Person talk:Hillechien Swierenga (1)

[17 August 2013]

The Orphans

*           Jan's death left seven orphans, since the oldest daughter Kate, age 23, had in 1897 married Nicholas Tillema. The orphans were Catherine or Katie (Trijntje) age 21, Henry age 20, Alice age 18, Edward age 16, Robert age 11, Henrietta or Rika age 9, and Tillie age 6. According to Robert's oldest son, John R. (my father), when Jan died, the younger orphans moved into the parsonage of the First Christian Reformed Church, which was vacant at the time, and their sister Alice, aged 18 years, cared for them. They lived in the parsonage for several months. Jan's older brother Barteld had become the church janitor in 1894, after working for years as a laborer and then a chairmaker. His family now resided on the church property and received free lodging and fuel, plus a monthly salary (raised from $8 to $10 in 1909, according to the consistory minutes of Dec. 30, 1909).
*           Catherine (Trijntje), the oldest sister, was also stricken with T.B., and the deacons of the Douglas Park Christian Reformed Church of Chicago, according to the consistory minutes, in 1901 provided her with monies for medicines. Then in August of that year, at the request of her brother-in-law, Nicholas Tillema, the deacons agreed to give Trijntje $2 per week, which they soon increased to $5. The next year, 1902, she married John Nienhuis, but she died of T.B. six months later in 1903.
*          When the children had to vacate the parsonage, they were taken in by their oldest married sister, Kate and Nick Tillema, who lived on a small farm in West Town (now Maywood), at 26th Avenue and Madison Street--the exact address (old numbering) was 2647 West Madison Street. On June 14, 1900, when the U.S. census marshal visited the farm on his appointed rounds, he reported a household of eleven: Nicholas Tillema, age 32, a market gardener on a rented farm, wife Katie 24, son John l, daughter Aggte 8 months, and the in-laws Katie 21, Henry 20, Alice 18, Eddie 17, Robert 12, Henrietta (Rika) 10, and Tillie 7. Katie, Henry, and Eddie were working on the farm; Alice worked for a cutlery company; and Robert, Henrietta, and Tillie were in school.  Later the Tillemas rented a farm in Bellwood at Mannheim Road and Madison Street.
*           Henry and Edward first, and then Robert, subsequently went back to Chicago. Robert worked as a teamster delivering fresh milk from house to house with a horse and wagon. He lived with Alice, now a widow since her husband, Henry (Hendrik) Dykema, had died shortly after their marriage. Alice lived temporarily in the vacant parsonage of the Douglas Park Christian Reformed Church located immediately north of the church at 1333 South Harding Avenue, where she had the job of cleaning the church. When Alice remarried Keimpe Miedema, a farmer, and moved to the western suburbs, she took in the youngest sister, Tillie, age 17. Robert went to live with Alice's first husband's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Klaas Dykema, in their home at 173 (new numbering 311) West 22nd Street and later at 1315 S. 40th Court. The Dykemas were charter members of the Douglas Park Church and had a warm Christian home, as Robert's son John recalls. But the couple suffered much; their younger son Henry died early and their older teenage son Cornelius left home and was never heard from again. Robert was treated as a son and remained with the Dykemas until his marriage in April 1910 at age 22 to Grace Dykhuis.
*          Robert's early work record is not altogether clear. From about age 17 to 19 he worked for the Haywood-Wakefield Company at 2600 West Arthington Street, a manufacturer of wicker furniture and baskets. Around 1907 or 1908 Robert bought his own horse and wagon and delivered coffee beans in bulk sacks to retail stores and wholesale outlets. "Be your own boss" was his adage. Perhaps he worked for the canned milk company and delivered door to door before buying his own horse and wagon. From coffee beans, Robert began delivering fresh fruit and vegetables from the Chicago farmers' market and commission houses on South Water Street to retail grocery stores in Chicago.
*          Robert's older brothers, Henry and Edward, are shown in an undated photograph as teamsters hauling large limestone slabs. Robert's son, John, recalls that his uncles were hauling the rock from a quarry at South 39th Street and Halsted Street to the lakefront for the construction of breakwaters and retaining walls. This indicates that the Swierenga brothers were general teamsters. Indeed, the 1910 city directory lists Robert as a "driver," and the 1910 census reports Henry as a self-employed teamster. Henry and his wife Mary were then living in a rented home at 2821 West Twentieth Street on the southwest side.--henk 04:47, 17 August 2013 (EDT)