Wife Week - Day 6 - Family Roots

Here's a photo of the Evert Schaap family. It might have been taken in the 1930's. Evert is seated on the left with his wife Hattie Poll sitting next to him. The tall skinny guy on the right is my maternal grandfather, Emerson Schaap, with his two sisters standing.

This is a family that understands roots. His grandfather, Otto Schaap, was born in Southern Holland to John Schaap. Otto immigrated to the US with his wife and all but 2 of his children. They were part of a group of Dutch immigrants who were seeking religious freedom and better times in America. They boarded the ship "DeLevere" and weighed anchor on May 21, 1848 with the Rev. Van Raalte. They sailed 44 days and reached New York on the 3rd of July. They then took a steamboat up the Hudson river to Albany, NY, then into a canal boat which in seven days brought them to Buffalo. Next was a four day trip on a steam boat to Milwaukee, WI, then a schooner took them across Lake Michigan to Grand Haven. Their goods were reloaded onto a horse drawn flat boat and they walked south along the lakeshore to the mouth of Black Lake (Lake Macatawa). One final boat ride took them inland to the Indian City (Holland, MI) on July 21. Two months of travel brought them to their new home: a log cabin deep in the woods built by Indians for a church. Here they rested for 6 weeks, then pressed on inland into the woods where the family was finally planted near Overisel, MI.

All this time Otto yearned for his homeland. Later on he would see God's hand in it all, bringing them to a land where they could get the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their life in America went well and they were able to sing "Des Heeren Goedneid Kent geen palen" - Psalm 95.

Otto's grandson Jacob Gerrit Schaap settled on a densely wooded farmstead in Overisel. Here he and his wife worked the land and raised their family in the fear of the Lord. Prayer and Bible reading in Dutch was a daily tradition in their home. The church services and catechism lessons they attended were also in Dutch (and were so until the 1940's!). Incidentally, my husband Steve grew up in this very church in Overisel. The family held firm to the faith. Jacob's son Evert (photo above) left home to live next door, a mile and a half away. I spent the first 8 years of my life living in a home built between these two Schaap farms. There Evert worked pulling trees down to create his own farm.

His son, my grandfather Emerson, was born in that house and still lives in it to this day, 85 years later. He and my grandmother still take down the big family bible and read together over tea after dinner. I'm glad my children have gotten to know them and see evidence of God's faithfulness to this family rooted in God over 9 generations and 200 years. The roots run deep.