Harmen Jan and Johanna te Selle gravestone

Gravestone of Harmen Jan te Selle (1844-1919) and his wife Johanna Brethouwer te Selle (1859-1927), in the Holland Cemetery, Lancaster County, Nebraska. The three pioneer te Selle brothers are all buried at the Holland Cemetery, west of Holland, Nebraska, located on the Panama Road. Their graves are located near one another.

Although Harmen Jan’s first wife’s name is not shown on the gravestone, her grave is located within this plot. (Source: Ted Te Kolste, Firth, NE.) Ted remembers his mother mentioning that one wife is buried on the left side and the other on the right side of Harmen Jan. Mrs. Te Kolste’s son, Gerrit, was married to Gladys Te Selle, a granddaughter of the first wife. We can only assume, too, that the three babies who died when they were infants, are also buried in the same plot.

Comment from Norma TeSelle Prophet: “I visited with Dillie TeSelle Ten Hulzen Wubbels in the late 1950’s. She told me that when Herman John’s first wife died after giving birth to her third child, that a lady who lived nearby nursed the newborn TeSelle because it needed nourishment. Dillie said the baby lived to be several months old and then died in the summer from ‘summer complaint.’

“In May this year (1989), Pauline TeSelle Owen (daughter of Gerrit and Pearl TeSelle), sent me a list of births and deaths of the Herman John TeSelle family, which was in her mother’s belongings. The list reflects that the baby was born in March 1876 and lived until August 1876. This corresponds with the information Dillie had mentioned to me 30 years earlier that the ‘baby lived for several months.’ The baby was named Berendena Aleida.”