The History of the De Jong family and Drie Heulen

Heulen is an old Dutch term referring to an arched bridge made of bricks. Drie is the Dutch word for the number three (3).   Hence, Drie Heulen means three bridges.  I have found evidence that the area where the Pieter De Jong, Sr. family lived has been known as Drie Heulen at least as far back as the 17th century. One of the major features of the area is the convergence of several canals. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Drie Heulen also represents the convergence of several separate and distinct legal sections of land. These sections include Arkel Section B Booklet 01, Nieuwland Section A Booklet 03, and Nieuwland Section B Booklet 02. 

Pieter De Jong, Sr. begins the process of buying his parent’s home at Drie Heulen during the settlement of his mother, Maria Kooij De Jong’s, estate.

Maria Kooij (or Kooy) De Jong preceded her husband, Jan, in death. She died on May 30, 1830. Jan subsequently married Adriaantje van Kleef, a widow, on January 20, 1832.  Settlement of the estate was officially registered on July 5, 1836. I’m not sure what accounts for the 6 years to complete this task. 

To understand how the estate was divided, it is important to understand a little bit about Dutch laws of succession. In cases where neither spouse has a will, which seems to be the case in this instance, all property is treated as common to both partners. The surviving spouse inherits one half of the estate plus one child’s portion of the estate. Maria had four surviving children plus her husband Jan. So Jan inherited one half, plus one fifth. Each child inherited one fifth.

The surviving children included:

1) Tuentje De Jong and her husband Willem Timmer, a farmer from Hoogblokland

2) Neeltje De Jong and her husband Dirk Kooij, a farmer from Nieuwland

3) Dirkje De Jong and her husband Pieter Van Houwlingen, a farmer from Nieuwland

4) Pieter De Jong a farmer from Arkel

Maria’s estate was valued at 1550 guilders. Jan was thus entitled to receive assets from the estate valued at 930 guilders, with each child receiving assets valued at 155 guiders.

Details of the settlement of the estate were as follows:

To Jan De Jong: the middle part of a dwelling (house), and two tie beams in the back part of the premises, with yard and soil situated at Rietveld under Arkel, together with two hectares 72 ares and 14 centiares farmland and meadows situated under Nieuwland.

To Pieter De Jong: the southwest part of a dwelling (same house) with yard and soil, with one tie beam in the back part of the premises, situated at Rietveld under Arkel with 2 hectares 61 ares and 15 centiares meadows and farmland situated at Lang Nieuwland under Nieuwland.

In summary, Jan inherited property he already owned prior to his wife’s death. So he actually received nothing new. Pieter paid 800 guilders to buy out his sisters’ inheritance, plus a portion of his father’s interests.

Apparently Jan and Pieter and their respective families both owned and lived in a portion of the house at Drie Heulen.

Pieter’s father, Jan De Jong, died on Feb 26, 1848, without a will. His estate was shared equally by his four adult children from his first marriage to Maria Kooij and his 2 minor children, Dirk Hendrik and Marigje from his second marriage to Adriaantje van Kleef.

At the time of the legal proceedings to settle the estate, Adriaantje was “without profession” and “living under the jurisdiction of Gorinchem”. Arie Resoort, also of Gorinchem, was acting as co-guardian of the minor children.

Pieter purchased the remaining rights to the house, barn, and woodland for 400 guilders from his father’s estate. 

Jan’s Nieuwland farm was purchased by Izak Vervoorn on behalf of his minor son Jan Vervoorn for 860 guilders 

The De Jong home at Drie Heulen consisted of three distinct properties. Properties 31, 32, and 33 (shown to the right) represent the home, barn, and a small area of woods/shrubs. 

This plat map shows that back in the 1800s the home was bordered on the front and back of the house by canals. This configuration has changed significantly. Today, neither of these canals exists. The canal on left is now a road. The canal on the right is a dry drainage ditch. 

Pieter sold this property to his eldest son Jan in 1877 for 1200 guilders. What happened to the house and property after Jan’s death in 1910 is not known. What is known is that the house and bridge #1 were destroyed in a British bombing raid on the nearby railroad during World War II. Bridge #2 was damaged. 

The British were attempting to cut a nearby rail line used by the Germans. In doing so, the bombing completely destroyed the buildings and the bridge. The other two bridges are believed to be similar in design and construction to the one pictured in the photo gallery. Today, only two of the bridges exist and the original brick bridges have been replaced by modern steel and concrete bridges. 

The bridge destroyed in the bombing was never replaced.  In 1949, use of that particular canal was discontinued when some farms were reconfigured and the site of the original bridge was filled in, thereby eliminating the need for any bridge. 

Repairs were made in 1947 to bridge #2.

The last original brick bridge at Drie Heulen was replaced with a concrete structure in 1956. 

Up until recently, the site of the De Jong ancestral home was an auto parts shop.   It has been torn down and replaced with a modern home.  

There was a front door but that was only used by the doctor and the minister. Behind the front door there was a very large reception/living room. There were two lounge suites with sitting chairs, tables etc. In that room there was a great fireplace and next to that there was a hole, a gap, with Delft blue tiles. It used to be an oven. My mother played in that hole. 

You came inside through the kitchen. The kitchen was partially made by my great grandfather from what we called the "achterhuis". It is a part of the house on the backside. When you came in the kitchen, on the left side there was the door to the reception/living room. On the right side, there were staircases to the attic. There was also a door to the “achterhuis".  The “achterhuis” was a special cheese room. My mother told me, they washed the cheese against mold.  In the winter, the cows stayed in that cheese room. 

The room next to the cheese room was filled with hay on a "tilt". It was a wooden structure, above the ground, filled with hay. The hired help used to sleep there. There was also a large vehicle, probably used to transport the hay.

In the kitchen, there was an "opkamer"….a room with a little step up. In it, there was a "bedstee". This is a kind of cupboard that you can sleep in. 

There was another door from the kitchen to the cellar. In that cellar, there was a brick wall that was made, because behind that wall there was a corridor that had collapsed. That corridor led to the "Grote Grind". It was a place with trees. There was the “Grote (large) Grind” and the “Kleine” (small) Grind. The corridor was an escape route from the time of Napoleon.    --------  Lucienne Verberg ( great great great grand-daughter of Pieter De Jong, Sr. )

Dutch records show Pieter De Jong, Sr.  owned several plats of land, some of them quite a distance from his home. None were immediately adjacent to his home at Drie Heulen.

To the right is a modern day map of the Arkel area with the piece of land known as Nieuwland Section A Blad 03 highlighted. 

 Dutch records show that Pieter De Jong, Sr. owned approximately 2.5 hectares (6.25 acres) of land and water frontage in Nieuwland Section A Blad 03. He came to own this piece of property at the time his mother’s estate was settled in 1836. Pieter paid 800 guilders to buy out his sibling’s share of the estate. In return, he received title to this Nieuwland property along with a share of the De Jong home and property at Drie Heulen. 

According to Drie Heulen resident, Roel Mulder, Arkel and Nieuwland are in the "veenweide" area (literally, "bog meadow" area), which used to be an enormous swamp permeated by rivers, until it was reclaimed as farm land in the Middle Ages.  However, the soil here is not ideally suited for growing “cereal” crops, e.g. corn. As the soil consists of vegetable matter, the “cereals eat the soil”.  Also, to turn the swamp into farm land, canals take the water away. But when too much water is taken out, the soil shrinks.  So there is only one solution: to stop draining too much water and to stop growing “cereal” crops.  Therefore, the only way to farm is to raise cows for meat and milk and feed them grasses. Only some other crops, such as vegetables and hemp could be grown here, but this was only done in small plots. The cultivation of hemp died out in the 19th century. That's why this part of Holland looks the way it looks: windwills and canals to drain the land of water, grass and cows because there's no way to grow “cereal” crops.

So Pieter likely raised vegetables and/or hemp on his .5 hectares of arable land.

It is not known when or to whom Pieter subsequently sold this property after he left for America.    

Pieter purchased approximately .5 hectares of property in Kedichem Section A Blad 01 (See modern day  map to the right) at an auction on October 1, 1858. 

This property consisted of two very small plats near a road and canal, and a small plat, approximately 1.25 acres in size. All of the plats are described as “ boschhakhout”, which means "bush with wood to cut down". The wood was harvested once in a while to use in the fireplace. There are not a lot of natural forests in this region of The Netherlands, so wood either was imported from far away, or individuals had to have a little plot of land with wood of their own.

It is not known when or to whom Pieter subsequently sold this property after he left for America.

In summary, Pieter De Jong, Sr. initially purchased a portion of the family home at Drie Heulen in 1836. He purchased the remainder in 1848. Pieter sold the home to his eldest son Jan De Jong in 1877.

Records show Pieter ultimately owned 3+ hectares of land, which equates to about 8 acres. The average farm in this area in the 1800s was probably close to 10 hectares (25 acres).  It’s possible he rented more land. Many farmers did so. Many contracts were signed, but never made a part of the public records. So there is no reliable source to identify rental property.    

 Name           Occupation       Date of Birth       Birthplace       Date of Death      Notes                                                             

Jan                  Farmer                 Aug 18, 1771      Nieuwland      Feb 26, 1848

De Jong

Maria            Housekeeper   Jan 22, 1768        Arkel                   May 30, 1830

Kooij

(first wife)

Teuntje         Daughter            1798                        Nieuwland                                              Married Willem Timmer on Jan 30, 1823. Married Tijmen Zaal on May 7, 1841.

Neeltje          Daughter            Oct 6, 1800         Arkel                                                          Christened Oct 16, 1800. Married Dirk Kooij on Jun 7, 1826.

Pieter             Son                          July 4, 1802        Arkel

Dirkje             Daughter            Jan 10, 1804       Arkel                                                          Christened Jan 30, 1804

Geertje          Daughter            April 10, 1806    Arkel                                                          Christened Apr 27, 1806

Pieter              Son                         Mar 19, 1808     Arkel                  April 9, 1890           Christened Apr 1, 1808 

Dirkje              Daughter            Jan 11, 1812       Arkel                                                          Christened Jan 12, 1812. Married Pieter Van Houwelingen on   Nov 20, 1830.

Ariaantje       Housekeeper    Mar 6, 1791         Meerkerk

Van Kleef

(second wife)

Dirk                   Son

Hendrik 

Marigje            Daughter            Mar 8, 1834.

Pieter De Jong Sr. was the son of Jan De Jong and Maria Kooij.

Jan De Jong was the son of Dirk De Jong and Teuntje Van Karsten. Jan moved to Arkel from Nieuwland on May 1, 1799. He was a farmer. 

The date of Jan and Maria’s marriage is unknown. She was the daughter of Herman Kooij and Dirkje Van Der Sluys. 

Jan De Jong and Ariaantje Van Kleef were married on Jan 20, 1832. She was the widow of Hendrik Resoort and the daughter of Arie Van Kleef and Marigje De Greef.

Jan was living with his son Pieter’s family in Arkel, during his later years. 

Additional information about generations of De Jongs previous to Jan De Jong is provided below.