Gebr. Beijer

Jacobus (Jaap) Beijer (1861 - 1946), from Naarden, is the first Beijer of this family to live in Soest. In 1889 Jaap settled in Soest. Jaap's father, Jan Hendrik (1831 - 1914), followed his son at an older age and spent his last years in Soest. When Jaap settled in Soest in 1889, he started a very simple transport company. Jaap earned his money by cutting peat. He cut peat at the Wieksloot in 't Soesterveen. Peat was an important fuel in the 19th century, before coal was on the rise. Peat was created because plants that died down in the swampy peat area had formed a layer of peat several meters thick after hundreds of years. This peat layer was removed or dredged. Jaap sold his peat in Soest. He went to doors by horse and carriage to sell his wares. The transport company was born. On June 4, 1895, Jaap Beijer married Hendrika Hilhorst (1871 - 1945), daughter of Aart Hilhorst (1832 - 1885) and Engelina de Bruin (1841 - 1924). The couple went to live on the Beetzlaan in the hamlet of Soestdijk in a beautiful white farmhouse surrounded by a lot of land. The farm (now reduced to a house) still exists and is the current number 38. Grandson Gerard Beijer currently lives in this house.

Chewing tobacco

The grounds behind the house (nowadays the houses of the Mezenhof are there and in the seventies the youth society “De Vangrail” was established here) was used by Jaap as a sand hole. The municipality of Soest wanted to use the site for, among other things, housing on the Nachtegaalweg. The soil was excavated and (according to a tradition that has been a topic of conversation at birthdays and parties within the Beijer family for years) sold for a bag of chewing tobacco. It seems like a strange deal: exchanging land for tobacco. But in those years the land price was low. Tobacco was an exclusive and expensive stimulant and Jaap was able to move forward with that bale.

Haystack

Jaap and Hendrika Beijer had six children. Three boys and three girls. The sons Jan (1900 - 1983) and Jaap (1905 - 1992) took over the company from their father in the 1920s. In the following years the company grew. The brothers traded and transported sand, clay and also gravel. Due to the increasing demand for sand and gravel, the brothers invested in trucks. The first car that the Beijer brothers used, besides the horse and cart, was a “Willey's”. A modern innovation for the company. The Beijer brothers were able to serve more customers with the Willey's, a truck with a manual tilt. In the Second World War the occupier requisitioned trucks. The brothers did not want to lose their showpiece to the Germans. Jan and Jaap therefore had hidden their precious Willeys under a haystack during the war years.

Beukenlaan

In 1934 the brothers Jan and Jaap bought a piece of land on the Beukenlaan. The soil was used as a sand excavation. The sand was sieved, resulting in the products masonry sand and gravel. The sand excavation on Beukenlaan has been in the possession of the Beijer family for many years. The housing construction of the Chalonhof and the adjacent meadows can now be found on the spot where the sand quarries of the Beijer firm and colleague Kok firm once were. The Beijer brothers do a lot of work in Soest. The tennis park on the Schrikslaan is located in a deep pit that has been excavated by Jaap and Jan. Here too the brothers were able to produce masonry sand and gravel. Masonry sand that Jaap and Jan supplied in 1939 during the construction of the Holy Family Church on the Willibrodusstraat in Soest-Zuid. At the start of construction, the cardinal blessed the fresh soil provided by the brothers. Gravel was good business for the company. The gravel was purchased from Zwarte Willem near the Eem and Piet Kuyer in Baarn.

After the war, the company's growth continued. The characteristic red trucks became a familiar sight in Soest and the surrounding area. The bodywork of the trucks was bought from Anton van den Dijssel in Baarn. Jaap married Dien van der Lugt (1906 - 1974) in 1929. The couple went to live in the house Beetzlaan 89 (this later became number 121). These houses were built in 1923 by order of the housing association “Goed Wonen”. In popular parlance these houses are still called “housing”. Jaap and Dien had 13 children. There were enough heirs to the throne, who were able to take over the company from their father and uncle in the early 1970s. The eldest son Ad (1930 - 2007) started his own container company, but he worked closely with his brothers Jan (1936 - 2006) and Gerard (1946), who together became the new Gebroeders Beijer.

Working at and for the transport company was raised with the spoon for the eight sons of Jaap and Dien. The boys had to participate in the company from an early age. After dinner they were handed a bats with which sand and gravel was shoveled into containers. It is therefore not surprising that in addition to Ad, Jan and Gerard, the sons Johan (1942) and Henk (1953) also started working for the company. The daughters of Jaap and Dien apparently also had a thing for transport. Daughter Riek (1933) married Ben Becker (1932 - 2013), founder of the international transport company of the same name. Youngest daughter Lien (1949 - 2007) was married to the removal entrepreneur Jan van Buuren.

Industrial area

The transport company grew out of its jacket on Beukenlaan. Moreover, the municipality of Soest wanted large-scale companies such as that of Gebroeders Beijer to no longer be located in residential areas. So the company entered into a land exchange with the municipality. The sand quarry on the Beukenlaan was used for the housing of the Chalonhof and an ecological park. In 1997, transport company Gebroeders Beijer moves to Zuidergracht, in the newly opened industrial area. From that new location there is a nice view of the Wieksloot where the founder of the company once started digging peat to earn a living.

The company's move to Zuidergracht also meant Jan's farewell. He left the business (but could still be found in the business every day after his retirement). Gerard's sons, Marc (1971) and Jeroen (1972), took over from their uncle Jan and form the fourth generation to run a 125-year-old family business.