The Jan and Adriana De Jong family

Name                                                        Occupation            Date of Birth          Birthplace      Date of Death

Jan                                                              Farmer                     July 11, 1832        Arkel                    Apr 1, 1910 

Adriana Boote                                     Housekeeper        May 9, 1837         Arkel                     Sep 4, 1918

Gysbertha Jacoba                             Daughter                July 12, 1861       Arkel                     March 1965

Klaas                                                         Son                              Dec 30, 1862       Arkel

Neeltje                                                     Daughter                 Oct 24, 1864       Arkel                     Mar 30, 1865

Pieter                                                        Son                              Feb 25, 1866       Arkel

Elbert Dirk Neldus                            Son                              Mar 26, 1868      Arkel                            1958

(named in honor of his three uncles lost to cholera on the SS England, he was deaf and dumb)

Neeltje                                                     Daughter                 Jan 26, 1870        Arkel                            1930

(she was deaf and dumb)

Dirkje                                                        Daughter                 Apr 3, 1871          Arkel

Neldus Jacobus                                   Son                              Feb 19, 1873        Arkel

Jan Hendrikus                                      Son                              Jan 12, 1875         Arkel                           1945

(cared for his deaf/mute brother and sisters after the  death of their parents)

 Jenneka Adriana                                Daughter                 May 11, 1877      Arkel

(she was deaf and dumb)

Martinus                                                  Son                              Apr 5, 1879           Arkel                           1880

Martinus (aka Tinus)                         Son                              Sep 2, 1880           Arkel

Jan and Adriana Boote were married on October 20, 1860 in Arkel. She was the daughter of Klaas Boote and Neeltje Verhoef of Arkel. 

Jan and his family remained at Drie Heulen in The Netherlands, whereas his parents and all of his siblings emigrated to the United States. 

Three of their children were deaf and mute.

The following excerpts from Gorinchem newspapers give us a small glimpse into the life of Jan De Jong and his descendants.

In July and August 1885, Jan De Jong advertises that he sells 1,50 hectare of wheat. 

In June 1893 he advertises the sale of the fruits of 80 cherry trees standing in the gardens of Schoonzigt, an old mansion not far from the train station, in Arkel.
 

In October 1900, Jan De Jong and Adriana De Jong-Boote put an advertisement in the newspaper, as a means to thank their friends and family for the attention they received on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their marriage.
 

In April 1917, J. H. de Jong (Jan Hnedrik), one of Jan’s sons, advertises the sale of "best cow and horse hay".
 

In November 1920, a 1,640 hectare plot of pasture land, situated at the Drie Heulen and being leased to J.H. de Jong until the 1922 fruit harvest, is auctioned.

According to a newspaper article in 1947, the farm at the Drie Heulen, then inhabited by the Bezooijen family, was completely destroyed by bombs originally aimed at the nearby railway. One bridge was also damaged, which was repaired only in 1947. The bombing occurred in the Spring of 1944.
 

In 1949 it was announced that one bridge was going to disappear, while another was going to be widened.
 

In January 1954, the De Jong brothers send a request to the municipality to have a house situated at the Drie Heulen connected to the municipal water system.
 

In 1956 the last original bridge at Drie Heulen was replaced by a concrete bridge.
 

Mrs. Gijsbertha Jacoba van Iperen-De Jong, eldest daughter of Jan De Jong, celebrated her 100th birthday on June 12, 1961.  The newspaper published an interview with her. The oldest of 10 children, she was born in her parent's farm at the Drie Heulen.

 "It was such a beautiful place. We were quite isolated there but it was gorgeous and really interesting there." 

She worked on the farm for the first 30 years of her life.  Then she married Leendert van Iperen. Together they ran the train station's coffee house for 34 years. They lived at the drie heulen two different occasions.  At one point they lived in Gorinchem for a few years, before going back to Arkel.  Mr. van Iperen was a deacon at the Reformed Church in Arkel for 30 years.

Lucienne Verburg, great grand-daughter of Gijsbertha De Jong Van Iperen provided this description of 

Gijsbertha De Jong Van Iperen.

“Gijsbertha De Jong Van Iperen, daughter of Jan De Jong, was my great grandmother. A great grandmother is called "opoe".

Opoe Arkel, as we called her, was a very friendly and cheerful woman and she was good in chatting. She had blue eyes and gray hair. She had thin hair. Her husband, Leendert van Iperen, was bold and used to wear a cap, you know, an old fashion black cap except when he was in prayer or when he was asleep. In the afternoon he used to have a little nap and then the children tried to steal his cap. 

Opoe grew up at the Drie Heulen, but moved to Arkel when she married. She and her husband returned to Drie Heulen later in life. But after a while the house felt too lonely and they moved to another house in Arkel, right behind the town hall. 

My mom regularly spent her holidays by her grandmother. She loved the Drie Heulen very much”. 

Lucienne also passed along this of Mrs. Van Iperen’s life at drie heulen:

To go from Arkel to the Drie Heulen you had to cross a bridge named "Schotdeuren" then to you had to go across a sand path "de Klinkert". This was a very long road. 

Mr. van Iperen had a boat to go to "Scherpengeer and the Doodskist". These were two pieces of land with cows. Opoe (grandmother) was afraid of the cows, so she stayed in the boat. Doodskist is a Dutch word for coffin. This land had the form of a coffin.

In the winter they used to skate. In the summer they used to fish. They ate the fish which they cooked on a firewood. 

Strangely enough they had electricity but no gas. They cooked their meals on oil. They drank water from the ditch. In the house there was a water filter. This filter was inside a large can. Opoe threw the water in the can with a bucket so they could drink the water. 

They had 50 chickens……an egg every day. 

They prayed before the meal, but didn't go to the church very much. They paid some kind of church-tax every year. 

Their ceiling was white with a rose and some ornaments. 

Mrs. van Iperen, now living in the old people's home, Roodhert, in Arkel, had 3 daughters. One of them has died, another lives nearby, and the other lives in Rotterdam. She has 8 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. Her brother Elbert, aged 84, and her sister Jenneke, aged 93, live nearby. Another brother, a former army colonel, lives in Utrecht.

On her birthday she was paid a visit by the mayor of Arkel, after which the school children sang her a song and the local brass band played music. The baker brought her a cake with 100 candles.
 

Mrs. van Iperen - De Jong died in March 1965 at age 103.

Letter written by Gysbertha Jacoba (De Jong) Van Speren, daughter of Jan De Jong and granddaughter of Pieter De Jong Sr., to Peter Pippel, who was married to Marie Vande Haar, granddaughter of Maria (De Jong) VanDer Haar and great granddaughter of Pieter De Jong Sr. The letter has been translated from Dutch into English.  

It shows that the families were still in touch with each other.    The American family supporting the Dutch family after WW II, in their time of need.

Arkel April 6, 1946

Dear Friends,

With great pleasure we received on April 1 your package, and herewith send our thanks. It is a beautiful deed for which we can’t thank you enough, especially considering we are virtually strangers. The situation here continues to be pretty hopeless. We can still purchase bread in ample quantities and potatoes too but as far as cold cuts and cheese, there is almost none. It is strange that in such a farming environment there is no meat or cheese to be had. Those who have lots of money can buy clandestinely but it is dangerous and much too expensive. We cannot pay for that. My husband is now 82 years old and has not been able to work since he was (age not readable).

Before that time we had a coffee house and also a small dairy supply, but we have had to clean all that up and when you have lived 30 years off a small savings, you can understand that there is not much left. We have three children and they contribute to help but each has their own household to maintain. If only we had not had that so many things burned and we had great losses. I should quit complaining. We are healthy and so are our children and grandchildren and that is a blessing. I want to thank you again for the package and if you have anything else that you wish to dispose of or can live without, we would be grateful. I would like to talk to you again some time, but unfortunately that is not possible. Heartfelt greetings from my husband and me.

G. J. Van Iperen De Jong