De Kolonie (The Colony)
Pella's First Decade

       Before a decade of settlement had passed for the Dutch, they and the American settlers who were here first had assimilated. There were three churches: Baptist, Methodist, and Christian. There was one newspaper, the Pella Gazette, edited by Scholte and an American, Edwin Grant. Americans owned the hotels.

       There were three doctors, one of them Dutch. Two druggists served the town, one Dutch and one American. Nine of the fourteen stores and four of the seven blacksmith shops were Dutch-owned.

       Germans monopolized the hardware business. There were two dray-wagon makers, three coopers, several wooden shoe makers and legions of carpenters. Three sawmills were built in the town, as well as two corn mills. There were two brick kilns and two lime kilns. Some of these were owned by the Dutch, some by the Americans or immigrants from other countries.

       Schools were built and Central College was founded by the Baptists in 1853. The town was a thriving little place well on its way to becoming what it was later called, the "Garden City."