This is the story of a man of humble origins who moved to a new country and worked hard but never acquired wealth or fame. This man was my maternal grandfather and this year will mark the 60th anniversary of his passing.

My grandfather was born in an East Frisian village near Weener, Germany, in 1892. He was named after his father, Dirk Gelder, but I knew him as Opa, the German and Dutch word for “grandpa.”

Opa’s father died in 1899 leaving his mother a penniless widow with seven children, Dirk being the youngest. According to family lore, Hinderk, the oldest of Opa’s siblings, wanted to go to the United States. Hinderk was mildly challenged and his mother was reluctant to see him go by himself so she encouraged her four oldest daughters to accompany him.

Hinderk and his sisters did indeed emigrate to the United States, settling near Cleves, a tiny village in Iowa’s Hardin County. A few years later Opa’s mother, Lamke Gelder, along with my grandfather and his youngest sister left Germany and settled near Cleves.

Opa learned English in Iowa and became a naturalized citizen.

I know little of Opa’s early years in Iowa but he obviously got around. As a young man he became acquainted with fellow East Frisian immigrants in the Hamilton County community of Kamrar, which is located 40 miles west of Cleves.

I have several photos of Opa with friends in Kamrar, including two members of the Gray (anglicized from Grau) family who had emigrated to Kamrar about the same time Opa settled in Cleves. The Grays had come to Iowa from Bellingwolde, The Netherlands, which was just 10 miles southwest of Opa’s hometown.

It turns out that the Gray boys had a good-looking little sister, Marijke, who caught Opa’s eye. I know little of their romance but they married in 1913 and quickly began a family.

Over the next 25 years, Dirk and Marijke had 13 children. The youngest died shortly after birth in 1938.

Early in their American experience my grandparents anglicized their names. Opa chose Dick, which is close to how Dirk is pronounced in his native Low German. My grandmother, who I called Oma, became known as Marie.

With limited education and a new baby arriving nearly every other year, Opa and Oma experienced an impoverished life. Opa supported his growing family by working as a farm hand for many years. The family moved frequently, living in tenant houses provided as part of Opa’s compensation.

When they were finally able to purchase a rundown acreage northwest of Wellsburg in Iowa’s Grundy County, Opa took a job in road construction.

When their older children became teenagers they were hired out to area farmers with their income going directly to my grandparents. It’s difficult to imagine this situation today, but during the Depression and into World War II it was a matter of survival for a large family.

At the age of 59, Opa suffered a massive heart attack. Also living with diabetes, Opa never fully recovered. In the 17 years I knew Opa he was an enfeebled man who moved slowly with a cane.

I was the eighth of Opa’s nearly 50 grandchildren. None of us had significant one-on-one time with Opa, but those of us old enough to remember him recall a kind, older man who enjoyed playing cribbage with Uncle Bud. Opa preferred chatting in his mother tongue, but could speak English with a heavy accent.

In his later years, Opa spent daytime hours in a comfortable chair next to a kitchen window. Smoking Velvet tobacco in his pipe, he kept an eye on cars passing on their gravel road and the comings and goings in their farm yard.

Less than eight years after Opa’s passing my wife and I named our son after his great-grandfather. When we took Dirk to meet his great-grandmother she fussed over him and repeatedly said, “Mien lüttje Dirk” (my little Dirk.)

Opa Gelder never won acclaim or wealth. However, he lived a good and honorable life and, with Oma at his side, raised a dozen kids (including my mother) who all turned out to be kind and generous adults. In that regard, my grandfather died a rich man.

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2025 by Huisman Communications.