From the President:

I suspect that you derived as much satisfaction of seeing the proceedings of our 2003 conference in print as I did. The publication of The Dutch in Urban America is an important move for AADAS and hopefully followed by more. All members should have received the book from the Joint Archives. The book (of 150 pages) sells for $20. Participants of the past AADAS conference who are not (yet) members receive a $10 discount and can order the book from the Joint Archives. If they join AADAS, they will receive the book for free. Please, inform me if you think that your local library may have an interest in ordering the book.

The board intends to continue this publication as an instrument to disperse the often useful and relevant scholarship about Dutch immigrant history. The decision to publish the proceedings prompted us to consider the fate of the previous ten volumes of papers presented at past AADAS meetings. Since it is prohibitive to publish all of them in paper, we decided to test a digital version, which turned out to be satisfactory. Thanks to the assistance of the Joint Archives in Holland, Michigan, we hope to be able to present these papers as pdf files at the end of this year, preferably on an AADAS website.

Other signs of interest in the field of Dutch-American studies are noticeable in three conferences. In September 2004 the Free University will host a conference on small religious communities in North America. In March 2005, the University of Denver organizes a conference on the Dutch in America. Finally, Paul Fessler and Hubert Krygsman are preparing the 2005 meeting, to be held at Dordt College from June 2-5, 2005. A call for papers will soon be posted.

Hans Krabbendam
Jl.krabbendam@zeeland.nl

Conference Announcement

The 15th biennial conference of the AADAS will be held at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa from June 2-4, 2005. In addition to the academic program, two excursions are planned for before and after the conference, each contingent upon interest: 1) Bus tour of Dutch-American sites in South Dakota and Plains Indians—led by Dordt College professor, James Schaap (see his recent book, Touches the Sky). Check in on May 31 at Dordt in the evening; early departure on June 1st with overnight stay in South Dakota and return Thursday afternoon. 2) Post-conference tour of Bus Tour of NW Iowa (literary and history tour of region)—also led by James Schaap.

Call for Papers and registration information forthcoming. Contact conference organizers, professors Paul Fessler (pfessler@dordt.edu) or Hubert Krygsman (krygsman@dordt.edu) with questions.

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Kudos

The paper, “Torn Between Two Faiths? American Calvinist Leonard Verduin’s Anabaptist-Mennonite Connection” presented by Gerlof D. Homan at the 2003 AADAS conference at Trinity College in Palos Heights was recently published in The Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2004 issue.

Abstract: [The Christian Reformed Minister] Leonard Verduin, was well known among Mennonites and other Anabaptists as the translator of The Complete Writings of Menno Simons and for his scholarly contributions to and interest in Anabaptist history and theology. Far less is known about his other Mennonite “connections,” particularly his efforts to change Article 36 of the Christian Reformed Church’s Confession of Faith, which condemned the Anabaptists. This article will give a brief biographical sketch of Verduin’s life and discuss his various interests in Anabaptism within the larger context of Calvinist-Anabaptist relations.

Gerlof Homan is Professor Emeritus of History at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.

The Christian Reformed Church
and Church Funerals
by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres

Although primarily built to provide a proper setting for worship services, Christian Reformed church sanctuaries are often used for other functions as well, such as weddings and funerals. This was not always so. Early in her history, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) frowned, and in some cases forbade, conducting funeral services in the sanctuary. In August 1866, a group of concerned Christians broke away from the Pella Reformed Church and organized the First Christian Reformed Church of Pella. Included in the grievances voiced by these Pella families against the Reformed Church were the bringing of corpses into the church sanctuary and preaching funeral sermons in the church. These last two grievances—corpses in the church sanctuary and funeral services conducted in the church—had their roots in the Protestant Reformation.

The Synod of Dordt stated that a funeral was not an ecclesiastical but a family affair, and Protestant clergy were directed to speak words of comfort and admonition at a family gathering in the home of the deceased before burial. However, because the Roman Catholic Church insisted that the corpse be brought into the sanctuary of the church so that a solemn mass for the dead could be celebrated and prayers said for the soul of the departed, Protestants wanted to shun these death rituals and forbade funeral services in the church. These home funeral practices were adhered to in the Netherlands until well into the twentieth century. In the event the home was too small, a community building was rented for the occasion. However, in America where families were scattered, their homes usually too small to hold many people, and their church building a convenient central place to meet, it seemed more practical to conduct funeral services in the church. Nevertheless, Dutch immigrants who grew up believing that the dead did not belong in the house of worship, considered the practice a sign of laxity in the Reformed Church, and sought to adhere more stringently to the old practices. The CRC Synod of 1886 finally decreed that bringing the deceased into the church, and there to speak a comforting message to the grieving, was a peripheral matter and not in conflict with the Church Order. Even so, two years later, the Synod of 1888 gave consistories permission to deny church funerals if they had objections to the practice. Early in the new century, there were still many who objected greatly to the practice. De Gids, a Grand Rapids based Dutch language weekly, printed a letter in its July 7,

1906 issue, written by a W.P. who complained about the American custom of church funerals. He wrote,

“It is very difficult to find out where the custom to hold funeral services in church originated in this country among our people. Those who have some knowledge about this know that this is never done in the Netherlands. There, even the services of nationally or locally well-known persons are kept to one or two speeches at the gravesite. From where then this custom that seems to be so deeply ingrained here that even people who never attended church while alive, need at their death be brought into the church? It seems that lately there has been some reaction to this and many funeral services are being held at the home of the deceased, but wouldn’t it be much better, if that were the rule rather than the exception? We wish to give several reasons why we feel that a funeral at home is preferred above that in a service in the church. First of all, to have a corpse in church is a contraction: the building’s purpose is for the gathering of the living, and not a place to exhibit the dead. Also, a funeral in church shows up the difference in rank and class, which in a society such as ours should not play a part. When a wealthy or important person is buried, the church is filled to capacity, but at the funeral of a lesser known, or poor person, there are many empty places. Furthermore, death is always, or should always be, accompanied by grief and sadness. Who wants to make a public show or parade of this? What grieving person wants to be subjected to the critical eyes of those who have no idea of the pain which fills our hearts? People often will claim that there is more room in a church building than there is in a house, but again that is to the advantage of the grieving. In a house there is only room for close relatives and intimate friends to gather, those whom we believe cry with the crying. And lastly, be it in the church or in the home, let ministers limit their speeches to a few words of comfort and encouragement, read a few comforting words from the Bible, and say a

(continued on page 4)

The Joint Archives of Holland produced video “Tulip Time in Holland” won an Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan at the society’s 129th Annual Meeting and State History Conference in Port Huron.

The Hope video explores the festival, which marked its 75th year in May of 2004, as a celebration of tradition, heritage, culture, history and community. “Tulip Time in Holland” was commissioned by the Joint Archives of Holland, and written, produced and narrated by Dr. David Schock of the Hope communication faculty.

The 26-minute video features interviews with several community members. The program touches on topics ranging from the founding of Holland in the 1840s by Dutch settlers; to traditions associated with Tulip Time; to the way that the community’s growing cultural diversity has shaped the festival and led to new spring events such as Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth.

Copies of “Tulip Time in Holland” are available through the Joint Archives of Holland. The program is available in VHS ($14.95) or DVD ($16.95) format, plus $5.00 shipping and handling (MI residents add 6% sales tax). Send orders to: The Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, P.O. Box 9000, Holland, MI 49422-9000..

The Joint Archives was awarded a $1,000 grant to transfer to digital format the 1947 Netherlands Information Bureau (NIB) recordings, “Echoes of a Century,” which was professionally produced by the NIB to illustrate the one hundred years of Dutch history in Holland, Michigan. These recordings, on seven double sided 33 r.p.m. record discs, were donated to the Joint Archives of Holland for preservation and access by our many researchers. The recordings are now available in a 3-CD set for $19.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling (MI residents add 6% sales tax). See paragraph above for contact information.

Our 2004 Annual Summer Oral History Project will be to photograph and survey homes made from locally made brick in Ottawa County and Allegan County. Interviews with the current owners and research into the history of each brickyard will also be conducted. Our graduating student archival assistant, Michael Douma, will complete this research.

Geoffrey Reynolds presented a paper and media presentation titled “Built Along the Shores of Macatawa:

The History of Boat Building in the Holland, Michigan Area, 1837-2002” for both the 2003 Great Lakes History Conference at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, November 2003 and the Holland Area Historical Society, Holland, MI, March 2004. He also presented a paper and presentation titled “Century Outboard Racers of the ’30s” for the Century Boat Club Annual Meeting, Saugatuck, MI, March 2004 and a paper titled “History of the Foster Boat Company” for the Annual Meeting of the Charlevoix Historical Society, Charlevoix, MI. July 2003.

Reynolds' paper, “Ordeal in the Ice” was published in January/February 2004 issue of Michigan History magazine. He was elected to the board of the Michigan Oral History Association in February.

Geoffrey Reynolds

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Heritage Hall
Calvin College

At Calvin College's Heritage Hall, archival records from ninety-nine CRCNA congregations (nine more than last year) were received, microfilmed and returned. We also microfilmed the records of three Christian school organizations. The microfilm copies are stored in our vault and are available only with the written permission of the individual congregation or school. Official classical minutes were received from forty-two classes. Anniversary materials were received from fourteen Christian Reformed churches. This year the minutes of three churches organized in the 1980s were microfilmed for the first time and two churches organized in the 1960s had their minutes microfilmed for the first time.

The Historical Directory of the Christian Reformed Church has been published and carries the ISBN of 0-9744529-0-4. It is softbound has a retail price of $34.95. The directory lists all ministers and their biographies; a brief history of every ministry, from organized congregations to storefront Sunday schools; lay evangelists; ministry associates (evangelists); Calvin Theological Seminary faculty; Calvin College faculty; home missions, world missions, and CRWRC field staff; and chaplains.

We have made a new translation of the Christian Reformed Church’s synodical acts, 1857-1880 available at http://www.calvin.edu/library/database /synod/ in PDF format. We have also published a listing of the marriages conducted (1896-1913) by Rev. Henry Beets, at

http://www.calvin.edu/hh/family_history_resources/ beets_weddings.htm . We continued to add as we received them, family histories and genealogies to our site at http://www.calvin.edu/hh/family_history_ resources/ genealogies_page.htm.

Twenty-four cubic feet of records for the Calvin Theological Seminary collection were processed and eighteen cubic feet from the Social Research Center were added to the Calvin College collection. We also processed records from the General Secretary’s office of the Christian Reformed Church, collections from such various related groups as Dynamic Youth Ministries, Christian Reformed Conference Grounds, and the Committee for Women in the Christian Reformed Church. We also arranged approximately thirty-five cubic feet of records from various Christian schools and other agencies related to the Dutch in North America.
Richard H. Harms

Dordt College

Historic materials related to Dordt College, the Christian Reformed Church, its local classis, and Dordt’s Dutch heritage are located in the Archives and Dutch Memorial Collection on the lower level of the Library.

The collection includes a variety of CRC denominational materials (i.e.clippings, articles, ledgers, bulletins, pictorial directories) from various churches within the denomiation, with more material available on local churches; an incomplete set of CRC Classis minutes from several midwestern classes for the late 1800s through 1970s (Classis Orange City, Classis Pella, Classis North Central Iowa); minutes, letters, and ledgers from several northwest Iowa/southern Minnesota consistories (late 1800s through 1960s/1970s); and some local Christian school minutes.

Dutch heritage materials include hundreds of letters written to and by Dutch immigrants, some of them translated into English; 40 family histories and 30 personal histories of Dutch immigrants to the midwest; and histories of towns with large Dutch segments in the area surrounding Northwest Iowa.

Also of interest are a variety of Dutch language books, booklets, and pamphlets, as well as the following Dutch language publications: De Heraut Van De Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (1877 to May 1940), the Sioux Center Niewsblad (1896-1973), and Orange City, Iowa’s DeVolksvriend (1874-1951).

Because the Archives/Dutch Memorial Collection does not have regular hours, access to it must be arranged in advance by contacting Ingrid Mulder (x6049 or imulder@dordt.edu).

Church Funerals (continued from page 2)

it in the church or in the home, let ministers limit their speeches to a few words of comfort and encouragement, read a few comforting words from the Bible, and say a short prayer. Lately, it seems that the funeral oration is conducted in [the context of] a complete worship service with two or three ministers present who, each in their turn, expound on a text while all the while those suffering the loss of their loved one sit in front of the casket which holds what we dearest to them on earth.” (Translation by author.)

It is interesting to note that the author of this letter does not mention at all the original reason why the church frowned on church funerals, i.e. Roman Catholic rituals, but instead formulated a whole set of alternate ideas.

As late as 1940, the CRC Synod once again reiterated that funerals were family matters and should not be occasions for an official church service. But by then the practice of bringing caskets into the church must have been so common that that matter was no longer a point of contention.

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New Books

Robert P. Swierenga, Don Sinnema, and Hans Krabbendam, eds., The Dutch in Urban America (Holland, MI: Joint Archives, 2004), 156 pp. isbn 0-9748422-0-6. $ 19.95.

The Dutch were among the least urban of all immigrant groups. Yet on the east and west coasts, two-thirds of the Dutch immigrants lived in urban centers, while in the Midwest the urban proportion was closer to one-third. This volume of essays adds a welcome chapter to Dutch immigration history by presenting recent research and providing an overview of the Dutch experience in urban America. The ten essays cover the Dutch in Chicagoland and Detroit, their commercial, educational and religious experiences, activities of Dutch consuls in American cities, and connections between urban and rural Dutch immigrants.

The recent book by Russel Shorto has been receiving national attention: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan & the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (Doubleday, 2004). Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, says “Russel Shorto’s dramatic adventure tale about the settling of Manhattan will transform the way we look
at American history.... Based on a wealth of documents that scholars began translating 30 years ago, Shorto has produced both a triumph of scholarship and a rollicking narrative.” Visit www.islandatthecenter.com for information about the book, the author, the New Netherland Project, links to interviews with the author, and more.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Going Dutch: Holland in America, 1609-2009

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the place of Dutch history and the influence of Dutch culture in the United States. Dutch history, art, architecture, design, customs, trade, religion, and philosophy: all have had significant and varying roles in American society of the last four centuries. The model of the Netherlands inspired the Founding Fathers, the history of the Netherlands preoccupied the great nineteenth century belletrists, and the aesthetic vocabularies of the Netherlands helped shape American taste. From Henry Hudson to Piet Mondrian and beyond, this conference seeks to understand how and why Dutchism (cf. Hispanism) has fared the way it has in America.

The conference will be held in Denver, CO, March 25 & 26, 2005. Submission of a paper proposal signifies a commitment to attend the conference if the paper is accepted. Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words and a brief CV to both:

Joyce Goodfriend
Department of History
University of Denver
2000 Asbury Avenue
Denver, CO 80208
jgoodfri@du.edu

Benjamin Schmidt
Department of History
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-3560
hmidtb@u.washington.edu
Deadline: October 1, 2004.

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Morsels in the Melting Pot

Conference about the Persistence
of Isolated Dutch Communites
in North America, 1800-2000
29-30 September 2004
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Dutch immigrants in North America are said to be easily assimilated. Yet a number of small Dutch immigrant groups tried to maintain their distinct identity in the past two centuries, usually supported by strong religious convictions. The process of assimilation can be followed in the two most substantive Dutch-American denominations: the Reformed Church in America (RCA) en de Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA).

Apart from and outside of these two nationally operating churches other and much smaller communities continued to derive their identity from Dutch traditions. These groups can be categorized as (1) Pietists, (2) Strict Calvinists and (3) Free/Independent/Utopian. The purpose of this conference is to establish the effect of migration on the development of religious and ethnic identities. How did the processes of adaptation and modernization develop?What was the importance of formal (institutional) and informal (personal) networks for maintaining the groups’ identity? How successful are education and child raising patterns in transfering Old World traditions? Which contacts were and are maintained with other (Dutch-)Americans/Canadians and with the home country? How much efforts were made to maintain the Dutch language and what was the effect? Which impact did economic activities have on the process of change? Which role did leadership and the coherence of the local (church) community play in the development of ethnic identity?

AADAS News
c/o The Joint Archives of Holland
Hope College
P.O. Box 9000
Holland, MI 49422-9000

The Dutch in Urban America

Robert P. Swierenga, Don Sinnema,
Hans Krabbendam, Editors

This book is available through the Joint Archives of Holland by sending $19.95 (MI residents add 6% sales tax) plus $5.00 postage and handling to:

The Joint Archives of Holland
Hope College
P.O. Box 9000
Holland, MI 49422-9000

 

More about this book inside on page four