by Dennis N. Voskuil In 1997, during the sesquicentennial of the city of Holland, Michigan, a statue of Albertus C. Van Raalte, the settlement's founder, was erected in a corner of Centennial Park. It is telling that it took one hundred and fifty years for Van Raalte to be so recognized, and then under the auspices of Chicago-area benefactor Peter Huizenga. Van Raalte's contributions—as a forceful and visionary leader of the Dutch Calvinist migration to West Michigan in the nineteenth century—have…
Dennis N. VoskuilJanuary 1, 2013