In 1870 John Henry (Jan Hendrik) was the first of the three Te Selle brothers to arrive in Nebraska from his initial stay in Wisconsin. Other Dutch settlers whom John Henry knew from Wisconsin had already settled in the fertile land around Firth. John Henry decided to stake his claim to a parcel of land north of Firth, build a home for his wife Hanna and three children, and make his living farming the soil.
A year later in 1871 Herman John (Harmen Jan) Te Selle, youngest of the brothers, followed John Henry from Wisconsin to Firth and likewise staked out a claim to farmland not far from John Henry. Herman John arrived in Firth with his wife Berendina, their daughter Dela, and Berendina’s son Manus Schreurs, from a previous marriage.
The third brother Gerrit John (Gerrit Jan) emigrated directly from the Netherlands to Nebraska in October 1973
