Stegeman, Ten Hagen Bros., Dekker & Klein, C. Boat, H. Jaarsma, F. & I. Lecocq ,
Y. T. Van Neeuwaal, D. Van der Pol & Son, Allen & Steubenrauch, Van der Waal &
De Boer, Sybenga's Bakery, Van Vliet & Rhynsburger, John Van der Ploeg, M. D.
Vries, A. Van der Zee, Cole's Seed Store, Van den Oever & Van den Berg, Stegeman
& Gosselink, Lecocq & Bruinekool, Van der Linden's Bazar, F. C. Warner, L.
Popma, Faassen & Den Adel, H. D. Wormhoudt, H. H. Geelhoed, Van Gorp & Klyn,
Plette & Van der Linden, John Ulrich, Langerak Bros., Beard & Scholte.

COLONIZATION MOVEMENT FROM PELLA TO SIOUX COUNTY

After the railroad came to Pella in 1866 the price of land in this vicinity
became so high that some of the more enterprising Hollanders commenced to
inquire as to the possibility of finding a location to start a second
colonization movement

As early as 1867-68 Jelle Pelmulder entered into correspondence with land
officers and in other ways secured much valuable information in regard to lands
in Iowa that were still available for colonization purposes. He was an energetic
man and entered into the emigration plan with great zeal. Because of this he has
been called the originator of the plan to purchase land for a colony in
northwestern Iowa.

So strong was the emigration spirit among our pioneers that an association was
formed scarcely more than twenty years after the first colonists had left
Holland in 1847. A committee of three was appointed to visit Texas, while a
second association took steps to form a colony and locate in Kansas. The three
committeemen who were sent to investigate conditions in Texas fell into the
hands of a sharper in New Orleans and were relieved of all their money. They
came back with nothing to show for their trip, and nothing to relate except a
tale of woe and trouble. A few families invested their money in the dry part of
Kansas, but most of these were glad to return to good old Iowa, having learned
that which hundreds have learned since, that from an agricultural standpoint,
Iowa is the "Seek no further state." Others went to Nebraska and Oregon with the
same result.

Henry John van der Waa had in the meantime been in correspondence with land
agents at Storm Lake, and having learned that there were enough homesteads for
himself and a number of his friends, decided to sell his property here. When
this came to the knowledge of Henry Hospers, at that time editor of Pella's
Weekblad, he became interested and took up correspondence with the same agent at
Storm Lake. Upon receipt of a favorable reply Hospers and van der Waa called a
meeting a few weeks later for the purpose of organizing a colony.

Through the columns of his paper Hospers soon succeeded in arousing great
interest in the new project and at the fourth meeting held in Pella a resolution
was passed to the effect that immediate steps should be inaugurated to find a
suitable location.

On Monday, April 26, 1889, four men, Sjoerd Aukes Sipma, Jelle Pelmulder, Hubert
Muilenburg, Sr., and Henry John van der Waa, having fitted up a "prairie
schooner," started for the northwestern part of the state. The route traveled by
the committee was by the way of Newton, Iowa Center, Story City and Webster
City. At that place they joined a long train of emigrant wagons following the
line of the Illinois Central Railroad to Fort Dodge. A few days spent in Fort
Dodge convinced the committee that the land in that locality was unfit for the
purpose of a Holland colony. Their original intention had been to go to Emmet,
Palo Alto and Kossuth counties; but learning that homesteads were scarce and the
country devoid of timber, they went westward to Storm Lake through Calhoun and
Pocahontas counties, then only very sparsely settled.