The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 889 

CHRISTOPHER G. VAN BELLE.

The life of industry and perseverance which Christopher G. Van Belle has led is
manifest in the excellently improved ranch of eighty-one and a half acres which
he owns not far from Sunnyside. An air of neatness and thrift pervades the
place an air that is characteristic of the people of Holland, for it was in
that beautifully clean little country that Christopher G. Van Belle was born on
the 3d of April, 1871, his parents being John and Coba Van Belle. The mother is
now deceased, but the father still resides in Holland at the advanced age of
eighty-one years.

The son acquired a public school education in his native country and was a youth
of nineteen years when he bade adieu to friends and family and sailed for the
United States. He made his way to Sioux county, Iowa, where he lived for four
years and afterward spent one year in Snohomish county, Washington. In 1895 he
came to Yakima county, where for three years he engaged in the cultivation of
rented land and then bought a relinquishment on a homestead of one hundred and
sixty acres a mile and a half northeast of Sunnyside. This was all covered with
sagebrush, but he cleared the place and has since continued its development,
converting it into highly productive fields. He has sold a portion of his land,
retaining eighty-one and a half acres upon which he raises various crops best
adapted to soil and climate, including hay and corn. He also makes a specialty
of raising full-blooded Holstein cattle. He has built a good residence upon the
place, also put up substantial barns and a silo and in many ways has greatly
improved the property.

On the 15th of May, 1902, Mr. Van Belle was united in marriage to Miss
Bastiaantje den Hartigh, who was born in Holland and came to Washington in
October, 1901, upon leaving her native land. Mr. and Mrs. Van Belle are the
parents of six children: John, Paul, Coba, William, Johanna and Archie. They
also had twin sons, Archie and Clause, who died in infancy.

Mr. and Mrs. Van Belle attend the Presbyterian church and he gives his
political support to the republican party. He is numbered among the pioneer
ranchers of the district in which he makes his home and has lived to see
remarkable changes in this section, for at the time of his arrival it was
largely a barren tract covered with the native growth of sagebrush; but with the
incoming of the settlers the land has been taken up and transformed into most
productive fields. Gardens and orchards and fields of waving grain, beautiful
homes, substantial churches and schools clot the surrounding country and
indicate that the work of progress and civilization is being carried steadily
forward. Mr. Van Belle has always contributed to the work of general development
and, moreover, in the conduct of his business affairs he has indicated what it
is possible to accomplish through individual effort.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.