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Reuniting with yesterday: Peterson, VanPembrook families commemorate Wisconsin roots

The VanPemenee Farm in Aurora, Wis., founded in 1919 by Camiel and Stephanie VanPembrook, will host a centennial celebration today.

AURORA, Wis. — Some of the region’s pioneers will be celebrated today at separate gatherings in Wisconsin’s Florence County.

Descendants of Erland and Maria Peterson, settlers of the Homestead area in the 1880s, will have a family reunion at Homestead Town Hall.

Those who can trace back to Camiel and Stephanie VanPembrook plan a day-long community celebration marking the centennial of the VanPemenee Farm on Pemenee Drive in Aurora.

The Petersons arrived in Homestead in 1884, at a time when some settlers subsisted on potatoes and wild leeks. Having been a railroad bridge engineer in Sweden, Erland Peterson supervised building the first bridge across the Little Popple River. The Petersons farmed near the trout-laden stream just south of what now is County Trunk N.

A son, Clarence Peterson, and his wife, Mabel (Belongie), operated a farm in the same area until Clarence’s death in the early 1950s. Among the descendants planning to attend today’s gathering is 100-year-old Ione Shuster of Farmington, Mich., daughter of Clarence and Mabel.

Stephanie and Camiel Van Pembrook in 1950.

“She still drives her Saab convertible,” said sister Nina Johnson, 94, of Escanaba, who will be present as well with husband Harold. The Johnsons, married at First Lutheran Church in Iron Mountain, soon will mark their 72nd anniversary.

A few dozen attendees are expected for the reunion, coming from across the Midwest and as far away as Georgia. Dickinson County area descendants include twins Donna Rahoi and Diane Hulbert.

The town hall that will house the gathering is the former two-room Brown School, which served the Homestead area from the early 1900s into the middle of the century.

The VanPembrook event promises to be a larger affair, drawing hundreds of descendants and friends, and ending with an evening barn dance.

Camiel VanPembrook — originally spelled VanPuymbrouck — and Stephanie VanGasse were Belgian immigrants who married in Norway, Mich., in 1908. Working in the harsh conditions of the Penn Mine, Camiel nearly died from pneumonia, so the couple and their first five children crossed the Menominee River and settled in Aurora in 1919.

A 1988 aerial view of the VanPembrook family farm in Aurora, Wis. At its peak, the farm spanned nearly 700 acres with 220 head of cattle, including 80 milking cows.

Clearing boulders and stumps near the meandering Pemenee Creek, their dairy, egg and vegetable farm grew to more than 320 acres. In the early years, Camiel traveled by horse-drawn carriage back over the border into Michigan to sell the farm’s products.

All 11 of Stephanie and Camiel’s children have died, as have their spouses — except one: Donald VanPembrook’s wife, 82-year-old Vonnie (Coopman Zoeller), a longtime community leader who still lives in the farmhouse.

“We are planning a nice program and memorial for those family members we have lost at around 3 p.m.,” said Vonnie VanPembrook.

Under the care of Donald and Vonnie, who had 10 children, the farm expanded to nearly 700 acres. Today, their son, Mark, harvests hay and raises beef cattle. The current VanPembrook farm contains 260 acres of cropland and forest as well as the original farmstead.

Descendants stretch from shore to shore across the U.S., including Alaska, though most reside in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

“I enjoy thinking about how the landscape was and the way of life at that time,” Vonnie VanPembrook said of the farm’s founding. “My hope is that future generations will inherit the desire to keep and care for this land for the enjoyment of their families that come after them.”

Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 26, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.

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