The descendants who remember them describe Henry and Hannah (Giebink) Loomans as some of the nicest and easy going people one would ever meet. To have them as grandparents or great-grandparents was something even more special.

This good-natured couple led a life quite similar to many others in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Henry and Hannah, born in 1866 and 1869 respectively, were both raised in Alto and descended from parents who were born in the Netherlands some four decades earlier. For the majority of their adult lives they would operate the Loomans family homestead at the corner of Oak Grove and Lake Maria Roads. 

Early Years in Alto, Wisconsin

Hannah Wesselina Giebink, one of Wessel and (Christina) Johanna Giebink’s daughters, was born on March 10, 1869. Her father spent his first 22 years coming of age in Dinxperlo, a community lying southeast of Winterswijk directly alongside the border with Germany. Prior to departing the motherland for the United States, Wessel lost both of his parents and two sisters, giving him increased responsibility for the welfare of the family. Working as a wooden shoemaker, he departed from Rotterdam in the steerage accommodations of the Ship Cumberland, arriving in New York City on September 10, 1856. 

By 1860, Wessel found his way to Alto where he farmed alongside a handful of other Dutch immigrants who arrived over the preceding two decades, seeking refuge from the challenges inherent to a rapidly changing political, social, and economic system in the Netherlands.

Records indicate, albeit remain unconfirmed given the loose naming conventions of the nineteenth century, that Wessel married (Christina) Johanna Kleinhesselink around the time of his arrival in Alto.

Like many other Dutch immigrant families to the United States, including the Loomans family, Wessel and Christina farmed in Alto for most of the next 40 years. Hannah was the eighth of nine recorded children born between 1860 and 1874, the last child, Gerrit, dying shortly after his birth.

Her role on the farm was likely similar to that of her sisters and Henry’s female siblings in Jan Albert’s household: help mother maintain the home, prepare meals, clean and keep an orderly homestead while also supporting the men as they diligently worked the farms. For the 1860 Federal Census, the value of Wessel and Christina’s property was recorded as $200, about $6,000 in today’s currency when adjusted for inflation. 

A First-Generation Family

About a half-year after her twentieth birthday, Hannah married a mild-mannered man from no more than five miles away.

Hendrick John Loomans, the son of a Dutch immigrant and a Loomans family direct ancestor, was a few years older than his bride when they wed on December 19, 1889 in Waupun. The couple began their life together on the family’s homestead, which prior to 1900 still consisted of a cabin no bigger than a tool shed. The cabin was used by two generations of Loomans families (spanning more than a half century) and would later be used for storage after Henry led the construction of the family home around 1900.

“Henry and Hannah were religious and very loyal people,” remembered one of their younger grandsons Richard Carl Loomans. “They were both bilingual, having learned to read and write English in school and practicing Dutch at home with their parents.” Henry’s father Jan Albert, without any formal education and having arrived in the United States already past the age of attending school (not to mention the relative unpopularity of education in mid-nineteenth century America), likely spent much of his life learning bits of English informally through communicating with other English speakers in and around the Alto area, including his children.  

Nearly a year to the day after they married, the couple welcomed their first of six children. Alfred John was born on December 17, 1890 and was followed just about 14 months later by a sister named after their mother and grandmother: Hannah Jacoba, born on February 4, 1892. Over the following 15 years, another four children would join the growing Loomans family including Wesley William on January 1, 1897, Katie Jeanette on July 5, 1903, Lester on April 10, 1907 and a final son named Richard Henry born on July 20, 1908.

While the children would never have met Jan Willem (their great-grandfather) or Jacoba (their grandmother), Jan Albert would have been there to welcome Alfred, Hannah, and Wesley before his passing in 1897. It was likely that after Henry took over the family farm, Jan Albert lived with the couple and kept busy with various tasks of his own up until his death (there are no records that he ever moved into Waupun or Fond du Lac following his retirement).  

Over the 30 years between 1885 and 1915 when Henry worked the family farm and Hannah maintained the household, the work was undoubtedly brutal and unforgiving. Notwithstanding the extraordinary changes to the pace of life in the United States during this time, Henry and Hannah were likely working around the clock to ensure that their farm—the livelihood of their family and primary source of income—could be maintained.

Like most of the agriculturalists in Wisconsin during this period, farming was more than just a profession; farming was a craft in every sense of the term. The work commanded a great deal of patience and faith, especially when times were difficult. But the upside was one of fulfillment and pride for work well done. 

The Story of a Lifetime

The world changed dramatically between Henry and Hannah’s earliest days in Alto and the time around their passing in the mid-twentieth century. It is difficult—perhaps impossible—to overstate how the sheer pace of this change impacted their daily life. To put it in perspective, consider that, in the early 1870s when both Henry and Hannah were young kids, Ulysses S. Grant was President of the United States and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer had yet to be published. Colorado didn’t become a state until 1876 and the fourth largest city in the country was St. Louis, MO.

The seven decades that followed saw the construction of The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, numerous wars and conflicts (e.g., the Spanish-American war, World War I, and World War II), the introduction of streetcars, automobiles, and airplanes, and the launch of films and other sources of entertainment.

Perhaps because these events occurred over a lifetime, their breakneck speed was not necessarily recognized by those living through them (it does make you wonder if we will look back and recognize the rapid pace of the advancements in our lifetimes). Nonetheless, the world as Henry and Hannah Loomans knew it looked much different in the 1930s as they enjoyed retirement versus the quiet and subdued world of their upbringing.

Also consider the struggles they likely endured—struggles brought on by recession and economic challenges, the occasional year of bad crops and poor production, and the changing landscape of Alto and Waupun. Their parents aged and eventually passed, leaving them the final thread to the homeland (neither would visit the Netherlands based on passport records).

They did likely find comfort in the close proximity of their siblings. Records show that D.J. Loomans, the famed lumber entrepreneur and business magnate in Waupun, stayed close to his brother and sister-in-law. Although, it would not be surprising to learn that the same strained family dynamics that are present in many modern day sibling relationships could have also been present between Henry and his siblings. Some of these questions will forever be left unanswered.

Despite these gaps in our collective understanding of the good-natured couple’s story, we can take comfort in the knowledge that they were hardworking, caring, and deeply empathetic first-generation Americans who, like many others, were driven to succeed despite the potentially unfavorable circumstances of their situations.

Their story is truly the incredible story of a lifetime.

Marriage Certificate of Henry and Hannah Loomans

Notice the ornate nature of the marriage certificate. While faded in many spots, the names of Henry and Hannah Loomans are clearly seen along with their images in the two ovals at the top. This is a significant contrast to marriage certificate’s provided nearly 150 years later—and not just the aged language along the borders that indicate each spouse’s role in the marriage.

The original version of the marriage certificate from 1889 is currently in the possession of Danny Loomans as part of this archives.