Verdoorn, Dick 1886-1965 & Cora Dodewaard Family

VERDOORN, DODEWAARD, INTVELD, DANIELS

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 12/30/2021 at 09:56:51

Dick Verdoorn 1886-1965 and Cora Dodewaard family

This story was taken from the ‘Rock Valley Records & Recollections’ book written about 1976 in honor of the two hundredth birthday of our nation. It was a revision of the history written by Lottie Thomas in 1955 and found on page 51. . It was transcribed for this BIOS by Beth De Leeuw of the Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society and some research notes were added.

Cora Dodewaard Verdoorn was born in the Netherlands on June 1, 1890. She came to Rock Valley, Iowa with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Dodeward, at the age of one in 1891. They lived in a house on 15th Street. Later the family lived on two different farms in the community near Rock Valley.

In 1910, she married Dick Verdoorn, and three years later they purchased two hundred acres of land located one and one-half miles west of Rock Valley on the south side of Highway 18 from Mr. H.H. Pember. Mr. and Mrs. Verdoorn, along with their three-year-old daughter, Elsie, moved on this farm in the spring of that year, 1913. Their other daughter, Cornelia, was born there three years later. The family lived on and farmed that land until 1946 when Mr. and Mrs. Verdoorn retired to Rock Valley. At that time their daughter, Elsie, who was married to William Wissink, and their twin sons, Willard and Richard, moved to the farm. Richard and Willard were born on this farm in the home of their grandparents in 1934 and they were the first twins delivered by Dr. L.R. Hegg.

When William and Elsie retired and moved to Rock Valley in 1966, their sons, Richard and Willard and their families, moved to this farm and they are still living there and working the land. The original house, which is at present still standing, is believed to be well over one hundred years old. It will be torn down in the near future since a new one was built there recently by Mr. and Mrs. Willard Wissink. The Richard Wissink family live in a newly-remodeled home on an acreage in the west part of the farm.

The Ernisse Lake is located on this farm; and for many years it supplied the ice for residents of Rock Valley, for the farmers in the surrounding territory, and for the Rock Valley Creamery Company. This lake and the surrounding pasture was also the site for early day Sunday school picnics and other gatherings. An early issue of the Bee carried the following invitation in regard to the Fourth of July—“A picnic has been arranged for tomorrow at Ernisse’s Lake and grove. A general invitation is extended to all.”

This farm has been continuously lived on and farmed by Dick Verdoorn and his descendants for the last sixty-four years.

Mr. Dick Verdoorn passed away in 1965. Mrs. Verdoorn has lived continuously for the last eighty-five years in this community. She still resides in Rock Valley at 1420 16th Street; her daughter, Cornelia, and her husband, John Wissink, live with her. All her family, daughters, grandsons, and great-grandchildren, Keith and Kathy (children of Richard Wissinks) and Shane and Shelly (children of Willard Wisssinks), have always lived in the Rock Valley community. This entire family has attended and been members of the First Reformed Church all of their lives.

Above submitted to the Rock Valley Book by Mrs. John Wissink

OBITUARY OF DICK VERDOORN
Funeral Services for D. Ver Doorn Held Saturday
Funeral services were held in the First Reformed Church in Rock Valley Saturday, March 20 for Dick Verdoorn. Mr. Verdoorn died Wednesday, March 17 at the Sioux Center hospital within a few hours after a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 78 years.
Rev. Henry Poppen officiated. Mrs. Allen Bonthuis and Mrs. Jake Vande Weerd sang "Saved By Grace" and "There Is No Night There," accompanied by Miss Beverly Gaalswyk at the organ. Pallbearers were nephews of the deceased: Tom Gaalswyk, Alvin Gaalswyk, Arie C. Bliek, Herbert Bliek, Joe Van Wondenberg and James Kota. Burial was at the Valley View cemetery with the Porter Funeral home in charge.
Mr. Verdoorn was born in the Netherlands on July 11, 1886. He was the son of Joost and Elsie Verdoorn and came to this country at the age of two with his parents, who settled in Sioux county. He was married to Cora Dodeward March 3, 1910 and to this union two daughters were born.
Mr. Verdoorn farmed in the Rock Valley vicinity all of his life until his retirement in 1946, when they moved to Rock Valley. He was a member of the First Reformed church and served as a deacon and treasurer in this church for 12 years.
Survivors include the widow, Cora; two daughters, Elsie (Mrs. William Wissink) and Cornelia (Mrs. John Wissink); two grandsons and two great-grandchildren. He also has two step-granddaughters and 18 step-grandchildren.
He is also survived by five sisters: Annie (Mrs. Joe Van Westerhuyzen), Glenwood, Minn.; Mary (Mrs. De Young), Grand Rapids, Mich.; Teunie (Mrs. Henry Van Woudenberg), Bertha (Mrs. Arie Gaalswyk), and Grace (Mrs. Bert Bliek), all of Rock Valley.
Source: Rock Valley Bee, March 25, 1965.
A similar, somewhat shorter obituary was published in the Sioux Center News (March 25). It adds that he was also survived by one brother, Martin, of Rochester, Minn., who passed away the day after his death.

BIRTH RECORD of Dirk Verdoorn
Dirk Verdoorn was born July 11, 1886 at Haarlemmermeer, Noth Holland Netherlands to Joots Verdoorn and Elsje Intveld.
Dick’s parents were Joost Verdoorn 1860-1936 and Elsjen Intveld 1865-1936.
Cornelius Dodewaard Feb 1855 died Oct 1929 Marie ‘Mary’ Daniels 1854

OBITUARY OF CORA DODEWARD VERDOORN
Cora Verdoorn, 95, of Rock Valley died Tuesday, Dec. 3 in a hospital in Rock Valley.
Services were Friday, Dec. 7 in the First Reformed Church, the Rev. Gordon Bloemendaal officiating. Burial was at Valley View Cemetery.
Mrs. Verdoorn, the former Cora Dodeward, was born June 3, 1890, in Wadenoijen, The Netherlands and came to the United States and to the Rock Valley area in 1891. She attended Rock Valley public schools. She married Dick Verdoorn March 3, 1910, in Rock Valley. They farmed west of Rock Valley until 1950 when they retired and moved into town. Mr. Verdoorn died in 1965.
She was a lifetime member of the First Reformed Church and a charter member and 40-year president of the Dorcas Society of the church.
Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Cornelia Wissink of Rock Valley; two brothers, John of Rock Valley and Steven of Port Orchard, Wash.; two grandchildren; four great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
Source: Rock Valley Bee, December 11, 1985.
A brief news note in the Rock Valley Bee, October 9, 1985, says that she fell in her home and broke her hip. She had hip surgery at the McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, and then was transferred to the Hegg Memorial Hospital.

No picture was found in the local archives, if anyone has a picture please scan it and send it to our page Coordinator.