ORANGE CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
Brent Koops has been busily renovating his house in Orange City, Iowa, since the spring.
"Getting it completely stripped down, so I can completely redo the electrical and the drywall," said Koops.
One day, he entered an old closet, and began breaking through the drywall, to get to the base of the 120-year-old building.
"I was in a little closet area, so there was plaster flying everywhere," said Koops.
When he looked down on the shelf, he did a double take.
"There was a date, but you could hardly read it," said Koops.
What he found was a Bible, printed in Dutch and brought in from the Netherlands during the 19th century. Beyond that he didn't know what to do with it.
"I figured it might be better left for somebody who might be a relative of these people," said Koops.
So, he took the Bible to the county genealogist, Wilma Vande Berg. Then, she started researching.
"It was in very bad condition," said Vande Berg, a genealogical researcher and archivist for Sioux County. "But it did have some pages with writing on it, and those were the pages the family would want."
Originally the Bible was slated to be on display at the local public library, but within days of Koops' discovery, they found the great, great, great granddaughter of the owner.
"Rather than have it set on a shelf at the genealogy department at the library, I decided to give it to her," said Vande Berg.
As for Koops, he's just happy to have found a part of history.
"It was kind of neat, but a picture's good enough for me," said Koops
We got in touch with the owner, Andrew Vander Stoep's descendant, Carla VandeZandschulp about receiving the Bible during the week.
She said even though the Bible is in bad shape, it's a really neat thing to have because of all the signatures from her family that are still intact on it.
Vande Berg says Vander Stoep and his family first settled in Sioux Center during the 1850s.
