Jacob Ryskamp

Page 453-454 - Jacob Ryskamp is one of the enterprising and successful exponents of the meat market business in his native city of Grand Rapids, where he is one of the constituent members of the firm of Ryskamp Brothers, which conducts three large and well equipped meat markets. The other members of the progressive firm are Henry H., Sr., Henry, Jr., William H., Albert and Frank, and all are well upholding the honors of a family name that has been identified with the annals of Grand Rapids and Kent county since the middle pioneer period in the history of this section of Michigan. Ryskamp Brothers stand forth as the most extensive exponents of the retail meat trade in Grand Rapids, and the broad scope of their operations is indicated in their having done in 1923 a business aggregating fully $500,000, and in their having increased this record by $90,000 for the year 1924. Jacob Ryskamp was born in Grand Rapids, August 6, 1892, and is a son of Henry H. Ryskamp. The public school discipline of Mr. Ryskamp included that of the high school, and his entire business career has been one of close association with the meat market business. For several years he was in the employ of the Katz Market Company, and in 1918 he purchased the establishment and business conducted under the title of the U. & I. Beef & Produce Market, this market being now one of the three conducted by Ryskamp Brothers. In the same year, 1918, Mr. Ryskamp purchased a second market, at 55 Division avenue, south, and this is now the main establishment of his firm, which here retains a corps of twenty-two employees. At the time of acquiring this latter market Mr. Ryskamp and his four brothers, previously mentioned in the review, formed a corporation for the conducting of the business, but nine months later the organization was changed to a partnership. The main market of the firm is, as stated, at 55 Division avenue, south; the second is at 115 Division avenue, south; and the third is in a very attractive and modern building that was erected by the firm in 1922, at 744 Franklin street, southeast. Mr. Ryskamp is an active communicant of Grace church, Protestant Episcopal. Mr. Ryskamp is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine, and his wife has membership in the Order of the Eastern Star. He is a member also of the Loyal Order of Moose. The family home in Grand Rapids is an attractive residence at 849 Kalamazoo avenue, and the family has also a summer cottage at a nearby lake, Mr. Ryskamp finding his chief recreation in hunting and fishing. November 25, 1919, Mr. Ryskamp was united in marriage to Miss Beatrice Boone, daughter of Mrs. Ruth Boone, of Grand Rapids, and of the three children of this union the names and respective birth-dates are here recorded: Robert, June, 1922; Willis, November, 1923; and Roger, October, 1924.