(Storm) van Leeuwen
also Bredero

Frans van Leeuwen was born in Mijnsherenland near Rotterdam in 1834.



Van Leeuwen means “of lions.” The name is not uncommon in the Netherlands, but there are several distinct families. Our family is found first in Schipluiden and later in Schiedam (near Rotterdam). They were Stam van Leeuwen, and Stam meant stem or family. Perhaps the handwritten “a” resembled “or,” and Stam van Leeuwen became Storm van Leeuwen. The Storm prefix has been uniformly used since 1905. Although our van Leeuwen branch came to America prior to adoption of the Storm prefix, our Dutch kindred today are, not the van Leeuwens, but rather the Storm van Leeuwens.

Ancestors of Frans van Leeuwen (1834-1904)

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For many generations, the family operated the Grey Stallion (De Graauwe Hengst) gin distillery in Schiedam. Some held military commissions. Paulus Theodorus (1759-1784) was both a distiller and a military officer. He died on a Dutch warship (the Drenthe) off Minorca in 1784. Coincidentally, this was the time of the American Revolution, which was part of a worldwide power struggle ending with the Treaty of Paris.

Paulus Theodorus died only months after the birth of his son Frans. The Frans (1783-1843) pictured here was grandfather of the Frans (1834-1904) pictured above.



Grandfather Frans (1783-1843) is today the patriarch of our family as all known members of our (Storm) van Leeuwen family are his descendants. He and his older sister, Maria Jacoba, were raised by their mother, Maria Bredero. The important role of the Bredero family in our family history is demonstrated by artifacts from an 1804 wedding, where he and his sister were guests.

Grandfather Frans (1783-1843) had a dozen grandchildren. We have photos of five of them. A photo of grandson Frans (1834-1904) began this section. Granddaughter Johanna (shown below) died in Indonesia as did two of her brothers. (One brother was ambushed by natives; the other died in the tidal wave caused by Krakatoa’s eruption.)

All Storm van Leeuwens today are descendants of the three men pictured below.

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This is not a large family. As they left Schiedam and the distillery for other professions, they moved their residences to the Kampen area. The attraction of Kampen during the 1850-1900 period is not known.

Frans (1834-1904) and Descendants.
Though born near Schiedam, Frans grew up near Nijmegen as his father, Paulus Theodorus Marius(1808-1876), was a Dutch Reformed minister in Ubbergen. (We have a book of poetry that his father wrote and dedicated to his mother, Cornelia Adriana Bredero.) Frans himself became a minister, and while in seminary, he was invited (see invitation below) to meet with the royal family. He was assigned churches in Frederiksoord and Wilhelminaoord, twenty miles northeast of Kampen. Frans married Johanna Blom. They had two daughters, Cornelia and Paulina, and two sons, Johan and Ernst. All were born in or near Kampen. The sons came to America.



Born in 1869, Ernst(Grandpa) was the youngest. He entered the Dutch army at age 16, served eight years, and was granted a passport upon discharge in Jan 1893. He immediately traveled to America and was residing in Grand Rapids, MI, later in 1893. Perhaps he was attracted to the Midwest by the 1893 Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair. He married Elisabeth Cornelia Hugenholtz (Grandma) in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1896, and his address was Las Vegas Hot Springs. We can only speculate about those three years, 1893-1896. Because Grandpa was in Grand Rapids in 1893, we suspect that he knew the Hugenholtz family. Grandma’s brother, Paul Theodore Hugenholtz, moved from Grand Rapids to Las Vegas in 1894 to begin a dairy. Perhaps Paul and Grandpa encouraged one another. Grandpa loved the American West.

Mountains separate Las Vegas from nearby Santa Fe, site of the oldest European house in the United States. Comanche and Apache Indians prevented settlement of Las Vegas before 1800. In the early 1800s, the area was populated by Spanish settlers receiving royal land grants. These land grants were honored in 1848 by the United States after the war with Mexico. Las Vegas was Spanish, and the hot springs are a short distance away. Most employment in Las Vegas Hot Springs was associated with the Montezuma, a grand hotel built by the Santa Fe Railroad. Today, the hotel has been restored by the United World College, which has a dozen campuses worldwide.

Grandpa and Grandma married in 1896, and farmed or ranched in the Las Vegas and Watrous area until 1903. Frank, Anna, and Cecilia were born there. Cecelia died there at 4 years of age. (Her photo appears two pages below.) Her death in 1903 was one of many reasons for Grandpa and Grandma to return to Grand Rapids. Grandma’s father had died, her mother’s health was failing, and two brothers had returned to Holland. Also, Grandpa’s brother, John, had come to America shortly before their mother died.

Johan (John), born in 1860, was the oldest of Frans’ children. He came to America and was living in Evansville, IN, in 1903. He operated Holbrook House Furnishing Company, a men’s clothing store, for 17 years. He was active in the Order of the Elks. John married but had no children. He had retired to St Paul, MN, but was visiting Cincinnati when he died. He is buried in Oak Hill cemetery, Evansville.

Born in 1863, Cornelia was the older daughter. She lived in Apeldoorn with their parents when they died in 1903-1904. She became a nurse and never married. She sent postcards to Grandpa and Grandma from her travels in Switzerland and elsewhere. Cornelia adopted the Storm van Leeuwen name and died in Bergen, near Alkmaar, in 1936.

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Paulina, the younger daughter, was born in 1866. She married Roelf (Ru) Boerma, a physician in Groningen, but they had no children. They died shortly after World War II.

Pauline and Ru in center, Ru had a brother and three sisters. They explored their Arnhem and Nijmegen
roots with Grandpa during his 1911 visit, and they all stayed at this inn. Grandpa’s mother and father
had grown up in Nijmegen. The inn was perhaps owned by Grandma’s first cousin, a Hugenholtz.


Pauline and Ru after WW II, probably with Ru’s nephew.

Deaths of Johanna and Frans.

John returned to Holland when the parents, Johanna and Frans, died in 1903 and 1904. John remained until 23 August 1905. Grandpa was in Evansville much of this time, perhaps working on behalf of his absent brother. As John prepared to sail from Amsterdam to America, he and his two sisters wrote a touching card to their remaining sibling, Ernst (Grandpa).

In 1911, Grandpa returned to Holland. Grandma had to remain in Grand Rapids with her invalid mother. His postcards enable us to reconstruct his trip. The crossing took ten days each way, and he had three weeks in Holland. He visited Cornelia in Apeldoorn and Paulina in Groningen. Together, Grandpa and Paulina returned to their roots in Nijmegen. Finally, he visited his wife’s brothers in Amsterdam and Den Haag.

On 3 September 1911, Grandpa returned in New York on the new S.S. Rotterdam. This was the sister ship of the Titanic, which sank soon afterward! The ships were built in the same Belfast shipyard during the same period.

In 1912, twins Elizabeth and Ernest were born in Grand Rapids. Grandpa worked for the Post Office and saved money to start a dairy. In 1916, the family moved to their new ranch in Jackson, WY, and settled into their sod-roofed log cabin.

World War I began, and Frank, now 20, left the ranch and entered the service. At the close of the war, Anna met a handsome young man named Guy Ward, who was just out of uniform. Years passed, and the dairy became successful as The Big Trail, John Wayne’s first movie, was filmed in Jackson. They sold 40 gallons of milk daily to the movie makers.

Grandchildren. Frank returned to Jackson and the dairy after World War I. As World War II approached, he went to California and worked for Douglas Aircraft. He did church work for 33 years in Chicago, returned to Jackson, and lived until age 94. He never married.

Anna (Johanna) married Guy Ward. They lived in Jackson during the 1920s and had two children there. Guy cut trees and hewed ties for the railroad. One of the children died at three years of age. The death was so disturbing that Anna and Guy did not return to their house. Instead, they moved to Guy’s home in Kentucky. Anna had four children who survived. Two reside today near Louisville, KY, with their children and grandchildren.

Ernest, one of the twins, graduated in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He began an electronics company that served the Hollywood recording industry. He married Virginia Hurd, who already had a son, and they had two daughters. Many members of his family live in Los Angeles.

Elizabeth, the other twin, married Cleo Karns in Jackson. They built and operated a motel, and he became mayor of Jackson. Betsy and Cleo had four children including Pete, who competed in the biathlon in the 1980 Olympics. All reside in Jackson today.