Koolbeek, Jacob, 1836-1908

KOOLBEEK, SIPMA

Posted By: Lydia Lucas-Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/27/2011 at 13:48:44

PIONEER GONE

Jacob Koolbeek died at his home in Hospers Iowa Saturday January seventh 1908 of heart failure. He had suffered most of the winter with la grippe [influenza] and it proved too much for him at his advanced age. He was sitting in his arm chair beside the fire when the end came and he passed away peacefully.

Deceased was one of the pioneers of Sioux county and one of its most widely known citizens. He was born in Delft, Holland--where the Dutch kings are buried and where the famous delftware is made--on January twelfth 1836. He came to America in 1849 and located in Marion county. As a boy he drove the old stage between Oskaloosa and Des Moines over fifty years ago. He came to Sioux county in 1872 and homesteaded on section eighteen between Hospers and Orange City. He was supervisor nine years and school board member for forty years in Marion county and Sioux. He was postmaster under Cleveland and Harrison and McKinley and in 1891 was elected first mayor of Hospers. He had been mayor or clerk ever since. Since 1873 he had been a justice of the peace. For years he did a thriving implement business in Hospers--after leaving the farm--and latterly had much success in writing insurance and handling real estate.

Deceased was married to Flora Sipma at Pella on the twenty-third of August 1860. To their union eleven children were born. Three died in infancy and one son John died thirteen years ago at the age of twenty-seven. The living children in order of age are Mrs. J. W. Hilbelink of Hospers, Richard of Alton, Mrs. Wells Sutherland of Paullina, Mrs. D. C. Haskell of Mexico, Missouri, Mrs. O. W. French of Coalville, Utah, Jacob of St. Louis and Miss Florence at home. All were at the funeral except Jacob. Mrs. Haskell came Monday and Mrs. French Wednesday noon. Deceased also leaves a brother John at Harlan, Iowa and an adopted sister Mrs. Top of Pendleton, Oregon. Mrs. H. Kleinheksel of Archer--widow of John Koolbeek--should also be mentioned here as one of the family as she has ever been considered such. Mrs. Koolbeek is a sister of Sjoerd Sipma and Mrs. John Vander Haak and Mrs. John Sterkenberg of Alton and Orange City.

Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Riepma from the Dutch Reformed church and the home Wednesday afternoon. The public school and all business places were closed. It was one of the largest funerals the community has ever seen--deceased being widely known and respected by all. Many were present from surrounding towns and the floral offerings were many and beautiful. Interment took place in the Hospers cemetery east of town. Among friends from out of the county were Rev. Martin Hyink of Inwood and Prof. Guy Honnold of Hendricks, Minnesota.

Uncle Jake Koolbeek--as he was familiarly known--endured many hardships of pioneer life and held them in an unusually retentive memory. Thirty-four years ago on his birthday--it being the twelfth day of January 1874--he was at Orange City to file his first bond as justice. A crowd was in the old frame school house when someone cried out that a blizzard was coming. Mr. Koolbeek and others started home afoot. They stopped at the northeast edge of Orange City and filled the house of Guys Ver Steeg till standing room was at a premium. He and Albert Van Zyl and John Sipma started on further. They worked on as far as Ver Zyl's and then he and John forged ahead. After half a day's struggle they had made seven or eight miles. Night came on and they were lost. The blizzard was blinding. John's hands and face were frozen. They knew they were near the Koolbeek home. Mr. Koolbeek had mowed two swaths to mark the section line road past his home. The grass stood tall on both sides. Their only salvation was to find this track. On their hands and knees they crawled and crawled till they found it and at last reached their longsought destination and they were just in time. They got in in the early part of the blizzard which lasted for three days. Many were lost and frozen on the plains in those three awful days.

Jacob Koolbeek was a man of wide experience and sympathy--schooled to labor and hardship from childhood. A father and three brothers answered the call to arms in the sixties and not all of them returned. Deceased--left at home to look after affairs--chafed at the restraint which kept him from the front and to his dying day cherished most of all his relics the arms his father bore for freedom. The father fills a soldier's grave at Orange City--he having died from wounds after lingering two days.

In pioneer days in this county Jacob Koolbeek labored with others to bring civilization from the wilderness. The fruits of the toil of the men of those days are all about us. The county's history--its schools--its roads--its towns--all bear in a degree the impress of Jacob Koolbeek's life and are better because he lived. Many a citizen can testify to his helpfulness and the town where he spent so many years of his life has long held him in esteem as its counselor and guide and most prominent citizen. The griefs of the community were brought to him and by him adjusted to the best of his ability as the law gave him power. He was painstaking and accurate and punctual to duty and promise. A Christian in the broader sense--a democrat and a friend of the lowly--a man in whom was little guile and much good. He will be missed.

Source: Alton Democrat, March 14, 1908.
The obituary includes a photograph.

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From the Alton Democrat, April 4, 1908:

County Attorney John Hospers was in Alton Wednesday en route home from the town of Hospers where he had some matters to settle up in the affairs of Jacob Koolbeek. He says Mr. Koolbeek was one of the most methodical men whose affairs he has ever had occasion to inspect. Every book and every paper and every penny was right at hand and everything in perfect order.