When the first settlers arrived in Ottawa County in the mid 1800’s, the first task was to build a dwelling where the family could live - either a log cabin, or a simple wood-frame home built with lumber cut from trees growing on the property that had not yet cleared for farming. The next building needed was the outhouse or privy. Settlers usually built a two-holer, furnished with out-of-date Sears and Montgomery catalogs to provide the bathroom tissue of that day.
Then the next building needed by the settlers, if they wished to engage in farming, would be a large barn. This large barn was needed to house their livestock, like cows, oxen, horses, pigs, and chickens, as well as provide space to care for the animals. The barn had to be big enough to hold one year’s supply of hay for food, as well as straw for bedding. And a cow stable was needed to have space for milking the cows.
The Klanderman barn, like all barns of the day, was built and framed with wooden beams that were cut from tall, straight, white pine trees that were still growing in the area. The white pine logs were squared up into 8” by 10” beams using a broad axe. Some of these beams were over 40-feet long.
Once the beams for a barn were squared up, they were fastened together using a mortise and tenon connection. The end of a beam was cut into a tenon that fit into a mortise that was cut into the beam with a drill and a chisel. A wooden pine pin was pounded into a hold drilled through this joint to hold it together.
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The barn did not have electricity installed in the early days, so there was a well with a handpump in the cow stable. In 1941 we had an electric pump installed.
The barn was always an interesting and exciting place for children to play, providing countless childhood adventures. They could have lots of places to hide when playing hide and seek. Often the favorite spot in the barn would be the haymows when they were filled with fresh hay. There would be a lot of jumping from one level to another as kids could jump from a beam to a soft pile of hay below. As children, we would also swing on a harpoon rope hanging from the roof, like Tarzan, and land below in the fragrant loose hay.
The haymows were also where our barn cats lived and reproduced. It was always fun looking for a litter of kittens hidden by their mother in the many tunnels under barn beams. As a young kid I remember listening for the sound of the mewing of newborn kittens. Once we found some young kittens who didn’t have their eyes open yet. We thought they were all born blind! Then I learned that most kittens’ eyes open about 10 days after they are born.
Our barn cats were likely to be found in the cow stable at milking time. Sometimes we gave them some milk in a dish, but at other times us kids would squirt a stream of milk directly from the cow’s teat to a cat standing nearby with their mouths open!
One year we had a huge mother pig confined to a pen on the barn floor, ready to give birth. Every day we would go to the barn and check out this pig. Finally, one day there were 12 little pigs running around the pen. We couldn’t wait to get back to the house and report this news!
As us kids grew older, the old barn and cow stable was not just a place to play, but also a place of work. There were chores to do twice a day. I remember milking cows by hand twice a day from the time I was 8 years old.
In 1949 the old stable was moved from the south side of the barn to the west end. We then had 10 stantions with concrete floors. The milkhouse and the silo were built at this time also.
My parents purchased the Klanderman Farm from James Klanderman in 1937. He was a grandson of Jacobus Klanderman who was the first settler in Borculo. James and his wife had no children, so they decided to sell the farm when they retired in 1937. The Klanderman family had owned it for 69 years, and now our family has owned it for the past 83 years.
The Klandermans sold the 40-acre farm and all of the buildings, machinery, and livestock for $3,500, in March of 1937. James Klanderman had owned 4 milk cows and 1 heifer at this time, as well as 1 horse (he would borrow a horse from his neighbor Henry Geurink when he needed a team). His dad, Gerrit Klanderman, opened up the first grocery store in Borculo in 1869. Gerrit drove a wagon pulled by oxen to get supplies for his store from Zeeland, but he died from pneumonia in 1876 at the age of 37, having contracted it while driving home in a cold rainstorm.
Jacobus Klanderman had 2 sons and 2 daughters when he moved to Borculo in 1868. One son Gerrit had one son of his own but his son Derk and his wife had no children. Gerrit’s son James also had no children so the Klanderman family name died out. Gerrit had 3 daughters whose descendants still live in the Borculo area, including the Meppelink and Bos families.
In later years the old barn was still standing as my own young children were growing up. They still have endearing memories of when they too went exploring in this interesting building.
During the winter of 2001 the heavy snow of that year caused the roof to collapse. The roof had been leaking for some time, and a few beams were already damaged.