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Dutch colony of Pella, Iowa
Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, United States, with a population of 10,464 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census.[3] Founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, it is forty miles southeast of Des Moines. Pella is the home of Central College, as well as several manufacturing companies, including Pella Corporation and Vermeer Manufacturing Company.
History
https://www.pellahistorical.org/historyofpella
In the summer of 1847, a company of immigrants from the Netherlands settled in Marion County, Iowa, on the divide between the Des Moines and Skunk Rivers. In their own country, they had been persecuted on account of religion, being dissenters from the state Reformed church, and so they called their new home Pella, the name taken from a biblical city of refuge. Upon the seal of their new town they inscribed the words “In Deo Spes Nostra et Refugium," or “In God Our Hope and Refuge.”
Late in April 1847, the group set sail for America. Four ships in all sailed - three from Rotterdam and one from Amsterdam: the Nagasaki, the Catherina Jackson, the Maasstroom, and the Pieter Floris. The Catherina Jackson reached Baltimore in 26 days; the Nagasaki, 36; and another almost 60 days later. On shipboard, religious services were held daily, consisting mostly of psalm singing.
The ship’s cleanliness was not to Dutch standards. Almost immediately its inhabitants - both men and women - cleaned the ship from top to bottom. In fact, when landing in Baltimore, the immigrants’ ships were allowed to land without the usual inspections. The captains testified that they had never brought across the Atlantic more orderly or better behaved people.
From Baltimore, the colonists took the train to Columbia, Pennsylvania, where they were herded onto overcrowded canal boats - much different from the canal boats they were used to in the Netherlands! At Pittsburgh, they were transported down the Ohio River to St. Louis.
It was a curious procession that made its way to the Des Moines River valley. Almost 800 colonists, in strange garb, speaking a strange language… Some rode in wagons drawn by horses, some in carts drawn by oxen, and some walked. After a journey of several days, during which the houses became farther and farther apart and finally almost disappeared (between Oskaloosa and Des Moines, there were only a few scattered settlers). They arrived, on August 26, 1847, to a place where stood a hickory pole with a shingle nailed to the top, and on the shingle one word: PELLA.
Prominent among the persecuted dissenters was Reverend Hendrik Pieter Scholte, or Dominie (meaning “Pastor") Scholte. He was born in Amsterdam on October 25, 1805, and died in Pella on August 15, 1868.
Scholte's three daughters with his first wife Sara married into the community: Sara married Benjamin Franklin Keables; Maria married Pierre Henri Bousquet; and Johanna married John Nollen. Many of their descendants still live in the Pella area.
Scholte died in 1868, having seen his new town thrive. Maria remarried and died in Pella in 1892, never quite having adjusted to living on this raw prairie. In fact, some of her last words were that she was dying "a stranger in a strange land."
Over the years, many of the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of those original settlers still live in Pella, while others have dispersed throughout the world.
Pella has long preserved its history and is proud to share it with the world through our Tulip Time Festival, through our Historical Village and Windmill, through the Scholte House, and through the many shops and parks that celebrate our culture.
Pella was founded 175 years ago by dominie Scholte and 800 Dutch immigrants. This ad in a Dutch newspaper shows the 3 ships that sailed from Rotterdam (Katharine Jackson, Maasstroom and Nagasaki). The Pieter Floris sailed from Amsterdam.
Source: https://twitter.com/PellaDutchUSA/status/1477157645681369092
References
- “Pella, IA, Is a Little Slice of the Netherlands Right Here in the US” (JUN 18, 2020) < link >
- “History of Pella” < link >
- “Dutch Immigrants that followed Hendrik Peter Scholte in 1847 and settled in Pella, Iowa, USA” < Wikitree >
- Names of the Passengers on the "Nagasaki", “Maasstrrom,” “Pieter Floris,” “Catharina Jackson”. In the Souvenir History of Pella, Iowa. Page 34-45. < Hathitrust >
- Dutch Immigrant Papers Collection