Posted by Clark Benson on 4/3/2005, 12:42 am, in reply to "WALRAVEN & DEN BOER (DEN BOOR)"
208.21.199.19

: :There are a few brief mentions of the Dutch Hollander families that came to Gove County in 1878 in the historical records. Both families appear in the 1880 Gove census as you stated. By 1886 when Gove County became self-govening and started keeping records there is no further mention of either family. I found no birth record, death record, marriage record, or cemetery record for Den Boer or Walraven. According to the "History of Gove County, Kansas": "A colony of Holland Dutch came to make their home in Gove County at this time. At the time of the Indian raid in 1878 when trains were being held up for fear of the savages a telegram from Salina dated Oct 3. said 'Last night there were 44 Hollanders from Iowa on the train, bound for Gove county.' The colony settled principally in township 11-29, southwest of Gainfield." "Kryn Van Zee tells me that it was the intention of the Hollanders to start a town on section 2-11-29, but the move got started too late and the establishment of Grainfield two miles east of the site they had selected put an end to the project. Most of the colony seem to have returned to Iowa in 1880, where perhaps some of them are living to this day." [oral record taken in 1920] The first wedding recorded in Gove County occured on July 10, 1880. "William Watcher and Cornelia Den Burger, both of Buffalo Park, were united in the bonds of holy matrimony by Rev, J. A. Hahn."