The (de Jong) DeYoung Family
DeYoung Page 3
Apparently
my Grandfather decided not to exercise his option to buy the building after two
years. Instead he bought the property next door and built the Woodinville
Mercantile store that still stands in Old Woodinville today. This is a
picture of how the building looked in the 1930's. My Grandfather must have
been successful at running a General Store because he enough money to build a
new house in Woodinville in 1929.
From the Northshore Citizen - Home of
Note, about 1965 - A creamy yellow colonial house in the heart of Woodinville
has been the John DeYoung family home since it was built in 1930. Most of the
couple's six children were raised there, and in turn, have settled in the
Northshore area themselves.
Now
the ten-room colonial house has become familiar to the grandchildren as well.
Mrs. DeYoung found the original plans for the house while browsing through a
home magazine some 35 years ago and turned the sketches over to Woodinville
contractor E. D. Miller. He devised this traditional home whose rounded roof and
classic entrance make it as distinctive in Woodinville as it would be in its
native New England. The interior features high cove ceilings throughout
the house. The tile fireplace was installed at a time when tile was just
entering the home building scene. The bricklayer combined large tile blocks of
pastel blue and beige to form an interesting pattern of the fireplace.
A classic entry hall leads directly to either the living room, second floor
stairway, or dining room. Under the rounded roof are the second-story bedrooms.
Mrs. DeYoung has converted the center room on the north side of the house to a
sewing room, where a window wall gives her natural light plus an interesting
view downward to busy NE 175th St.
I have wonderful memories of this house. The family would get together for every birthday and holiday and all the grandchildren would chase each other through the house until someone got hit with one of the swing door and tears would ensue. We would play rock school on the large staircase going upstairs, or build houses and forts out of hay in the barn. It was great fun with lots to do and lots of cousins to do it with.
My Grandfather also owned a shingle mill on the Sammamish Slough down the street from merchantile. He owned a tug boat and they would take it up to Lake Sammamish and bring logs down to make shingles. (What fun my Dad and Uncles had!) After they logged the Woodinville area in the early 1900's what remained were many old growth cedar stumps. Settlers were called "stump farmers" because they had to remove the stumps before they could build on or farm the land. Some of these farmers would dig out the stumps and haul them to my Grandfather's mill for some extra money. The valley also had many Italian and Japanese farmers. Much of their produce was hauled by railcar back east. My Grandfather built a ice house and lettuce packing plant that would pack the lettuce in ice so it wouldn't rot before it got to market. My Grandfather truly was an entrepreneur. Although my Dad and his brothers worked hard after school and after dinner for my Grandfather's, I also believe they also had a great childhood in Woodinville playing practical jokes with the neighborhood kids, riding the trains into Seattle, and hauling logs on their tug boat down the river. It became a town that was a great place to raise your children much to the credit of my Grandparents.
My Grandfather eventually sold the Mercantile and built a Hardware Store which was, I believe, his first love. He was a hard worker and a dedicated family man.. My Dad remembers that they went to Kent every Sunday to visit his grandparents - Menno and Ida and then Ida after Menno died. He was always giving his mother money which my aunts and uncles found hidden in books, canisters, and the mattress after she died. My Dad also remembers either my Grandfather was at work or out in the field digging ditches for better drainage. (After being to Friesland and seeing all those ditches I realize it must of been his Dutch heritage). My Dad says he learned how to dig a ditch from his Dad so it continues. He was a quiet man with a wonderful laugh. My memories of him are mainly from down at the Hardware Store and that he always wore overalls except when he went to Church. I remember on our birthday's we would meet him down in the basement of their house when he came home and he would pull out a roll of bills with a rubber band around them and he would peel off two one dollar bills for us. It was a big deal. He was also a founding Board member of Washington Federal Savings and Loan which still operates today with over 100 branches in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Arizona. Although he started a bank, we fondly remember that he ran the unofficial Bank of Woodinville out of his front pocket. He had a piece of paper in his pocket where he kind of kept tract of too whom he lent money. He helped out many families during the Depression who otherwise would have lost their homes. He extended them credit so they could buy groceries.
Before WWII he started stockpiling gas, oil and staples. He must have believed that we were going to war. He started stockpiling shingles. My Father says that my grandmother was so mad that he had all these shingles and wanted him to sell them. But he just kept stockpiling them. When the war came he sold all those shingles to roof the houses in West Seattle and Magnolia where they were building homes for the Boeing workers. My Father remembers that during the war they would deliver groceries to the outlying farmers. They used to trade food and gas stamps for sugar. These farmers used the sugar to make liquor in their stills. There were quite a few stills in this area during that period. Woodinville - 30 miles outside of Seattle - was still a wide spot in the road.
The following is a picture taken in at the DeYoung Park dedication in
Woodinville in 1998. From left to right: Al DeYoung, Anna Frances
DeYoung
Gasslander,
Jennifer Cooper, Stella Pascoe DeYoung, Linda DeYoung Cooper, John
DeYoung, Bob DeYoung, Larry DeYoung, Donna Pemberton DeYoung, hidden Barbara
Koontz DeYoung, Jim DeYoung, Frances Pemberton DeYoung, Diane DeYoung, Lucy
DeYoung, and Lowell DeYoung.
Meanwhile, Hiltje de Jong (now called Helen) stayed in Grand Rapids and married Willem Van Malsen. Please go to the Van Malsen family page for information about the Van Malsen family. I don't know much about the Willem Van Malsen family. I have been contacted by several Van Malsen relatives, but they descend through one of Willems' brothers. My hope is that a descendant of Willem and Helen Van Malsen will contact me and help fill in the blanks. I have many pictures from Grand Rapids on my DeYoung unknown pictures page. I am sure many of them are Van Malsen relatives.
Helen (de Jong) Van Malsen, Hans Mennes de
Jong (my 2nd great grandfather), Richard van der Stel,
and Anne (Van Malsen) (van der Stel) Avink taken around 1920
Helen and Willem had nine children (Anne, Minnie, Hans, Peter, Clarence, Marie, Bert, Mabel, and Hazel) and visited Hans and Ida in Kent, Washington about 1920 shortly before Helen died of Nephrites in 1926 at 57.
From left to right front row: Milford DeYoung, Hazel Van Malsen, Frances DeYoung, Lowell DeYoung Helen Van Malsen. Back Row: Ida DeYoung, Menno DeYoung, Ellen DeYoung, Willem Van Malsen
From left to right: Nellie (Starkenburg) Dykstra, Ida (Dykstra) DeYoung, Helen (de Jong) Van Malsen, Peter Dykstra, Menno DeYoung, Willem Van Malsen, Ida Dykstra.
Helen (de Jong) Van Malsen died in 1926 and Willem Van Malsen died in 1948. Both died in Grand Rapids.
Berend de Jong also stayed in Grand Rapids where he worked in the furniture stores, married Japke (Abbie) Sybesma, and had two children Anna and Hans (Harry). Harry married Jennie Cornelia Vander Veer, worked in construction as a carpenter and had two daughters Pauline and Doris and a son Roger who died in infancy. I don't know anything more about Berend and his family.
Berend, Abbie and Anna de Jong about 1896. Hans (Harry) probably was born shortly after this picture was taken.
Berend de Jong died in May 1936 in Grand Rapids and Japke Sybesma de Jong Wynandts died in 1952, also in Grand Rapids. Although Jennie remarried she is buried next to Berend and their infant son Roger.
Anna married Charles Osenga. For more information about the Osenga family please go to their family page.
The DeYoung Family was updated 10/6/2003.