BEERNINK FAMILY HISTORY

Roy Samuel Beernink, son of Samuel, has compiled the genealogy of the Beerninks, tracing back to Hendrik & Jenneken in The Netherlands, and following the descendants in America. Descendants of these immigrants settled in Wisconsin (in Milwaukee, in Alto, Fond du Lac County, and in Holland Township, Sheboygan County). Some of the next generation pioneered in the states of Washington and Iowa.

Are you a descendant of these folks? Please contact us.
Our e-mail link is at the bottom of this page.

On this webpage you will find family group sheets of our Beernink family in the Netherlands, the story of the family in America, family group sheets of these Beerninks in America, then biographical stories of the immigrant ancestors, followed by the present state of genealogical research, showing where these records are available.

Hendrik Jan and Willem came to Wisconsin after a short stay in Cleveland, Ohio. Hendrik, a tailor, set up business in rural Milwaukee, and Willem, a farmer, settled in Holland Township, Sheboygan County. Both settled in Dutch communities where they joined friends. The Rexwinkel family also went to Cleveland, then later to Illinois and Kansas. The Hoftiezer family intended to go directly to Evansville, Indiana, according to their emigration papers. Although not confirmed, it is believed that they also may have made their home in Illinois, Indiana and/or in Kansas, where there were several Dutch communities under development.

Two nephews also came to the United States. Dirk, a tailor, left the Netherlands in 1856, came to Milwaukee, and was employed by Hendrik Jan until moving to Alto, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Three of Dirk's married children, James Adolph, Henry, and Hanna (Mrs. Jameson-Valentine)pioneered in moving from Alto to the state of Washington. Other Beerninks moved on to Washington in the early 1900s. They, like the Iowa folk, have their roots in Wisconsin, near Waupun. James Adolph Beernink established a successful feed and grain business in Beaverdam, Wisconsin. His son Harry Joseph Beernink was instrumental in the development of the Washington Farmers CO-Operative Association in 1917 in Lynden, WA. He became General Manager until his death in 1969.

The other nephew was Hendrik Willem. He and Wilhelmina Heidemann, his bride of three days, left Sinderen, Province Gelderland, in the spring of 1868. They came to Alto, and shortly thereafter, moved to Branch Township, Sioux County, Iowa. Nearby Sioux Center was a strong Dutch settlement area.

Another distant line, descendants of H. J. K. Beernink, the lawyer-politician Minister for Home Affaires in The Netherlands (1967-1971) live in Maryland and in Tennessee. Also, there are the Boland-Beerninks in and about Lindale, Texas, as well as Carel Pieter and his son, who came to the United States 25 May 1956 to live in Sparks, Maryland. Still other Beerninks have come to live in the U.S.A. and in Canada. They are of German origin, having immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1950s. This family has been of great assistance in the early research efforts in the Netherlands in the 1970s.

FAMILY GROUP SHEETS: BEERNINKS IN AMERICA

Aleijda BEERNINK, her husband Hendrik REXWINKLE and their children, arrived in the United States in 1847 with her brothers Hendrik Jan and Willem and her sister Hendrika (BEERNINK) HOFTEIZER and her family.

STORIES OF THE IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS

Henry John arrived on the ninth of August 1847, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a prominent port on the Delaware River. He had boarded that ship at Rotterdam, along with his brother Willem and 90 other passengers.

Henry's baggage consisted of one chest. That chest probably, contained his tailoring tools and supplies. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was employed as a tailor. Word must have reached him there telling of the disaster which caused the loss of many Netherlander's lives when the propeller ship known as the Phoenix caught fire and sank on the 21st of November 1847. That happened while in sight of Sheboygan harbor, about five miles away in Lake Michigan. Perhaps that event, especially the survivorship of Gerritjen Oberink of Varsseveld led him to move to Wisconsin. He settled in Milwaukee to set up shop as a tailor. He married Gerritje on 11 June 1848. They had five children, none of whom lived beyond early childhood. Gerritje died on 15 October 1858. Not long after that, in Holland, Michigan, where he was living with an aunt and uncle family, he married Johanna Hendrika Hagens, a native of Welsum, Overijssel.

Returning to Milwaukee, he was chosen as a Deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church, serving many years. When the first church building was to be built he was one of the men who felled trees in the tamarack swamp hauling them to the building site.

He would sew many garments during the off season, building an inventory for sale. After harvest, when the roads had dried or frozen, he would load his wagon with those garments, travel the forty miles to Cedar Grove and another five miles to Oostburg. There he would auction the clothing. He lived in the customers' homes while altering the garments to fit the buyers.

Their son Samuel slept in the loft of their house. Winter weather often penetrated the structure and snow seeped thru the cracks onto his bed comforters. One nice thing about it being cold, he said, was that it helped save the snow apples he had harvested from trees in their yard. From his bed he could reach out and have an apple.

They moved to Iowa to homestead on eighty acres, required to live on it for five years. Their homestead in West Branch Township was near what became Sioux Center. Here six more children were born.

They lived in a dugout with a thatched roof covered with sod, until one winter night the thatched roof caught fire. A second hut was built & later a frame house of cottonwood, which shrunk & left cracks for snow to sift in. Three years of grasshopper plague drove many settlers out, but the fourth year the Beerninks had a good crop of wheat, and with the proceeds bought a clock.

Sadly, four year old Gerrit fell out of the barn hay-loft door and died from the injuries. Later they built a house on the old homestead that is still occupied by family members, who farm the land.

Family stories tell of the building of the first church in Sioux Center in 1877. Mrs. Beernink and her neighbor were frightened by a coyote one evening as they walked the four miles to prayer meeting. One day an Indian came to the door. He went toward the baby in the highchair and said, "Papoose, papoose." The mother snatched up the baby and ran to the neighbors. They had large gardens and stored vegetables in stone crocks and bins for the winter. Cut beans, sauerkraut and pickles were salted down in large crocks. Pork was fried and covered with lard and stored in crocks. Eggs were stored among the oats in tightly covered pails which could be turned to keep the yolks centered. Workers laying the railroad track lived in tents along the road east of the Beernink homestead. Johanna went with their children to gather milkweed pods, used to stuff pillows.

WHERE TO FIND IT: THE PRESENT STATE OF RESEARCH

Records for Hendrik Jan Beernink's descendants are in the LDS Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Records for the descendants of Willem have been given to the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. A copy of that record, involving 165 families and more than 500 names of ancestors and descendants is also held by the Oostburg Public Library. Research was discontinued and the record was filed in 1995.(Cousins in Oostburg and Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, held a family reunion picnic July 15, 1990, at which descendancy charts were displayed.)

Research for the Iowa branch has been suspended. Family group record sheets and some related items of interest have been sent to the Sioux County Genealogical Society at Sioux Center. There is still much to do before that record can be considered up to the current date. Nearly 100 families and over 450 individual names are now known to be involved, and some additional branches and twigs remain unidentified. We would like to know of a descendant of Hendrik Willem Beernink who would continue the compilation of his descendants.

Many sets, in whole or in part, have also been given to selected key families of those having roots in Wisconsin and in Iowa.