History of Ottawa County, Michigan with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

r
i4.. lo

-
- - - r
- -
j_

HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.

75

a biographical sketch of the man who was its guiding spirit. This
we are enabled to do by a carefully prepared biography from the pen
of one intimately acquainted with the subject.
DR. VAN RAALTE.
Rev. Albertus Christiaan Van Raalte, D. D., the founder of
the large settlement of Hollanders in these counties, was born in
Wanneperveen, in the Province of Overyssel, Netherlands, on the
17th day of October, 1811. His father was a clergyman of the
Reformed Church, a man of considerable local reputation. His
mother was of good family from Amsterdam. He grew up in the
enjoyment of the advantages which the better European circles
afford. He received the usual University course, and graduated in
theology at Leyden's famous school in 1831.
His connections were such that nothing needed to prevent his
obtaining an advantageous position in an establishment in which,
as elsewhere, patronage is a chief element in success. His father
was a man of more than ordinary ability, and of exemplary godliness, and was intimate with not a few of the more influential men
in the church, counting among his intimate friends some of the
most eminent of the learned circles. Through his mother's acquaintance he had the entree into the best society of the metropolis.
His home brought him into contact with men of Station and wealth.
So there seemed naturally to open for him, as a young man of much
native talent and force and of good education, a career of profit,
comfort and reputation, in the profession to which his parents had
early dedicated him.
His life, however, was entirely different from this, and that by
his free choice.
Naturally of a lively disposition, with strong feelings, profound
in his convictions, determined in will, impatient of restraint, fearless
of self-assertion, active, and with a relish for hard work, he was
one of the men fitted to feel the peculiar influences of his surroundings, as they called to self-denial and to an attempt to get out of
the rut of his day.
Two years before his graduation his thoughts were led to a
more serious contemplation of humanity and its needs, and the
special demands of his time and country. Indifference and formalism were rife everywhere. Rationalism had crowded out truth
from nearly every pulpit. The spiritual and social life of the common people was void of hope. The tremendous influence of an
escape to these shores of liberty and of an equal chance for improvement had not yet begun to act upon the European masses. Everything was at the dead level of an enforced submission. Van Raalte
felt the need of more liberty for truth and of a greater concern for
the neglected masses.
In the meantime these needs became also gradually more apparent to the class most affected by them. A constantly larger
number became restless under the existing state of affairs. Inquiry
after truth grew prevalent. In many parts of the land appeared
the signs of a powerful revival of religion. Young preachers were
found to voice the demand for truth, as applicable to the every-day
wants of men. Most of these were acquaintances and fellow students of Van Raalte, but a little his seniors. His father, rapidly
declining in life, strengthened him in these nobler thoughts and
aims, though he did not live to see his son actively at work.
When Van Raalte left the University he found the religious

movement, whose spirit he shared, already well started. He was
known as one of its sympathizers. This was enough to lead
to the unworthy obstruction of his career by the ecclesiastical
authorities through technical difficulties. He had satisfactorily
passed the necessary examinations, and held the diploma which
made him a licentiate. Hindered in the regular exercise of his callel.
X< <s -- y

ing, he gladly gave himself to those who had by this time inaugurated a movement for a more independent ecclesiastical organization, and was ordained as a regular minister by the first Synod of
the Free Church of the Netherlands, and stationed as pastor of the
combined churches of Genemuiden and Mastenbroek.
Before assuming this charge he was married to Miss Christina
Johanna de Moen, of Leiden, a woman in every way fitted to share
his eventful life.
In this first charge he labored 'under great difficulties but with
abundant success. The demand for gospel labor among the masses
increased rapidly; the men to supply it were few. To Van Raalte
gradually fell the spiritual care of the whole Province of Overyssel,
and his time was spent in almost daily preaching in different sections; organizing new churches and superintending their affairs.
This necessitated his removal to a more central point, from whence
he could more conveniently reach all parts of his large field, and in
1838 he removed to Ommen, where he lived for six years.
The religious movement in which he and others were then
engaged encountered not only the antagonism of the established
church, but the enmity of the government, which sought to crush it
by force. Van Raalte also abundantly experienced the hardships of
those trying times. Often were his audiences scattered by an
armed constabulary or the military power. Frequently he was
cited before local courts, which punished what were declared to be
illegal assemblages by fines. More than once he was imprisoned.
The insults of the mob and the contumely of the better classes were
ordinary experiences. Obedience to his convictions required the
sacrifice of nearly everything that he had highly prized or hoped
for, and the acceptance of what was at best a life strange and distasteful to one brought up in his circumstances.
Gradually the surroundings improved somewhat. Violence
exhausted itself. The field widened. This new movement promised permanency. Preachers must be supplied. To some extent
this had already been attempted by giving some theological training
to men who, with ardent piety, united natural gifts and showed aptness to speak in public. But in 1814 a more regular system of
training was begun in the opening of a school for theological instruction at Arnhem, of which Van Raalte was to be one of the
teachers. In consequence of this he removed to this place in the
year named.
This school naturally became the centre of the new denomination. Its prospects, difficulties and needs were there most fully
known. No one concerned himself more earnestly with these
matters, or understood the real difficulties of the situation better
than Dr. Van Raalte. The spiritual difficulties of the time were
complicated with material wants. The new church was almost
exclusively confined to the working classes. The close contact between this part of society and their young and educated leaders
disclosed to these latter a great and increasing misery. The decline
in material prospects among the middle classes was steadily increasing. Men sighed daily more wearily under the burden of taxation,
made necessary by the huge debts contracted through the destructive wars of the previous generation. Competition among the overcrowded population, which had not yet found an outlet, grew constantly more injurious. Land became more scarce; labor, under

the first effort of the introduction of machinery, more superfluous;
food, especially after the development of the potato rot, more expensive; the threats of political revolutions more alarming; the demands upon charity and upon the sober, sound advice of leading
men became daily more urgent.
Dr. Van Raalte was the very man to give himself entirely to
these burdens. His sympathetic nature and enthusiastic character
made him a patient listener to all kinds of complaints, and a willing

-

a I _

y