After losing his father and uncle to a cholera epidemic, Cappon relocated to Holland and got a job working for Peter Pfanstiehl, who had opened Holland’s first tannery. Cappon then worked for a tanner in Grand Haven and another in Grand Rapids.
Berend Veneklasen became a well-known brick maker. He was born in the Netherlands in 1828 and immigrated with his parents, Jan and Alice Van Linger Veneklasen, to Holland in 1847.