VandenBerg, Beert and Aaltje Juffer

VANDENBERG, JUFFER, TOP, BOS, BOSCH

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg (email)
Date: 1/13/2016 at 15:17:16

VANDEN BERG, Beert and Aaltje JUFFER

Beert (or sometimes referred to as Beerd) Van den Berg was born February 9, 1821 in Doornspjik, Gelderland, Netherlands to Jan Van den Berg and Geerigje Top. Beert married Aaltje Juffer on June 15, 1844 and they had eight children. Their oldest son Jan ‘John’ Vande Berg came to America in 1865 at 19 years of age. The Beert Van Den Berg family and seven children Left Doornspijk on March 6, 1866 and headed for Rotterdam. Netherlands.

After some delay because of technicalities and low tides they left Rotterdam on about March 17, 1866. This information was gathered from a letter written back to Holland by the group traveling with the Beert Van den Berg family. One of these families was the Rijk Sneller family. It was reported that they were put on a large boat with about 800 men and that the boat embarked the next day at noon. The following day they took on passengers at Ireland. The next Sunday at sea they encountered a terrible storm that raged for many days. One man was washed overboard. All were terribly seasick in bed. Seven persons died on the boat including the two year old son of Beert and Aaltje.

After seventeen grueling days at sea they arrived in New York on March 30, 1866. They were cold, weak, tired and most were sick. But that was not the end of their perilous journey, The Rijk Sneller family lost several weak and sickened children right after they landed. After some frightening experiences of getting lost in New York City on Monday night, they boarded a train and traveled all night to Albany. The following day they arrived in Detroit in the evening, then on to arrive in Chicago the next morning and in Milwaukee late that evening. The rested there a day and night. Then they left for Waupon and Alto Wisconsin were they settled until 1872.

In 1872 the Beert Van Den Berg family came to Sioux County and homesteaded near Newkirk, IA. Aaltje died 24th of January 1875, and Beert married a widow, Mrs. Hoeven, who died after seven years of marriage and then he married Mrs. Geertje Vis for eighteen years before he died January 10, 1904.

Beert and Aaltje Van den Berg were the parents of several noted pioneer families in the area. These were John Vande Berg family of Welcome township near Sioux Center and the Lammert Vande Berg family long- time residents of Sioux Center. Those families have many descendants in the Sioux Center area. Two other children of Beert and Aaltje have many descendants in the Sioux County area, these are the descendants of the Henry and Andrew Vanden Berg Family of Newkirk and the descendants of Gerritje Vanden Berg, second wife of Gysbert VerSteeg of Orange City.

Another noteworthy bit of information is that the aforementioned families of Beert Van den Berg and Rijk Sneller were related in that the wives Aaltje, Mrs. Beert Van den Berg and Matje, Mrs. Rijk Sneller were sisters. Rijk Sneller and wife Matje Juffer were rural Sioux County pioneers who were the ancestors of most of the people associated with the name Sneller in the area today. Aaltje and Matje Juffer were the daughters of Dries Harmensz Juffer and Driesje Egberts Bos or Bosch.

There are separate stories in the 1991 Sioux Center centennial book on John and Lammert Vande Berg families, as well as on some of their descendants’ families.

Beert Van den Berg spelled the last name as recorded in the Netherlands records as- Berg, van den or Van den Berg. However, it seems that the children and descendants in most cases have dropped the letter ‘n’ from Vanden and use Vande instead.

The author of this history Wilma J. Vande Berg, did a Vande/Vanden Berg family history book in 1995, that records most all of the descendants of Beert and Aaltje Juffer along with many pictures. Wilma’s husband is Don Lee Vande Berg, he is a great great grandson of Beert and Altje Juffer Van den Berg.