Immigration:
When Patje was only 9 years old, she emigrated to America with her parents
and 6 siblings, leaving Amsterdam aboard SS Rotterdam, and arriving in New York harbor
on 16 May 1890.
As stated in the record, they planned to go directly to Pella.
Marriage:
1st: On 2 Aug 1899, Patje married Jacob Van Dyke Jr. s/o Jacob Van Dyke and Grietje
Gravemaker, in Oskaloosa.
They had four children.
Jacob died unexpectedly in 1912 after a bowel obstruction operation.
2nd: On 19 Sep 1913 Patje married Jan Sneller, s/o Gerrit Sneller and Aaltje Zoombelt.
They had three children.
Jan died in 1932.
Children with Jacob Van Dyke: Aartje (Anna); Elizabeth Johanna, William; Wilhelmina
'Minnie'; Ryk / Richard (dy)
Children with Jan Sneller: Alice, Gertrude; John Richard.
Census Records:
1900: Richland, Mahaska, Iowa - Jacob Vandyke 29, farmer; Patia 19
1910: Oskaloosa Ward 2, Mahaska, Iowa = Jacob Van Dyke 39, laborer; Mrs Pady 29;
Anna B 9; Lizzie 8; William 6; 4
1920: Lake Prairie, Marion, Iowa = John Sneller 40, farmer; Patie 39; Elizabeth J Van
Dyke 17; William Van Dyke 16; Wilhelmina Van Dyke 13; Alice Sneller 5; Gertie Sneller
3.
1930: Summit, Marion, Iowa - John Sneller 50. laborer-odd jobs; Katie 49; Alice 15;
Gertrude 14; John R 8
1940: Black Oak, Mahaska, Iowa - Patje Sneller, widowed, is living in her brother
Willem J Kelderman 54, farmer; John R Sneller 18, farm laborer.
1950: 608 Liincoln Street, Pella, Marion, Iowa - Pady Sneller, 69, widowed.
Notes:
On the 1900 census (enumerated June 18) she states she has had one child and the
child is living but it is not logged on the record. Aartje (Anna) was just 3 days
old.
In the 1930 census the Snellers report they speak Dutch
Sources: Dutch records at WieWasWie; New York Arriving Passenger Lists; Federal Census records; newspaper clipping; Ancestry.
Early life: When Jakob was just a toddler, his whole family took sick in the smallpox epidemic of that swept through the Netherlands in 1871 and 1872. His mother Grietje, siblings Arendje and Benjamin, and an unnamed stillborn sister died within days of each other in the spring of 1872. He, his father, and Cornelia survived in no small part to Mrs. Smit.
A neighbor, Elisabeth Johanna (Romers) Smit, whose husband and child had recently died of smallpox came and, against all odds, nursed the devastated family back to health. She married his father in November, 1872, eventually giving Jakob eight younger half siblings.
1891: Holland was in the throes of an economic depression, and with news of the great opportunities overseas, it was decided that Jacob and his younger half brother, Benjamin, would go to America. On 18 Mar 1892, after securing a loan* from a family friend, Jacob and Benjamin sailed out of Amsterdam aboard The New Rotterdam. The first day, Jacob secured a job in the kitchen with a berth in the middle of the vessel. Work made the time go quickly and the ship arrived in New York harbor on April 1st.
1892: Jacob and Benjamin passed through immigration at Castle Garden and took an immigrant train to Manhattan, Montana arriving there on April 4th. They traveled with a company whose plan it was to establish a Dutch colony there. The first order of business for that new community was to dig a canal. And with that work, in 3 months they were able to repay the loan that enabled them to come to America. Jacob worked till harvest time, then went on his own to Spokane, Washington for a time.
1894: By now Jacob was in Pella where his parents had decided to move, arriving there in May. On September 1st there was a horrible fire* in northern Minnesota. As a result, land became cheap so it was decided that Jacob and Benjamin would go check out the situation and see if it could be a good place to move. After their father's approval, they each bought 40 acres and 80 acres for their father. This was in an area named Friesland about 5 miles north of Hinkley (70 miles southwest of Duluth). They built a small two-room house for shelter and cut cord wood all winter, making 4 cords each day. (A cord of wood is 4 feet by 8 feet.) Unfortunately, their father changed his mind and bought a farm near Knoxville. Because of this change, Jake and Benjamin ultimately lost the farms and moved back to Iowa.
Marriage: Jacob went back out west again for a time, but returned at some
point because on 2 Aug 1899 in Oskaloosa, he married Patje Kelderman, d/o Willem
Kelderman and Aartje Rijken.
Children: Anna, Elizabeth Johanna, William; Wilhelmina.
Death: In February, 1912, Jacob had an operation at the Oskaloosa hospital for
a bowel obstruction.
Though it was reported in the Pella newspaper that he was recovering well, things must
have taken a turn for the worse, as he died at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines in March.
Notes:
- The spelling of 'Jacob' in Dutch, was traditionally spelled 'Jakob,' but interestingly, on his birth record both his father's name and his are spelled with a 'c'. See attached.
- The promise to repay the loan was based upon a handshake from the young lads and probably the well-known and good reputation of his father.
- Read about The Great Hinkley Fire online.
- The details in this biography were culled from the memoirs of Jacob's brother, Benjamin Romers Van Dyke.
- The Dutch Patronymic custom was to identify a person by adding their father's name as their middle name. This was not an official name, it was a custom, a tradition, a way to communicate to others what family you came from. In that way, his name would have been Jakob Jakobszn van Dijke.
Myrtle was born on Sept. 5, 1907, on a farm between Cordova and Highway 14. She was the daughter of Dick and Anna Jane Feather Koopmans. As an infant she and her family moved to Pella where she attended Pella Public Schools and completed the eighth grade.
She married William Van Dyke on Feb. 20, 1929, in the Third Reformed Church parsonage. To this union two children were born, Norma Jean and Roy Glen. William died in 1982. Bill, as he was called, was a well known interior decorator. Myrtle was a charter member of the Open Bible Church. She was very active in the church as secretary/treasurer, deaconess, Sunday School teacher, and pianist.
After the children were married, she worked at Pella Corporation. After their retirement, Myrtle and Bill had spent their last ten years traveling, spending winters in Florida and Texas, and fishing in the summer in Minnesota and northern Iowa. In the fall of 1982 Myrtle moved to Prairie Village in Pella. In January 2002 she moved to the Long Term Care Unit of the Pella Regional Health Center.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; two brothers, Harry and Paul Koopmans; and three sisters, Erma Vander Werf, Grace Aalbers, and Alice Hoeksema.
She is survived by a daughter, Norma Houser and her husband, Bob, of Pella; a son, Roy Van Dyke and his wife, Barbara, of Littleton, Colo.; six grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Alice Schultz of Des Moines; and a special "daughter," Sandra Allgood of Oskaloosa.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of Pella.
Arrangements were made by Garden Chapel Funeral Home in Pella.
Knoxville Journal Express, March 8, 2004