BEERNINK, JOHN AND JENNIE (ROOS)
John Beernink came to Sioux County as a baby in 1871. He came with his parents, Hendrik and Wilhelmina Beernink and brother Simon via Alto, Wisconsin from Dinxperlo, Gelderland, Netherlands. In Alto, father Hendrik was a tailor making only thirty cents an hour, so word of homesteading in Sioux County sounded like a better opportunity. They came west by train and took up a homestead one mile south and ¾ mile west of Sioux Center.
They experienced the trials of other pioneers. The grasshopper plague hit soon and several years later their sod hut burned. Two more brothers, Henry and Reuben, and two sisters, Hattie and Johanna ware added to the family.
Jennie was the daughter of Andrew and Alice Roos. The Roos family also came from Holland. They ware first in Freeport, Illinois, next in Ackley, IA, where little Jennie was born. At age 8, she and her parents moved to a farm west of Orange City. In 1895, 4 Roos children died from a diptheria epidemic. Six children survived.
John Beernink Family. Top Row L-R: Andrew, Harold, Gilmore. Middle
Row L-R: Jennie, John. Bottom Row L-R: Dorothy, Helen, Alice.
John married Jennie on June 16,1897. They farmed 2½ miles south and 2 miles west of the Old Town corner. Throughout their farming life, weather brought both blessing and trial. The children remember Jennie watching the clouds, praying for rain to prevent dust storms.
At one time a lightning bolt hit a corn crib. The winter top Ford was stored there and its roof caught fire. They pushed the car out and extinguished the fire before it reached the gas tank, Another remembers a rain squal coming up suddenly which drowned quite a number of pullets she was responsible for. Another memory recalls John stopping a team of runaway horses on their yard.
The children walked 1½ miles to school even through snow. But Mother Jennie was known for her large loaves of bread, fried chicken and delicious chicken soup which made the way home from school worth the effort.
There was work for everyone. John was a quiet man, but always interested in new machinery, Jennie kept herself and the family busy with garden and orchard chores. They preserved their fruits and vegetables. Meat, chicken and eggs ware also home raised.
Work led to a family championship. In 1933, son Andrew entered the Corn Husking contest. It was a big event with 2000 in attendance. Andrew won by quite a margin. A few years later, he was Sioux County's repeat winner.
Music was also an important part of the John Beernink family. All the children took part as singers or instrumentalists. The boys were in male quartets and all ware in choirs.
Upon retirement, John and Jennie moved to the A. A. Roos estate home N. E. of First Reformed Church. It was there that Jennie saw the tornado of '44 coming. She took her youngest child, Gilmore to the basement where they prayed to be spared and they ware. John had passed away in 1940; and was followed by Jennie in 1945.
John and Jennie had six children. Helen, the oldest, married Gerrit W. Hulstein. They had three sons, Wilmer, Roland, and Glen. The second Beernink child was Alice, who died in 1955. Then came Andrew, who married Helen Moran. They reside in LeMars.
The fourth child was Harold. He married Henrietta Vermeer. They had three sons, Eugene Darrel, and Howard. Next came Dorothy, who married Joe McCormick. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Finally, there was Gilmore, who married Leona Den Hartog. They had a son, Leslie. Gilmore died at age 28 of rheumatic fever.
Grandchildren who yet reside in Sioux Center include Eugene and Howard Beernink and Wilmer and Glen Hulstein.
by Adella F. Hulstein