Henry Van Asselt was born in the Netherlands in 1817. In 1851, he and several others settled in Washington Territory's Duwamish River valley, where Boeing now stands. Van Asselt's land claim is slightly older than that of the Denny Party, making him one of the Seattle area's earliest White settlers. Van Asselt was a successful farmer and furniture maker. In 1862, he married Catherine Elizabeth Jane Maple, and the couple had one son and three daughters.
At age 19, Van Asselt was drafted into the Dutch army, where he served three years on the frontier between the Netherlands and Belgium. This 1841 certificate from the Department of War of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in Dutch, seem to both commend Van Asselt's war service, and to function as a passport, granting him "free and unhindered" passage.
ID Number: 1952.525.F
Date: 1841
Physical Description: 1 certificate : 9 x 15 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Credit: MOHAI, Henry Van Asselt papers, 1952.525.F
