Person:Jan Rabbers (1)

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Jan Rabbers Jan Rabbers, the leader of a colony at Groningen and New Groningen, left Drenthe, the Netherlands, in 1846 with immigrants from Utrecht, Friesland and Overijsel. They planned to join Albertus Van Raalte in Holland, Michigan. After arriving in New York aboard the Isabella Bath, the group went to Albany to await instructions from Van Raalte. According to tradition, in 1847 Rabbers and fourteen others walked from Buffalo to Detroit. Believing the Black River to be a likely trade route, Rabbers established Groningen about one mile south of here where the river appeared to be navigable. When the bridge washed out in 1856, the settlers relocated here where they had better access to the new road between Holland and Zeeland. They called the settlement New Groningen.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 http://www.macatawa.org/~devries/isabath.htm, in Www.macatawa.org.

   The 350 ton "ISABELLA BATH" came into New York on December 19, 1846; Captain J. Francis Kelly; Some of this group, including Jan Rabbers and Willem Kremers, left the others in Buffalo, and walked to the "Kolonie", over ice floats at Niagara Falls, arriving in Michigan in early March of 1847. The were all from the Netherlands on their way to the United States of America, leaving Rotterdam through the Hellevoetsluis; The trip took 65 days;

2.   http://ottawa.migenweb.net/schools/holland/newgroningen.html