In 1885 the new church building was dedicated. After 5 years of worshiping there it was determined that the church building and the site were too small for the rapidly growing congregation. In 1890 Mr. Moeke donated a larger site across the street to build a larger church building. In 1891 when the former church site was vacated, the consistory voted to give it back to Mr. Moeke as stated in the original deed. A few years later, Moeke decided to build a general store there which he operated until he sold it to Henry Koop in 1905.
Gerrit Koop's peddle wagon would always stop at our home on Friday of each week.
I have most of my memories of Koop's store when Gerrit Koop and his family operated the store.
The Vollink brothers, Louis and Simon, began business in Borculo on October 16, 1919. They purchased a grocery store across the street from Koop's store that had been owned for a number of years by Fedde Riemsma. The purchase price was $2000 which included the store building and the living quarters of the home that was attached to the store building. Simon purchased a home next to store. The brothers operated the store as a partnership for over 40 years.
Louis took care of the operation of the store while Simon spent most of his time driving the peddle wagon from home to home during the week bringing groceries to housewives who lived on the routes surrounding the
Borculo area. In the early days he would take eggs in trade for groceries. The rural grocery stores were 100 years ahead of their time in delivering groceries to your door. They did this with the use of the peddle wagon.
The first peddle wagons consisted of a large wooden box mounted on a high wheeled wagon pulled by a team of horses. In the snowy winter months this box was mounted on a sleigh. It was tall enough for a person to stand as he entered the rear door. There was an aisle in the center with shelves and cupboards on both sides with room for a day's supply of groceries .
When I was a boy, the peddle wagon boxes were mounted on a truck. The peddle wagon I remember best was the 1929 Ford truck that Simon used for 20 years until he bought a new truck in 1949. The cab of the old truck was sort of yellow or orange color. Even though he used this truck for 20 years, I do not know of anyone who took a picture of it and still has it today.
According to my grandfather's farm account book of 1920, my grandmother only had Vollink brothers store there once a week at this time. The account book showed that Simon stopped there every Tuesday in the month of August, 1920. One entry shows that someone had visited the store to buy a pair of shoes and pants. I'm sure they wanted to try them on to see if they fit. (Editor's note: The clothes purchased at this time were bought large enough to make sure they fit, and if they were too large, adjustments were made at home.)