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Mar 31, 2023

Holland History: Ray Nies takes over the family hardware business

Last week’s story was about Jan Nies, the founder of Nies Hardware. This week

Last week's story was about Jan Nies, the founder of Nies Hardware. This week the story is about his son, Ray, the eventual owner, and Nies Hill.

Ray Nies married Angeline Horning. He met her when she was on her way to Hope College and had stopped in front of his father's hardware store on Eighth Street to put air in her bicycle tires. When Ray noticed her beauty, he went outside to help her; when he experienced her personality, he wanted to spend more time with her.

Together, they would take trips on their bicycles. A year later, in 1901, they married, and moved to 35 E. Ninth Street. Together they had seven children, one of whom died in infancy.

More:Steve VanderVeen: The family who owned Nies Hill

Ray's mother, Johanna, died in 1910. In 1914, Ray purchased the hardware business from his father. By that time, the business covered two storefronts at 43-45 E. Eighth St. Then, another tragedy struck: a young doctor, impatiently driving a "horseless carriage," struck and killed Ray and Angeline's three-year-old son, Jan.

Ray and Angeline decided to move away from downtown traffic, into a vacated house on the other side of a swamp on a hill south of town, at 577 Michigan Ave. — a place local children would later sled in the winter.

According to Ray, some in the community questioned their decision to buy the house, which had a history. A family from New England had settled in Holland, and one of the sons, upon his marriage, built the house. Years later, an assailant killed his son-in-law in a fight; then, when the economy went into a severe recession — possibly during the "Cleveland Hard Times" of 1893-1897, and his debtors failed to pay him, he lost his mind.

The next occupant was the family of a western mining millionaire. He bought the house and surrounding lands, remodeled and expanded the house, and planted fruit trees — apple, apricot, cherry, peach, and pear trees — and grapes. He named his new estate "The Elms." Then, possibly during the Panic of 1907, he lost his fortune, which forced him to sell the estate and his family to move.

According to Ray, the next people to live there were a retired minister and his wife, who, with the wife's inheritance money, were able to purchase the home at a bargain price. But one day, their sons went duck hunting at a nearby lake and their boat capsized. Both sons drowned and the minister's wife died of grief. The minister, now alone, left Holland to live with another son in California.

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That left the house vacant until 1919, when Ray, Angeline and their family moved in. Ray's father, Jan, died in 1920. Still, the Nies family stayed.

Ray now had to run the hardware business and take care of a two-acre lawn, in addition to the large home. To mow the grass, he employed a cow. But Angelina didn't like the look of a cow in the front yard of her house. Ray's first idea was to attach deer horns to the cow, but knew this idea was impractical and wouldn't appease her.

His next idea was to hire a farmer with a mowing machine, but because the lawn was on a hill and populated by trees, he knew this second solution wouldn't work either. So, his third idea was to engage three sheep, a ram, and two ewes to keep the ram company. That worked until they continually escaped and headed downtown and to the neighbors, looking for food.

Frustrated, Ray purchased a mechanical lawn mower, which took his time and money, something he was trying to prevent.

Angelina died in 1937.

In 1947, Ray sold his hardware business to his sons: William and James. From 1954-1996, William developed and then owned Nies LP Gas. James ran the hardware store until 1964, when it closed.

Today, the building is home to The Seasoned Home and Crust 54. Ray died in 1950, William in 2014. In 1993, Holland Hospital razed the house on Nies Hill, but not before Elinor Burns, in her "Memory of Holland" series, immortalized it in a water-color painting.

Information for this story comes from Michael Douma and Robert Swierenga's "Village Talk: A Country Merchant's Memoir and Folk History." That merchant was Ray Nies.

— Community Columnist Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. Contact him through start-upacademeinc.com.