educated, more relig ious and more enterprising people" than in Wisconsin, would be an ideal location for his colony.

They introduced Van Raalte to Judge John R. Kellogg of Allegan, who was knowledgeable about available lands in western Michigan. He suggested sites near Ada in Kent County, farther east in Ionia County and north of the Rabbit River in A llegan County. Kellogg guided Van Raalte along narrow Indian trails on an inspection tour from Allegan to the Old Wing Mission located in northern Allegan County's Fillmore Township. The Reverend George N. Smith, a Congregationalist clergyman, had establi shed this mission in 1838. He resided in a wooden frame structure. He, his wife and Isaac Fairbanks sought to acculturate local tribesmen in white men's ways. Smith and Fairbanks led Van Raalte northwest into Ottawa County along an Indian trail to Black L ake where he determined to found his colony.

Van Raalte continued his reconnaissance of the wilderness until January 11 and then conducted legal research at Grand Haven, the Ottawa county seat. Returning to Detroit, then the state capital, he began purchasing land. He used some $ 10,000 of his own money realized from the sale of his brick and tile factory in Overijsel and borrowed funds from Americans proud of their Dutch heritage. Van Raalte bought some land at government prices of $1.25 an acre and other plats for back taxes, as low as 600 acres at $11.68. He also purchased 3,000 acres for $7,000 from New York City owners.

In early February, Van Raalte sent out a vanguard of six families to prepare the site for later arrivals. The women and children stayed in Allegan as the men made their way to headquarters at Old Wing Mission. By February 23, the co lonists, with help from the Indians, had chopped out a road and constructed their first log house. Their families joined them from Allegan and brought news that additional parties of Hollanders were en route. Shelter and food to survive the tough winter b ecame a serious problem. They were unused to American ways of building and ill supplied and equipped. Construction of dwellings proceeded slowly. The Dutch pioneers also had an unfortunate habit of felling trees or top of already completed cabins until t hey learned lumberjack skills.

They also got in trouble with the local Indians on several occasions. For example, they appropriated dressed venison found hanging from trees. Indian owners demanded restitution from Van Raalte, and he paid out of his own pocket. The wo rst offense occurred later in the year. During the spring, the Indians planted corn and bean fields and then left for their traditional hunting grounds in Berrien County. Assuming that they had deserted for good, the Hollanders assigned the Indian fields to newly arrived immigrants. When the tribe returned in the fall for harvesting, they found their crop lands overrun with Dutch settlers. Van Raalte attempted to resolve the problem but failed to completely satisfy the Indians. In 1849, the last of the lo cal Indians moved with Smith to a new mission site near Northport in Leelanau County.

Most colonists survived the winter of 1847, but the summer brought worse problems. Weakened by poor foods and insufficient shelter, many fell victim to malaria spread by the hordes of mosquitoes that infested the undrained swamps. Other s died of dysentery or of the smallpox epidemic introduced by new arrivals. Medical facilities were almost nonexistent. So many parents died that Van Raalte erected an orphanage.

Fortunately, the winter of 1847-48 proved mild, and, by the Spring of 1848, what the first colonists remembered as the "bitter days" had passed. More settlers continued to arrive from the old country and by 1860, Holland's population nu mbered 1,99 1. A fire that destroyed half the city in 1871 served only to cement a more tightly knit community. Unlike so many other American Utopian experiments that failed, Holland was there to stay.