Zeeland Brick Company (1848-1925). Papers, 1848-2004.

An 1847 emigrant from Overijssel, the Netherlands to Holland, Michigan, Jan Hendrik Veneklasen and his son Berend J. founded and operated the most successful brick making company in the area. Founded in 1848 in Holland Township, the brickyard moved to Groningen in 1853 and eventually established a yard and a factory on the western edge of Zeeland in 1872. The company also owned and was interested in brickyards elsewhere in Michigan including Hamilton, Cloverdale, and Rudyard. Incorporated in 1892 as the Zeeland Brick Company, it hit its peak of production in the 1890s and finally went out of business in 1924-1925, having been owned and operated by the Veneklasen family throughout. While many of their bricks were used in industrial and public settings, Veneklasen brick became well-known for its application in houses, particularly farm houses, where Dutch used traditional brickwork techniques to create polychromatic white-red patterns. These houses, many of which were lived in by person’s influential in the history of the area, have faced considerable threat of destruction.