Family tree Foppes » Johan Arendz (1887-1971)

Personal data Johan Arendz 

• He was born on June 19, 1887 in Drachten.
• He died on August 17, 1971 in Doorwerth, he was 84 years old.
• A child of Johannes Petrus Arendz and Dettje Jans van der Wal
• This information was last updated on December 14, 2022.

Household of Johan Arendz

He is married to Geertje Pentermann.Source 1

They got married on June 11, 1919 at Warffum, he was 31 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Lubbertus Patroclus Arendz  1920-2002
2. Dettje Cornelia Arendz  1923-2013 

Notes about Johan Arendz

My grandfather Johan Arendz was born on a farm in Olterterp, south of Drachten, on 19 June 1887. He was the seventh child of Johannes Petrus Arendz and Dettje Jans van der Wal. Johan lost his father when he was only twelve years old in 1898. The family life was dominated by his older brothers and sisters. His youngest brother Jelle committed suicide at the age of 14 in 1907, Johan was 20 years old then. Johan did keep in touch with his brothers and sisters, and my mother (Corrie Arendz) still keeps in touch with many of her cousins from father's side.

The family belonged to the Mennonite church (Doopsgezinde kerk). Their primary language was Friesian, which Johan used to love, at older age he enjoyed making poems in his mother tongue. As he left Friesland at early age, in his later years his cousins used to say: "Uncle Johan still speaks such a beautiful classical Friesian".

Johan was a clever boy, so as the only one among his brother and sisters, he was allowed to study beyond primary school. He visited the "English school" in Drachten, where he learned to speak proper Dutch as well as English with a Yorkshire accent. Every morning he walked the 10 km track to the school and every evening he walked back. Sometimes he could hike a lift on the horse tram that ran in front of the house.

Through the school and through a cousin, who was the chauffeur for a wealthy family, Johan acquired middle class manners and style, which he cultivated throughout his life. In pictures of Johan as a young man he is always dressed very smartly. He loved singing, and sang up to old age in choirs with a bass-baritone voice. He particularly loved acting, and took great fun in studying and imitating the language and behaviors of other people.

His daughter Corrie (my mother) remembers a scene at their home in Meppel, where her father would draw the attention to some neighbor's peculiar handshake and try to imitate it. Her brother and her nephew Bert Pentermann, who lived with her family for a while after his parents died, would cut in and say: "No Uncle Johan, that is not how he does it, he does it like this...!" and they would go on for another half hour, doing it over and over again until they had the gesture worked out to mutual satisfaction. Corrie believes that this artistic trait was inherited from his mother, as many van der Wals seem to have a love of art.

Johan found a job as municipal clerk, first in Drachten, then in Warffum, Groningen, after marriage in Meppel, Drenthe, where he stayed until retirement. During his stay in Warffum, he joined the local amateur theater club, where he met his future wife, Geertje Pentermann, daughter of a local wealthy manufacture owner. They married in 1919 and settled in Meppel, where their son Lubbertus Patroclus (Bert) was born in 1920 and their daughter Dettje Cornelia (Corrie) in 1923.

Grandfather L.P. (Bertus) Pentermann, bought a house at the Stationsweg no 8 in Meppel for his only daughter Geertje and her husband Johan Arendz, which allowed them to comfortably throughout the period 1920-1952. Johan's job included presiding over weddings and other ceremonies, he was good at giving speeches with his particular feeling for language.

After retirement in 1952, Johan and Geertje moved into a Mennonite (Doopsgezind) retirement home "Mooiland" in Doorwerth, where they lived quietly and quite happily for a long time. Johan enjoyed playing billiard, singing in the choir and chatting with other retired people. His wife died in 1965, aged 72, Johan in 1971, at the age of 84.

What I remember of my grandfather is that he had huge hands, like many farmers in Friesland who milk their cows twice per day. Yet he could improvise on the piano quite nicely, only using the black keys. He was an impressive personality, with beautiful white hair, who could be quite witty with his remarks.

My father did not have much patience with his mannerisms, but at one time Johan had the better of him. This was towards the end of his life, we were all three together in the men's room before lunch. Johan was having trouble buttoning up afterwards, and my father was showing his impatience. Upon which Johan turns around and says slowly, holding his chin up imperatively: "Hodie mihi, cras tibi" (a Latin proverb meaning: today it is me, but tomorrow, it could be you...). In the end, my father never lived up to the same age as Johan.

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Timeline Johan Arendz

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