Stuff my great-grandpa probably didn't know

As I wrote in my first blog, my great-grandpa's refusal to answer my questions is what fueled my genealogy interest, resulting in 26 years worth of research.  Now that I'm changing directions in my "goals" I thought I'd start with what I was able to find about his parents.  I'll start with his father Nicolaas Denhof.

Nicolaas was born 30 Apr 1854 at Uithuizen, Groningen Netherlands, the 7th of 9 children to Jacobus Jacobs Denhof (1819-1896) and Lammina van Heuvelen (1817-1889).  I paid a researcher in 2006 to research this family and in his notes he wrote "in 1863, Lammina went to a hospital for the mentally insane in Delft. She died there on 6 October 1889."  There is no documentation in the file he sent me but I have no reason to doubt the validity of this.  Jacobus remarried a year after her death to Elizabeth ten Boer (1841-1928).  He also noted that the family was Roman Catholic.  Interestingly, although my great-grandpa took great pride in being Dutch, both of his grandfathers list Germany as their place of birth in their records.

Nicolaas' siblings included:

Jacob 1841-1910 - came to America in 1866, coming to Grand Rapids MI before settling in Chester Township, Ottawa Co MI (Nicolaas followed him here).  Was married to Margaret Drieborg.
Klaas 1843-1847
Jan 1844-1869 - also came to America in 1869, also to Grand Rapids but died there 12 Mar 1869.
Albertus 1846-1848
Bernardus 1848-1860
Trientje 1851-1909 - married Hans Diemers Veenstra and had 7 children in Uithuizen but ends up in Buenos Aires Argentina prior to the birth of their last daughter Paulina in 1892.  Trientje died as Catalina Fenstra and her husband as Juan Fenstra.
Willem Guillelmus Fredericus 1857-???? - appears to have followed his sister to Buenos Aires.  He married Geessiena Nieman and had 2 children at Uithuizen before having a son Federico in 1892 in Argentina.  In census records Geessiena is married to Federico Stoffel by the birth of their daughter Cherina in 1894 so I'm guessing Willem is deceased by then.
Petrus Jacobus Frederikus - 1858-1883 (never married).

Nicolaas left the Netherlands, and came to America via Liverpool on the "SS Nevada", arriving in America May 1873.

This is the manifest from when Nicolaas left the Netherlands.  Interesting that Jan Kuis is with him - more on that in a bit.........

 This is the manifest that was turned in in New York.  The snippet with Nicolaas' name gives no further useful information.

So why did Nicolaas leave the Netherlands?  I don't have any definitive proof but I have to guess it's related to this snippet below:

1119. Amongst others Nicolaas Denhof was mentioned in the “Politieblad”, a kind of paper, which was sent to the police stations as a kind of “wanted” paper.

Mentioned he was living in Uithuizen and probably left for North America.

He was sentenced for 3 days imprisonment or paying 25 guilders because  he didn’t show up for his military service.

Still wanted in 1875 and 1878.

It's interesting that Nicolaas fled the Netherlands to avoid a 3 day imprisonment and even more interesting that his brother Willem appears to have fled to Argentina for a petty issue as well:

Wilhelmus Fredericus Gulielmus Denhoff.

Inprisoned in (hard to translate) a kind of prison in which mostly poor people are placed for little crimes. I guess just want to put them away.

Willem was deserted the 5^th of July 1888 and was wanted. Description: farmhand, length 1 meter, 74 centimeters, face: round, hair, blond, nose and mouth ordinary, chin round

Nicolaas married Margretha "Margaret" Cook 5 Nov 1877 at Wright Township, Ottawa County MI.  I have misplaced that marriage record so will have to see about getting another copy.  I do know that the marriage was found in the parish records only, not at the county clerk.  Remember Jan Kuis from that ship log that was with Nicolaas?  His sister Johanna (Kuis) Cook was Margaret's mother.  I'm only speculating at this point but I'd bet that's how they were introduced.  I'll blog about Margaret next.

On Feb 4, 1888 Nicolaas became a naturalized citizen in the Kent County Circuit Court at Grand Rapids:

Nicolaas and Margaret settled in Chester Township and attended St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, which his brother Jacob's family was one of the founding families of.  Nicolaas was a farmer and lived the typical farmer life of the day.  Between 1878-1901 the he and Margaret had 10 children, my great-grandfather Nicholas being the youngest.  

1880 Chester Twp - living next door to Margaret's parents Bernardus and Johanna (Kuis) Cook

1900 Chester Twp - living next door to Ida (Cook) VanderLaan, 1st cousin of Margaret

1910 Chester Twp (not in order due to split pages)

I don't know much about Nicolaas but the little bit that my grandma's brother told me stands in stark contrast to what his obituary tells about him.  From what I was told he drank quite a bit and could have a terrible temper, so bad that my great-grandpa and his brother Pete buried his pistol somewhere on the farm to keep it away from him.

Nicolaas passed away 4 Sep 1917 at his home in Chester of carcinoma of the liver and was laid to rest in the church cemetery at St. Francis Xavier.

Nicolaas was even tough in his will, leaving everything to his wife until her death, at which time the children were to split everything unless of course, she had the gall to remarry (instead of spending her last 20 years as a widow like she did) then everything was to go straight to the children.  I guess this wasn't that uncommon back then so perhaps I'm judging the time he lived in more than his words.  I'm thankful to live in an age where women aren't treated like this.