Martin and Martje (Smit) Nieveen and family sailed from the Netherlands to America in 1881 from the province of Groningen.
Their ancestry dated back eight or nine hundred years. The family included seven children:
Melle (father of Sylvia), Anna, Nanco, Peter, Cornelius, Alice, and Sieuwke. Their daughter Cornelia died in the Netherlands at the age of sixteen [or seventeen]. After arriving in the United States, they settled in Sioux County, Iowa near Alton where they resided only two years. From Iowa they went to Denton,
Texas. This was during the period of time when the Bass Brothers had an infamous
hideout on a hill just south of Denton from which the notorious gang would
venture into Fort Worth and surrounding locales to rob banks and stage coaches.
It is not known if the frontier Texas lawlessness is what prompted the Nieveens
a year later to move to Gage County, Nebraska in the Firth area where they
stayed for four years. In 1888 the Nieveen family moved from Nebraska to Charles Mix County, Dakota Territory. They [settled] ten miles southwest of what is now Platte [South Dakota]. In Hamilton Township in the NE 1/4 of section 13, they began farming, but they also had a store and post office in their home, which gave their place the name...of
NIEVEEN, SOUTH DAKOTA.
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"The Nieveen home was a rugged pioneer house, but was made homey by a mother's loving touch....After reaching adulthood, none of the children remained in Charles Mix County, though Marten and Martje stayed...and are buried in the Friesland Cemetery not far from their home in Hamilton Township. Martin Nieveen died February 14, 1899 and Martje Smit Nieveen passed away October 26, 1908."
The headstone of Martje Nieveen, Grandma
Slotemaker's Grandma, is to the left. A color photo of the Marten and
Martje gravesite in Friesland Cemetery is below...
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