HILTJE Aukes Sipma (1805-1898) of Bornwird, Friesland, decided in 1847, together with her husband and six children, to cross the Atlantic, to the land of unlimited possibilities: America. Hoping for a better life, wealth and religious freedom, they fled Friesland and together with eight hundred other Dutch people founded the town of Pella, Iowa.
Based on historical documents, letters, memoirs and family histories, author Anita Terpstra reconstructs the often harsh existence of Hiltje, her family and the other residents of the town on the frontier, which today is known as America’s Dutch Treasure, with windmills, Dutch architecture, a tulip festival and its own dialect: Pella Dutch.
