Rev. Henry E. Dosker is pastor of Third Reformed Church, of Holland, Mich., and was born in the Netherlands, near the city of Utrecht, February 5, 1855, a son of Rev. Nicholas H. Dosker, a minister of the Christian Reformed Church of that country. In 1873 he came to America as pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, which position he held for ten years thereafter, when he became pastor of the First Reformed Church at Kalamazoo. While discharging his duties there he was called from his labors, his death occurring in 1887. His wife was Wilhelmina De Ronde, a descendant of an old and prominent Huguenot family, and their union resulted in the birth of nine children, of whom the subject of this ketch was the third in order of birth, only three of the others now living. Rev. Nicholas H. Dosker was a very prominent church worker and he co-operated in strengthening a large number of churches of his denomination throughout the State of Michigan which had run down in membership, his career in this work being one of uninterrupted success. His widow survives him and is living at Grand Rapids.

Rev. Henry E. Dosker received his early education in the gymnasium at Zwolle, Holland, from which well-known institution of learning he graduated in 1873. Immediately after finishing his education he came to America, and resided for a time at Grand Rapids, Mich., after which he continued to pursue the paths of learning at Hope College, and from this institution he was also graduated, in 1876. When he came to this country he could not speak a word of English, but he was quick and intelligent, and was soon able to make himself understood in that most difficult of languages. After finishing his literary studies in Hope College, he began the study of theology in that institution, and later in the Reformed Seminary, at New Brunswick, N.J. In April, 1879, he graduated from McCormick Seminary, a Presbyterian institution, after which he traveled in Europe for about six months. Upon his return he located at Ebenezer, Mich., as pastor of the Reformed Church, which position he filled from 1879 until February, 1882, when he was called to the First Reformed Church at Grand Haven, of which he remained pastor until August, 1886. He then became Professor of Historical Theology at the Western Seminary of the Reformed Church of America, at Holland, Mich. In 1888 he made a second tour through Europe, traveling thoroughly over the Netherlands and Germany, but gladly returned to his adopted country in 1889, and soon after accepted the position of pastor of the church with which he is at present connected. His labors in the vineyard of his Mater have been earnest, conscientious and energetic, and he has succeeded in increasing the membership of his congregation until it now has about two hundred and sixty members. The church is a handsome, convenient and well-constructed building, an ornament to the city, and is furnished with the fines pipe organ in the county.

Rev. Mr. Dosker was first married September 19, 1879, to Miss Frances L., a daughter of Henry Doorninck. She was born in Grand Rapids, and died on the 31^st of May, 1880, and on the 21^st of February, 1882, Rev. Mr. Dosker took for his second wife, Miss Minnie, a daughter of D. Doorninck, a cousin of his first wife. She was born in Milwaukee, Wis., and has borne her husband three children: Emelia O., Nicholas H. and Richard J. Rev. Mr. Dosker is a man of refined tastes, very highly cultivated, and is quite a gifted writer. He has contributed to papers, magazines, etc. His chief literary work is a biography of Dr. A. C. Van Raalte, the founder of the Dutch settlement in Michigan. Our subject is the clerk of the Council of Hope College, in the welfare of which he is deeply interested. He has ministered to the spiritual wants of his fellow-men for the past fourteen years, and his career has been ever honorable and upright. During this time his name has been inseparably linked with the religious history of Michigan, whose annals bear testimony to the integrity of his character and the brilliancy of his mental powers. He is a man of strong will, clear conceptions, generous impulses, and scrupulously mindful of the rights of others. His life has been singularly pure, and all his acts are strongly characteristic of good, sound sense. His sermons are terse in style, firm in diction, logical in thought, and yet free from all ostentatious display, being filled with Biblical citation, historic references and earnest, religious pathos. He is a diligent student and a ripe scholar, and the world is decidedly better for his having lived in it.