Birth: May 15, 1892
Death: December 25, 1949
Location: Lot 66, Section 8, Outside the Old Cemetery
John Hoekstra was the fifth child born to Sye and Tryntje Hoekstra who lived to adulthood, and the fourth son. He was born in 1892 when the family was living in Maurice, Iowa. According to his WWI draft registration card, John was single in 1917 and working as a salesman in Sheldon, Iowa, probably living with his parents. He enlisted in the Army in July of 1918 and was discharged in September of 1919, achieving the rank of Private.
According to his obituary, John made his home in Omaha, Nebraska for about 15 years, employed as a mechanic. However, the 15 years in Omaha referenced in the obituary account for only about half of the years of his life between his Army discharge and the last move he made, to the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home in Grand Island, Nebraska, where he lived out the last year of his life in poor health. Census records and letters sent to Alice Marie Hoekstra Wesselink indicate that he spent time in Sheldon, Iowa, Atlanta, Georgia, and Brewster, New York. John seems to have been something of a rolling stone. In a letter to Alice Wesselink, dated 1933, John wrote: “You say:–How is Bessie?–Well, it’s Ethel now. Later it’s liable to be some one else. I suppose they’re alright:–at least I’m not doing them any harm (or good)–I have long since decided that they’re (possibly me too)–better off if I leave them alone. What ever this means, you’ll have to puzzle over yourself.” John never married.
John was 57 years old during the last year of his illness at Grand Island, Nebraska. In a letter written sometime in the spring of 1949, he tells Alice Wesselink that he’s been out of bed for about six weeks and had to learn to walk all over again. The problem, he believed, was that he had never been sick before, and he waited too long to see a doctor. “I’m still young enough to believe that I’ll be fairly well in a few more months. When walking I have to take it very easy because undue exertion would not be good for me. It seems to me that Sister Agnes died of a heart attack. Do you remember? And she was so young at the time too.” John died the next December without ever leaving the hospital home in Grand Island. From his obituary: he had moved to the Soldiers’ Home about a year before his death and was hospitalized at the Pershing Hospital “since his arrival at the home.”
From his obituary:
Military Rites for John Hoekstra: C.S. Hoekstra’s Brother Dies in Grand Island
John Hoekstra, 57, a brother of C.S. Hoekstra, died about midnight Saturday at the Pershing hospital, Soldiers and Sailors Home at Grand Island. . . . Burial was in Wood River Cemetery.
Relatives attending the funeral from out of town [which was evidently held in Wood River, Nebraska, the home of his brother Cornelius Hoekstra]: Mr. and Mrs. James C. Bryant, Lubbock, Texas; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wesselink, Correctionville, Ia; Mrs. Anna Hoekstra, Ervin Hoekstra, and Edwin Hoekstra, Rock Rapids, Ia.; Sidney Hoekstra and Mr. and Mrs. Gus Zylstra, Ocheydon, Ia.
~end obituary~
The youngest child raised by John’s parents, Sye and Tryntje Hoekstra, was Alice Marie, born in November 1908. Alice Marie was adopted by Sye and Tryntje; it is unknown when she was told or how much detail she was given about the adoption, but she must have known she was adopted at least by 1924, when she was 16 years old, since Tryntje’s obituary states: “Mrs. Hoekstra was the mother of 13 children, six of whom have died. The seven living children are: Mr. Cornelius Hoekstra of Wood River, Nebraska; Mrs. Anna Buysman of Chandler, Minn.; Mr. Harry Hoekstra of Sheldon; Mr. John Hoekstra of Atlanta, Georgia; Mrs. Agnes R Roorda of Elphis, Colorado; Mr. Jake Hoekstra of Mitchell, S.D. Their adopted daughter Alice Marie is still at home to comfort the sorrowing father in his old days” [emphasis mine].
The primary candidate for the birth father of Alice Marie is John Hoekstra. In 1908 when she was born, John was 16 years old and living in Sheldon, Iowa with his parents. Alice Marie was born in Sheldon, and according to the articles of adoption, she had lived with Sye and Tryntje since she was six weeks old and was adopted by them when she was two years old, in 1910. It is evident from existing letters sent by John to Alice that he kept in touch with her throughout her life. Whether she knew he was her father rather than her brother is not completely clear, although her obituary mentions John Hoekstra: “On November 2, 1908 in Sheldon, Iowa, God blessed John and Martha Hoekstra with a little daughter whom they named Alice.” Interestingly, the obituary does not mention Sye and Tryntje. One Hoekstra family researcher believes that the florid language of the obituary indicates that it was written by Alice’s daughter, who evidently knew some details of Alice’s birth.