VanVuuren

Father Jacob De Jong was born on July 17, 1810 in Holland, Nederland and came to America in the year 1849 on a sailing ship over the big Ocean. The trip took 42 days. It was very stormy and with an epidemic of cholera on board 32 passengers died. They landed in New York and went immediately by steamboat to Chicago where they landed on St Street on July 4, 1849. They traveled the 14 miles south and bought land for five dollars an acre. The place was called Hoogie Prarie (High Prairie).