Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, Research Professor of History, A.C. Van Raalte Institute for Historical Studies, Hope College, Holland, Michigan

"God's Building": Holland Colony of Van Raalte Celebrates 150 Years

The Holland colony was centered in the religious faith of the settlers. Many had joined the Afscheiding of 1834 and their faith was honed by suffering. Holland began as a Christian community, modeled after the New Testament church, and it gradually evolved into a diverse city of Christian citizens.

In 1872 at the festival celebrating Holland's first twenty-five years, Dominie Van Raalte, the founder and spiritual father of de Kolonie, declared: "Our colonization efforts were based upon religious principles; they drew their strength from God.... The sweet comfort inspired by independence and unlimited freedom we drank in deep drafts which gave our hearts joy and strength. Joy in the Sabbath, the power of truth that strengthens the heart, prayer, and the comforts of living and working together in our many nearby communities have supported, encouraged, and helped our people to succeed in their heavy and difficult task.... Because God has built, we live in the happy conviction that He has done well with us and granted our heart's desire." This sermonette at the celebration captures the spiritual essence of the Holland colony.

Yes, material needs compelled many "kleine luyden" to emigrate to America, and they worked themselves to the bone to gain a modicum of prosperity, but at the core of their lives were religious commitments. They would build a Christian commonwealth based on biblical principles of labor, education, business, and society. The charters of all three emigration societies, those of Utrecht, Arnhem, and Goes, specifically stated that the religious purpose was paramount. "The first mission is to create a colony that is Christian," stated Article 7 of the Arnhem charter written by Van Raalte and his brother-in-law Anthony Brummelkamp. "Therefore, it will not accept any persons for colonization other than those who will be expected to submit to the Lord's word, so that in that way not only a Christian consistory but also a Christian government will be present in order to uphold the law of God which is the foundation of every state."

In Michigan the settlers formed religious and civil organizations to carry out this vision. Spiritual life was governed by church consistories and the Classis of Holland (1848), while a People's Assembly, a form of town meeting, and its Board of Trustees directed civic and economic affairs for several years until it was supplanted by township and city governments. The jurisdictional boundary between the religious and secular organs was not fixed; both worked to build a Christian society and acted as judge and jury to ensure moral behavior. The people were known for their piety. A visitor, Reverend Isaac Wyckoff of Albany, New York, reported: "Their religious customs are very strict and devout. They do everything with prayer and thanksgiving. They sing and pray in the morning, after dinner, and after supper. They pray before they transact business. When they meet to do common work together they pray. The city council opens its meetings with prayer. The standing and tenor of their worship is purer and higher than any I ever heard before and seems like those of the first Christians and very beautiful."

The Board of Trustees, chaired by Dominie Van Raalte, functioned as a "B. and W." (Burgemeester and Wethouders) and also as a court of justice. The Board sold Holland town lots and disbursed the monies to pay for the church and pastor, arranged road and harbor improvements, banned liquor sales and cattle abbatoirs in town, controlled fences and livestock, and even adjudicated property disputes. The Board delved into family problems between parents and children and Van Raalte even had to discipline disobedient school pupils. The consistories similarly protected public morals ranging from trivial matters, such as discouraging folk from attending a traveling circus or disciplining a newspaper editor for making disparaging remarks about Dominie Van Raalte, to serious issues such as advising widows to wait at least nine months to remarry and widowers three months.

In church relationships the idyllic scene did not last and the aphorism came true: "One Dutchman a Christian, two Dutchmen a church, three Dutchmen a secession." The Hollanders practiced multiplication by division. But the splintering of congregations and theological debates sharpened religious commitments and the diversity among churches brought more people into the fold. There was a church for every taste--traditional Dutch, American-style, or some of both. The Christian Reformed Church was the conservative immigrant body and the Reformed Church was the progressive wing of Americanizers. Despite the diversity, the settlement retained a Christian character marked by traditional Dutch piety and decorum that had been the hallmark of the Afscheiding. The pietistic Seceder mentality of 1834 ruled in Holland, and not the Kuyperian influence of the Doleantie that gained a mere toehold after 1900, particularly among the Christian Reformed folk who established separate day schools.

Van Raalte had initially envisioned such Christian schools but in the early decades the public, tax supported schools served the same purpose because almost the entire population belong to Dutch Reformed churches, as did the teachers. By 1870, when the nonDutch proportion of the community increased to 20 percent, Van Raalte could anticipate complaints from "outsiders" about the Reformed Christian instruction and calls to separate church and state, it was too late. Van Raalte's influence had waned and he could not convince parents that it was important to pay double for separate schools. The Dutch Reformed children would now become a "leaven" in the public schools.

Citation: "'God's Building:' Holland Colony of Van Raalte Celebrates 150 Years," DIS-Magazine [Dutch International Society Nederland] 1 (1997): 36-39.