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Archive for the ‘Paak’ Category

Richard DeKorn, Brick Mason and General Contractor

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2012| 13 Comments »

My great-great-grandfather, Richard DeKorn, was a brick mason who worked on many public buildings in the Kalamazoo area.  He was a brick mason on the beautiful Ladies’ Library Association in 1878-79 and lead brick mason on theKalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital Water Tower  in 1895. According to his obituary he was the contractor for the Pythian building and the Merchants Publishing Company building.

Richard was born on August 21, 1851* in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands to Boudewijn and Johanna (Remijinse) DeKorn.  When he was four or five years old, the family immigrated to Zeeland, Michigan.  I have not yet discovered when or why Richard moved to Kalamazoo.

Richard was sometimes called Dick or Dirk, but more importantly, his birth name was Derrick and it’s likely that Richard was actually his middle name.

On May 10, 1872, at the age of 20, Richard married Alice Paak in Kalamazoo.  They lived in Kalamazoo, in the Burdick and Balch Street area, for the rest of their lives.  For much of the time, they lived in a house which Richard built with his characteristic style:  dark brown brick with stripes of light brick or stone.

Richard and Alice had three children: Joseph, Cora, and Jennie.  After Alice’s death in 1908, he married Jennie Sootsman who had two daughters, Marian and Marge.

The family refers to him as “Richard DeKorn” with great respect for the reputation he achieved as a wonderful craftsman and contractor.  Richard did a little gardening on the property, but he really enjoyed relaxing with a pipe and spending time with his family.  His door was open to any friend or family member and he was a good stepfather to his 2nd wife’s daughters.

*

*On his marriage document, Richard’s birth date is given as 1852, not 1851, and it states that he was born in Kapelle, not Goes.

Richard DeKorn’s home at the corner of Burdick and Balch, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Richard surrounded by family, including son-in-law Lou Leeuwenhoek (L), daughter Jennie (to Richard’s right), wife Alice in front.

Richard picking strawberries

Richard with his beloved pipe

Richard holding unidentified baby

Richard with his granddaughter Alice Leeuwenhoek (Moerdyke)

Richard DeKorn crew at work in an area which would become The Kalamazoo Mall

Lou Leeuwenhoek and Richard DeKorn

Ladies’ Library Association, Kalamazoo, MI
Photo from LLA website

KPH Water Tower, Oakland Drive, Kalamazoo, MI

KPH Water Tower article, February 2010

Here’s a video which shows a climb up the inside of the tower!

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Cora Wilhelmina DeKorn Zuidweg

Posted in Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2012| 12 Comments »

Cora DeKorn Zuidweg

Cora DeKorn Zuidweg

One day, when I was a student at Western Michigan University, I was working at the counter in Stanwood’s Luggage and my grandparents came in to look at wallets.  We called them billfolds because that was the proper name.  My hair was pulled back and clipped at the back of my head.  Grandpa startled a bit when he looked at me and said, “You look just like my mother.”  My grandmother corroborated that I did, in fact, look like her mother-in-law with my hair pulled back.

Cora DeKorn Zuidweg: in this photo I can see the resemblance.

Cora DeKorn Zuidweg: in this photo I can see the resemblance.

Of course, my great-grandmother, Cora Wilhelmina DeKorn Zuidweg always wore her hair pulled back into a bun.  She was born in Kalamazoo on January 2, 1875, the middle child of Richard DeKorn and Alice Paak DeKorn.  Her older sister, Jennie, was two, and when Cora was six, her brother Joseph Peter, the family photographer, was born.

 

The City Directories show that Cora was a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo.  She married my great-grandfather Adrian Zuidweg (who was born in the Netherlands) on May 19, 1897, in Kalamazoo.  She was 22 and he was 26. Cora DeKorn and Adrian Zuidweg wedding picture close up

Cora and Adrian Zuidweg formal pose

Eleven years later, she gave birth to my grandfather Adrian Zuidweg (II), her only child, on October 31, 1908, in Kalamazoo.

Cora and little Adrian circa 1910

Cora and little Adrian circa 1910

Cora at her father's cottage on Long Lake

Cora at her father’s cottage on Long Lake

My grandfather shared with me some stories about her.  My favorite one is about the day she heard a man out in front of her house beating his horse with a whip.  She ran outside in a fury, grabbed the whip out of the man’s hand before he had a chance to understand what was happening, and smacked him with the handle.

She must have had a temper.  Another story goes that she donated a quilt to her church and then saw it on the clothesline of someone who shouldn’t have had the quilt.  She ended up withdrawing from the Reformed denomination to which she belonged and switching to the Methodist Church.

A few years after her husband died, when she was 57, Cora became sick with cancer.  Grandpa told me that the illness “went to her brain.”  One day she gathered together all the books in the house, except the Bible, and threw them out of the windows.  Then she collected them and burned them in a bonfire.

She died less than four months after her son was married to Lucille Edna Mulder, my grandmother.  Grandma reminisced to me that it was very difficult to be newly married and taking care of a terminally ill mother-in-law.  Cora passed away on September 12, 1932, at her home in Kalamazoo at the age of 57.

Cora and Adrian in chairs. Standing are Cora's stepsister Marian Sootsman and sister Jennie DeKorn Leeuwenhoek. Seated in front is Jennie's daughter Alice.

Cora and Adrian in chairs. Standing are Cora’s stepsister Marian Sootsman and sister Jennie DeKorn Leeuwenhoek. Seated in front is Jennie’s daughter Alice.

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