Borculo is a town in the Netherlands, and Borculo, Michigan is named after the Netherland's Borculo. Dutch settlers began settling in the area five miles north of Zeeland in the mid 1800's. Over the years there have been various businesses which developed and later were abandoned. Farming and sawmills were some of the first businesses, and as the community grew, Vollinks Store, Koops Grocery, DeGroot Blacksmith, Borculo Garage, Mead Johnson Creamery, Borculo Feed Mill, Borculo Lumber Company, Heinz Pickle Station, Fairview Dairy, Bussis Implement, Schoolhouse Restaurant, and the Borculo Restaurant are some of the businesses that have come and gone. This website is meant to preserve the memories of the earlier Borculo, because the area is quickly being developed, and will soon be part of suburban sprawl. The pictures and memoirs will preserve another era, an era when life was both simple and difficult, when the necessities of life were the basic concern. It was an era when everyone had a container of some kind filled with saved buttons, and a ball of saved string. A time when wornout clothes were transformed into some other garment or a patchwork quilt, a time of pig's feet, headcheese, and liver sausage, and when the garden's products were essential. It was an earthy time of butchered hogs hanging from poles, and headless chickens running around the yard. It was a time when one competed for existence with coyotes, fox, weasels, rats, mice, and crows, and a time when simple illnesses could be fatal. Broken bones, and sliced muscles or tendons often resulted in permanent deformities, or potentially fatal impairments, and lost teeth meant losing the pleasure of some foods, or worse.
But the vulnerabilities everyone shared brought everyone together as they worked as community to push back the things which threatened, and each Sunday the community of Borculo would gather in the local church to reaffirm their faith that God is a loving father who cares for his children.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh generations now own the land, and continue to build on the shoulders of those early hearties. Let's not forget what these pioneers have done, and let's not forget that we have the same loving God as our father, and He still cares for his children.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God."
Romans 8:28
But the vulnerabilities everyone shared brought everyone together as they worked as community to push back the things which threatened, and each Sunday the community of Borculo would gather in the local church to reaffirm their faith that God is a loving father who cares for his children.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh generations now own the land, and continue to build on the shoulders of those early hearties. Let's not forget what these pioneers have done, and let's not forget that we have the same loving God as our father, and He still cares for his children.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God."
Romans 8:28
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