Alida Muller DeVries, Augusta DeVries & Peter DeVries
July 5, 1912

For the benefit of my adopted daughter ArlaBelle, her three sons, and my sister Nell’s children, I will try to pass on to them a brief family history as I recall hearing it from other members of the family.

I will begin with my father, Peter DeVries, who was born August 30, 1869, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. His father died when he was a young boy and his widowed mother married a gentleman names Vis. My father emigrated to America (Iowa) when he was nineteen years of age and there he took up the trade of baker.

Alida Muller DeVries

My mother, Alida Muller, was born in Noord Schaarwoude, Netherlands, January 2, 1876. Her father died when she was a baby and her mother was forced to work as a domestic and, as such, she worked for the Slotemaker family. They allowed her to bring her young child with her to their home. My grandmother endeared herself to the Slotemakers when she risked her life to save their two children in a house/barn fire. During these years my mother became attached to Mr. and Mrs. Slotemaker and when they decided to emigrate to America she asked them to take her with them, which they did. She was only six years of age when they all landed in Iowa in 1882.

Much later, my parents met and were married October 31, 1894, and they had four children, John, William, Minnie and Nellie. In 1906 they moved to Northwood, Washington, a settlement north of Lynden, where I was born.

THE FOREGOING is a chronological history of our family. Now, I will add some interesting details:

Our grandmother, Anna Muller, was honored for saving the two Slotemaker children. The townspeople held a celebration and one of the citizens wrote a beautiful poem about the event. I’m sorry that I don’t have a copy of it but it wouldn’t mean much to the present generation as it was written in the Dutch language.

Years later, after she was married and had her four children, our mother returned to the Netherlands to visit her mother. Soon after, our father sold his bakery in Orange City, Iowa, and joined her in the Netherlands. When they finished the visit, they returned to Iowa, joined their children, packed their belongings and moved to Washington. They traveled by train and arrived in Lynden during a cold "northeastern".

Minnie, Nell & Augusta DeVries

My brothers and sisters attended the Northwood elementary school. One by one they found school boring and turned to manual labor instead. I have always felt that my brother Bill would have profited from advanced education. He had a photographic memory and would have done well in high school and college. But in those days education was not "pushed" by the Dutch families and a lot of talent went to waste. My sister Nell found work as a domestic for a small sum each week and whenever she got homesick for her family she would walk a distance of ten miles to be with them for a weekend.

Our parents moved to Lynden in 1916 and I attended Lynden Christian Elementary School and Lynden High School. If my father had his way, I wouldn’t have attended high school but would have stayed home to help my mother with her household and bakery chores. Even at that late date, he still belonged to the old school of thought. But mother insisted that I go to high school and business college.

a genealogical listing of the
ALIDA MULLER DeVRIES FAMILY