a member of the school board and held the office of township trustee for a
number of years. As an elder of the First Reformed Church and an untiring and
devoted worker in every department of church life, he was one of the leaders to
whom large credit is due for the great development and present strength of that
congregation.

In 1848 Mr. Van Stigt and Kuindert Van Klootwyk organized the first Sunday
School in Pella. This was the seed from which, in later years, grew the present
First Reformed Church Sunday School, the largest in Marion county, if not in the
state. From the beginning in 1848, up to the present time, Mr. Van Stigt has an
unbroken record as a successful teacher in the same Sunday School, and at the
age of ninety he still conducts a large adult class of women. He has the proud
record of never having missed attendance except in case of severe sickness.

DINGEMAN DE HAAN

Was a son of Jacob De Haan and was born February 21, 1831, at Heerjansdam,
Netherland. He came to America with his father in 1849, at the age of seventeen
years. He received his education in the common schools in Holland and continued
his education in Pella in the English language in Central University of Iowa.

At the age of twenty-four he returned to Holland and in the following year he
married Grietje Nugteren and returned to America by way of New Orleans, sailing
up the Mississippi river to Keokuk, and from there took the stage to Oskaloosa,
where the horses gave out on account of the bad roads and they were obliged to
continue their journey on foot to Pella. He was engaged in farming all his life,
partly retiring for the last 18 years of his life. He died in the old homestead
his father built in 1849 and on May 19, 1909, at the age of 78 years. Mrs. D. De
Haan died the year following on December 31, 1910.

They raised a family of seven children, namely: Heiltje, now Mrs. Teunis Verros;
Simon; Jacob; Floris; Catherine M., now Mrs. A. Leatart, and Margaret, now Mrs.
Simon Douwstra. All of which reside at Pella, Iowa, except Cornelia and Floris,
who reside in California.

DINGEMAN DEHAAN

W. RIETVELD

Was born in Holland February 21, 1829, where he lived until eighteen years old,
when he came to Pella with his parents in 1847. His father, John Rietveld, was
one of the leaders of the Holland colony, and a man who took a prominent part in
the colonization movement and in the later development of the community.

The subject of our sketch was one of the largest and most successful farmers and
stock raisers in this part of Iowa, and at one time owned over nine hundred
acres of valuable farm land. He married Miss Annie Grundman July 1, 1858. She
was born in the Netherlands and came to America in 1849.