De Smit, Cornelius (ca. 1820- ). Book, 1979.

The collection contains digital and hard copy versions the 1979 English transcript of a book written in Dutch by Cornelius de Smit in 1881. The book was translated by E. R. Post and D. F. VanFliet, perhaps instructors at Grand Valley State University. Cornelius was an alderman and farmer in Wissenkerke, the Netherlands. He traveled to the U.S. and wrote his impressions during a three month stay, and then returned to the Netherlands with the information. His grandson is reported to have immigrated to the United States in 1888 at the age of 12. The 1880 impressions of New York, New York, and Holland, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Zeeland, Michigan, the Chicago Stock Yards, and Ohio are very interesting, as is his comparison of Calvinism and Christian Reformed Church. (D)