As Henry Ford began putting America on wheels with his Modet T, the need arose for garages and service stations to repair and fuel them. When my grandfather purchased his first 1913 Model T, he had to drive to Zeeland for service and repairs. In my grandfather Essenburg’s 1920 Farm account book, I found that he was getting his auto and milk truck repaired at Poskey’s Garage in Borculo. He was also buying his gasoline there. Poskey’s Garage was founded some years earlier by Henry Poskey from the South Blendon area. The Borculo Garage was located on the Southeast corner of the Borculo crossing and has remained at this location over the years.
In the year 1921 Henry Poskey sold his garage to Henry Vollink who then operated it for eight years. In February of 1929, Henry Vollink sold the Borculo to Gerrit and Herman Bussis. In 1933, the Bussis Brothers signed a contract with Standard Oil Co. to sell their products at their service station.
Arlene Bussis Barton , a daughter of Gerrit Bussis, remembers how her dad and uncle Herm would work late into the evening as a milk truck had to be back on the road in the morning.
When Bussis Brothers built a new implement building next door to the East, they sold the Borculo Garage in 1946 to Elmer Nienhuis and Jerry Por. They also sold the now vacant old implement building across the street to Nienhuis and Por. (That is the building in which Herb Schout started his auto body shop and later Jerry Por started the Borculo Restaurant.) Insert by VandenBosch
In 1951, Elmer Nienhuis and Jerry Por sold the Borculo Garage to Henry Geerts and Chester Grassmid. They owned the garage for the next 50 years, making many improvements to the building and lot over the years.
On Jan. 4, 1962, a fire that started in the office of the building at 4 AM, destroyed much of the building and the business records