Marinus van der Kloot, his wife, Meis and six children came to Chicago in 1868. Here Marinus began to work in the big city by first working for N. S. Bouton. He continued until the spring of 1872 when he, his son Adrianus, and a colleague jointly began the Burnett, Vanderkloot & Co. This would have been a fortuitous time since about a third of the city had burned the previous fall, including much of the downtown area. Later his son, Adrianus, would marry his partner's daughter. The details of Marinus' arrival and the success of his enterprise are recorded in the 1886 article in the History of Chicago that can be found in the Stories Section.