Abraham John Brink was born at South Holland, Illinois, on March 27, 1857 and lived with his parents at different places in Illinois until October 1871 when they moved to Ackley, Iowa. This was at the time of the Chicago fire. In July 1873 they sold out and moved to Orange City, Iowa where he lived with his parents on a farm one half mile east of Orange City. Here he met Adrianna Vander Meer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leendert Vander Meer (who came from Pella, Iowa in 1870 and farmed just south of Orange-City), born March 10, 1860 whom he married on January 23, 1879.

The first year he farmed with his father, then rented and moved to a farm three miles north of Orange City, where they lived two years.

At this time there was some talk of going to Dakota and during the winter of 1881 and 1882 a committee of three was sent to South Dakota to explore and picked on what was later known as Douglas County (about the center of the county). In February 1882 a group of people (among whom was Mr. Brink) went across the line at Hawarden, Iowa to South Dakota and filed their claims.

On April 17, 1882, they went with their possessions by train loading their cars at Hull, Iowa and unloading at Plankinton, South Dakota and arriving at Douglas County April 21, 1882 and immediately building their shanties to live in on their preemption and improved it. They also had taken a tree claim. After six months on the preemption they filed on a homestead where they lived and farmed until December 1914, when they moved to Harrison where he bought a place from Frank LeCocq, Sr., of about forty acres with buildings on the east side of town. Here they farmed on a small scale and later rented out the farm land.

During these years the following children were born to this union -

Abraham John (Johannes) Brink (b. 27 Mar 1857 at South Holland, IL; d. 22 Jan 1942, Harrison, SD) & Adrianna Elizabeth Vander Meer Brink (b. 10 Mar 1860 at Pella, IA; d. 18 Jul 1930, Harrison, SD) married 23 Jan 1879

Mary - b. 1879, d. 17 Jan 1895
Leendert – b. 24 Apr 1881
Annie – b. 24 Feb 1884
Cornelia Sebia (Cora) – b. 28 Nov 1885
Jan Albertus – b. 15 Dec 1887
Isaac – b. 14 Nov 1890, d. Aug 1899
Harm Hermanus – b. 1 Dec 1892
Cornelis – b. 30 Sep 1897, d. 30 Aug 1903
Alida – b. 7 Aug 1900
Adriana Elizabeth (Jennie) – b. 23 Sep 1902
Sarah Rozina – b. 30 Nov 1904

In November 1914 Mr. Brink was elected to the Legislature and met with the regular session in 1915 and a special session in 1916.

In November 1895 he was elected to the consistory of the Reformed Church of Harrison and served as deacon and elder for 32 years, then as the rotary system was taken on he automatically went out and declined to be elected again.

On January 23, 1929 they celebrated their golden wedding. Mrs. Brink was not very well at this time. On February 7 following she was taken ill with bronchial pneumonia and was in failing health until June 1930 when she became much worse until her death on July 18, 1930.

After that his daughter, Cornelia (Cora) kept house for him until he passed away on January 22, 1942 after a short illness.

- Biography written by "Mr. Brink"