1930’s – The Second Generation

The US-born Kuiken Brothers found employment outside the company during their youth: Edward with the Little Falls Laundry and Nick H. with the Fair Lawn Police Department. In the 1940’s, the Police Department had fewer than 15 officers. Richard Jr. worked with Wright Aeronautical Corporation of Paterson, N. J., makers of high-powered aircraft engines, for over 4 years. Nick H. became the first US-born Kuiken to wed, marrying Jeanette Sikkema in 1937.

1932 to 1940 – The Great Depression and Public Service

From 1932-1941, Nicholas A. continued his public service as a Bergen County Freeholder for 3 three-year terms. Like his cousin, Richard Sr. also served the public. For a decade, he was Chief of the Fair Lawn Fire Department beginning in the 1930’s.

In the late 1930s, during the Great Depression in which the production and sale of goods declined rapidly, Nicholas A.’s brother Dirk A. began to sell paint from the lumberyard. His nearest competition being miles away, he was successful with sales. Soon after, the company began to sell hardware. Near the end of the Depression, under the New Deal policy created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) cleared the land that was to become Rte. 208. Henry A. succeeded Nicholas A. as second President of The Kuiken Brothers Company.

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