Roseland History

The History of Roseland, Illinois

This is a Holland settlement on the Thornton Ridge road and west of Pullman, and formerly designated the Holland Settlement. From its elevated situation a magnificent view can be had of the palace-car city and the prairie settlements to the south-west of Chicago. The boundaries of the hamlet are Halsted Street, Indiana Avenue and Ninety-ninth and One Hundred and Fifteenth Streets; its inhabitants are the sturdy, phlegmatic, industrious natives of Holland; and standing by some of the little. squat,' small-windowed houses, hearing the high-Dutch gutturals, seeing the pollards and rectangular enclosures, the square-faced, wooden-shoed, tow-headed little Dutchmen; in fact, observing the "tout ensemble" would cause one to fancy themselves rather near Amsterdam, or in primitive Nieuw Amsterdam, than fifteen miles from Chicago. Through the land of roses run seven lines of railroads, and twelve depots are easily accessible from its vicinity. The first plat of the village was made in 1873-74 by Goris Van der Syde. Goris Van der Syde courteously gave many interesting items concerning the antiquities of Roseland to the collator.*and John Ton; Peter Dalenberg next subdivided a tract, and then James H. and Arthur Van Vlissingen surveyed the main subdivisions and placed some four hundred acres of their own upon the market; these surveyed tracts constitute Roseland. The first settlers of Roseland were Locke, Cornelius Kuyper, Lendert Van der Syde, John Ambuul, Peter Dalenberg, J. Ton, Peter de Jong, Jacob De Jong, John Brass, Hark Eningenburg and G. Eningenburg, all of whom came from the district between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in Holland, in 1848. Lendert Van der Syde bought his house from a man named Locke, who rented it from a butcher in Chicago named Frink; this house is stated by old settlers to have been moved to the corner of One Hundred and Eleventh Street and Michigan Avenue. The De Jongs built on the old Thornton road near One Hundred and Third Street, and here the first birth in the settlement occurred, being that of George De Jong, (now spelt as pronounced, De Young), son of Jacob De Jong, in 1848, while yet the family lived in the barn, pending the completion of their house. Peter Dalenberg built his house on the Thornton road, corner of One Hundred and Eleventh Street. There are still numbers of antique houses that might have been erected forty years ago, in Roseland; their age is manifest from the peculiar, small window-panes, inserted when glass commanded a much higher rate on the market than now, and a whole window-light of which glass was about the size of a page of note-paper. Between the years i849 and 1856, a number of settlers located on the Thornton road, among whom were A. Koker, Tennis Maat, Peter Prins, Peter Madderom, Nicholas Madderom, Berend Van Mynen, Martin Van der Starre and Charles Kionka. In 1854-56, J. Brand, J. Snip, H. Ton and Cornelius Roggeveen settled on the low-lying land between the ridge and Lake Calumet. The first storekeeper was Cornelius Kuyper, who opened a store stocked with general merchandise, on One Hundred and Third Street, near Tracy Avenue, in 1848. He closed this store in I849, when Goris Van der Syde opened a general store near the site of the present post-office. The first marriage was between Peter Dalenberg and Miss Lina Van der Syde, in the fall of 1852; Rev. Dr. Van Raalte, of the Dutch colony in Michigan, officiating. The first death was that of Tennis Maat in 1852; he was interred near One Hundred and Seventh Street, where the old cemetery now stands. The first blacksmith shop was opened in 1858, by -- Karpenstein; the first brick dwelling house was built in 1872, by Cornelius Kuyper, near One Hundred and Third Street, and the first brick store was built in 1882, by Goris Van der Syde. The first Postmaster was Goris van der Syde, appointed in 1861. Prior to his appointment a post-office was at Calumet Station, now Kensington, which was abolished in 1864, and Roseland named Hope Post-Office, which name it retained until 1873, when it was changed to Roseland. Mr. Van der Syde is still the Postmaster, having held the position without interruption.

Source: "History of Cook County," History of Cook County, Illinois: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, database online at Ancestry.com, printout dated 29 March 2002. Previously published in hard copy (Chicago, IL: A.T. Andreas, 1884).