Roorda, Hessel S. Sr., 1858-1938

ROORDA, DYKSTRA, VEENSTRA

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:35

Born: 08-15-1858
Died: 12-25-1938

From the Sioux Center News, January 5, 1939, Rock Valley news:

Early Christmas morning Mr. Hessel S. Roorda Sr. passed quietly from this world. Mr. Roorda suffered with cancer for the past year.

Hessel S. Roorda, Sr., was born in Achlum, Friesland, Netherlands on August 15, 1858 and had attained the age of eighty years, four months and ten days.

Mr. Roorda came to America in 1882 locating in Sioux County and was united in marriage to Rena Dykstra in 1887. They farmed near Ireton for five years and then purchased a farm west of Sioux Center where they made their home for twenty-five years before moving his family to Rock Valley in the autumn of 1916 where he lived until the end.

Mr. and Mrs. Roorda made two visits to the Netherlands, one in 1914 and the last in 1925. Mrs. Roorda passed away in June 1934 and four children preceded them in death. The following are left to mourn: Hessel Roorda Jr., Emma Kosters, Rock Valley; Dettmer of Hawarden, Spencer of Sheldon; Bessie and Ray of Los Angeles, Calif. Twelve grandchildren also remain.

Funeral services were held at the home on Tuesday afternoon conducted by Rev. B. D. Dykstra, the brother -in-law of the deceased. Interment was made in Valley View Cemetery.

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From the Alton Democrat, December 30, 1938:

H. ROORDA OF ROCK VALLEY DIES DEC. 25
Splendid Farmer Arrived at Alton, 1882

Hessel Roorda, outstanding and constructive Rock Valley citizen, passed away at his home there after half a year of painful suffering, in the early morning of Christmas day.

Born in Friesland, Netherlands, August 15, 1858, Hessel Sietses Roorda came as a young man to America, in June, 1882, arriving at the D. R. Dykstra home at Alton. In May, 1887, he married Rena Dykstra. They settled down to farming in real earnest in the vicinity of Sioux Center. Through hardship, hard labor and economy, they finally achieved their ambition to own in full a finely improved farm west of Sioux Center.

Mr. Roorda was very successful in dairying and hog raising. He understood intensive cultivation of a farm. In due time they once more built a home, now in the town of Rock Valley where they enjoyed the well earned fruits of their labors and still increased them. On a farm or in town, they were ever real home builders. In their prosperity they were not without a share of adversity and affliction, but these, too, they bore bravely. Mrs. Roorda died on June 24, 1935.

Of their ten children, four sons and two daughters survive. They are Hessel of Rock Valley, Detmar of Hawarden, Spencer of Sheldon, Ray, in Los Angeles; and Mrs. Emma Kosters, Rock Valley; Bessie, Los Angeles. The children from the west coast arrived two days before their father’s death, having also visited him on his last birthday.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at the home, in charge of the Rev. B. D. Dykstra and interment was at the family lot in the Rock Valley cemetery.

Although not marked with great mechanical or inventive genius himself, it is somewhat remarkable that all of his sons are noted for mechanical talents and successful to a high degree in machine work. Their father stood back of them in machine shops, garages and implement businesses which the boys have operated successfully at Rock Valley and Sheldon.

He was a fine citizen, community builder and loyal friend. A great many will miss his staunch loyalty keenly and the county has lost a splendid man.

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RESEARCH NOTES

The issue of the Rock Valley Bee in which his obituary appeared is too badly damaged to be usable.

His death certificate shows him a resident of the U.S. for 55 years, and of Rock Valley 22 years; 35 years in the occupation of farming; parents’ names not known to the informant, his son Hessel Jr.; died in Rock Valley at 4 a.m. December 25, 1938; cause, carcinoma of the scalp with metastasis,[?]ickle cell carcinoma, onset September 1937.

WieWasWie.nl has a birth index record for Hessel Roorda, born 15 August 1858 in Friesland, parents Sytze Hessels Roorda and Yttje Wolters Veenstra.

No Sioux County marriage register entry for him was readily located, but Ancestry.com has a Netherlands Newspaper Announcements Index entry for Hessel S. Roorda, married 4 May 1887 in Sioux Center, Iowa (no bride’s name given)

The 1908 Sioux County plat book (available online) shows him as the owner of 160 acres of land in Section 34 of Plato Township.