Person:William Rauwerdink (2)

Then the tide turned, success came smiling toward him, and in the midst of it he was married, on the 29th of February, 1880, to Miss Anna Gringhuis, a daughter of Harm and Anna (Bymolt) Gringhuis. Mrs. Rowerdink is the fourth of a family of two boys and three girls, the date of her birth being Feb. 25, 1863. Her father was a gardener at Grand Haven, Mich., at which place she was born, and was one of the first settlers in that country. Her parents came to Nebraska in the fall of 1878, and are now residing in Hickman, both having come to America from the old country, and having attained to prosperity and honor. The father is sixty-seven and the mother sixty-two years old.

Mrs. Rowerdink came to Nebraska a girl of fourteen, in 1878, with her parents. She had enjoyed very good educational advantages in Michigan, and continued attending the public schools after her arrival in Nebraska. Our subject soon made her acquaintance, which ended in a happy marriage, after which the young couple continued for one year on the farm, and then the husband entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. Emmett Gringhuis. The new firm was engaged in general merchandise at Roca for two and a half years, when they sold out, and came to Hickman in 1883. Our subject built his present store, forming a partnership with Mr. Wismer. He has been very successful, his trade has steadily increased, and the people of Hickman have learned to know and respect him as a business man of strict integrity, who is always ready to wait upon the public in a gentlemanly way. His business is second to that of no mercantile establishment in Hickman, an appropriate testimonial to his worth and integrity.

Our subject and his wife have been the happy parents of three children: Teressa and Jennie, who are living at home, and Minnie, whose death when she was four years old was a sad bereavement to them. They are members of the German Reformed Church, of Holland, Neb., and are members of the Hickman Library Association. Our subject votes with the Republican party, having been a delegate to the Republican County Convention of Lancaster County in 1886, he has built a commodious frame dwelling, and also owns property in Hickman and Lincoln, besides a farm of 160 acres in Colorado. His sterling qualities have won for him a host of friends, and the surroundings of his happy home, so forcibly in contrast with those of his father at about the same age, are a testimonial to his unusual ability and success in life.

1.   http://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/tng/showmedia.php?mediaID=433&medialinkID=973, in Biography of William Rowerdink.
2.   http://www.llcgs.net/getdeceased.php?id=46488