| Notes |
- The Verspoor Branch
Note 14
Leendert and Dinah DeKoning Verspoor came to the United States in 1851, settling in Sayville with their three small children when he was 37 and she 28. A fourth child was born in this country but died as an infant. Dinah is the great grandmother of my early childhood (BOT). I have a dim memory of an old lady, all in black, in a wheel chair (broken hip). Her mother died when she was a child, and she had a"cruel stepmother,,, so that the girl had to work on her father's boat. However, upon her father's death in 1854, shortly after they came to America, she inherited some property, and Leendert went back to Holland to claim it. This was probably the source of the family's Dutch jewelry. On his return, Leendert brought Dinah a Paisley shawl, which I had made into an evening coat about 1935, and still have.
Leendert Verspoor is the man to whom the Dutch documents and medal pertain. In a bad winter storm on January 26, 1844 the merchant frigate DeZeeuw foundered in the rough seas at the mouth of the 8cheldte river. Leendert volunteered to take out his father's boat to attempt a rescue if the village poeple of Bruinisse would make him a crew. The rescue of sixteen people was successful, and in the ensuing months Leendert received two citations, some money,
and a silver medal. Translations of the two citations and the medal are attached. Louis L. Otto has the citations, the medal, and a picture made to show the event.
When the Verspoors settled in Sayville in 1851 they lived for
a time in a part of the house owned by J, Wilson, located on the north side of Main Street just east of West Brook (now Greene's River). After Leendert returned from his trip to Holland to collect Dinah's small inheritance, they bought the house on Candee Avenue, next to Charles Radnor, ~here they lived cut their lives. This house was on the west side of the street, about opposite the office of the Suffolk County News. Leendert and Dinah Verspoor were charter members of the Dutch Reformed Church in West Sayville, organized in 1560.
Note 1
The family of Ida and Sylvenus Titus James. Cousin Ida and Cousin Vene James lived on Roosevelt Avenue in Sayville. Of their children, Helen was a nurse, Irene James taught grade school in one of the south shore towns. Frederick, their eldest child and only son, lived in Port Washington and worked in New York City. I knew his family, and especially his daughter Edith, who graduated from Goucher in 1 940. Her husband was a Navy Man. Ethel James married an Englishman, they lived much of their lives in Hong Kong. Their children went to school in England, shere their grandmother, Mrs. Frederick James, lived with them after her husband's death. For a couple of years before ~is death, Vene James w~s a clsm~ming partner to Louis A. Otto on the south bay. Mush of his life was spent as hired Captain on the private yachts of familie~ on Long Island.
Note 16
Hannah Verspoor Hiddink. John and Hannah Verspoor Hiddink had no children of their own, but they brought up her nmece Ida Verspoor, whose mother died when she WaS a small uhild. Judging by a photograph, Hannah was a beautiful young woman. She measured time as '~efore John died", and "after John died". She lived out her days in their home on North Main Street in Sa~ville, maintad~g everything as it had been "when John died". She rented out the tenant farm houses and the farm land, which extended to Lincoln Avenue and Hiddink Street. She always kept a large flower garden, with an enormous rain barrel from which water was scooped for the garden. The large old barn, sheds, etc., were maintained much as John had left them. I remember a large wooden squirrel cage (unoccupied) on her special sun porch v~ere her plants wintered in pots spread out along bleacher like shelves. There was a sitting room ~th horsehair sofas and a cheery nickel-plated iron parlor stove. We went often to her house for an afternoon call and tea. The front parlor was never entered except on state ocassions. There were one or two rooms upstairs, and a large porch, on the roof of which stood a large model of the house, itself used by the birds and the bees.
Aunt Hannah died at age 92, spry and healthy to within a few months of her death, when she became feeble. She outlived all of her friends and much of her immediate family. When she became lonely or depressed she ~nt to the nearby cemetery to visit with her friends, returning cheered and at peace again. Her house was full of what would now be termed ,,antiques". The "Brown Girls" two elderly daughters of old friends, sought to profit on these, offering to buy some of the old china. Aunt Hannah did sell them "a worthless "pitcher with a chipped s~out for $2.50, but she had to paV Gerbers store $4.00 for a whole new one to replace it. She never sold anything els e.
Translation of the documents accompanying the medal awarded to Leendert Verspoor 2 7 for his heroism on January 26, 18~4.
Je Naintiendrai (This is the royal motto, in French)
Ministry of Home Affairs
The Minister of Home Affairs, as authorized by His Majesty the King, declares His approval and His appreciation in regard to the courageous and humane behavior of Leendert Vetspoor of Bruinisse, when he saved, on January 26, 18~4, at therisk of his own life, the shipwrecked men of the merchantman de Zeeuw, which was wrecked on the Banzert, west of the island of Schouwen. Because of this a gratification of twenty-five guilders will be awarded to the above mentioned Leendert Verspoor.
The Hague, March 18, 18A4
(Signature, not legible)
The Society for Public Welfare wishing to acknowledge and honor humane and generous actions, has thought to have to consider as such the endeavor of Leendert Verspoor of the 26th of January, 18~4; when aided by others, but unhe~tantly, he gave, with the ship of his father, aid to a frigate which had run aground and which was in great peril in the mouth of the river Schelde. In spite of the fierce wind and the high seas he saved, with much courage and thought and with great danger to his own life, sixteen crew members from an otherwise certain death.
The Society wishes to make a public declaration of the acknowledgement, and
gives to Leendert Verspoor this certificate, a silver medal, and twenty guilders, as a deserved tribute to his love of mankind, with the wish that the pleasing knowledge of having acted disinterestedly to the good of his fellow men be the
most noble reward of his humane action.
For the Society; In the; general assembly of th® Society, held the 13th of August, 1844
For the Society:
W. N. suringen
Chairman
P. MG van Wees
Secretary
The silver medal carries on its face the figures of four adults and two children, under a tree, and the words Voor Edelmoedige Daden (For noble deeds). The reverse carries around the ~ge EerepriOs der Maatschappij Tot Nut Van't Algemeen ( Prize
of the Society for Public Welfare), and in the center Aan Leenu=~-~ verspoor 14 Augustus 1854 (To Leonard Verspoor, August 1~, 18A~). It is A.A cm. in diameter, and came in a velvet-lined rosewood box.
|
1814 - 1884 (69 years)
[1] 