Person talk:Jan Boschma (2)

[22 June 2013]

Whitinsville, MA, was named for Paul Whitin and his company, the Whitin Machine Works.

Castle Hill Farm

The farm had a tremendous effect on the population of Whitinsville. After John C. Whitin passed away in 1882, the farm was left to his widow Mrs. Whitin who ran it as a model dairy farm. But in early 1886, fifteen of her twenty-six registered Jersey cows got tuberculosis and died. In order to restock her herd, she sent for a number of Holstein cows

from the Netherlands. They were shipped here, and a hired hand named John Bosma was sent along to care for the new herd. When he arrived in Whitinsville, he asked to be allowed to stay and to take care of the cows he had brought. The next spring, he sent home for his sister and her husband, William B. Feddema. Feddema’s brother, Peter, came over the next year, followed by his wife and their five children. Jake and William Feddema, who had worked in "The Shop," were two of those five children. Virtually all of Whitinsville's present Dutch families owe their existence in the town, through one connection or another, to the early start made back in 1886-1888 by Mr. John Bosma and the Feddema family.

Over time, Jan persuaded other family members and friends to come to Whitinsville.:

Some of the other family members and friends are described here under THE FIRST FRISANS. They include:

• Family:Wytze Feddema and Yfke Boschma (1)
• Family:Pieter Feddema and Klaaske Hogendijk (1)
• Person:Rintje Boschma (2)
• Family:Oepke Plantinga and Murkjen Zandstra (1)
• Family:Albert Rienstra and Baukje Boschma (1)
• Family:Sjoerd Bakker and Gelske Oppewal (1)
• Person:Dirk Visser (28)

• Hendrik DeBoer returned home

The Dutch colony in Whitinsville slowly grew larger. On Feb. 3, 1895, the group had its first worship service. Ten months later, on Dec. 27, Feike J. Drost arrived as their teaching elder.

The original group had no specific alignment with any religious denomination. With the advice and guidance of their first religious leader, Mr. Feike J. Drost, a teaching elder from Friesland, the Netherlands, they decided to join the relatively new, and strongly conservative, Christian Reformed Church (Centennial book published by Pleasant Street Christian Reformed Church, p. 4).[1]--henk 04:36, 22 June 2013 (EDT)

Leeuwarder Courant [5 July 2013]

• 13-03-1888
• 05-05-1894 --Jennifer (JBS66) 14:02, 5 July 2013 (EDT)