[Magdalen] 5 Easter sermon, was Baptism refused...

[Jim Guthrie]

From: H Angus

>Wow! Your poor great-great-grandma! What a grim legacy.

Why we don't believe in the "traditional family" mythology. She had five 
children by my great great grandfather Blok, and the Handyman sired six more! My 
mother met some of the Louewens when she was a little girl, but they pretty much 
disappeared when they came of age.

The son who was my great-grandfather had the name Simon Peter Blok. He had the 
ability to make up "Bible Verses" that sounded credible on the fly in either 
Dutch or KJV-English. It was rare when someone knew enough of Scripture to call 
him on any of this, but My great-grandmother, according to family lore would 
often stop him mid-verse with a stern, scolding "Simon Peter!"

She died around 1941 -- saying "I'm tired and going to take a nap"and never woke 
up. Simon Peter was staying with my family in NY -- the household the year 
before I was born was my grandparents, my (then newly married) parents, Dad's 
daughter by his first marriage, Simon Peter and Aunt Cornelia -- one of his 
wife's sisters. Simon Peter died a few months before I was born, though Aunt 
Cornelia stuck around to help my mother take care of me.

The house loaded up again in 1949, when Aunt Frieda and her two children were 
expelled from China by the new government. Her husband, my Uncle Dyke (James D. 
Van Putten) was an assistant U.S. Consul and stayed behind on the theory that 
there might be American stranded who might need help. But he ended up in house 
arrest the next three years until a Korean POW exchange sprung him.

Hew taught at Columbia U for a year, but in 1953, that branch moved out and back 
to Holland Michigan, where he (and his son, later) were both on the faculty of 
Hope College.

Aunt Cornelia and the other sisters lived well into their 90s -- Aunt Lizzie and 
Aunt Annie.

Aunt Annie and Aunt Lizzie lived in the Holland Home on Fulton Street in Grand 
Rapids, MI. Aunt Cornelia lived there about 5-6 months a year until she became 
too frail to live with us even on a part-year basis.

They were all pretty feisty -- leading the battle against Holland Home men who 
wanted pool tables in the basement rec room. The women all protested that the 
Bible prohibited sinful Pool Tables. I got in trouble hearing that theology from 
Aunt Cornelia at the dinner table by saying to her (about age 13) "Now Simon 
Peter!"

My Mom and grandparents nearly fell out of their seats in laughter. Aunt 
Cornelia didn’t think it was funny.

One other note on Aunt Cornelia that I've mentioned here before -- She was the 
first woman to drive alone cross-country via the northern route through 
Minnesota, the Dakotas Montana Idaho and Washington about 1906. She was selling 
Bibles and Bible tracts (hence no room for additional passengers); the car was 
powered by kerosene and she stayed with members of "Bible Believing" churches 
each night -- sometimes for days at a time when she ran low on sales stock and 
had to wait for the publisher in Chicago to restock her car from Chicago via 
overnight express trains.

So things turned out okay, under the circumstances of being forced to marry the 
religious zealot Handyman.

Cheers,
Jim







----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Guthrie" <jguthrie at pipeline.com>
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015 8:57:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] 5 Easter sermon, was Baptism refused...

On 11/05/2015 06:25, Lynn Ronkainen wrote:

> Roger have you ever been to Andersonville ? In Georgia IIRC. Site of huge
> Civil War prison where many died from illness and lack of sanitation. Huge
> National >park. I wonder if Roland ever got there when he visited

My great-great grandfather died at Andersonville. That led to the State of New
Jersey giving her 30 days to put their farm in the hands of a man, as women
could not own property in their own right.  She married the handyman, who
promptly sold the farm *in Passaic/Clifton NJ) because it was gaining value, and
he believed God's will precluded getting rich in any manner other than the sweat
of his brow.

So he sold it for almost nothing and moved the family to Western Michigan so
they could be poor farmers without the chance of incurring God's wrath.

Cheers,
Jim