Stekelenburg

STEKELENBURG

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 21:01:35

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Stekelenburg
By Carol Stekelenburg

Isaac Stekelenburg was born March 30, 1856, at Vreeswijk, Holland, and died October 21, 1937, at Salix, Iowa. His father, Jon Stekelenburg, was born 1828 at Vreeswijk, Holand. He married Carolina Gertruida Van Nimwegen, born at Vianen in 1830, daughter of Isaak Van Nimwegen and to Catharine de Graaf. She grew up in at an orphanage in Vianen. They were married in 1852 and had nine children.

Jon Stekelenburg left Vreewijk, Newkirk, Netherlands in1869 and emigrated to Pella, Iowa, to practice agriculture. They brought with them three children, Gerrit, Izak and Helena Catherina. Five other infant children died at Vreeswijk. Walter was born later as his birth was not recorded in Vreeswijk at the time of their registered departure for the U S. In Holland Jon worked as a barge hand and labourer. Isaac said that as a young child he went to the pasture before daylight to bring the horses that would be used to pull the barges along the canals that day. Isaac was thirteen when he came to the United States.

Isaac married Julia Roosma in August 1894. Julia Roosma, a twin, was born in 1871 at Oenkirk in Friesland, Netherlands, and came to Orange City in Sioux County at age 22. She worked at a hotel there for a family friend to repay her passage to the U S.. Her twin sister died at age 4. She and her sister, Rose, traveled to the U S together. Rose was also a twin to Ray Roosma, who lived to be 96 and lived mostly in Woodbury and Sioux County. Ray and Julia’s father, Sherk, came to the U S at a later time.

Isaac lived in Sioux County for several years and at various times owned and operated a livery stable, pool hall, and hardware store. He also farmed there before moving to Esmond, South Dakota. He had one of the first Model T Ford cars there and people came to their farm for the experience of riding in an automobile. As part of his farm business, he maintained Stud horses to hire. He farmed there ten years before trading his farm there unseen for a farm at Salix, on Brown’s Lake. (Approximately 1912) This area became known as the ‘Island’ and after his death the land was purchased by Iowa Conservation as a State Wildlife Refuge. Julia was a homemaker and won awards for her fine crochet. She sold homemade butter to regular patrons in Morningside. She raised a step son, Gus, along with her own eight children. She was an American Legion God Star Mother. Julia died at her home in Sergeant Bluff in May 1957.
Isaac and Julia had three children.
1( John the first born in 1895 was a Marine in World War I, and was killed in the Verdun Sector of France at age 22. He was the first soldier killed from Salix, Iowa, and the Veterans Post was first name after him and later changed to the Nelson Post. Other children were:
2( Sadie, born 1896, died 1981, married to Nathan Weigel. They had four sons and four daughters.

3( Sherman, born 1898, died 1966. He married Viola Bishop who now resides in Salix.

4( Leonard, born 1900, married Zelpha Galland of Salix. Their son, is Wayne Stekelenburg of Portalnd, Oregon. Later he married Beatrice Conner. Leonard owned the Plymouth Garage at Hawarden, and was manager of the airport there. He was killed in an airplane crash, December, 1946, while hunting coyotes.

5( Clara, born 1902, married Clyde Coleman. They operated a filling station at Sergeant Bluff.

6( George Washington Stekelenburg, a bachelor, was a farm laborer at Salix., born February 22, 1904, died February 29, 1972.

7( Rowena was born 1907, married Sam Cameron of Sergeant Bluff, where she now resides. They have three sons, Conrad, Jerry and Gary. All three sons were Iowa teachers and school administrators.

8( Carl was born in Kingsbury County, Esmond, South Dakota, on November 19, 1909, and moved to Salix with his parents at age three. He married Alma Newman in 1941 and they now reside at Grove, Oklahoma. They have three children: Carol Rae Stekelenburg Kemp of Cranberra, Australia. She was born at Sioux City, Iowa, October 20, 1942. Carol is a medical technologist. Richard Kemp is a lawyer and they have two sons and a daughter. Carl Roger Stekelenburg, married Janice Kindsfather and they have two daughters. He is a county Superintendent of Schools, Meriwhether County, Georgia. Carl was born at home on a farm at Kingston, Missouri, February 1946.

John Stekelenburg was born Sergeant Bluff, with Mrs Clara Mather as midwife along with Dr Conmey, on July 4, 1948. He married Carla McGaha and they have two daughters. John is a carpenter and construction superintendent and lives at Weatherford, Texas.

There are no 4th generation Stekelenburg sons from this lineage at this time.

Gus Stekelenburg operated a gas station on Highway 75 at Salix, Iowa, during the 1940s and later retired to a farm near Albia in southern Iowa. Gus was a bachelor and was in the Engineers Corp in World War I. Prior to moving to Salix, he homesteaded in South Dakota. He died at the veterans hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, in the spring of 1947 at the age of 60.