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Archive for the ‘Richard DeKorn’ Category

Uncertainty about Boudewijn’s Kids

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2013| 13 Comments »

Last post I showed you the photo of my great-great-great-grandfather, Boudewijn de Korne.  I just discovered new information about him written by his grandson Joseph DeKorn.  Boudewijn, his wife Johanna, and their two children travelled to the United States with Gerrit Remine (Gerrard Remijnse), who was Johanna’s brother.

They travelled on a sailing vessel and arrived at Kalamazoo, Michigan on June 22, 1856.  However, “they located in Zeeland, Michigan” for several years.  “The voyage across was bad and long.”  Joseph’s father Richard and Aunt Mary told him it took 90 days, but Joseph didn’t believe it was actually that long.

I mentioned that Boudewijn and his wife Johanna had two living children when they left the Netherlands.  The older is Richard DeKorn; I have introduced him several times before.  Note that Richard’s generation appears to have dropped the final E from their last name.

Richard:  Dirk de Korne, born 21 Aug 1851, Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands; died 26 Jan 1930, Kalamazoo,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States.  Also known as Richard and, when younger, Derrick.

Richard DeKorn (Dirk de Korne)

Richard DeKorn (Dirk de Korne)

Mary:  Maria Catharina de Korne was born on 4 Jan 1855 in Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands.  Mary married John DeSmit in Kalamazoo in 1873 and they had at eight children.  Her daughter Frances married a Flipse.  When I got married in 1975 my mother took me to Flipse Flower shop to order my bridal bouquet because they were “shirt tail relatives.”  It’s hard to imagine it from this photo, but Mary only died two years before I was born.

Mary DeKorn DeSmit

Mary DeKorn DeSmit

After the family moved to the United States, Boudewijn and Johanna had another daughter, Adriana, in 1959, who is one year old in the 1860 census.   Nothing after that.

However, a 10-year-old daughter Jennie shows up in the 1870 census, which Jose from Enhanced News Archive was kind enough to find for me.

Joseph DeKorn’s documentation mentions Jennie, but not Adriana.  My grandfather identified the woman in this photograph as Jennie, Richard’s sister, who married a man named John Culver and eventually moved to Seattle, Washington.  She died in Pierce, Washington, on July 4, 1947.  According to her death record, she was born around 1861.  One difficulty in searching is that there is another Jennie Culver (married to Earl) who lived in Kalamazoo during Jennie DeKorn Culver’s lifetime.

So the question remains: was there an Adriana born in 1859 as well as Jennie born in 1860 or 1861?  Or are they the same person?  If Adriana had lived and kept her name, she would have been mentioned in Joseph’s statement.  So either she passed away as an infant or she became known as Jennie or, perhaps most likely, the census got her name wrong to begin with.

UPDATE: IT IS NOW 2018, FIVE YEARS LATER, AND I STILL DO NOT HAVE BIRTH OR BAPTISM INFORMATION ABOUT JENNIE OR ADRIANA. I AM GOING TO ASSUME FOR NOW THAT JENNIE IS ADRIANA–UNTIL I FIND OUT TO THE CONTRARY. THIS IS BECAUSE JENNIE IS A COMMON NICKNAME FOR ADRIANA.

Jennie DeKorn Culver

Jennie DeKorn Culver

This is a photo of Jenny and John Culver’s children:

The Culver Children

The Culver Children

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Richard DeKorn and His Bride Tied the Knot in Kalamazoo

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2013| 10 Comments »

As I continue to sort through the boxes of photos and other memorabilia I have collected from my mother’s family, I see that I have the original Certificate of Marriage belonging to my great great grandparents.

According to his marriage certificate, my great great grandfather, Richard DeKorn, was really named Dirk de Korn.  On May 10, 1872, at the age of 20, Richard married Alice Paak, 19,  in Kalamazoo.  Her name was actually Aleye Peek, if I believe this document.

Alice Paak/Aleye Peek

Alice Paak/Aleye Peek

I thought Richard was born in Goes, but on his marriage document, where Richard’s birth date is given as 1852, not 1851, it states that he was born in Kapelle, not Goes.

Yvette Hoitink at Dutch Genealogy wrote in her report:

The 1872 marriage record of Dirk DeKorn and Aleye Peek was retrieved to check their places of birth and parents names. Dirk De Korn was listed as born in “Kasselle Netherlands” and Aleye Peek as born in “Leymond, Netherlands”. No such places exist but Kasselle suggests Kapelle (in Zeeland) and Leymond suggests Lexmond in Zuid-Holland. The parents of bride and groom were not listed.

After reading this, I am not certain where I got the idea that Richard (Dirk) was born in Goes.  Now I see that both his parents were born in Kapelle, as was he. So I looked up both towns on a map and found that they are very close to each other.

Kapelle is located at the A flag and Goes is just to the left

Kapelle is located at the A flag and Goes is just to the left

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The Park with a Literary Name

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2013| 23 Comments »

The property at Long Lake in Portage, Michigan, known as Ramona Park and featuring a pavilion called Ramona Palace was in my family for many years.  Ramona was named after the “Indian Princess” in Helen Hunt Jackson’s popular novel Ramona, which was published in 1884.

When I was a little girl, my father Rudy Hanson tried to re-create the heyday of Ramona Park and its pavilion.  He was  young and ambitious and wanted to restore the place.  Although Ramona Palace had a magnificent ballroom, the owner had sold the liquor license in 1956 or 1957 to Airway Lanes (according to my father).

So my parents held teen dances and concerts; The Association performed there. I remember my parents taking tickets out front, seated at a table.  One time a kid broke in when a dance was going on.  Dad took off running after this high school “track star,” caught him, and turned him over to the police.  It was mentioned in the paper.

My father preferred booking picnics because he could obtain a one day liquor license.  Continental Can held their company picnics at Ramona.  Sometimes I helped out or hung out during events.  The German-American Club held a dance, and I remember a couple dressed in lederhosen, the girl’s thick blonde braid swinging to her dancing.

My father had invested in this property and lost money on the deal.  It was actually owned by a relative named Therese Remine.  Therese’s mother was Mary Paak (Peek), the sister of my great great grandmother, Alice Paak DeKorn.

Therese had inherited the property from Henry and Carrie Waruf, who had owned it for years.  Carrie was born a Paak, and I believe she was one of the Paak sisters: Mary, Alice, Annie, and Carrie.  This is an area for future research.  I don’t know why only Therese inherited and not her brother, Harold.  Or why the cousins, such as my grandfather Adrian Zuidweg, did not inherit it.

Therese Remine

Therese Remine

At some point after my father no longer was affiliated with the property, Therese sold and donated it to the City of Portage.

My father has many other memories of the park.  He says Ramona was used as storage for years for ice, which was cut from the lake and packed with straw.  It lasted throughout the summer and was hauled to town by a train.  The tracks ran halfway between the pavilion and Sprinkle Road.

In that front lot off Sprinkle, in the 10s and 20s, was a building and home field for various ball teams.  Later on, Airstream trailers held their annual meetings.  The circus was set up on the Ramona property; I remember the circus billboard which was up for weeks ahead of time.

When I was young, a row of cottages on the property were leased out to renters by Therese.  Sixty years before that, Richard DeKorn, my great great grandfather, had leased his own summer cottage from the Warufs.

Therese’s summer house was on Sprinkle, and a gravel road led back to the park, pavilion, and the lakefront.  My friends and I found arrowheads in the cornfield behind her house.

Ramona Park is a thriving park in Portage, Michigan, still today.

Possibly Long Lake, according to Adrian Zuidweg

Cora DeKorn at her father Richard DeKorn's cottage on Long Lake

Cora DeKorn at her father Richard DeKorn’s cottage on Long Lake

Richard DeKorn enjoying the lake

Richard DeKorn enjoying the lake

 

 

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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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