JOHN TEN HAVE John Ten Have. In John Ten Have are combined all the qualities which go to make a prosperous, law-abiding and honorable citizen, and the success that has attended his efforts is but the just award of honest merit worthily bestowed. He is a native of the Province of Drenthe, Holland, having been born in 1830, his parents being Henry R. and Wilhelmine (Gerding) Ten Have, and the grandparents Ralph and Wemmigje Ten Have. Ralph Ten Have was a carpenter by trade, born in the north of Holland, but of French extraction. He became a well-known builder, and many of the public buildings of the city of Amsterdam still stand as monuments of his skill. He accumulated considerable wealth and reared a family of four children in comfort: John, Henry R., Nicholas and Alice, all of whom are now all dead. He and his wife were members of the Reformed Church and were highly honored in the locality in which they lived. Henry R. Ten Have was born in 1780, and in his youth received a good education in one of the best colleges in his country. He was a very fine penman, and one of his old copybooks, written with a quill pen, is now in possession of his son John. He was a Second Lieutenant in the army of Holland and later was a home guard. He was married at about the age of thirty years to a daughter of Henry and Mary Gerding, who was also finely educated and a fluent speaker of French. After his marriage Mr. Ten Have conducted a gin distillery, at which he became wealthy, and he owned one hundred and twenty acres of land, which was considered a large amount to be in the possession of one man in that country. During the latter part of his life he gave his attention to tilling this land, and died at the age of sixty-four years, leaving a widow and six children, the latter being as follows: Ralph, a resident of Holland Township; Henry, deceased; Wilhelmina, deceased; Hiram, a resident of Holland Township; John, deceased and John. The death of Henry R. Ten Have occurred in 1843, and about 1847 his widow with four of her children emigrated to the United States, after selling all her possessions in the Old Country. After reaching Ottawa County, Mich., they had only about $500 in money left, and they soon took up their residence three miles north of Holland, in an old block-house with two other families, but remained there only three months, going thence to New Groningen, where Mrs. Ten Have and her daughter died shortly after. After the death of the mother the family became scattered, and John, the subject of this sketch, secured employment in a sawmill, but later worked in Kalamazoo County a few months on a farm. He then learned the shoemaker’s trade in Alamo, which he has followed more or less ever since. In 1852 he came to Holland Township and bought forty acres of his present farm, and by industry has increased his landed possessions to eighty acres. When he made his first purchase the land was in a wild state and there were no roads, but his good judgment told him that the land would one day be very valuable, so he continued to labor energetically and to such purpose that he now has one of the best-tilled farms of the section, which, though small, compared with some others, yet yields abundant harvests. At the age of twenty-five, Mr. Ten Have was married to Miss Tryntje, a daughter of Gerrit and Elizabeth ( Postma) Van Dyk, and their union has resulted in the birth of nine children: Henry; Elizabeth; Gerrit; William, deceased; Ralph; Wilhelmina; Catherine; Aaron, deceased; and Mary. In the year 1892, Mr. Ten Have lost his barn by fire and with it $300 worth of lumber which he had purchased for the erection of a new house, and, although this loss was a heavy one, he bore it philosophically and has continue to ‘pursue the even tenor of his way" unfalteringly. He and his wife are members of the Reformed Church, and politically, he is a Republican. He has ably filled the office of Justice of the Peace and School Director, and in his church has held office for over thirty years, being at the present time an Elder.

Portrait & Biographical Record of Muskegon & Ottawa Counties, Michigan 1893, Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company

Transcriber: Charles Armstrong
Created: 6 May 2003
URL: Biographies