Van Kampen, Jacob Jr.

VAN KAMPEN, VAN HOLLAND, BRUXFEERT, RYHOEK, BAYLS

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/23/2009 at 07:23:13

Van Kampen, Jacob Jr.

Notwithstanding the fact that the kingdom of Holland is one of the smallest countries of the world, it has sent a large number of settlers to the United States. They began coming in the colonial days and while they have been content to remain along the Atlantic seaboard for the most part, they have branched out into almost all sections of the Union, to which they have been ever loyal, supporting our institutions and reverencing our flag; in fact, they have shown a perfect willingness to follow it on the battlefields of every war from the Revolution to the Spanish-American, and since the independence which they helped to secure they have done their share in the up building of their communities, for, appreciating the blessings of liberty, they have never been slow to recognize the possibilities that opened out in splendid perspective before all emigrants who should locate in this country. Accordingly large numbers of Hollanders have emigrated and now constitute some of our best and most moral communities. Of this thrifty and freedom-loving people came the subject of this sketch.

Jacob Van Kampen, Jr., one of the younger generation of farmers of Richland Township, Jasper County, was born in Holland, on May 19, 1880, the son of Jacob and Nellie (Van Holland) Van Kampen, both born in Holland, the father in 1842 and the mother in 1837, and there they grew to maturity and were married and began life for themselves on the farm, also carried on dairying, and in 1892 they emigrated with their family to the United States and located at Pella, Iowa, where they lived a year and farmed, then moved to Jasper County and rented land for six years, during which time they got a good start and then the elder Van Kampen bought one hundred and sixty acres in Richland Township, which he farmed successfully and in the summer of 1911 he retired from the farm and moved to Sully, a village in Lynn Grove Township, where he is now spending his declining years in quiet. He and his good wife, after long years of hard toil, now find themselves very comfortably established, owning a pleasant residence as well as their farm, the management of which they have turned over to their sons: Jacob, Jr., of this review, and Averd, each operating eighty acres. This arrangement had been made back in 1901, but the parents still lived on the place until this year, the old folks living with the subject the meanwhile, but the father did little active work. Besides these sons, there is a daughter, Mrs. Fannie Bruxfeert. Averd married, in 1901, Nellie Rykhoek and they have two sons, Jacob and Benjamin.

Jacob Van Kampen was twelve years of age when he came with the family to America. He attended school in Pella, Iowa, and in Richland Township, this county. He was married in 1909 to Myrtle Bayls, who was born in Iowa. This union has been without issue.

Young Jacob Van Kampen has devoted his attention to farming since he was a boy, began renting when twenty-one years of age, and he has kept the home place well improved and well tilled. He is thoroughly American in his methods and is an intelligent and industrious young man, bearing, like all of his family, an untarnished reputation. Page 1283.
Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912