 |
| 2016 photo of Washington State Mountain by J'Anette S. |
Lynden is located in the
northwestern part of Whatcom County, approximately 15 miles north of the county
seat, Bellingham, and only five miles south of the Canadian border. The area
was long inhabited by residents of the Nooksack Tribe before the first
non-Indian settlers arrived in 1860. Significant development began in Lynden in
the mid-1880s, and the city was incorporated in 1891. Industry in
Lynden's early years was dominated by logging, but by the turn of the
twentieth century agriculture (especially dairy farming) was becoming prominent
as the dominant industry. Much of Lynden's history has been shaped by the
influence of Dutch and those of Dutch descent, who began immigrating to the
area in the late 1800s. Today (2008) Lynden is a pleasant town with a
population approaching 10,000. It is known as an orderly, conservative,
religious community, proud of its Dutch heritage.
Early Days
The Nooksack Indians lived in the area they called
"Squahalish" for generations before non-Indians began traveling
through the area in the mid-1820s. After the Hudson’s Bay Company opened the
Fort Langley trading post in 1827 on the south bank of the Fraser River (just
north of today’s Langley, British Columbia), trappers and traders in slowly
increasing numbers began using the old Indian trails through the region that
ran from the fort south of today’s U.S.-Canadian border through Lynden east to
Sumas and west to Bellingham Bay and Birch Bay. Work on the International
Boundary Survey between the U.S. and Canada in its westernmost regions in 1857
and 1858, as well as eager fortune seekers passing through the area in 1858 en
route to southern British Columbia to try their hand in the Fraser Gold Rush,
led to increased traffic through the Lynden area. Some of these travelers
recognized the farming potential of the Nooksack Valley and stayed.
The first Euro-American settler in what would become Lynden was
James Alexander Patterson, a Tennessee native and self-styled “colonel”
(although no evidence has been found that he actually served in the military).
In 1860 he built a rough log cabin located just south of 6th and Front streets,
near the southwestern edge of today’s Judson Street Alley, and in view of the
Nooksack River, which at the time ran farther north than it does today.
Patterson was accompanied by his business partner, Reuben Bizer, and
together the two men started a cattle ranch. However, by most accounts, Bizer
did not stay long: Soon after their arrival, he married a Native American woman
and he and his bride moved downriver on the Nooksack and settled above
Ferndale.
Several squatters took up claims in the surrounding countryside
during the 1860s. One such squatter was Daniel McClanahan, who settled on land
two miles east of the Patterson cabin in the early 1860s and is also considered
one of the earliest settlers in the Lynden area. Joe Emerling, another
early squatter, settled about a mile east of the Patterson cabin during the
1860s.
Patterson, described by his contemporaries as a distinguished,
educated man of about 60 years of age in the late 1860s, had a Snoqualmie wife,
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Kanim. In the years they lived in the cabin they had two
daughters, Dollie and Nellie. Patterson maintained a cattle ranch and dairy
farm on his land, which stretched south and west from his cabin nearly as far
west as today’s Guide Meridian Road, and became known as the “Father of Dairy
Farming in Whatcom County.” He traded dairy products along the Nooksack
River and, through his business relationship with Captain Henry Roeder (1824-1902),
one of the founders of Whatcom (later part of Bellingham), met Holden A. Judson
(1826-1899) and Phoebe G. Judson (1831-1926).
This meeting would prove fortuitous for both Patterson and the
Judsons. At some point in the late 1860s Patterson’s wife left him, and he
began to search for a foster home for his two young daughters. By this
time he was a frequent visitor to the Judsons' home on Whidbey Island.
Patterson made an offer to the Judsons to swap his cabin and land in what was
then known among the new settlers as "Nooksack" or
"Nootsack." (In his book Skqee Mus: or Pioneer Days on
the Nooksack, Lynden pioneer Robert "Emmett" Hawley
[1862-1946] explains that the Native Americans and early pioneers actually
pronounced it “Nootsack,” but because the breathy guttural “t” in “Nootsack”
was so difficult for the English speaking settlers to pronounce, later settlers
began calling it "Nooksack.") In exchange for Patterson’s
cabin and land, the Judsons would care for his two daughters, Dollie (age 7 in
March 1870) and Nellie (age 4 in March 1870) until they came of age. The
Judsons agreed, and Patterson executed a quitclaim deed to his land in favor of
Phoebe Judson in March 1870. The Judsons moved to what Phoebe Judson would
famously refer to as her “ideal home” the same month.
A Community Is Born
Phoebe Judson was the first Euro-American woman to settle in
Lynden, and she eventually became known as the “Mother of Lynden.” Not long
after the Judsons’ arrival, William Coupe and later his wife, Nellie,
arrived and settled on land that is now part of the Lynden Fairgrounds (Coupe’s
father, Thomas Coupe, was the founder of Coupeville on Whidbey Island). The
first child born to the new settlers in Lynden was the Coupes' son Louis in
1875. In the early fall of 1872 the family of Enoch Hawley (1821-1889) arrived
from Iowa. In 1875 the Hawleys opened the first store in the area, the Pioneer
Store, on land in the Lawrence addition east of Lynden. However, since this was
not technically in the town of Lynden, debate continues among local historians
if the Pioneer Store can be considered the first store in Lynden or whether
this credit should go to another store opened by Holden Judson soon after on
the south side of Front Street between 7th and 8th streets.
As the 1870s progressed a few more scattered settlers arrived and
began gradually clearing out the heavy forest that blanketed the area.
Lynden’s first post office was established on March 17, 1873, with Holden
Judson appointed postmaster on a salary of $12 a year. Judson maintained his
post office in a desk in the front room of his home until the early 1880s.
Phoebe Judson was asked to select the name for the post office. She
favored a name that she had heard from a poem, Hohenlinden, written by Thomas
Campbell, which begins “On Linden, when the sun was low ... .” Phoebe Judson
changed the “i” in Linden to “y” because she felt it looked prettier.
Lynden also held its first election in the fall of 1873, and Holden Judson was
elected county commissioner.
Lynden was more a community of scattered settlements than an
organized town during the 1870s, but nonetheless an organized community began
to take shape. As the community grew, it was faced with a daunting but
necessary task: clearing massive log jams that blocked the Nooksack River
in several places, making it impossible for steamers to navigate the river to
Lynden. The biggest one, near Ferndale, was cleared (in part through
Phoebe Judson’s efforts to raise funds for the project) in 1876 and early 1877.
But other smaller log jams remained on the river closer to Lynden and it took
the rest of the 1870s to clear them. It would be the 1880s before steamers
began to make regular runs up the Nooksack River to Hawley’s Landing at
Hannegan Road.
Growth Accelerates
Lynden continued to grow slowly in the early 1880s, but toward
mid-decade the pace quickened. Enoch Hawley opened a new store in 1882,
and in December the town’s first school opened. But 1884 was a bigger year:
George Judson (son of Phoebe and Holden) platted the town of Lynden that year.
The first leg of the Guide-Meridian Road (now Highway 539) was finished in May
1884. Lynden’s first sawmill arrived -- by steamer, oxen and sled -- in
February 1884. Lynden’s first literary society was formed in March of
that year. Still, these changes were initially more subtle than obvious:
Ed Edson, a future longtime resident of Lynden (and later owner of Lynden’s
City Drug Store) passed through Lynden in May 1884 and famously quips in his
autobiography “Rather odd to have two stores and a school house and nobody
living in the town.” But that was changing fast, and more people came to
Lynden in the mid-1880s.
By the end of the 1880s Lynden was beginning to look like a real
town. The Northwest Normal School (later Western Washington University in
Bellingham) opened in Lynden in October 1886 but closed in 1892, due primarily
to a lack of state funding. Businesses sprang up along Front Street,
which in the 1880s was more of an obstacle course than a street because of the
tree stumps that remained in the road. In 1887 alone at least nine new houses
were built, a three-story hotel, a wagon shop, and a Methodist Church. By
1889 Lynden could boast of (among other businesses) a newspaper (the Pioneer Press) {ed. note -- newspapers.com has no copy of this paper as of 2018}, two bakeries, two livery stables, five
general stores, three blacksmith shops, a photographer, a drug store, a
real-estate agent, a public library, and, by the end of 1889, the Judson Opera
House, which became Lynden’s de facto community
center. There was no U.S. Census taken in Lynden in 1890, but population
estimates in the town ranged between 500 and 1,000.
Lynden began the 1890s as a logging town, with sawmills continuing
to clear the abundant forests in the area, but by the end of the decade the
dominant industry was turning to agriculture, particularly dairy and berry
farms. Vegetables, (beans, carrots, and beets), grains (barley and oats), and
hops were also a staple of Lynden farmers. On March 6, 1891, residents voted to
formally incorporate Lynden as a town of the fourth class and elected Holden
Judson as the new town's first mayor. The railroad reached the area the same
year, although, to the disappointment of all in Lynden, the nearest depot was
in Clearbrook, more than six miles northeast. This lack of a railroad
-- which killed many small towns in the late nineteenth century -- and the
depression of the mid-1890s resulted in a dramatic drop in Lynden’s population
during the decade. The 1900 U.S. Census put Lynden’s population at only 365,
and that was several years after the town had begun to recover from the worst
effects of the depression.
Thriving People and Businesses
But Lynden refused to pass away, and in fact, two businesses began
during the 1890s that survived until the second half of the twentieth
century: Ed Edson’s (1860-1944) City Drug Store in 1891 (although
the store itself had actually been established in 1888 by F. S. Wright), and,
in 1897, W. H. "Billy" Waples's (1875-1962) Lynden Department Store.
The Lynden Department Store would grow and prosper until it became known as one
of the best department stores in a town of its size in the West.
This growth continued during the first decade of the
twentieth century, with two other businesses starting during these 10 years
that are still in business in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In
1906 Ed Austin started Lynden Transfer, a freight-hauling company, with a pair
of horses and a freight wagon. The company has grown and expanded to become an
international transport corporation, with more than 1,300 employees
and gross revenues of $330 million reported in 1999.
And in 1908 the Lynden Tribune was
born. Lynden’s newspaper had operated under several different
incarnations since 1888, but in 1908 the paper was renamed the Lynden Tribune. In October 1914 Sol Lewis (1888-1953)
bought the newspaper, and it has remained in the Lewis family since. Sol Lewis
served as editor and publisher until his death in 1953. He was succeeded
by his sons, Bill (b. 1920) and Julian (b. 1926) as publishers, with Bill
serving as editor. When Bill retired in 1984, brother Julian took the reins as
editor. Julian retired at the end of 1991 and in January 1992 his son Mike
Lewis became publisher. The newspaper has been consistently well-written
over the years and has won numerous awards. The Tribune’s business has
expanded beyond the newspaper to include additional publications, including
numerous books about Lynden’s history.
Social organizations also sprang up in the first decade of the
twentieth century that live on today. The Clam Diggers Club was organized
in 1909 by Charles Cline (1858-1914?). Membership in the club was originally
limited to those living in Washington Territory before it became a state and,
later, to their descendants. The annual meeting date, complete with clam bake
dinner, was fixed as November 11, the day Washington was admitted to the
Union. The club still meets in Lynden each year, although its numbers have
declined. Also in 1909, a modest street fair began in Lynden, which grew
into the Whatcom County Fair in 1911 and in 1923 became known as the Northwest
Washington Fair. Now held during the third week of August, the fair in
recent years has attracted more than 200,000 visitors.
The Hollanders
But something else happened near the turn of the twentieth
century that would change the direction of Lynden’s future. In the waning
years of the nineteenth century, a small trickle of Dutch citizens and citizens
of Dutch descent, attracted by the area’s favorable farming conditions, began
settling in and near Lynden. One of the earliest Dutch settlers was D. J.
Zylstra (1859-1943), who arrived with his family in Lynden in 1898. Zylstra
played a large role in the early history of the town, and particularly for the
Dutch that began coming to Lynden in increasing numbers starting in 1900.
He helped the Dutch assimilate into the Lynden community, and according
to one Lynden historian, his house on Front Street was the first place that
newly arriving Dutch families stopped when they got to Lynden. He was one
of the founders of the Christian Reformed Church in 1900, and 10 years
later was one the founders of the Lynden Christian School. The
"Hollanders," as the non-Dutch citizens of the town often called
them, had a dramatic effect on life in Lynden, and they gradually formed what
one Lynden historian refers to as a “society within a society” (A History of Lynden, p. 103).
Most of the Dutch were Calvinists, following the theological
beliefs of John Calvin (1509-1564). They were generally conservative socially
and theologically, with the church serving as the foundation for both their
religious and social life. In 1900 they formed the Christian Reformed
Church in Lynden, and held the earliest sermons and classes in the Dutch
language. (It was not uncommon to hear Dutch spoken on the streets
of Lynden early in the twentieth century.) But as the years went by the
children of these Dutch settlers, who adopted English as their first language,
made it necessary to form an English-speaking Reformed Church. As a result the
Second Christian Reform Church was organized in 1920.
As the community grew, the Dutch chose to establish a religious
school, and in the fall of 1910 the Lynden Christian School opened, offering
classes from first through eighth grade. The school grew rapidly and by 1921
some 200 students were enrolled. In 1945 the school began offering
high-school classes (and completed a building for the high school the following
year), and the school expanded further during the rest of the twentieth century.
In 2008 the Lynden Christian School has 1,100 students attending preschool
through high school in campuses both in Lynden and Bellingham (the Bellingham
school, known as the Evergreen Christian School, serves students only through
sixth grade).
Most Lynden historians write that the early Dutch settlers got
along well with the non-Dutch, particularly in the business community, where it
was advantageous for all to work together in order for the community as a whole
to thrive economically. Socially the two cultures tended to be more isolated
from each other. This dichotomy of Dutch and non-Dutch culture inevitably
produced some tension, though it seems to have been more covert than
overt. Nonetheless, it had an impact on Lynden society. For
example, Dutch Calvinists do not work on Sunday, and by the 1940s, most
businesses, including restaurants, in Lynden closed on Sunday. Ed
Nelson, a longtime Lynden native, describes the resulting social impact on the
Lynden community during this time in his book A History of Lynden.
He writes of traveling to Bellingham on Sundays for lunch and encountering some
of his fellow citizens coming out of a tavern. “This had its awkward side ... .
If they saw us, they would not acknowledge us” (A History of Lynden, p.
115).
Other writers, including Nelson, describe the influence of
the Dutch community on non-Dutch who married within the community.
“Outsiders were welcomed if they allowed themselves to be absorbed [into the
Dutch community]” (A History of Lynden, p. 106).
If the non Dutch-partner wished to remain independent, the other option
(provided the partner of Dutch descent agreed) “was to leave town and to live
somewhere not predominantly Dutch. Many chose this route” (A History of Lynden, p.106).
The Dutch migration to Lynden continued, and a second surge in the
late 1940s and the 1950s -- both European Dutch who had been displaced as a
result of the changes brought by World War II, as well as Midwesterners of
Dutch descent -- pushed the percentage of those of Dutch descent in Lynden past
50 percent during the 1950s. As a result, the Dutch influence in the town
grew. Lynden’s first mayor of Dutch descent, Irwin LeCocq, Sr., assumed
office in January 1948. The Christian Reformed Church continued to expand
as well. By the mid-1950s there were four Christian Reformed churches in
Lynden, and by 1990 there were nine: five Christian Reformed, two
Reformed, one Netherlands Reformed, and one Protestant Reformed. There
were also seven other non-reformed churches in Lynden in 1990, and at one point
in the last half of the twentieth century Lynden held the world record for most
churches per capita in a town.
Later in the twentieth century, Lynden began to embrace its Dutch
heritage. “Holland Days,” a Dutch festival, started in 1985. This
two-day festival, held in the spring, features costumed shopkeepers and Dutch
Klompen dancers, and Dutch food is served. During the 1980s Lynden also
remodeled part of Front Street in a Dutch theme, complete with windmill, and
there is today a Dutch bakery and Dutch restaurant in the town. When Lynden
celebrated its centennial in 1991, the town gave serious consideration to
adopting an all-Dutch theme to its celebrations, but it did not actually go
that far.
Lynden Today
Changing social norms in the past several decades, a surge in
population (Lynden’s population increased by nearly 60 percent during the 1990s
alone), as well as an increased Hispanic presence in Lynden beginning in the
1980s, has resulted in some lessening of the Dutch influence in the town today
as compared to 50 years ago. Still, Lynden retains a unique Dutch
ambiance that isn’t found in many other American communities, and it
remains home to Washington state’s largest Dutch community.
Lynden’s population in the 2000 U.S. Census was 9,020. It is an
attractive town, with particularly wide streets (one anecdote says that when
the town planners planned the streets, the streets were made extra-wide so
horses with carriages could easily turn around) and manicured lawns. And,
though Lynden is a border town -- its crossing into Canada is less than five
miles north of the city on SR 539 -- it seems to have escaped much (though not
all) of the crime and other problems that can be associated with border
crossings.
Lynden remains today a religious, conservative community. Most
businesses are still closed on Sunday. It seems to be an especially orderly
town when compared to many other towns of its size. But what particularly
stands out about Lynden is that it seems to have been blessed during most of
its history with an above-average share of hard-working, visionary, and
disciplined residents determined to make the town successful and a good
place to live (Dougherty, 2008).
 |
Snowy Road in Idaho 2016
by J'Anette S.
|
Lynden Washington
Lynden is approximately five miles south of the U.S.-Canadian border, with Lynden-Aldergrove operation and port of entry hours between 8:00 a.m. and midnight. The population was10,820 at the 2010 Census. Residents of Lynden are known as "Lyndenites". Lynden is also home to the Northwest Washinton Fair.
Lynden was
begun in 1871 and established in 1874 by Holden and Phoebe Johnson near the
site of the Nooksack Indian village Squahalish (Nooksack: Sqwehálich).
It was named by Phoebe Judson after the riverside town in Hohenlinden, a poem
by Thomas Campbell, stating: "On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow; And dark as winter was the flow of Iser rolling rapidly."
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow; And dark as winter was the flow of Iser rolling rapidly."
According
to her book, A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, she changed the
spelling of "Linden" to be more visually appealing. The town was
officially incorporated on March 16, 1891.
The town lies in a broad valley
along the winding path of the Nooksack River, which empties into
nearby Bellingham Baa. The surrounding area is filled with dairy, raspberry,
strawberry, and blueberry farms. The region saw significant Dutch immigration
in the early and mid 1900s, spurring the growth of dairies. Today, Lynden pays
homage to its Dutch heritage through locations such as Front Street, which has
been made-over with a Dutch theme, complete with its own windmill. Along that
street, you'll find a Dutch bakery, Dutch restaurants and numerous antiques
stores. Local supermarkets contain Dutch food sections, and Dutch is still
spoken by some of the town's residents.
The
Raspberry Festival is held the third weekend in July every year. The festival
includes the Curt Maberry 3-on-3 basketball tournament, the Razz & Shine
Car Show, The Raspberry Fun Run, tours of raspberry fields and wineries and the
ever popular Raspberry & Ice Cream All Day social. Other notable events are
the Farmer's Day Parade, the Sinterklaas/Lighted Christmas Parade, the Antique
Tractor Show, and many other events that can be seen in more detail at Lynden's
website calendar.
The town
is noted for its manicured lawns, cheery gardens, Dutch architecture and abundance of reformed churches. In August,
the Northwest Washington Fair lures thousands, and allows locals to
display their agricultural products, art, and crafts.
Lynden is
one of the few cities in the world whose main entrance is in between two
cemeteries. At one time, Lynden held the world record for most churches per
square mile and per capita. Due to the town's large population of those who
attend or are members of Lynden's many reformed churches, the town has a long
tradition of the majority of the businesses closing on Sunday. (The Muljat Group North, 2018)
 |
| Clouds on a Snowy Mountain 2016 by J'Anette S. |
If you like what you see, be sure to subscribe, and consider supporting me on my patreon page
Become a Patron!
Dougherty, P. (2008, January 20). Lynden --
Thumbnail History. Retrieved May 28, 2018, from HistoryLink.org Essay 8393:
http://historylink.org/File/8393
The Muljat Group North. (2018). Lynden Washington. Retrieved from The Muljat Group North: http://www.muljatgroupnorth.com/Lynden_Real_Estate/Lynden_History
shared
ReplyDelete