Dominie Hendrik Pieter Scholte

       Hendrik Pieter Scholte, founder of Pella was born in 1805 in Amsterdam during the time of Napoleon. His family was part of a colony of German sugar industrialists who had settled in Amsterdam many years before. Hendrik's grandfather was an Amsterdam sugar refiner and his father was involved in the manufacturing of boxes for the sugar refiners.

       As a young man, Hendrik studied art in Amsterdam. He also served as an apprentice in his father's box factory. During this time Hendrik experienced a sad series of deaths. His father died late in 1821, when Hendrik was 16, his grandfather in 1822, his mother in 1827 and his brother the same year. He became sole survivor of his immediate family, the inheritor of great wealth, a business and a house. He sold the family business and studied theology, philosophy and political subjects in Leyden.

       Hendrik's studies were interrupted when he served in the Dutch army during an uprising in Belgium. From his military passport we get a description of Scholte. He was "1 ellon, 6 palmen and 6 dumin tall". Translated that is approximately 6' 3". He had, from the military description, a broad face, high forehead, blue eyes, a round chin and brown hair. His nose and mouth were termed "ordinary" and he had no other distinguishing features.

       Scholte married Sara Maria Brandt, daughter of a wealthy Amsterdam sugar refiner, only a month after finishing his ministerial training at Leyden in 1832. The young dominie (reverend) and his wife began their successful ministry in Noord Brabant. Later in their marriage they moved to the city of Utrecht.

       Five daughters were born to Hendrik and Sara Maria. Only three, Sara, Maria and Johanna, survived infancy.

       The young mother died a year and a half after the birth of Johanna and was buried in Utrecht only days before her thirty-eighth birthday.

       Scholte married Mareah Kranz in 1846. Shortly after the birth and death of their first son, Dominie Scholte, Mareah, his three daughters and de kolonie emigrated to America. These 800 Dutch immigrants settled in Pella, Iowa, to build their "City of Refuge."

      In America, Scholte was a jack-of-all-trades. He laid out a plat of the town, chose names for the streets and avenues, and built a "make-do" church. He took care of legal affairs and started a lime and brick kiln as well as a sawmill. Scholte opened a bank and established a newspaper. He became the postmaster, the notary and the land agent. In addition, he served on the college board, was a school inspector and became active in local and national politics, even attending the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in the early 1860's.

       First and foremost, Scholte was a dynamic preacher. He continued to preach in his little white church until the time of his death in August 1868, days shy of his sixty-third birthday. The family plot can be viewed on the west side of Pella's Oakwood Cemetery not too far from the entrance.