Grand Rapids Newspaper, May 8, 1910

Peter Steketee, 958 Burton Street, one of Holland’s pioneers of this section, met a painful death yesterday. He fell from a ladder on which he was working, striking a sharp picket fence, three ribs being broken, internal injuries from the combined effects of which, with the resultant shock, he died after some hours of suffering at the U. B. A. Hospital.

Mr. Steketee was sixty-five and was making repairs on a house owned by him at 57 Dwight.St. At noon, he started to descend from the ladder on which he was working, as near as could be learned, either his foot slipped or the ladder toppled and he was precipitated onto the picket fence below, turning one or two times in the air before striking. Neighbors rushed to his assistance and he was carried across the street to the home of his nephew, Henry Brummels.

Dr. Chauncey E. Koen and Dr. John D. Hastie were summoned and upon examination had the patient removed to U. B. A. Hospital where he died at five o’clock. Though the injuries were severe, he never fully lost consciousness, though he failed to rally from the shock

He was born in Holland, Netherlands, and in 1845 he came to this country with his parents at the age of two, they being among the first of the earliest settlers of the Holland colonies about Zeeland. Mr. Steketee was one of ten children, having six brothers and three sisters, all of whom were born in Holland and brought to this country during early childhood.

He is survived by the widow, a daughter, Mrs. Roy Hooper of Middleville, three brothers and two sisters. He enlisted in 1861 and served throughout the Civil War in Company H, Twenty-First Michigan Infantry. He was but seventeen when he entered the army but despite his youth, never entered the hospital though he was wounded twice at the Battle of Gouldsboro, N. C. and during another engagement. He was one of the immortal marchers with Sherman on his March from Atlanta to the Sea; after the Battle of Chickamauga was made a corporal for meritorious service.

At the close of the war, he returned to Grand Rapids and in 1867 he was married to Adriana Wieland of this city. At one time he ran a grocery store on the West Side but retired years ago. Funeral services will be held at the residence Tuesday at two o’clock with intermet in Oak Hill Cemetery.