The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 432

JOHN ZENTENHORST.

John Zentenhorst is now practically living retired from business, occupying an
attractive home on a five-acre tract of land near Yakima. He was born in
Holland, May 24, 1861, a son of Gerritt and Diana Zentenhorst, who in 1872 left
the land of the dikes and came to the new world, settling in Sioux county, Iowa,
where they spent their remaining days, the father becoming a successful farmer
of that locality. John Zentenhorst was a lad of but eleven years when brought by
his parents to the new world and he completed a good public school education in
Iowa. Through vacation periods and after his schooldays were over he assisted
his father in the work of the farm and continued to engage in agricultural
pursuits in that state until 1889, when he sold his property there and made his
way to the northwest, attracted by the opportunities of this section of the
country. He journeyed to Yakima and soon afterward purchased forty acres of land
on the Moxee. This was all wild and undeveloped and he at once began its
improvement. His labors soon wrought a marked change in the appearance of the
place and added much to its productiveness. After a time Mr. Zentenhorst sold
twenty acres of his original tract to his son Gerritt. He purchased sixty acres
more in connection with his son and improved the entire tract. He at one time
sold twenty acres of this but later bought it back again. He now his about sixty
acres, all in fine shape, and on this he raises alfalfa, corn and potatoes. In
1914 he erected a fine home on a five-acre tract of land and there he is living
practically retired, leaving the active work of the fields to others, while he
is enjoying a well earned rest.

On the 8th of April, 1884, Mr. Zentenhorst was united in marriage to Miss June
Zentenhorst, also a native of Holland and a daughter of Peter Zentenhorst, who
came to the new world in 1871, settling in Iowa, where the marriage of our
subject and his wife occurred. To them have been born seven children: Peter,
engaged in ranching on the old homestead farm, is married and has one child;
Gerritt, also a rancher, is married and has three children: Albert, who follows
ranching on the Moxee, has a wife but no children; Jennie is the wife of R. S.
Meyer, who owns a ranch in Yakima county, and they have three children; Diana is
engaged in nursing; Alice is the wife of Gerritt Jongewaard, a resident of
Sunnyside; Hattie is at home.

Mr. Zentenhorst and his family are members of the Dutch Reformed church and are
people of genuine worth who are held in high regard wherever they are known. Mr.
Zentenhorst has voted with the republican party since becoming a naturalized
American citizen on questions affecting the welfare of the country but at local
elections, where no political issue is involved, casts an independent ballot.
He is a self-made man and the energy and persistency which he has displayed in
his business career have constituted the foundation of his present prosperity.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.