Herbert Schout was born to Johannes and Jessie (Steigenga) Schout 11/22/1920 and died 5/5/2005 and is buried in the Borculo Cemetery. The Johannes Schout family lived at 6556 96th Ave, in Borculo, MI.
Herb (Uncle Herb to me) attended Borculo Public School through the 10th grade and then finished high school at Zeeland High School.
In 1936, he wrote an autobiography which was probably a school assignment and which appears below. Herb and another Borculo boy, Gord Geurink, went on to start the Hudsonville Body Shop which was passed on to his son John, and is now called Auto Body Experts with locations in Hudsonville, Holland, Zeeland, and Wayland.
Herb was named after his grandfather, Hubrecht, who earlier farmed the land owned by Herb's dad, Johannes. Hubrecht helped build the Borculo Public School and was the Board chairman for over 30 years.
My Ancestors by Herbert Schout
(Everything in brackets was added by Herb's nephew, Don VandenBosch)
My father's father (Hubrecht) was of Dutch descent but was born in America. He was born near the place where I now live (Borculo, MI). When his family came to this place they decided to settle there and cleared the land to begin farming. As more people began to settle in the neighborhood, he took the trades of carpenter and butcher as sidelines.
As a carpenter he helped build the first school in the district and was a member in the school board for many years
My father's mother (Hattie Wonnink) was also of Dutch descent and was born in the Netherlands, but later came to America.
My mother's parents (Jacob and Aukje Steigenga) were both born in the Netherlands but in Friesian territory. They came to this country as a married couple with two or three children. They settled in Zeeland and my grandfather worked at the brickyard. They later moved to some land almost one mile north and one and one half miles east of Borculo. There they brought up a family of nine children and cleared some land, secured some cattle, and started farming.
They were required to get their supplies from Zeeland with oxen. The price of farm products at that time was very cheap while supplies were often expensive.
As a child my mother was required to help her brothers and sisters herd cattle and hogs in a woods some miles from home.
One day she was sitting along side the path that led through the woods when one of their long horned oxen came along and upon seeing her merely hoisted her on its horns and tossed her aside without injury. Later in life she met my father with the results of a love affair that ended in marriage.
My Early Childhood
On November 22, 1920 either fortune or misfortune passed over the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Johannes Schout and forgot me there. Maybe the weight was too much for him, but I tipped the scale nearly to nine pounds. This state of normality didn't last long. I grew tired of milk at least my stomach did and I rebelled with it to the distress of my mother. At 4 months of age I amounted to seven and one half pounds of grief.
I was then taken to a clinic in Grand Rapids as there didn't happen to be any clinics nearer to home. Here I received a ration that changed the tide toward recovery. The tide was slow in returning for it wasn't until I had reached the age of 18 months that I was again a normal child. I didn't get a tooth until the age of 12 months and I started stepping at the age of 14 months.
All seems to have gone well for a year and 4 months when I laid hands on the chicken pox and sometime later the measles. As if this wasn't enough, I started whooping it up with the whooping cough.
In the midst of these hardships I still managed to get in a few words two of which were “wallow” for yellow and “guck” for duck.
I finally reached the age of education and one chapter of my life, that of early childhood, had passed.
A Bloody Experience
One day way back in the early 1920's my sister and I had contrived to amuse ourselves by playing with a bicycle chain. We would take turns at trying to swing the chain around our head and after it had gathered enough momentum we would loose our hold and let her fly. While one was throwing the others would sit in a cart some distance off to see if the hurler could succeed in throwing the chain farther than before.
It was my turn to be spectator so I took a seat on the cart to watch the results. Results were not long in coming, for when my sister got her wind up and released the chain, it came speeding my way. My head turned out to be its hurdle over which it wouldn't jump and therefore neatly wound around my head and ended with a thud that caused a hole in my upper story.
With a yell from me, salty rivers started weathering their courses down my cheeks and a bloody current down the side of my head. I was taken into the house where bandages soon stopped the bleeding and once more experience had lent a hand in teaching me.
Lost
Some eight to ten years ago our family was to have an outing and was to visit the Lakewood Farm, which was sometimes called Getz Farm.
We started on our excursion in the afternoon taking our lunch with us. We arrived there without mishap and proceeded to see the animals.
We passed through different portions of the farm and with the crowd slowly worked our way around, seeing the animals as we went. In the interesting scenes I had taken hold of a man's coat which I thought to be my dad's.
We arrived at the lion's cage and as a checkup on my bearings I looked up at the man whose coat I was holding and to my fear and amazement found that he whom I thought to be my father was a total stranger.
Panic and fear gripped me and one look at the lion in that mood was enough to fill my cup of distress. With a yell, small rivers began to course down my cheeks. This naturally drew attention and I blurted out my troubles. I was asked if I knew where our car was, and to my relief I happened to remember.
In the meantime my parents had begun to search the premises and were told that a small boy had been lost and had gone to the car. This started them to the car where I was found to their and my own relief.
School Days
When my fifth birthday rolled around I was sent to school accompanied by my two older sisters. My school career started and except for this year of 1936-1937 all took place in the Borculo Public School. I started school with Gilbert Schout in what was called beginners.
Our first teacher was very strict. We had to obey the rules or take a few slaps across the hands with a ruler or otherwise stand in a corner on tip toes keeping your nose in a little ring drawn on the blackboard. This teacher taught us one year. We then received another teacher who taught in that school until I had passed the second grade. I was then transferred to another room for there were three rooms in the school at that time. Each of these rooms had three grades.
I made each grade year by year without failing. When I had passed the eighth grade I thought I had reached the end of my education, but then ninth grade was placed in the school and I attended it. The following year the tenth grade was added. When this was added the high school grades were given a separate room and teacher.
With the completion of the tenth grade I received a diploma signifying that I had completed 10 grades of schooling.
In these ten grades I had seven teachers, not counting substitutes.
When we had substitutes we had great sport and the majority of pupils did very little studying.
This brings to close an uneventful school life up to the present time.
In one room of the Borculo School there were three grades, sixth, seventh, and eighth. This room had a long recitation bench at its front with the teacher's desk facing this. On an afternoon when the seventh grade was holding the teacher's attention with recitations, and I was in the sixth grade and therefore didn't have to recite, a schoolmate in the eighth grade and I started a conversation. I started off and on this method of wireless telegraphy he replied by placing his fingers in his ears and answering , “What?” I naturally wasn't to be outdone by this feat and therefore followed suit with a little more volume and right then and there real competition started.
Having closed our ears with our fingers we did not realize the amount of sound we were creating, but it must have been loud for we were soon interrupted by “Alright, Mr. What, you may stay after school.” Competition ended with a hush and we both went out of business for who can surpass the voice of an an angry teacher.
Hobbies
Hobbies, as most of us know, are the things we do as favorite pastimes.
My favorite hobbies are reading, teasing my sister, roaming in the woods, and playing a horn.
Reading as a hobby started when I was in the fourth grade. We had a small library in the school and from this the teacher read some books. These stories were interesting and aroused my curiosity to find out what other books and authors had to tell us about. In this way I have come to read most of Curwood's and Zane Grey's books besides which I have read many others.
You can usually identify an interesting book by its appearance for if it is interesting it will usually show wear.
I like to roam through the woods to see the wildlife they contain, but the forests around here are not many and wildlife is not abundant.
Teasing as a hobby is not such a useful pastime, although it gives you a fair indication of the patience of many people.
A poorly developed hobby of mine is music for it was but last year that I got possession an instrument and took a few lessons and I hope that develop it farther some day.
Playing checkers is another hobby of mine in which I indulge whenever I get a chance, but for the most part in the winter time. There is only one trouble with this hobby and that is finding opponents. None of our family, other than myself, indulge in checkers because they don't like the game very well enough to get practice. When they are beaten they detest the game still more and if you let them have the game the fun is taken out of it. Therefore I usually go to some of the public places of this village to play where they have a checker board. These places are the store and the oil station.
This is a useful hobby because it trains your mind to plan to figure out what the result of an action might be. It also teaches patience when you have to wait a long time for your opponent to move, but long periods in between moves makes the game somewhat monotonous.
My first driving lesson
My first driving lesson took place about four years ago.
We lived about one eighth of a mile from our barns and had taken the car to do noon chores and I was to drive back home. We had planned to move the house closer to the barn and with this purpose in mind we had secured a huge pile of sand that was to be graded about the house. This pile of sand lay between two driveways, one of which I was to use.
I placed myself behind the steering wheel and started the car. My father had taken a seat next to me and was ready for what might be coming.
The car was a model T and could take it as most of them can.
I started from the barn and made a beeline for the sand pile. When about halfway to the top I managed to turn the wheel and down we went for a tree that happened to be in our path. With a thumping heart I applied the brakes and my passenger turned the key but not before the car and tree had connected. Naturally with these three factors, the brakes, turning of the key, and the tree, we made a speedy stop.
We got out to survey the situation and found the fender tightly pressed for room between the tree and the fender. We pushed the car back a couple of feet. My father then took hold of the fender and bracing his knee against the wheel gave a quick jerk. Once more the car was fit for use and we went home but the car wasn't under my guardianship.
Future Ambitions
The future is a vague object that cannot be made definite until it arrives and so also are my ambitions. Ambitions are not always realized and the ambitions that I have in mind I don't expect to have realized either. These ambitions come from three sources, they are mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or medical work. These all require a great deal of preparation and are often intricate but interesting careers. Mechanical engineering includes many different types of machines. It is a useful career because the factories of today are all run by machinery. It is also promising for many of the new factories are installing machinery.
A medical career also has a future for in this age of speed there are many accidents that require the care of a doctor, but what the future has in store for me I do not know and will have to wait and see what's what when my high school education is completed.