Dutch Catholic priest and missionary, b. November 5, 1783, in Amsterdam, Holland. Broek was ordained a priest in Germany in 1809 and entered the Dominican order in 1817. In August 1832 he arrived with other missionaries in Baltimore. After serving in Kentucky and Ohio, he was assigned to work as a missionary among the Indians in Green Bay in 1834. Two years later, in 1836, he moved up the Fox River to open a mission in Little Chute. He built a log church there in 1837, near the present-day St. John Nepomucene Church. While building the parish in Little Chute, he traveled long distances to serve Indian communities around Wisconsin. In 1847 he returned temporarily to Holland and began to persuade Dutch emigrants to return with him to Wisconsin. Three ships of Dutch emigrants sailed from Holland in 1848, and most of the Dutch Catholic emigrants settled near Little Chute. Father Van den Broek died in Little Chute on November 5, 1851, at age 68, and is buried on the site of St. John Nepomucene Church.

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[Source: Corry, Mary Alphonsa. The Story of Father Van den Broek, O.P. (Chicago : Ainsworth&Co., 1907). Catholic Encyclopedia. Wikipedia. ]