JOHN A. WILTERDINK

John A. Wilterdink, a practical general agriculturist and well-known citizen, is pleasantly located upon section 34. Holland Township, Ottawa County, and has for many years intimately identified with the progressive interests of his home locality. Mr. Wilterdink was born in the Netherlands in 1839 and was the son of John A. and Minnie (Wilterdink) Wilterdink, the parents were very distant relatives. The father, born in 1802, and the mother in 1808, were natives of the near vicinity of the birthplace of our subject. The paternal grandparents were in poor circumstances, and the father began when a boy to make his own way in the world. He learned through a long apprenticeship the trade of a wagon-maker, and after his marriage cultivated a rented farm and also worked at his trade. In 1846, the father with his family embarked for the United States upon a sailing-vessel, the "William Tell," which ran on a rock and was wrecked. All were picked up and saved by other vessels. The Wilterdinks, who had expected to make the port of Baltimore, were landed after ninety days in Florida. They then proceeded directly to St. Louis and lived there a few months, but in May 1847, arrived at the old Indian village west of where Holland now stands. They lived with the Indians three weeks before they got their cabin built.

The father entered forty acres of Government land on section 34, Holland Township, all timber, which he cleared, cultivating the soil with the help of his son. His good wife passed away in 1857, and since then, living with his eldest son, the father, now very feeble, has reached ninety-one years of age. Seven children gathered in the old home, but four died before reaching nine years of age. The three surviving are: Gertrude, the wife of Richard Takken; John W., and John A., our subject. Mr. Wilterdink, beginning life for himself, enlisted in August, 1862, in Company I, Twenty-fifth Michigan Infantry, and engaged with the Army of the Cumberland, fought at Tibbs’ Bend, Ky. Where two hundred Union men defeated Morgan wit his three thousand strong. Our subject likewise actively participated in the following engagements: Knoxville, Kingston, Mossy Creek, Rocky Face, Resaca, Dallas (Ga), Altoona, Culp’s Farm, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Nickajack Creek, Stony Creek, Decatur, Atlanta, Jonesborough, Duck River and Nashville. Aside from these decisive battles, Mr. Wilterdink took an active part in numerous hot skirmishes, and was wounded at Resaca by a shell striking him on the left side near the heart. He was also sunstruck at Altoona, Ga., but never went to the hospital, being merely carried from the field in an ambulance. He was never captured nor absent for any cause from his regiment. Receiving his discharge in North Carolina, he was mustered out of the service June 15, 1865, in Jackson, Mich.

Soon after his return top his home, our subject purchased the forty acres where he now resides, and owns at present seventy acres, fifty of which are under high cultivation, the homestead containing excellent and commodious buildings. In 1868, were united in marriage John A. Wilterdink and Miss Lemmie Visscher, daughter of Evert and Martha Visscher, natives of the Netherlands, where likewise Mrs. Wilterdink was born, emigrating to the United States with her parents when only four years of age. Our subject and his Estimable wife were blessed by the birth of five children: Annie M.; Martha M., who died when twelve years of age; Minnie, Albert E. and Eddie. Mr. and Mrs. Wilterink are valued members of the Reformed Church at Holland, of which our subject has been an Elder for twenty-four years. Politically a Republican, and ever taking a deep interest in matters of mutual welfare, he has been an efficient School Director for fifteen years, and has in various ways materially aided in educational advancement. Among his war reminiscence Mr. Wilterdink recalls that, in 1863, he marched barefoot in November and December. He has as a valuable trophy of his first battle a revolver, which he took from a rebel officer. Those days of strife, now in the distant past, were rich in deeds of heroism; to-day, with peace brooding over the land, our subject is as in those days a devoted American citizen, true and loyal. Although not relating directly to the history of Mr. Wilterdink, a terrible catastrophe which overtook his relatives may be of interest to many. His uncle Hiram Wilterdink, and his maternal grandmother and two of her sons, the wife of one and six children perished on board a burning boat on Lake Michigan, on their way to their home in the United States.