1818 -- 1891

Warnerius Sleijster was born on 17 january 1818. He emigrated in 1852 from Zutphen in the Netherlands to Pella, Iowa. In 1872 he went on to Orange City. He also visited a few times Zutphen again, where he also died in 1891. The story of Warnerius Sleijster was more difficult to discover. There are some books in which his name was found. All documentation about him I have mentioned here.

Mr. Sleyster and C. Hospers were the proprietors of the one big general store. Mr. and Mrs. Sleyster lived in the back part of the store building and she was the town's only milliner. They were a well-matched couple, both being very small in stature and quite chubby. Mr. Sleyster had jolly snapping black eyes and whiskers that covered his face from ear to ear. C. Hospers was at that time an ambitious young man and still unmarried.

What a typical country store that was, packed to the limit with all the necessities of pioneer times. There was always the intriguing smell peculiar to these places, the fresh odor of dry goods mingled with that of the various bulk foods that stood around in open barrels and gunnysacks. The farm mothers always managed to wait until there were several articles to be purchased and that would mean a treat of a bit of stick candy or some peppermints for the little ones. How wonderful the taste of these rare sweets! Coffee was bought as a green berry and roasted and ground at home. Later the first roasted coffee to be sold was Arbuckles and this was used for many years.

Peter Ellerbroek had little schooling until he came to Sioux county at about the age of twenty. He attended the public school at Orange City and did the work of several in one. He then taught school for a few years. He taught us the three R's in the Rensink school a mile east of Newkirk, for a year.

He studied chemistry under Dr De Lespinasse, became a druggist, opened a drug store in Orange City and did very well until, also true to the family tradition, he answered the Call of the West and went to Harrison, South Dakota and started a drug store, and later engaged in the independent life of an agriculturist. But on account of the drought and other reasons too numerous to mention, Mr. Ellerbroek's farming was not a success. He abandoned the farm and with one half of the family hoard, five dollars, he bought and sold books in Sioux county until he obtained a job for the Warder Bushnell and Glessner Company, Champion Binder and Mowers, and later for the McCormick Company with headquarters at Sioux City.

As he was a good salesman, he was very successful, later entering the real estate business. He used to visit at our home in Orange City and was a very interesting man. After losing his wife, the former Carrie Sleyster, he lived with his daughter Johanna, where he died at the age of seventy-nine. He was a member of the Presbyterian church and a thirty-second degree Mason and was buried from that church with Masonic rites and honors.