Clark County WA Archives Biographies.....Propstra, J. 1886 - 
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Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 113-114
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     J. PROPSTRA, owner of the Holland Creamery at Vancouver, has devoted 
practically his entire life to butter making, in which he is acknowledged to 
be an expert, and the six years during which he has been engaged in this 
business here have been marked by steady and substantial progress. Mr. 
Propstra was born in Holland in 1886 and is a son of Cornelius and Helen 
Propstra, who still live in that country, where the father has long been 
engaged in manufacturing butter business.

     Mr. Propstra attended the schools of his home neighborhood and completed 
his education in the United States, to which country he came alone in 1904. He 
located in Chicago, Illinois, where he lived for eleven years, during a large 
part of which time he was employed as a salesman in a grocery house. In 1915 
he came to the coast, locating at Ridgefield, Washington, where he took over a 
creamery which had been shut down, and began the manufacture of butter, 
conducting the business with such success that it became profitable within 
four months. Coming to Vancouver in 1916, he established the Vancouver 
Creamery and for four years gave his attention to the manufacture of butter, 
meeting with success, so that in 1920 he was able to make an advantageous sale 
to Mr. Eardly, after which he took his family on a trip to Europe, where they 
remained about six months. On their return to this country, Mr. Propstra 
located in Portland, Oregon, where, in partnership with his brother, Joe 
Propstra, he bought the Sunset Creamery, which they ran until 1922, when they 
sold out and Mr. Propstra came to Vancouver, his brother going to Forest 
Grove, Oregon, where he is engaged in the creamery business. On coming to 
Vancouver, Mr. Propstra established the Holland Creamery at 305 Main street, 
where he remained until March, 1927, when he moved into the present fine 
building, fifty by one hundred feet, which he erected at the corner of Main 
and Eighteenth streets. Here he is engaged in making butter and ice cream, 
both under the "Holland" brand, and has built up a large trade, extending from 
Goldendale to Longview and Kelso, also having some business in Portland. He 
employs nine people and the plant has a production capacity of four hundred 
gallons of ice cream a day and three hundred and forty thousand pounds of 
butter a year, three motor trucks being employed in the delivery of the 
products. Up to the present time Mr. Propstra has handled the sales end of the 
business, but plans to put another man on the road so that he can devote more 
of his time to the plant. He has a splendid equipment of modern machinery, all 
of which is driven by individual motors, and everything about the place 
indicates good management and progressive methods.

     On November 6, 1911, in Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Propstra was united in 
marriage to Miss Anna Verdenius, who is a native of Holland. Her father died 
in that country and when ten years of age she accompanied her mother to the 
United States. Mr. and Mrs. Propstra have four children, Ernest and George, 
who were born in Chicago, and Annette and Jack, who were born in Vancouver. 
Mr. Propstra has taken all the degrees of York Rite Masonry and belongs to the 
Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Kiwanis Club, the 
Chamber of Commerce, and the Creamery Men's Associations of Washington and 
Oregon. Mrs. Propstra is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, the 
Adelphians and the Parent-Teacher Association. Both have maintained a constant 
interest in the welfare of their community, and because of their high 
characters and splendid personalities are held in high regard among their 
acquaintances. Mr. Propstra's success has come through hard and determined 
effort, backed by clear-headed judgment, and he is regarded as one of 
Vancouver's solid and substantial business men.

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