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==History==
In 1847, nearly 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000500 Dutch citizens sailed for America ostensibly to achieve [[freedom of religion|religious freedom]], although their decision to immigrate was probably also influenced by other factors, such as their failure to thrive under dire economic conditions in their home province of [[Zeeland]], [[Netherlands]]<ref name="swierenga1">{{cite web| url=http://www.swierenga.com/Museum_lec.html| title=By the Sweat of our Brow: Economic Aspects of the Dutch Immigration to Michigan| author=Robert P. Swierenga| publisher=swierenga.com| date=13 March 1997, Lecture of Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, Research Professor, A.C. Van Raalte Institute for Historical Studies, Hope College, Holland Museum Sesquicentennial Lecture Series, Holland| access-date=2014-01-07}}</ref> and their opposition to modern scientific and social advances of the time.
The emigrants were led by [[Jannes van de Luijster]], a wealthy landowner who sold his holdings in the Netherlands to advance money for the members to pay their debts and buy passage to America.<ref name="swierenga2">{{cite web| url=http://www.swierenga.com/Zeeland_lec.html| title=From Zeeland to Zeeland in 1847| author=Robert P. Swierenga| publisher=swierenga.com| date=6 February 1997, presented to the Zeeland Historical Society| access-date=2012-12-17}}</ref> Their settlement, some {{convert|16,000|acre|km2}} of land once occupied by the [[Odawa people]], was named after their home province of [[Zeeland]].
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