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In his book “Holland, Michigan” Robert Swierenga writes “the first” [white] Americans living among the Dutch were the families of George Smith, Isaac Fairbanks, George Harrington, Henry Woodruff, Anton Schorno, and Gilbert Cranmer. “
George Smith and his wife Arvilla were Odawa missionaries in the Old Wing Mission. In 1844, George Fairbanks commissioned his family to build a half-timbered house and teach the Odawa how to farm like Yankees.
Smith also hired Fairbanks’ brother-in-law Woodruff as an interpreter. Shorno, a German immigrant, ran a business south of the Old Wing Mission and ran a shop in Hamilton. Cranmer worked in the north.
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George Harrington was born in New York in 1807. In 1845 he moved to the Plainwell area and then to Allegan with his wife Margaret Van Alstyne and five sons EJ, George S, Wilson, Millard and Wilburt. When Judge Kellogg discovered that Harrington was being exploited by a land speculator, he hired him and linked him with George Smith.
In early 1847, Harrington transported Dutch families in ox carts from Allegan to the Old Wing Mission and from the Old Wing Mission directly north on what would later become Waverly Road to the hill on the east side of Holland.
Harrington taught briefly at school and then settled in Holland – he bought a large piece of land near what is now Lincoln Avenue and US 31. There he farmed. He also invested in business ventures, including a sawmill on Fourth Street in Black Lake.
EJ Harrington
George Harrington’s son, Edward Jerome (EJ), was born in 1832. Since he was able to read Dutch and English, he served as an interpreter. But as a lumberjack, he made enough to buy 240 acres of land.
In 1852, EJ opened a store near the corner of what is now Eighth Street and College Avenue selling wood products, sometimes in exchange for groceries. In 1854 he married Louisa Metz.
In 1860, EJ and two partners started the first steam-powered passenger and ship service on Black Lake. In 1864, he constructed a 400-foot dock at the foot of Fifth Street and built a shop where local wood products were stored and shipped. In 1866 he bought a schooner to transport these products.
In 1869 EJ was mayor of Holland. In 1872 he was mayor again. EJ is now also involved in rural development. Swierenga estimates that he has bought and sold over 20,000 acres of land.
In 1873, EJ recruited other business leaders to form the Civic Association of Holland to “invite immigration, encourage manufacturing, and promote every laudable business,” wrote Swierenga.
This is useful for property developers. It’s also notable because the Harringtons were Freemasons and Methodists, which rubbed some of the Dutch in the wrong direction. By 1880, disagreements over membership in the Lodge would quantitatively weaken the Reformed Church (which tolerated membership in the Lodge) and strengthen the recently formed Christian Reformed Church (which opposed membership in the Lodge).
In the 1880s, EJ developed a large piece of land west of Virginia Park that housed many cottages. To serve this development, he also built a dock at the foot of a street called Harrington.
In 1904 he built a brick building at 74 E. Eighth St. – probably in the same location as his first store. The name and date are still attached to the building today.
EJ died in 1912.
Austin Harrington
Austin Harrington, born in 1863, was EJ’s nephew – the son of George S. He attended Hope College prep school and then Swinberg Business College at Grand Rapids. He first taught at West Olive and Fillmore.
After his marriage to Lucy Garvelink in 1887, Austin worked briefly as a salesman in Chicago. In 1888 he returned to Holland and opened a wood and coal yard on Eighth Street and Washington Avenue, where the boat works are now located. From there he was the captain of a ship and carried passengers to and from the resorts on Black Lake.
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Lucy and Austin made their home at 231 Washington Avenue – next to the Cappon House.
In 1917, Austin opened a branch and 10-acre coal warehouse on N. River Avenue by the railroad tracks, where an empty Burger King now stands. Austin’s sons Carl and Harry joined the company (Harrington Coal) in the 1920s.
Austin Harrington died in 1939.
When Harrington Coal celebrated his 65th birthday in 1953, Harry was Mayor of Holland. But at that point, coal was on the way as a household heating source.
– Community columnist Steve VanderVeen is an economics professor at Hope College. Contact him at vanderveen@hope.edu.
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