Dutch Settler Stories of Nederland, Texas

When Arthur Stilwell's domestic financing collapsed during the Panic of 1893, he turned to Amsterdam. Through Dutch merchant Jan de Geoijen, he reportedly sold $3,000,000 in railroad securities in just twenty-seven minutes — and eventually raised $10,000,000 in Dutch capital to complete the Kansas City Southern Railway. The line became known informally as the "Dutch-American Railroad." Stilwell felt a debt of gratitude to his Dutch investors and believed Dutch farmers would thrive on the flat Gulf Coast plain. He sent agents into the rural provinces of Holland to recruit settlers, had the town of Nederland platted alongside his tracks, and built the Orange Hotel specifically to house arriving immigrants. Without his Amsterdam financing, Nederland would not exist.

Arthur Stilwell originally instructed his land agent to build the railroad in the most direct line possible to the Gulf Coast — a route that would have run through Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Landowners there refused to sell, forcing a reroute into Texas. Had they agreed, the Dutch colony would have been founded in Louisiana rather than in Jefferson County, Texas.

Gatze Jan (George) Rienstra, born in Parrega, Friesland, arrived in May 1897 and became Nederland's first settler. To claim his spot before returning to Port Arthur for lumber, he unloaded his kitchen stove beside the railroad tracks. When he returned after dark, the stove was gone — dragged half a mile away. He slept on top of his lumber pile that night and had to fire his gun to drive off wolves that came near his horses. The next morning he found his stove.

George Rienstra's sister Fannie arrived by train to join him. She spoke no English and could not communicate to the conductor where she needed to stop. When she finally stepped off at Nederland, no one was at the depot to meet her. She began walking alone across the open prairie toward Port Arthur — and spotted her brother's horses grazing in the distance. She recognized them and found her way. She was the first woman to set foot in the new colony.

When the Cooke family arrived in February 1898, the entire town of Nederland consisted of exactly five structures: a large three-story hotel, one general store, the Kansas City Southern railroad depot, and two three-room cottages — all sitting in a vast, flat, treeless coastal prairie. There were no streets, no church, no school, and no neighbors within walking distance.

On November 14, 1897, forty-six Dutch men, women, and children arrived at Galveston aboard a German steamship. The Galveston Daily News remarked they were "undoubtedly the finest lot of people that have been brought here by any vessel recently," and that the least any one of them carried was $30 in cash. At least one family had purchased its farm before ever leaving Holland. After clearing customs, they were transferred by tugboat to Bolivar Peninsula, then by rail to Nederland, where they were met by fellow countrymen and land company representatives.

Maarten Koelemay Sr. was a dairyman and cheese maker from Hoogkarspel, near the Zuider Zee in North Holland. He packed his cheese molds and brought them to Texas, fully intending to continue his trade. He quickly discovered that Southeast Texas was too warm and humid for traditional Dutch cheese making. His son Piet had painted such an enthusiastic picture of the colony — using brochures depicting lush green pastures, orange groves, banana trees, and fig orchards — that the family also brought apple tree cuttings and berry vines, none of which survived the Gulf Coast climate. The cheese molds never produced a single wheel of cheese in Texas.

Gerrit Terwey grew up in Amsterdam daydreaming of foreign adventures, spending time at the docks hoping to stow away on a ship. He became a cabinet maker, emigrated to Canada at age 19 in 1892, and endured winters so harsh he slept under cowhides. In a blizzard, he let go of his horse's reins and trusted the animal to find the way home — it did. He attended country fairs where he was too shy to ask "the prettiest girl in the area" to dance, and vowed that day to take dancing lessons — which he later did. He eventually made his way south to Nederland, worked at the Model Dairy Farm, and retired at age 72 in 1944.

The Bruinsma family arrived from Holland in August 1903. Mrs. Bruinsma sent her young daughter Ellie to a dry goods store to buy buttons. The Dutch word for buttons is knopen, but Ellie, not wanting to sound foreign, changed it to "knups." The storekeeper had no idea what she wanted. He sat her up on the counter and pointed to items one by one — until he held up a card of buttons and she broke into a broad smile. Her father died of heart failure just eighteen months after arrival, leaving a widow with four small children to manage alone.

Gerke Bruinsma — nicknamed "Dutch" — was not quite old enough to enroll in school when his mother brought him to register. Not wanting to be turned away, he told his teacher he was six years old in English — and five years old in Dutch. The teacher laughed and let him stay.

The Rauwerda family history traces back to Willem Rauwerda, whose mother was the personal nurse of Queen Sophia of Holland. His father was reportedly King Willem III of Holland, who could not marry a commoner under Dutch law. The family eventually settled in Nederland, Texas. One daughter, Immetje, died of food poisoning contracted from spoiled provisions eaten aboard the trans-Atlantic steamship and is buried in Port Neches, Texas.

The Westerterp family sailed from Bremen on December 6, 1898, aboard the Ellen Rickmers. Passengers in steerage were permitted to bring their clothes, one sheep, one goat, some chickens, and one milk cow — fed and milked twice daily for the children's fresh milk, then slaughtered in the final 24 hours for food. Young Anna Westerterp celebrated her 13th birthday aboard ship as the personal guest of the captain. The family arrived in Galveston on December 27, 1898, carrying $1,600 in cash.

Jacob Doornbos was born in Warfum, Groningen, attended agricultural college in Germany, and co-founded a sugar beet factory in Holland before emigrating to Chicago in 1895. After returning to Holland briefly, he organized a contingent of settlers himself and brought them back to Texas in 1898. He became a major rice farmer, land agent, and advocate for his Dutch countrymen in Jefferson County. Some of his farm's heavy pewter harvest china survives today in the Windmill Museum.

Jacob C. van Heiningen arrived with the first group of 46 Dutch immigrants in November 1897. He initially lived in Port Arthur and rode the Kansas City Southern train daily to Nederland to help construct the Orange Hotel. His brother P. J. van Heiningen organized the Dutch Colonists Union — one of the colony's first formal civic organizations, comprising twenty immigrant rice farmers. Their father had purchased an 80-acre Texas tract in Holland before the family ever set foot in America.

Cornelus Doornbos Sr. arrived in Nederland in 1903 after working as a meat boner in a Chicago packing plant for one dollar a day plus board. One afternoon, driving his wagon from his farm to town, he tipped it into a ditch and got soaked. He stopped at the Orange Hotel to dry off — and met Miss May Newman, an English woman who was the stepdaughter of one of Nederland's earliest merchants. They soon married. Cornelus went on to become one of Nederland's most prominent businessmen and philanthropists.

Klaas Koelemay arrived in 1898 and became the most versatile man in early Nederland. He had run a photography studio in Bolsward, Holland, during his year-long honeymoon — and was the only photographer in the early colony. Many of the surviving historical photographs of the Dutch settlement are his work. He later served as postmaster, ran a dairy, operated a grain store, and became Nederland's first city manager.

Dan J. (Douwe Jans) Rienstra arrived March 28, 1898, at age 19. His first employment in Texas was working on the Kansas City Southern Railroad at 95 cents a day, from 6:30 in the morning until 6:30 at night — twelve hours of clearing coastal prairie and laying track on the low, swampy Jefferson County plain.

George Vanderweg Sr. arrived from Holwerd, Friesland, in May 1898. His first job in Texas was not farming but hauling enormous boulders — some weighing up to ten tons — to construct the Sabine jetties at Sabine Pass. He and Jake Doornbos worked side by side on this grueling labor before eventually partnering together on their first rice crop.

Anna Antje Koelemay was born in Bolsward, Friesland, in June 1905 while her parents were on an extended visit to Holland, weighing whether to return to America or stay. Her mother Nellie Rienstra was the sister of George Rienstra — Nederland's first settler. Her father Klaas was torn: Texas was harsh, but Holland was in economic depression and they had already sold their property there. They chose Texas. Anna grew up straddling two worlds — Dutch at home, Texan in school — and wrote a memoir about that experience late in her life.

Gerka Van Randen was born in Meppel, Holland, in 1900, became a merchant seaman, and emigrated to Nederland in 1921. His first job in America was delivering newspapers on horseback. In 1924, he sang on several occasions with Tex Ritter — later a famous Western movie and singing star. Singing remained his great passion throughout his life.

Helena Doornbos Bodemuller recalled that in 1917, her grandfather Heino Doornbos traveled all the way from Groningen, Holland, to visit the family in Nederland, Texas. While staying with them, he became ill and died in their home. He is buried in Port Neches, Texas — the furthest point from his homeland he ever reached.

With the colony barely a year old, the Dutch community staged an all-day celebration of Queen Wilhelmina's coronation. Special trains ran from Port Arthur and Beaumont throughout the day. Events included foot races, bicycle races, kite racing, greased-pole climbing, a horse race, a Dutch feast at noon, and a fireworks display described as one of the most brilliant ever seen in Southeast Texas. The Koelemay family provided vocal music accompanied by zither. Dancing at the Orange Hotel continued until 2 AM. The Port Arthur Herald devoted five newspaper columns — more than half its front page — to the event.

As recounted by "Tante Tryn" (Tryntje Koelemay Rienstra): in 1900, women wore dresses that dragged the ground. When walking through grass or rice fields, mosquitoes rose in such clouds that women's ankles and legs were bitten mercilessly. For relief, women wrapped their lower legs in day-old newspapers, held in place by garters. The newspapers rustled with every step. It was considered an effective, if undignified, solution.

Marya Koekoek Munson arrived in Nederland in 1911 as a small child. Her family lived at the rice pumping plant on the Neches River, where alligators and turtles sunned themselves in the front yard. The children's sport was throwing clods of mud at alligators to make them open their mouths. A fellow workman of her father's had fallen from a rowboat and been eaten by an alligator. Snakes — garden snakes, water moccasins, and black moccasins — were a constant danger; on one occasion she returned home to find two moccasins curled at the front door.

The Chronicles Vol. 2 epilogue opens with a vivid image: "If one can envision a few tulip sprouts gasping for breath among a vast bed of Texas bluebonnets, then he or she can grasp the dilemma created by two opposing cultures when 1,000 Hollanders were abruptly wrenched from the snug comforts of their homeland and transplanted on a raw Texas prairie in 1898."

From the very beginning, the Orange Hotel maintained a 1,000-volume library for the use of Dutch settlers — a remarkable testament to the community's commitment to education and intellectual life even in primitive frontier conditions. The first school was also conducted in an outbuilding connected to the hotel, with a teacher brought from Beaumont and Klaas Koelemay serving as Dutch interpreter — until the building was destroyed in the hurricane of 1900.

Dan Rienstra Jr., grandson of the colony's original Dutch settlers, grew up on the family dairy farm in Nederland and graduated from Nederland High School as valedictorian at age 16. He was appointed by Congressman Martin Dies Sr. to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in the Class of 1944 during World War II. He went on to command vessels in the Pacific and earned a master's degree from George Washington University.

John D. Rienstra, son of early settlers Dan and Johanna Rienstra, graduated as salutatorian of Nederland High School in 1924, attended the University of Texas School of Law, and was selected to assist the Dean in co-authoring Texas Annotations, a legal reference volume sponsored by the American Law Institute. He went on to a 47-year legal career in Beaumont.

By 1912, economic setbacks — a crashed rice market, the end of the Spindletop oil boom, a national recession, and persistent difficulties with the irrigation system — had driven roughly three-quarters of the original Dutch colony away. Most moved to Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, or Michigan. The families who stayed were those who had acquired substantial land holdings and transitioned to dairying, ranching, or truck farming. Among those who endured were the Doornbos, Rienstra, Koelemay, Terwey, Van Oostrom, and Bruinsma families, many of whom became prominent figures in Nederland's civic and commercial life for generations.