Gesink, Henry 1873-1961 & Johanna Nyman Family

GESINK, NYMAN, NIJMAN, GROOTNIBBELINK, ROUGOOR

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 9/27/2021 at 09:55:17

Gesink, Hendrik ‘Henry’ 1873-1961 and Johanna Nyman Family

This story was taken from the Sioux Center Centennial book of 1991 pages 345 and 346. I was submitted to the book by Eunice Van Bruggen. It was transcribed for this BIOS by Beth De Leeuw and some research notes were added by Wilma J. Vande Berg, both of the Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society.

Henry Gesink was born on May 10, 1873 to Christian and Wilhelmina (Nibbelink) Gesink in Vaarsevelt, Gelderland, The Netherlands. He was the youngest of three children and they were farmers. Some of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Henry had the pleasure of visiting the family farm in 1986. The original home, with the family living area in the front and the barn in the back, all under one straw-thatched roof, was as neat and clean as must Dutch farms are. In the family parlour was a large wall clock well over 100 years old. It was about three feet long, enclosed with glass, and with a copper pendulum. When the Gesink family left for America it was too big to take with them, so it stayed with the home when it was sold, and today it keeps as good time as it did then! The owner of the farm remembers when his father bought the farm from Mr. Gesink and he has lived there his entire life.

Because of the conditions in the Netherlands at that time, the father felt there was no future for his children there, and the entire family came to Alton, Iowa in July, 1894. Henry worked as a day laborer in the Orange City area, and was married to Johanna Nyman, daughter of Engelbert and Wilhelmina (Rougoor) Nyman on March 3, 1897. A triple wedding was held at the Nyman farm north of Sioux Center that day. Johanna and two of her sisters all were brides on that day. They farmed southeast of Sioux Center for a few years and then homesteaded on a farm 2½ miles east of Sioux Center. The elderly parents lived with the family until they passed away.

They were the parents of nine children: Wilhelmina (Minnie), who married Benjamin De Jong; Engelbert (Bert), who married Fanny Colsman; Christian (Chris), who married Elizabeth Colsman; Johanna, who married Ben W. Mouw; Harriet, first wife of Ben W. Mouw, who died of complications with her first pregnancy; Gerrit, who married Madeline Mouw; Christine; Bertha, who married Clarence Trezenberg; and Henry, who when a little lad of four years old was killed instantly in a tragic accident. The father and an older brother were greasing a 50 ft. windmill on the farm yard when a heavy tool fell off the platform they were working on and struck Henry on his head. Never will the older sisters forget the look of anguish on their grief-stricken father’s face as he carried the limp and lifeless body of his little son to his mother.

The mother Johanna became ill with rheumatic fever during her seventh pregnancy, and for the rest of her life suffered from a bad heart condition and was in poor health. She passed away at the age of 43 years in 1919, leaving a family of eight children motherless. The oldest daughter Minnie, who was 21 yrs. old when her mother died, took the responsibility of caring for her younger brothers and sisters until her marriage in 1924.

The Gesink farm had a very large orchard with grapes and many varieties of apples, and the whole family had to help when they were ready to be harvested. The poor apples were picked up and fed to the livestock, and the good apples were wrapped and stored in the cellar, as well as many, many quarts of apples canned for later use. Mr. Gesink was very generous with his apples and brought many to needy families, friends and relatives. A friend of the family remembers how dark red one variety of apples were, and the inside of the apple was pink right to the core.

A tribute was written in the Sioux Center News December 6, 1978 to the Gesink family by Louise Top Warner, it read as follows: “It was a pleasure being invited to the Gesink farm a couple of miles east of town. In memory I see the large Gesink family seated around the dining room table. Father Gesink at the head of the table. I still think of Mr. Gesink as the most Christ-like man in our Afgescheidenen Kerk, perhaps because in the fall he used to deliver to our home a wagon load of cobs for my mother’s big cast iron kitchen range. I admired in Mr. Gesink a beautiful meekness that was rare among the pillars of our church. The biggest apple I ever saw, big enough to fill a whole pie, came out of the opulent orchard at the Gesink farm.

“The Gesink children came to the Christian School in Sioux Center in “the cupboard”, a snug black cubicle on four wheels drawn by two horses, which spent the day in the church barns nearby. The first magazine I ever saw was given me by Johanna Gesink. It was called “Comfort” and it introduced me to the continued story whose installment I avidly anticipated each month, without my father’s knowledge.”

One by one the older children married and left home, Johanna attended Northwestern Academy in Orange City and taught in the Sioux Center Christian School for a number of years before her marriage. She founded a sewing club for the upper grade girls called “The Sunny Sewing Circle,” where girls learned embroidery stitches and embroidered articles which were sold at a sale at the end of the year. The Club continued to meet weekly for 30 to 40 years.

The younger girls, Christine and Bertha, worked for many families in the surrounding area, helping when a new baby was born or when there was sickness in a family. In 1938 they both moved to Chicago and worked as maids for wealthy families there. The father made his home with his married children, mainly Johanna Mouw and her family. In 1941 he bought a home in Sioux Center and his daughter Christine moved back from Chicago and kept house for him until his death in 1961 at the age of 88 years. After his death Christine worked a number of years at the Maris Maternity Home in Sioux Center, and later at the Community Hospital as a nurse aide.

Three members of the family are still living — Gerrit and his wife Madeline are residents of the Sioux Center Nursing Wing, Christine makes her home at the New Homestead, and Bertha and her husband Clarence Trezenberg reside in Chicago, Illinois.

Submitted to the book by Eunice Van Bruggen

RESEARCH Notes added by Wilma J. Vande Berg

Netherland records found on www.wiewaswie.nl

BIRTH of Hendrik Gesink to Christiaan Gesink, a farmer age 36 and Willemina Grootnibbelink, on 10 May 1873 at Wisch, Gelderland.

BIRTH record of Johanna Nijman to Engelbart Gerrit Nijman, a farmer age 37 and Johanna Willemina Rougoor, born on 28 April 1876 at De Heurne, Aalten, Gelderland Netherlands.

OBITUARY of Henry Gesink 1873-1961
Sioux Center News Oct 5, 1961
Rites Held Monday for H. Gesink Dies Thursday at Local Hospital Funeral services were held at
the First Christian formed church here at l:30 p.m. Monday for Henry Gesink, 88, retired farmer, and a resident of this vicinity since 1893, who died Thursday at the Sioux Center Community hospital.
Services were conducted by the Rev. B. J. Haan and burial was made in the Sioux Center Community cemetery under direction of Co-operative Funeral Service. A brief service attended by members of the family was held at the Little Chapel preceding the service at the church.
Mr. Gesink was born in The Netherlands May 10, 1873. He grew to young manhood there and
immigrated to Sioux county in 1893 at the age of 20. He settled on a farm near Sioux Center. On March 3, 1897, Mr. Gesink was married to Johanna Nyman. She passed away February 5, 1919. Two daughters, Harriet and Mrs. Ben. Mouw, and one son, Henry, preceded :him in death.
Mr. Gesink retired from farming and moved into Sioux Center about 20 years ago.
Survivors include three sons, Chris and Gerrit of Sioux Center and Bert of Sheldon, and three daughters Mrs. B. R. DeJong of Warsaw IL, Mrs. Clarence Triezenberg of Chicago; and Miss Christine Gesink of Sioux Center. Also surviving him are 22 grand and 27 great Grandchildren.

OBITUARY of Johanna Mrs. Henry Gesink 1876-1919
Gesink, Johanna born 1876 died 1919 buried in Memory Gardens Sioux Center, IA as listed in the Sioux County IA cemetery index.
Note: From a record on line, her parents were Engelbart Gerrit Nyman 1839-1926 and Johanna Willemina Rougaar 1849-1920. They were married 3 Mar 1897 at Sioux Center IA. (Spelling of Rougaar may be Rougoor, or Roghair).
De Volksriend Donderdag 13 Feb 1919.
Overlijdensbericht)
Het heeft den Heere behaagd om op den 5n Feb. van onze zijde weg te nemen, mijne gellefde echtgenoote en der kinderen liefhebbende moeder, Johanna Geslnk—Nyman, ln den, leeftijd van bijna 43 Jaren, na een langdurig en geduldig lijden en na een gezegende echtvereeniging van 22 jaren. Door lijden geheiligd dit kan van haar getuigd worden, zoodat ze in blijde hope kon heengaan, gereinigd door Jezus bloed. Namens de wederzijdsche familie, De bedroefde Echtgenoot en Kinders, H. Geslnk, Willemina, Engelbert,Christiaan, Johanna, Harriet, Christina en Bertha,
Orange City, Route 3.
Translation ---
De Volksvried, Thusday Feb. 13, 1919
Obituary
It has been The Lord‘s will to take away from us on Feb 5th my beloved wife and our children loving mother, Johanna Gesink-Nyman, at the age of almost 43 years, after a long time and patient suffering and after a blessed marriage of 22 years. Sacred/Saved by suffering, this can be attested from her, so she could pass away in joyfulness hope, purified by the blood of Jesus. In behalf of bereaved family, the distressed / sorrowful husband and children H. Geslnk, Willemina, Engelbert, Christiaan, Johanna, Harriet, Christina and Bertha,
Orange City, Route 3.

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