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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Dow W. Terpstra Among
those who braved the obstacles of Jasper County in its early period of
development were the late Dow W. Terpstra and family.
The subject was known as a man of extraordinary characteristics, who, by
reason of years of indefatigable labor and honest effort, not only acquired a
well-merited material prosperity, but also richly earned the highest esteem of
all with whom he was associated. Mr.
Terpstra was born in Friesland, Holland, June 11, 1842, and he was the son of
Watson and Sietska (Zuidma) Terpstra, both born in the same locality as was the
subject and there they grew up and were married. In the year 1850 they emigrated to the United States,
locating in Lancaster, New York, where they maintained their home for a period
of five years, engaged in farm work; then the family came to Iowa, selecting
Marion County as their future place of abode, Watson Terpstra purchasing eighty
acres there. His son, Dow W., of
this review, being the eldest child, began working in the fields when very
young, assisting his father clear up the timber and otherwise get the raw land
in shape for crops, consequently he had little opportunity to obtain an
education, indeed there were few schools and they were poorly managed and their
sessions were brief; but this lack of text-book training was later made up
through extensive miscellaneous home reading and actual contact with the
business world. Mr.
Terpstra was married in Marion County, Iowa, and he moved to Jasper County in
1860 with his wife and here bought a fractional eighty acres near Killduff.
Later he traded this for one hundred and twenty acres in Elk Creek
Township. He was a man of excellent ideas and he managed well, and, naturally a
hard-working, industrious man, he forged rapidly ahead and added his place here
until he became the owner of four hundred and fifty acres of as valuable land as
the Township afforded. This he kept
well improved and well tilled, in fact, made it one of the model farms of his
community, and here carried on general farming and stock raising on a large
scale. He was one of the largest
cattle feeders in the County and no small part of his handsome competency was
realized from this source. He had a
pleasant home and convenient outbuildings, everything about his place indicating
thrift and that a gentleman of good taste had its management in hand. Having laid by a competency, Mr. Terpstra and wife retired
from active life in 1905 and moved to an attractive residence in the town of
Sully, Iowa, and that was their home until Mr. Terpstra's death, on July 11,
1906, after a successful and honorable career.
He was a man of considerable influence in his community and was well
liked by all who knew him, being a man of kindly impulse and exemplary character
who inspired confidence and respect. Mrs.
Terpstra subsequently returned to the country and is now living on a part of the
old home place. She is a woman of praiseworthy attributes and she enjoys the
friendship of a very wide circle of acquaintances. Mr.
Terpstra aided in the public affairs of his community in whatever manner
possible. For some time he was president of the school board of his district and
after moving to Sully he became a member of the town council. Politically, he
was a Democrat, and was always true to the tenets of his party. He attended the
Reform Dutch Church and was liberal in his support of the same. Mr.
Terpstra was united in marriage on February 14, 1867, to Rosa Napjus, who was
born in Friesland, Holland, on September 23, 1848, and she was eight years of
age when she immigrated with her parents to the United States, and she therefore
grew up and received her education in this country. She is the daughter of John
and Rosa (Plantenga) Napjus. This family came on to Iowa and settled near Red
Rock in Marion County, in 1856, and there lived for one year when they moved to
Pella where they established a home. To
Mr. and Mrs. Terpstra were born eight children, named as follows: Watson
Valentine, Mrs. Sielsk George, of North Dakota; Harry B., a farmer of Elk Creek
Township, this County; Albert L., Mrs. Rose Dick, Mrs. Yetta Romans and Martin. Mr.
Terpstra was a true pioneer, one of the best representatives of the Hollander
people who cast their lots with us in the early days. He found here a wild, undeveloped country, but had the
sagacity to see in it a great future, consequently he here persisted in his
efforts, having faith that the future would bring rich rewards if today was
properly lived. He played no
inconspicuous part in the transformation of this nature-favored land and, as was
natural and right, he received a fitting earthly reward and is now sleeping the
sleep of the just, after life's fitful fever, leaving behind him not only the
evidences of material achievement, but what is more to be prized by his family
and host of friends, a worthy example and an irreproachable name. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 992. |
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