Bits of the Odd, Corny, Unusual, Funny, or Tall Tales

Photo taken from the 1908 Illustrated Atlas

Photograph copyrighted 1895 by J. H. Oggel

Left to Right: H.J. VanderWaaa, S.A. Sipma, Jelle Pelmulder & H. Muilenburg

Alton Democrat, Oct. 20, 1894

ORANGE CITY: John Oggel succeeded last Monday in getting three fine pictures of the committee who located the Holland settlement here in 1869 and also the mule team that hauled them here. The pictures will soon be offered for sale. L. VanOlst proposed that such pictures be taken and assisted in getting the matters arranged. The members of the committee are Jelle Pelmulder, H. Muilenburg, S. A. Sipma, and H. J. VanderWaa, all old men now, and it is certainly surprising that they are still all alive, and more surprising that the mule team, which must now be over thirty years old, is still alive. The pictures will doubtlessly become historic.

Le Mars Sentinel of Feb. 13, 1903 page 3 col 2

Sioux County Herald - Obituary of "Jennie"

'Jennie' perhaps the oldest mule in northwestern Iowa, died at the home of her owner, Bert Van Pelt, west of Orange City on Friday of last week at the age of forty one years. Jennie first saw the light of day in Marion County, Iowa, and with her mate drew a load of household furniture from Pella to Sioux County in 1869; this train of wagon teams being the very first settlers of the colony. Jennie also bore the distinction of being one of the four mule teams which drew the county safe and records from Calliope in 1872 when the boys relocated the county seat without ceremony or ballot. Jennie's mates, on this famous trip, preceeded her in muledom by several years. In her late illness she was nursed like a child and her death was equally mourned.

Bits of the Odd, "Corny," Unusual, Funny, or Tall Tales

First Mule Team and Wagon--Early Pioneers Came to Sioux County 1869

Obituary of "Jennie"