Siebetje Viesen Speaks Muiel Byes Kooi Siebetje Viesen was bon in Diesum, Fiesland, Januay 8, 1830. She lived a long life and died on August 25, 1910. She is buied in Oakwood Cemetey in Pella. The following naative is taken fom a talk she gave to the Pella Liteay Society and which was late pinted. The date was not given but is ascetained as being given in the ealy 1900s. She pefaced he emaks with, "Ou esteemed pesident efeed to the danges of iches but said he also believed that though my ealy taining in the Holy Sciptues, those danges wee not hid fom me. I would say, 1 know this to be so 'fo iches not only take themselves wings but if iches do incease, do not set thine heat to them. '" She also told he audience that we "will not go vey fa astay in ou estimation of woldly teasues who emembes Him who become poo so that we might be ich." Siebetje apologizes fo not having an "intellectual feast" o something cute and entetaining, but instead some diggings in athe old musty ecods fo the edification of those attending. Siebetje speaks: I When the emigant feve boke out in nealy all the povinces of the Nethelands, it also eached Fiesland and my fathe who was an adent admie of [Dominie] Scholte, whose followes wee not allowed fo sometime libety of conscience and whose meetings wee focibly obstucted by dagoons; they longed fo libety and cast thei eyes on the shoes of Fee Ameica. Fathe went in 1847 to have a consultation with Ds. Scholte at Utecht on emigation. Retuning home, he was fully pesuaded to quit his business as manufactue and ocean tade as he had vessels in tade with Russia fo ye and baley, eceived flaxseed fom Riga [a potion of Russia] and also taded with Bussels and Antwep. Though he had been vey pospeous all along, his mind was set on Ameica. My bothe, maied long ago, was childless and I stayed at his house and he enteated my fathe to leave me with him and pomised to come ove sometime to visit the elatives and he would accept me as his own child. But just befoe we depated, Fathe told him to encouage me no longe to stay with him, as he could not possibly spae me. This was a blow to me that I neve fogot. Afte a sea voyage of 56 days, we aived in Baltimoe. It was winte when we left the Old County but it was summe in all its splendo when we anchoed at Baltimoe which, laying on an eminence, suounded with lage tees pesented such a beautiful appeaance that it econciled me with a county which at heat I could cuse. Neve in Fiesland had we seen a sight. We had hadly left the boat when an Ameican gentleman, as least so we pesumed, slipped up to Fathe fom among the cowd, took him by the hand, accosted him in the Fisian language by his name and bade him welcome in gand and blessed Ameica. It was a cetain M. Lake who had kept a hotel in Goningen, ecollected Fathe, told us that Dominie Scholte had odeed ooms fo us in his fine hotel and 57
that he would take cae of ou tunks which wee addessed in cae of Ds. Scholte, except fo a few bundles which we caied ouselves. At ou aival on shoe, we wee all dessed up nicely with ou Fisian caps and ou fiend, Lake said, with teas unning along his cheeks, that they eminded him so much of his old mothe and siste. The same aftenoon he took us to see the sights in the city, patly with steetcas that stopped on 15 1h Steet; then we poceeded on foot to admie the fine esidences, in contast with whom ou oyal palaces looked vey small. We soon wee suounded by ladies who geatly admied ou desses and caps, fom evey side we head them call, "Make haste." We found out that the Ameican ladies wee vey kind and talkative. M. Lake was ou tanslato and he told us that the ladies declaed ou desses and Fisian toilet the finest they had seen of any foeign counties. We then inspected a fine lage stoe with ove 400 cleks. These stoes make the lagest stoes in the Old County look small indeed. Next day we wee tanspoted though a pat of the city to a fine lage depot whee those beautiful cas wee waiting fo us, fo which we wee vey gateful to Ds. Scholte. We now went west acoss hill and dale, cities and fams, an eve-changing beautiful panoama. Afte this we wee tansfeed to the canal boat which eminded us of Holland again. The boat was dawn by a hose, only it looked bette than those in Holland. But the boy who ode it was just like ou boys only he sang in English. It was the fist time we head Yankee Doodle but all we could emembe of it was (Sing in coaky old lady voice) "When Yankee Doodle goes to Baltimoe, he can have some bandy! Yankee Doodle Dandy." When we eached the Allegheny Mountains ou boat was placed in pat on a geat tuck and hauled up and let down by means of a huge machine which stood on top of the mountain chain. We wee now in the geat Mississippi Valley between the Rocky Mountains west and the Allegheny Mountains east. When we eached the Ohio Rive afte cossing Pennsylvania we saw fo the fist time those giant wate palaces, as these steamboats might be called. In 1846 we saw a steamboat fo the fist time in Fiesland and if I had to make a compaison between that one and those we saw now, I would compae it to the diffeence between a mouse and an elephant. Ou couse now was towad St. Louis. The banks of the Ohio pesented many beautiful views of sceney and cities such as Louisville, Kentucky whee we stopped fo awhile. As it was the 4th of July, we beheld the city and people in gala. Cincinnati, too, was wothy of admiation, especially on account of the beautiful steets lined with shade tees. At last we aived in St. Louis whee Ds. Scholte an Ds. Post wee awaiting us. Ds. Post had been all ove the county that was ou goal as a missionay, and he as guide went with a committee of five pesons to exploe the county West. Fathe was chosen fom Fiesland but being pevented by sickness he appointed Pete Viesen as his substitute in his place and told him if possible to ent a house, so that when we aived we would have lodgings. Though Ds. Scholte had pomised to build us a shanty, yet Fathe athe chose to live in his own house. So Pete Viesen ented the pottey of William Welch fo ou family and hied help. As soon as ou exploes, led by thei guide, had found the ight place, they immediately bought all the fams they could fo the colony and having made due pepaations fo ou aival, they then etuned to St. Louis, which they had left just left five weeks pevious. I I 58
! \, LJ I I I, \ i L1 i.' I, L; Ou ambassados told us of thei success and those among them that wee expeienced fames told us that not only was the soil as ich as could be expected in the county laying on the divide between two ives, the Skunk and the Des Moines. But also, he said that the soil contained eveything necessay fo a successful colony, such as clay fo bicks and pots, ocks fo foundations, sand and lime fo building, and coal and wood fo lumbe and fuel. Afte they had given us such a glowing desciption of thei jouney, we wee eage to pack ou goods again and go on boad the steame that would bing us up the ive to Keokuk, then only a small place. This was ou last jouney by ail o boat, hencefoth we had to make ou jouney of 120 miles in wagons. The teamstes wee in attendance with thei teams, ou goods wee loaded and soon we found ouselves headed fo Pella, which was yet to be. The jouney was one neve to be fogotten, along ough oads, up hill and down, all the time with the fea to be pecipitated headlong into a avine, it often looked a good deal like a ship in a stom that is tossed up and down on the billows. The fathe we went the thicke the timbe became and the fewe people we met. Sometimes we did not see one log house fo miles and hadly anything like a village until we came to Pella. At a distance we espied a lage shanty, Dominie Scholte had kept his pomise!. When we eached the shanty, we met M. Welch, the potte, with his two sons-in-law, Wellington and Levi Nossaman, to take us along. The season was much in ou favo, the vegetable gaden of M. Welch was well povided with potatoes, caots, beans etc. In the moning the gils of M. Welch would come afte me and offe us geens fo which they would not accept anything but fo which Fathe paid oyally. They liked us and ou customs vey well. We wee now living in the pottey and as ou custom was, we had coffee at 10 o'clock. Wellington Nossaman, somewhat of a wag, would put a cup in his shit bosom and put it down by ou cups and Mothe would pou in his as well as ous. When Fathe had taken a fam two weeks late, M. Welch and his folks bought us ove and one of his daughtes stayed with us some time to teach us how to bake bead and oast the coffee beans. Thee wee two log houses on ou fam on which Pete Viesen settled in one. They wee shingled in such a way that we could see sun, moon and stas though them. We wee suounded on evey hand by paiie and timbe. Cetainly, the paiie was gloiously decked with flowes. Wild oses, sunflowes, ladies slippes, etc. made quite a sight that was not to be supassed by the hand of any atist. Hee too wee the childen of natue, the Indians, who often came to visit us and whose geatest delight was to shoot with bow and aow a ooste o hen. Once when eight of them came ove to visit us with vey dak faces, they led us up to a lage mound they said contained the bodies of some Indians, such mounds wee often met with in Nebaska and Dakota. The woods contained an abundance of dee, tukeys, geese (Fathe once shot thee of these with one shot) wolves, accoons, guineas, patidges, pheasants, and paiie chickens. On these they wasted no ammunition but tapped them. My bothes bought home evey day a half load and povided Pella the whole winte with game. They wee neve without a supply and it was a good deal bette spot than to lean Fench lessons with Miss Puin. My bothes found the county like the elite of the Nethelands is now hankeing fo hunting. Not long ago I saw in one of ou papes how high officials fom the Old County wee having a high time hunting in Minnesota and othe Westen states. With the woods full of 59
game and the ives full of fish of the best kind, this was indeed Eldoado to my bothes, who, except fo a few hous of study, wee gone out all day in the woods chasing the game that was hit though the bush and undegowth. In my imagination I can see them yet coming back in high glee with uddy faces all aglow fom the execise and thei pants a good deal the wose fo wea. At night when the moon ose, they went to look fo the tukeys that oosted in the tees. "Sis, will you have a cup of coffee eady when we come back?" "Yes, if you don't come back afte eleven." I would eply. The lamps we had bought with us wee of no use now. The oil that we used in them was not to be had hee at all, but instead, lad by the bael. Fathe used to kill 50 to 100 hogs in the fall, to be sent by team to Keokuk, the lean fat was endeed and the lad was set off in baels. In the pottey of M. Welch we could make ou lamps to pefection, the heavy wick always kept the lad thin and gave a geat light that I could see by to sew o ead nicely. Once becoming sleepy and beginning to bow to the lamp, the two long stings which belonged to my cap caught fie and befoe I became awae of it, I had buned my cap and my eyebows, but as luck would have it I had a pail of wate standing quite nea into which I dipped my head and saved myself fom futhe buning. When the boys came home they told me that I looked kind without eyebows and I had to guess how many tukeys they had shot and that was fou fom 7 to 11 o'clock p.m. Fo the boys it was a eal paadise but fo me it was moe like a living sepulche and the only thing that sustained me was the hope of eaning enough money to go back to Fiesland. Afte having lived fo about fou weeks in this miseable log house, thee came along a pump peddle who tied had to sell fathe a pump. But ou daw-well seved two puposes, fist to daw wate and second to use as a signal post. At 9 0' clock we used to hang on it a flag to let the hands know that it was coffee time and this seved the whole neighbohood. The pump peddle stayed at ou house fo a couple of days and saw me making some emboidey and asked me whethe I was willing to pat with it and at how much a yad. I told him that it sold at a dolla a yad and that I had 3 yads aleady but that the piece I was making called fo fou yads which would be $4. Afte thee weeks the man came back and bought it, he was lately maied and wanted to make his wife a pesent of it, and this was the fist money fo my jouney back to Fiesland. It was ou custom to let the tailo make pants fo Fathe and the boys, and as he eckoned Holland money at pa with Ameican money, it cost moe to make them than the goods wee woth. Ou hands, knowing how eage I was to make money, asked me whethe I would make them pants fo eveyday wea. I told them that I did not know but I was willing to ty and the contact was no fit, no pay. I ipped up one of thei pants and took that as a patten to cut afte and I made it at half the pice the tailo asked. At that time thee was but one tailo and he could affod to say, "Go to my neighbo." Thee being five boys in ou family, Fathe and Mothe consideed it a good plan to have me take a few lessons with the tailo and this I did and in less than no time I made a suit fo each of my bothes that fitted them pefectly. Now the neighbos, heaing of this, came to me fom all ove the county asking, "Miss Viesen, could you please come and sew a week at ou house; we can make ou desses but can't make ou men's clothes." As I had only a little ove $4 in my fund to enable me to etun to Fiesland, I thought this to be a nice way of adding to my capital. Besides, athe I went out to sew than to be l 60
I! I! Li.. L L -l. \ j <. ; always cooped up in ou log house with the ten of us. It was indeed quite a pomotion fom student of the Fench language to tailoess, but I had the jouney to Fiesland on my mind~ Now the fames had paid up thei last cent fo land, thinking if they only had a fam they could make money. My wages wee 75 cents a day, finishing a coat in almost one day. The 'Viesen machine' went like the wind, the thought was always uppemost in my mind that next yea I could etun to Fiesland. The money came in athe slow. Wheneve I was eady at some home, the fist thing geneally was, "Miss. Viesen, could you please wait a little while until we have sold something. We don't make money as eadily as in Holland, we get only 10 cents fo a pail full of eggs, a pound of butte, and 1 1/2 cents a pound fo bacon etc. So I poposed to sew fo them a yea 'on time' but then said, "I must be sue of my pay." "Oh," they said, "We don't want cedit that long." At the end of the yea those that could not pay wee in the majoity. Now it was, "Miss Viesen we have no money but most eveything else, fine colts, nice cows and lage cibs of com." What could I do? The people wee honest and wanted to pay, but could not. So I decided to take some pay in com. They appointed one man, I anothe, and they togethe measued the com that I "bought" at the maket pice. In this way I got quite a pile of com and also some colts. The fist span I bought of my Uncle Sjoed and M. Jim Akkeman. They wee a splendid match and as I came in contact with a good many fames, I had my pick of the best. I found out that M. van Maen, fathe of H. van Maen, was a vey good man and as I sewed fo his family, I aanged with him to take cae of colts in the winte and feed them. In the summe my colts gazed with many othes in the bottoms nea Galesbug, which at that time was "Uncle Sam's pastue" and all the expense I had was to go and feed them salt once a week to keep in touch with them. So I made the aangements with M. van Maen not only fo the management of them in the winte but also to beak them in fo me in ode to have them in a moe sellable condition. I bought them at a yea old fo $12 apiece and made, when I sold them, moe than "a Dutchman's pofit" o ove 100%. One span that cost me, beaking in and all $50, I sold fo $150; with thee colts unboken I obtained the same esults. When in 1848 and 1850 the gold feve boke out in Califonia, I sold the com fo fom 25 cents to 75 cents pe bushel as it was then vey scace, and I was well ewaded fo all my wandeings acoss paiies and though woods to diffeent homes. Let me etun to the money fo my going back to Fiesland. Afte having sold the com and the hoses, my puse became eady but not 1. To make money on such a gand scale was too seductive to quit at once and in as much as my puse stings expanded, did my desie to etun to Fiesland contact. In this way, the acquiing of popety became gadually my fixed habit. Epilogue My talk to the Holland Liteay Society ended, as I figued they all knew the est of the stoy. I built business houses on the east side of the squae, one that had a little ovehanging cupola in which I could sit, sewing o eading, o just obseving the busyness of the business distict. I could see up and down Main Steet. If, while sitting hee, in my pivate obsevation towe, and I spied someone who owed me money, I would shout down at them 61
about the consequences if they didn't pay up. I always volunteeed the infomation that if they couldn't settle with me, I would come and boad with the debtos until the bill was paid. Needless to say, none wished to have me come to stay, as it was told about town that I was eccentic, and I believe I know why they felt thus.. Tue, I was a wealthy old maid, a lonely old woman, if the tuth be known. When appoached about donating towad a libay, much needed by the town, I donated a geneous amount and along with Andew Canegie, saw a Public Libay built on the west side of the squae. My name is on the stone fac;ade, along with Canegie's. They put the names in alphabetical ode I guess, as his name pecedes mine. This libay is sot of a living memoial to me. I neve did etun to Fiesland. Even though I could have gone back numeous times, I chose not to. I loved the little town I had watched gow into a wondeful place. I am poud to have been hee at its conception. i L I I. i L [ i I I \. f l. [ L [ 62