Isabel Neill (1896–1978) was a newspaper writer, from Yakima, Washington. This is one of her stories.
Henry Wayenberg's Dream Fulfilled in Yakima Valley
by Isabel Neill
To look back across the vista of a half-century in the Yakima valley, to know it has all been good and the reality better than the dream that inspired it, is a happiness that comes to but few men.
That satisfaction belongs to Henry Wayenberg of Moxee, who, on Friday of this week, celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday anniversary in his home, with his daughter, Mrs. Peter Zeutenhorst, as hostess. Old friends, neighbors and relatives gathered to do honor to the man largely responsible for the development of the Holland community in the Moxee district.
Wayenberg was born in Holland March 3, 1858. He came to America with his parents when he was nine years of age. The Wayenbergs went first to Wisconsin, where they remained until 1871, and in that year moved on to Iowa, where the father homesteaded in fertile Sioux county.
Hard work and forethought brought prosperity to the Iowa home. Henry Wayenberg remained there happily enough, until he began to hear reports of the great northwest, and the opportunities it offered. This appealed to his sense of adventure, and he came west and to the Yakima country, buying land in the Moxee valley.
Crusade Develops
A person of less courage might have been daunted by the valley at that time. It was largely stretches of sagebrush, across which winds whistled and dust rolled. Wayenberg realized the possibilities of the fertile soil of the valley. He could look ahead beyond the first few difficult years, and see a valley, green and opulent, bearing such crops as he had never seen.
With this vision in his mind, he became a sort of crusader. He took it upon himself to get in touch with Hollanders in various parts of the country, to interest them in the Moxee settlement and in the future he saw for it.
Through his own personal efforts hundreds of families were brought to the valley, and thousands of acres of land settled.
Wayenberg made many trips to the middle west to interest settlers in the valley. In 1900 he went through Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and returned the following year for another group.
Church Founded
Special rates were given the newcomers, who came west on special trains. Tickets for adults cost $25, while children rode for half price.
Mr. Wayenberg interested himself in helping build up the new community. He was one of the founders of the First Reformed church in Moxee, and has always been active in its affairs and interested in its progress.
Just now Wayenberg smells spring in the air, and is getting a bit impatient for the days to arrive when he can work in his gardens and with the flowers he enjoys so much. His memory remains excellent, and he takes pleasure in recalling the years that have changed a wilderness into one of the beautiful garden spots in the world.
Move out West
This was in 1896. He brought his family to Moxee the following year. The Wayenberg family first settled in Wisconsin when they came to the United States, remaining there until 1871 when the father took up a homestead in Sioux County, Iowa.
Henry was reared as a farm boy and followed that occupation as a young man. In 1882 he married Rena Raak. Six years later he purchased a half interest in a Sioux Center hardware and farm implement store. In October of the following year, en the railroad's arrival caused Sioux Center's business section to move closer to the tracks, Wayenberg and his partner were in the van.
On November 28, the Sioux County Herald reported: "The rails will be here this week, so they say. Sioux Center is booming. Verkof and Wayenberg are now located in the new town."
Some time after this move Henry's brother John came into the firm. When Henry moved to Washington State and the store was sold, John went to work as the town's weighmaster. His daughter, Cornelia Wayenberg Gerritsen, remembers the magic of her father's tiny office where she watched wagons bringing corn and wheat to the elevator.
Henry Wayenberg purchased twenty acres on what came to be known as Mieras Road. In later years he acquired more property, eventually owning eighty acres,
including thirty-five acres of apples and pears.
As soon as his family was settled in Moxee, Henry undertook the task of interesting other Iowa Hollanders in comming (sic)
to the area.
He was encouraged in this project by George Rankin and other parties who were then promoting the Selah-Moxee Canal.
At that time the railroads were advertising reduced rates to induce people to come west. Adult tickets cost only $25.00 and children rode at half price from Iowa.
Wayenberg was responsible for bringing scores of families to Moxee, a large portion of them from Sioux County, and he helped sell thousands of acres of land to these newcomers, most of whom became prosperous farmers. The Moxee Hollanders called him Moses because he led them to a bountiful land.
When he came to Moxee in 1901, John Wayenberg bought land on the upper end of Morrier Lane, close to the Zeutenhorst place.
For a time, the family lived in a two-room leanto (sic) that was on the property. The children (Grace, Cornelia, and Pete) helped chop sagebrush as land was cleared for planting.
(Sagebrush was the only available fuel in those days.)
That first summer was terribly hot and Mrs. Gerritsen became seriously ill.
When she had to be taken to St. Elizabeth's hospital,
John considered returning to Iowa. But she recovered and he stayed in Moxee.
As soon as he could, John Wayenberg built a barn near the leanto.
After a partition was put up to separate the people from the livestock, the family slept in the barn and cooked in the leanto.
One day Mrs. Wayenberg was baking bread in the old shack and sewing buttons on a new dress for one of her daughters in the relative coolness of the barn.
She had the small pearl buttons in a sauce dish when she went to check on her bread. When she returned, the buttons were gone.
She scolded the children but they denied taking them. She said that there would be no new dresses until the buttons were found but the hunt was fruitless.
A few days afterward, the buttons were scattered about the barn yard among the chicken dung.
Cornelia Wayenberg Gerritsen recollects walking two and one-half miles to the old Moxee school,
going across country through pasture land where she always had to watch out for fractious cattle.
She remembers how the older Dutch women wore their wooden clogs around home and saved their less comfortable boughten shoes for church and going to North Yakima -
something that happened only once or twice a year.
In those days children didn't have time to run around or feel bored. They had to take care of the chickens and rabbits,
chop sagebrush, and do other farm chores.