How an emigrant from Bredevoort laid the foundation for a successful construction company in the US.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Piek family lived in the Gasthuisstraat in Bredevoort. Father Jan Derk Piek and mother Geertruid Wamelink had six children: three sons and three daughters. In 1857, the family emigrated to the United States. After arriving in New York, they traveled by boat via the Hudson River and the Erie Canal to Rochester, in the north of the state of New York.
Shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Jan Derk settled in Rochester as a carpenter. The family name was anglicized to Pike. His son Jan Berend Piek (1847–1927), who became known in the US as John Barnabas Pike, followed in his father’s footsteps. In 1873, he founded the John B. Pike Company . The first office was located at Minerva Place in downtown Rochester and specialized in fine carpentry.
Known buildings and growth
The company grew into a considerable construction company. Some well-known projects include the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the Rochester Savings Bank, Midtown Plaza (one of the first indoor shopping malls in the US), the archive building of the International Museum of Photography and the striking headquarters of the Security Trust Bank, also known as The Temple, which was demolished in the early 1980s.
The company also built schools, hospitals, bridges, highways, tunnels and industrial complexes outside the region, from Maine to Florida and even as far as Vancouver, Canada.
Although the construction of the First Dutch Reformed Church in Brighton (1891) was not carried out by Pike, John B. Pike was closely involved in the project as a member of the building committee. He worked together with, among others, Arend Willem Hoopman (1843–1928).
Business takeover and continuation
In 1907, the company moved to a new office on One Circle Street in Rochester, where it is still located today. In 1915, John Derek Pike, son of John B., took office as president of the now renamed John B. Pike & Son.
John B. Pike died on January 18, 1927, at the age of 79, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester.
His company continued to exist and continued to grow under the leadership of his descendants. More than 150 years after its founding, the company still exists, now under the name Pike Construction Services, with more than 500 employees and several branches in the states of New York and Florida.
Emigrants from Aalten and Bredevoort in New York
The Piek family from Bredevoort was not the only one to settle in the state of New York. In total, at least a hundred emigrants from Aalten and Bredevoort are buried in this state, at least forty of whom are buried in Monroe County, which includes Rochester.
Want to know more? View the list of emigrants from Aalten to the USA.
