My Great Grandma, farm hand for hire.

I stumbled across this newspaper article and thought the names seemed familiar. It took a beat before I realized this was about my G-G-Grandfather and his daughter, my G-Grandmother, albeit when she was a young woman. The times, they are a-changing!

 For De Grondwet, 1 July 1884. 
From Missaukee County.
Mr. Jan Van der Mei, who started a few years ago as a needy man at Vogel Centre, has now become a prosperous farmer by growing crops. This is further proof that someone here in the north can make a lot out of a little by farming.
As a rule, as is self-evident, those who do the best business on the land are those who have boys in the house. However, Van der Mei knows how to train the girls in such a way that they fill the place of boys very well. It was sometimes remarked that he used women's strength for his prosperity, and it had long been a thorn in the side of the Dutch boys, who would rather see a good housewife of the eldest, Rika, now a fine girl of almost 18, than her father's labourer - especially now that she gave her special affection to a handsome and careful boy, who was increasingly treated in a less friendly manner and turned away by her father.
Mr. Geert Meijer broke his foot in a logging accident and now Rika's help was required and obtained as a helper in need in Meijer's household. But one day she was wanted at home by her father, this time to do the washing. As this was not immediately met, her father came and said he would rather give her a dollar than leave her there that day. This was not required by Meijer and as her father understood from a further refusal to meet his demand that Rika had decided to give her father notice of his service, he became furious and would have asserted his paternal authority in a sensitive manner, if he had not been emphatically warned of the immediate consequences of this by Mr. F. Van der Wal, and understanding that there were stronger fists and greater agility than his own, he abandoned his plan and went to a justice of the peace to claim his daughter in the name of the law. Rika also went to a Justice of the Peace, and in the meantime Deputy Sheriff Lutke comes to assure the girl that she has no need to fear any abuse from her father.
I think that it will do the father little good because public opinion is in favor of the daughter, since here there could be no question of neglecting a filial duty. Perhaps Van der Mei will learn from this that his old Dutch ideas about paternal power are out of place here and that no despotic government of any kind is tolerated on this soil, but that things are usually arranged according to the will of the people. Van der Mei used to be a farm laborer in Mei, in the province of Groningen.
CORR.