Pioneering Families 2018

THE 8th Annual

Featuring

The Raper Family | Diehl Ford | The Vander Griend Family A supplement of the Ferndale Record and Lynden Tribune | July 2018

OLD SETTLERS PICNIC WHATCOM COUNTY’S 123RD ANNUAL CELEBRATION

JULY 27, 28 & 29, 2018 AT PIONEER PARK IN FERNDALE

FRIDAY, JULY 27TH DUPI - GARDEN SHOW JR. PARADE AT 6 PM TILLICUM HOUSE 1 PM-9 PM LINE UP AT 4TH & ALDER PASSPORT BOOKS 1 PM-7 PM BEER GARDEN IN THE BARN 12 PM-11 PM WAGON HORSE RIDES 6:30-7:30 PM TEEN DANCE IN THE PAVILLION FOSSIL ROCK WITH KEITH LABOUNTY 8 PM-11 PM 2 PM & 6:30 PM ON MAIN STAGE ROCKY VASALINO BAND IN THE BARN 8 PM-11 PM

SATURDAY, JULY 28TH CAR SHOW AT CENTRAL ELEMENTARY DUPI - GARDEN SHOW 9 AM-3 PM TILLICUM HOUSE 1 PM- 8 PM L.E.F.T. 5K/2 MILE WALK 9 AM HORSE WAGON RIDE 1 PM-7 PM GRAND PARADE AT 11 AM OPENING CEREMONIES ON MAIN STAGE PIONEER PLAY CORRAL 12 PM-6 PM 1:15 PM (ARM BAND CHARGE FOR BILL WHITE AS GEORGE STRAIT UNLIMITED ACTIVITIES) 1:30 PM & 6:30 PM ZIGZAG & RAGZ Z CLOWNS 12 PM-4 PM BEER GARDEN IN THE BARN FREE FACE PAINTING & BALLOONS 12 PM-12 AM PASSPORT BOOKS 1 PM-7 PM SPACEBAND 9 PM-12 AM

SUNDAY, JULY 29TH CHURCH SERVICE AT 10:30 AM PASSPORT BOOKS 12 PM-3 PM OLD TIME HYMN SING AT 2 PM CHRIS ANDERSON AT 1:30 PM BEER GARDEN 12 PM-4 PM

GATES & CABINS OPEN AT 12PM EVERY DAY W H AT C O M O L D S E T T L E R S . C O M

Pioneering Rome Township, building a log home that survives

James Morton Raper's cabin is a lasting reminder of the legacy he left in Whatcom County. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

James Raper received 60 acres of Whatcom land for serving in the Civil War Myrna Peters has more documents related to her family than she can possibly count. Genealogy work

has that effect on her.

Peters has been chronicling the history of her family since 1971, and she has learned a great deal about where — and whom — she came from.

It all started with a lesson learned.

Her grandmother was getting older, and Peters wanted to document everything she could while there was still

Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

time.

“I said, ‘Well, let’s put names on all these pictures.’ My grandmother looked at me, and she said, ‘Do you think I’m gonna die or something?’

My mom said to just drop it, just drop the whole subject, so I dropped it, and then my grandmother passed away, and I said, ‘Mom, what did you do with 3

John Raper was an emigrant with his family from England in 1801. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

all those pictures?’ She said, ‘Well, I burned them all. We didn’t know who they were, so I got rid of them.’ So I figured, okay, we’re not going 4

to be doing that anymore.”

Ancestry.com and other useful genealogy websites obviously didn’t exist back then, so much of Peters’ re-

search consisted of heading to the library and looking at microfilm.

“You would rent rolls from different counties, and

the library would get them for you, and you’d sit there and look for people. You didn’t know where they’d be on the roll,” Peters said.

Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

She also used a tool called the Genealogical Helper, a publication in which researchers can put ads to solicit more information about their families.

The Raper Family One of the most interesting tales in Peters’ endless supply of stories is that of her great-grandfather James Morton Raper, a pioneer who would eventually come to live in Whatcom County.

The Raper family’s life in the United States began with tragedy. James’ grandfather, John Raper, was born in Liverpool, England, and he immigrated with his original family to the United States in December 1801 when John was 12. John’s father, William, died the night they landed near Richmond, Virginia. Peters said she isn’t sure what caused the death, though some sources cite smallpox.

This photo shows the Raper relatives, with Mary V. Hanes Raper in the middle back.

(Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

5

John’s mother, Ann Jackson Walton, and the rest of their family continued on to Wythe County, Virginia, where Ann’s brother Thomas Jackson ran a lead mine and shot tower used for making ammunition. In February 1808, John married Elizabeth “Betsy” Keesling, and they headed to Indiana and settled in Boston Township, Wayne County.

John Raper served in the War of 1812 from May to July of 1813, and he later served as a constable.

Here’s where the genealogical information gets a little confusing. John and Betsy had 10 children: Ann, William, Robert, John, Eve, Mary, Susan, Thomas, George and Hannah. John and Betsy’s son John lived from 1815 to 1900. Even more confusing in tracing this line is the fact that the second John Raper married a woman named Ann, too.

This is the deed given to James Raper in 1891 for his land in Whatcom County.

(Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

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James James Morton Raper was born on Feb. 13, 1845, in Wayne County, Indiana, to John Raper and Ann (Hays) Raper. He was brought up through the local public schools and helped his father till the soil. When he was 16, he tried to enlist in the Union Army, but was rejected due to his age. He was eventually accepted in June 1861 and became a member of Company K of the 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry.

He served in the Civil War until August 1865, when he returned to Indiana after peace was restored.

He worked as an apprentice in carpentry, working as a journeyman for years. He married Mary Vee Hanes in 1879 and then set to work on a contracting business in Frankfort, Indiana, working as a city builder for about five years.

For his service in the Civil War, James Raper received 60 acres of land in the

Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

The old Raper milk truck was a common sight around Whatcom County. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

Rome township of Whatcom County. That's where the local connection comes in.

“The hills were crowned with dark green and nature presented a wild and beautiful aspect,” recounts the “History of Whatcom County Volume II,” published in 1926, about the area James and his family settled.

James built his log home in the Rome district.

A section in the “History of Whatcom County Volume

I” called “Typical Home Making” draws heavily from the experience of the Raper family and James’ construction of his homestead.

They arrived in Whatcom County in 1884, and a cousin provided James with a letter of introduction to county surveyor O.B. Iverson, who was doing surveying work near the Nooksack River with a crew. James strapped a pack of bedding and provisions on his back

and left his family with his cousin. He found his homestead, not yet marketed due to it having been surveyed so recently, and staked a squatter’s claim until it could be filed in his name.

He constructed his cabin using logs, as finished lumber was hard to come by in that area. He installed three windows and two doors, carrying each of these items four miles on his back uphill. When the logs

were hewn, they needed to season for a year, and when they were finally ready, neighbors helped put them into place.

The ceiling was made of cedar shakes, a partition of hewn logs and the floor of logs as well. A log floor is not often seen in old cabins, but the lack of ready lumber made a log floor quite necessary. “The History of Whatcom County” describes the floor as being “almost as

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Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

7

Elizabeth (Keesling) Raper was James Morton Raper's grandmother. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

solid as marble.”

The two inside doors were made of a tree cut down from the property’s yard.

His land was overgrown with brush and trees, and he made the effort to clear it out to make way for crops.

The roads needed to actually ac-

cess the home were not completed until March of 1889, when the family was finally relocated there. Three loads of household goods were hauled up to

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These papers represent just a sampling of the multitude of documents in Myrna Peters' possession, all related to her family's history in and out of Whatcom County. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

the cabin.

The actual process of relocating the family was a very difficult one. They

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to be crossed via fallen trees.

James Raper was never really finished with his homestead. He continued

making improvements on it, upgrading it into a remarkably productive farm, especially considering the

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The old James Raper cabin still exists, well preserved enough to be habitable, out on Kelly Road. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

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land’s humble beginnings.

James planted an orchard and raised many varieties of fruits, vegetables and grains. He became a leader in the local farming community. Coal was eventually discovered on his property, and he sold the vein to local miners.

Once his wife, 5-yearold daughter and infant were settled, James returned to town to work as a carpenter. He paid his younger brother one dollar per day to stay on his farm with his family, along with an extra dollar for labor. He would return at the end of each week with provisions from town on his back.

When James grew older, he moved to Sawtelle, California, hoping that the climate would be better for his ailing body. He died on Jan. 30, 1914, leaving behind a farm he had converted, against all odds, into one of the most prosperous pieces of land in the county.

Forty-seven years after starting work on her genealogy, Peters still conducts her own research into her family history. Her favorite part is the joy of discovery.

“You just never know what you’re going to come across,” she said.

There’s a lot of history behind James Raper’s name, some of which remains very tangible. The cabin he built all the way back in the 1880s, hauling materials on his back to make a home for his family, has a couple of very unique distinctions today.

The cabin not only still stands; it is still lived in to this day. It isn’t in the Raper family, but it still exists in what used to be Rome, out on Kelly Road. For Peters, it’s a testament to her greatgrandfather and his will to make a home for his family.

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Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

James Morton Raper's death certificate, dated January 30, 1914. (Courtesy photo/Myrna Peters)

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The duo behind Diehl Ford Friends Diehl and Simpson built this family-owned business, now 110 years old

Galbraith steps into "Betsy," a stripped-down Model T driven by Diehl, during the final leg of the Mt. Baker Marathon at Charles Heisler's ranch. (Courtesy photo/Diehl Ford)

Advertising can make or break any business. The founders of today’s Diehl Ford company, Hugh Diehl and Charles Simpson, certainly knew this to be true.

The local Ford dealership at 1820 James St. in Bellingham started after a small Ford dealership and assembly plant began in Seattle around 1903.

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Stanbra took to the idea and was in charge of the Whatcom County car dealership before giving it up to Charlie Simpson and Hugh Diehl, two of his employees, who were enthusiastic about the future of motor vehicles. They took over the company on Nov. 28, 1908.

Today, the local Ford dealership is the third oldest in the world to still be in business. Diehl Ford celebrated its 100th year of establishment in 2008. This year marks its 110th.

Diehl bought out his partner Simpson in 1922.

Within the company’s history book are both stories of financial struggle and triumph.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was felt within the county and across the country. And the ups and downs of World War II and car purchasing booms have meant the business knew years of growth and years of decline. But the company has remained ultimately

Simpson and Diehl were servicemen in 1908. (Courtesy photo/Diehl Ford)

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Hugh Diehl drives Joe Galbraith in his stripped-down Model T Ford during the 1911 Mt. Baker Marathon. Roads during this time were unpaved and could be challenging to drive on. (Courtesy photo/Diehl Ford)

successful.

The duo of Diehl and Simpson were not the kind to shy away from big stunts in order to improve sales. In 1910 Simpson drove a Ford car with four passengers 27 and a half miles on one gallon of gas. The newspaper was even present to witness the event.

A potential buyer had made a bet against Simpson.

He thought there was no way the vehicle could travel 20 miles on a single gallon of fuel.

To his dismay, it did.

The gas tank was emptied, blown dry and a gallon of gas measured precisely and put inside the Ford. The car was driven six miles through the mud on a road to Ferndale, then back to Bellingham on the most undeveloped streets.

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house. The publicity stunt proved the point later documented by the local newspaper to everyone — vehicles were an affordable commodity.

But perhaps the most perilous of the pair’s stunts involved the Mt. Baker Marathon, a race that required competitors to get all the way to the top of the mountain and back to Bellingham. The annual event had a short lifespan of only three years, from 1911 to 1913.

Competitors began the race on a train or vehicle, taking them to a jumping-off place. From there contestants would cover between 24 and 35 miles and climb to the 10,788-foot summit.

The first year, the top prize was five double-eagle gold coins, about a $100 value at

the time. The high stakes drew 13 competitors. In 1912, the prize jumped to $500.

Among them was Joe Galbraith, a well-known Deming logger and former schoolmate of Diehl. On Aug. 10, at 10 p.m., Diehl drove Galbraith in a stripped-down Model T of the Ford brand, named Betsy, on a dangerous 27-mile route to Deming.

Diehl’s Ford came through. The vehicle took only 25 minutes to reach Deming while a competing Hudson vehicle took 29 minutes. After 54 more minutes of drive time, on a road up the even more treacherous Middle Fork valley of the Nooksack River, Galbraith jumped from the vehicle that had began overheating and set out on the remaining 35-mile round-trip journey to the top by foot.

Galbraith reached the summit, along with seven others, and began his return trip down. At 9:40 a.m. he arrived at the bottom of the trail near Charles Heisler’s ranch where Diehl and his Ford awaited.

The pair raced to Bellingham and narrowly avoided an incident with a woman and her startled mustang. They dashed toward the finish line of the race. Galbraith jumped from the vehicle and ran up the stairs to the end point of the Chamber of Commerce building. He clocked in at 10:28 a.m., for a total time of 12 hours and 28 minutes. The individual to come in second took 32 minutes longer to finish.

And for the three years the race was held, the Ford dealership grew.

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Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

Vander Griends are to sixth generation in Lynden area Family that came by train in 1901 has extensive links to many other families

Often Mick Vander Griend will have an interaction around town, perhaps with a younger person or a new arrival, and they will not know how connected he is to everyone, by acquaintance at least, if not blood relation.

He dealt with a young assistant in a Lynden store who reacted to the name of Marius, saying “that was my grandpa’s name.” And Mick didn’t need long to surmise

Nine of the original Vander Griend siblings, with partners, pose for a photo together around 1945. (Courtesy photos/Mick Vander Griend)

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who that person was, and reply, “Your grandpa was my second cousin.”

That’s what happens when you are the youngest of the youngest in very spread-out generations and you have an interest in family history. Mick has, in effect, become the living custodian of the information of the Vander Griend family, and the connections to other families.

He will be consulted to refresh just how it is that certain Meenks and DeBoers and Zweegmans and Starkenburgs and Polinders and Schuylemans and TeSelles and Louwses and Korthuises are related to the Vander Griends, to say nothing of Vander Griends to Vander Griends, who are now to a sixth generation in Lynden.

Yes, it can be considered Dutch bingo. But the longer you talk with Mick, the more you appreciate that, beyond tracking just names and lineage, he appreciates the mosaic of personalities and stories that can reside even within one extended family and give it texture and reality.

As Marius officially, Mick bears the name that his grandfather brought to Lynden, as the father of 11 children, in 1901. Eight of the children would settle here; three would remain in Nebraska.

When Mick, last of the grandchildren, was born in 1935, his namesake grandfather had passed 22 years earlier. Still, when Mick was young, a photo was taken of him in the company of six men named Marius, five first cousins and an uncle.

There was about a 37-year span from oldest to youngest of the cousins.

"Of all the family, I'm the young guy," he said.

Marius and Adriana Vander Griend became parents of 11 children and immigrated from the Netherlands with their family in 1885.

An immigrant family The original Marius Vander Griend was born in 1842 at Barendrecht in the Netherlands, just south of Rotterdam.

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This photo may have been taken shortly after father Marius's death in 1913. From left are, front, Arie, Lena, mother Adriana, Marie, Clarence; middle, Marius (Mike), William, Ann, Dionysius; back, Gerrit, Frank, Bert.

He was the only son of an only son, with older half-brothers and -sisters. In 1868 Marius married Adriana Stiena Vaandrager and they began to have children.

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their children, rather than continue to live in such a restricted area,” states a diary of the Vander Griend family. America, of course, was such a place of open spaces and opportunity.

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One Marius Vander Griend was just a child at this point, but he was in the good company of six other Marius relatives all significantly older. (Courtesy photo)

One of Marius’s half brothers had already moved to Pella, Iowa, and another was contemplating a move.

Also, an aunt of Adriana was in South Dakota, and so it was Charles Mix County, South Dakota, where the Vander

Griend tribe of 11 chose to go.

The children, in age order, were Dionysius (by tradition, named after the paternal grandfather), Gerrit (named after the maternal grandfather), Marius (after the father), Arie, Lena, Ann, Frank,

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Marie and William.

The Vander Griends lived in South Dakota about 3 1/2 years, raising four types of crops while learning that the methods of farming here were very different from the Netherlands. The yield each

year was rather meager, and so the family sought another area for farming. In the fall of 1888, with now another child added, son Bert, the Vander Griends moved to Firth, Nebraska, onto 160 acres of prairie land there.

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They lived in Nebraska for more than 12 years, and it was here that Clarence, the youngest member of the family, was born in 1891. For this large household, and as sons became old enough to help with the farm work, eventually as much as 400 acres of cropland was cultivated.

Other families of Dutch descent also found their way to this agricultural spot in eastern Nebraska.

Still, it was dry country and father Marius and sons felt yet another urge toward better opportunity for the future. A relative had sailed the world and spoke glowingly of the Northwest coast of America, according to the family diary. “Mr. Vander Griend had always had a desire to see that part of the USA, so he together with three neighbors and friends, traveled to the West Coast, spent some time on Whidbey Island, and as there were a number of Holland families living at Lynden, they also came north to Lynden, Washington.”

The visit was encouraging, and it was decided to move to Lynden. First, however, third son Marius (who was going by Mike), still unmarried, would venture to Washington himself to get employment on a farm and learn something of the farming patterns there.

He came in late spring 1899 and stayed for a year and a half. He lived and worked on the farm of L.T. Reid north-

west of Lynden. Opportunity knocked. Before returning to Nebraska in the winter of 1900-01, Mike had purchased the 120 acres of Reid for his father, as well as livestock, farming equipment and part of the furniture.

The Vander Griend family in Nebraska likewise disposed of their holdings and, except for two of the children who were already married (Arie and Anna), planned for the move to Lynden.

(Two others who were married, Dionysius and Lena, would come a year later.)

The Zweegman family, close friends, would also go.

Memorable journey The account of daughter Marie, age 18 at the time, preserves details of the big 21-person adventure. It was by train, with household effects, equipment and some livestock in one freight car tended by Mike and the rest of the families as passengers in another. The Vander Griend-Zweegman party left from the train station of Panama, Nebraska, on March 5 and arrived in Whatcom on March 11, 1901.

Marie wrote of these impressions along the way: seeing the western Nebraska place of famous soldiershowman “Buffalo Bill” Cody, passing by Indian reservations and also Mongolian Chinese working on the railroad; having their fathers ward off any males with eyes

on her as well as Lena Zweegman, age 14; and singing hymns and Dutch psalms to pass time — “other passengers in our car laughed at us, but we couldn’t have cared less.”

This is one passage of Marie: “There was a potbellied stove at one end of our car, in which the porter occasionally threw a bucket of coal. We heated the water for our coffee on this stove.

When the train stopped at a station, the men went out to get fresh water and food supplies. The only food we had on the entire trip was bread, bologna, cheese and syrup, and with our hot coffee we had bologna, cheese or syrup sandwiches. At one of our stops someone bought a box of big, red apples. This was a treat, and we could have eaten them all! But Mr. Zweegman, our captain, allowed us to have only one each a day until they were gone.”

Oregon, in spring, brought a welcome change of scenery: fields plowed and sown, orchards, snowcapped mountains and wildflowers. For almost a day, the train traveled the banks of the Columbia River. After a fourhour wait in Portland, it was on to another train for Seattle.

There the main group caught up to brother Mike with the cattle and belongings.

On a Saturday evening they reached Whatcom. The whole group consisted of: Mr. and Mrs. Vander Griend;

son Gerrit and his wife Julia (Zweegman) and their two daughters Jennie, 2, and Tena, 1; unmarried Vander Griend sons Mike, Frank, Bert, William and Clarence and daughter Marie; Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Zweegman; son Jacob; also son Leonard and his wife Maggie (Schuyleman) and their 20-monthold daughter Ernestine; Jake and Nannie (Zweegman) De Boer, and younger Zweegman daughters Lena and Ruby.

On that Sunday Leonard Zweegman hired a livery team and buggy to go with his wife and young daughter, along with Lena and Marie, to Lynden. They came to the Reid farm on the Guide Meridian Road that Mike had bought, and the Zweegmans could stay nearby with Schuyleman relatives living on a farm at the corner with what is now the Badger Road.

“On Monday morning, Leonard Zweegman returned the livery rig and team to Whatcom. Peter Schuyleman, Will Lauckhart and one of the Reid boys, each with a wagon and a team of horses, also traveled over the plank road to Whatcom that day to get the rest of the party, who had stayed in a hotel over Sunday. The Vander Griend boys, Frank and Bill, and the cows walked the entire distance.

They couldn’t keep up with the wagons, so they didn’t arrive at the Reids’ place until after dark. At what is now the beginning of the Birch

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Bay-Lynden Road the plank road from Whatcom ended, and they tramped through mud the remaining miles.

They were cold when they finally arrived at their new home, and their feet were muddy, but their mother quickly gave them each a pair of warm, dry handknitted socks.”

Ongoing strands The Reid farm the Vander Griends had bought and came to in 1901 is land that was passed down to youngest son Clarence and then to his youngest son Mick to dairy on, at 8759 Guide Meridian Rd., Lynden, until 1997. It is now owned by the Hansens.

For a time his father Clarence partnered in farming with his brother Bert on land across the Guide Meridian, according to Mick, whose brother Herman also once farmed in the area.

However, the members of the original Vander Griend clan found their way into many other professions beyond farming as they married, began families and settled into the life of their chosen new community.

Mike Vander Griend, the one who had steered the move to Lynden, became well-known as a colorful auctioneer personality in the north county.

Gerrit was involved in the earliest efforts of a Whatcom County Dairymen’s Association and subsequently Darigold. This line also leads to Vander Griend Lumber of Lynden.

William B. became a banker in a long career with the first permanent bank in Lynden, and one of his three daughters was Claire vg Thomas of cultural and musical acclaim.

Brother Frank was unique in being a world traveler who later in life married Marianne, his first 22

Mick Vander Griend and his wife, Lena Marie, have come to be the keepers of the family history. (Lynden Tribune/Calvin Bratt)

cousin, of South Africa, who was an accomplished painter.

The family name can be loosely translated as

“from the reeds” or “from the swamp,” Mick says, and so that should help to keep anyone in the family from feeling too elevated.

The Vander Griend clan used to faithfully hold big gatherings of all descendants at Berthusen Park, but no longer. — Calvin Bratt

Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

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Pioneering Families of Whatcom County July 2018

23

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