Aunt Jen and Uncle Lou’s (Jennie DeKorn Leeuwenhoek and Lambertus Leeuwenhoek) only child, Alice, married Clarence Moerdyk (Dutch spelling Moerdijk).
Clarence Dewey Moerdyk
1898–1985
BIRTH 24 MAY 1898 • Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Co., MI
DEATH 18 DEC 1985 • Winter Park, FL
Clarence’s parents were Peter (Pieter) and Cora. His father immigrated from Biervliet, Zeeland, the Netherlands, when he was 2 years old, in 1867.
I once posted a photo of Clarence as a kid, but at the time I wasn’t sure who he was. Blog readers helped me discover that this is Clarence who lived at 120 W. Ransom in Kalamazoo. That address is directly north of Arcadia Creek, five blocks north of East Michigan Avenue. Would you say he is in his mid-teens?
Alice and Clarence were married in Kalamazoo on 12 September 1923 by The Reverend Benjamin Laman of Bethany Reformed Church.
Here is information about the church at that time from their website:
On June 5, 1905, in a tiny chapel near Burdick and Maple, the mission Sunday School that was to become Bethany held its first service. . . .
Growth under the leadership of these men was so great that less than two years later it was apparent that a larger building was needed. In 1907, a new church was built on the site of the original chapel. At this time the church had grown to include fifty-two families and seventy-seven communicant members. By the time that Reverend Kooiker left the church in 1910, Bethany had grown to sixty-nine families and one hundred eighteen communicant members.
Here is Clarence as I knew him in the early 60s:
The Family Kalamazoo 
I love that photo of him as a boy. He looks more Dutch than American so I had to go back and check to see where he was born.
Even his father lived in Kalamazoo most of his life! I think it’s that hat–the shape and the fit of it doesn’t look typical of an American boy of that time, IMLO (that means in my limited opinion haha).
The suit is pretty European looking also. But as you know, fashion and styles—not my thing!
Not mine either! I would never have thought of that.
My oldest son goes by the Nickname “Dewey”. Since he was an infant that is what we have always called him. Great site you have here!
Thanks for stopping by, Michael! Was Dewey after someone in particular? I am thinking that maybe Clarence got that name from John Dewey who would have been at the University of Michigan around the time Clarence was born (or at least before that). It couldn’t have been Thomas Dewey . . . .
Nice. Thank You for the info.
Have a great rest of the week, Jose!
My mother Marguerite Vandenberg Reeves living a few blocks south on Burdick attended Bethany Reformed Church beginning as a child and was married there. My brothers and I all attended as children and one still attends there.
Joel, my grandparents lived on the corner of Burdick and Emerson, so my mom grew up there. Did your mother live close by there? Their house was across Emerson from McKinley School.
To me, Clarence looks more like 12 or 13 than mid-teens. But those old photos often fool me, so he could be much older. 🙂
Oh, that is helpful! Thanks, Laura.
That dapper Clarence in the wonderful suit looks to me to be about mid-teens, too. That is an awesome picture – church pictures great, too, but the picture of Clarence is stunning.
I think so, too! He always looked a bit elegant to me, as did Alice. Part of it was the way they carried themselves.
As always, what amazing photos!
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