Jacob Helmhout was born in the Netherlands on 12 Jan 1870 to Auke Helmhout and Geertje Poelstra on 12 June 1870. Auke and Geertje married about a year later. A second son, Klaas (Nick) was also born to Auke and Geertje. Jacob came to the USA with his brother Klaas (Nick) when they were 18 and 16 years of age. His father Auke was dead (he had died in very ill health by committing suicide) and his mother Geertje had remarried to Paulus Bandstra. The Dutch records show that at age 14 Jacob had to leave his home in Burum Friesland for work in Oldehove, Gronningen. He worked as a hired hand. He returned to Kollumerland, the county in which Burum is located a year later on 13 May 1885. There he lived with his mother and stepfather Paulus Bandstra. On 4 June 1887, he left Burum for Grijpskerk, Groningen and it is believed from there he and his brother Nick left for the United States. Jacob settled in Iowa where he met Dena Vander Post who had also immigrated from Holland probably in 1888. She was born 9 May 1873, the daughter of Hendrik and Antje (Postema) Vander Post. Jacob and Dena married 10 Oct 1892 in Pella Iowa. Their marriage records state that Jacob was a farmer from Mitchellville, Iowa and that Dena was living in Pella, Iowa. In Nov of 1893 Jacob and his father-in-law Henrik Vander Post bought several lots in the town of Amsterdam on contract from Nicholas Brand. This town had been platted next to the Des Moines River and was to have been the new "port city" for Pella, but because of severe flooding the town were abandoned. The purchase price of this property was $3,850, with annual interest only at 8% and the principal all due on March 1, 1904. The contract states that Jacob Helmhout was living in Polk County, but that he planned to move to Marion County the next year. While the lega description for this property still indicated that these were town lots, it is speculated that by this time all the property had been rezoned to farmland. The 1895 State of Iowa census shows Jacob, Dena, and daughter Annie living on this rural tract of land with Dena's parents. Hendrick and Antje Vavnder Post, lived in a house right next to them. Evidently these families could not make the payments on this contract, as the property was Quit Claim deeded back to Nicholas Brand on 11 May 1897. Jacob also worked for the railroad but on July 28, 1899 he was severely hurt when a piece of iron fell on his foot while working for the CRI &P railroad. By the time of the 1900 Federal Census, Jacob and his family were living in a mortgaged house in Pella, Iowa. Jacob had bought property from Jochem Kuipers fo $450 in Feb of 1899 and this Kuipers also carried the mortgage. Jacob sold the west half of this property for $450 in 1900 and the east half for $585 in 1902. As he was a carpenter by trade, it is possible that he built another house on this lot and then sold it off. In Feburary of 1903, he bought the disbanded Methodist Church in Otley, Iowa for $150. He converted this building into a house for his family in the back with a grocery store in the front. This venture was short lived, as he went to South Dakota the next year. He had borrowed money from his widowed mother-in-law, Antje Vander Post, to purchase and renovate this property, then gave her the deed to the property in March of 1904 for the satisfaction of his debt. In 1905 Antje Cander Post sold this property for $300. Jacob Helmhout and his family were members of the First Christian Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa. According to church records, Mrs. J. Helmhout made public profession of faith on March 24, 1901. The consistory minutes of Feb 3, 1902 records the transfer of membership of J. Helmhout and family to the Otley Christian Reformed Church. In the spring of 1904, Jacob moved to New Holland South Dakota along with his wife and children Annie, Azie (Ace), Gertite, Hendrica, Jennie and twins Henry and Katie. It is speculated they went there because Jacob's uncle and Dena's aunt Johannes and Renskje (Vander Post) Poelstra had already immigrated there from the Otley area. Jacob continued to do carpentry and farm work. His family grew and now included Nick, twins Paul and Jacob, and Dena (named after her mother). Jacob's wife Dena was not well but became pregnant. She died 1 Feb 1913 along with the child. They are buried together in Harrison, South Dakota. In the fall of that year, Jacob Helmhout took his motherless family and moved across the South Dakota land, 250 miles to Todd County. They went by wagon and spring buggy. Some of the young men in the family drove cattle across these miles or rode by horse back. The older children remember that the nights were very cold as they went those many miles. The family lived in a two room sod house while Jacob built a large house of eight rooms. The children helped with this construction. They remember a large kitchen and the fact that there were no closets. This home was completed in 1914. Times were not always pleasant for the family but they stayed close thorughout the years. Jacob went to Kansas in 1915 and brought home a bride. They were married on 18 May 1916. Her name was Grace Hamby. The older girls said she was a fine mother and for the first time in ages they had some new clothes. She was warmly called Mom by this famly. They lived here in the house Jacob and his family built until the early 1920s and then they again made a move to a ranch in the same area of Todd County. Jacob made a basement house where those who were still at home lived. By this time some of Jacob's children had married. In 1925, his daughter Gertie and her husband Yella Miedema and two of their children moved to this ranch. Jacob built a house for this family and they took over the farming in partnership. Jacob and his wife then moved to Lakeview South Dakota and built another house, which housed a gas station and restaurant business. This became a meeting place for the people in the area. They would gather here and listen to a large radio and get the news from the radio and from each other. Even some of the grandchildren of Jacob Helmhout remember this as a happy time. Grance Hamby Helmhout died May 20, 1929. Jacob Helmhout died Dec 19,1931. The ranch inTodd County near the Lakeview community is still occupied by Jacob Helmhout's great-grandson and family, Duane Cady. Duane is the son of Dena Helmhout (Jacob's eldest daughter) and her husband George Cady.

Contributed by Peggy Litzo