In Whatcom County, the Zender family has forged a legacy that has spanned generations in the timber industry, rooted in hard work and a profound connection to the land that dates back to the 1800s. Their legacy, as pictured, is also in baseball. Three Zender brothers had so much baseball talent that it earned them some attention from Major League teams across the nation. (Photo courtesy Whatcom History Museum)
By Merrick Parnell For the Tribune
In the heart of Whatcom County, the Zender family has forged a legacy that has spanned generations in the timber industry, rooted in hard work and a profound connection to the land that dates back to the 1800s.
The Zender family settled in Whatcom County in the mid-1890s when German immigrant Peter Zender and his wife Anna Mary relocated from North Dakota to a homestead near Deming. Initially focused on agriculture and dairy, Peter’s sons Henry, Jacob, and Antone (Tony) later founded Zee Logging in Deming, which thrived from the 1940s until the early 2000s.
“The family does have a long history of logging in this community. It’s another one of those traditions that the family has always been proud of,” said Jordan Zender, cousin of Gabe Zender, a resident of Deming.
“It [logging] has connected a lot of family members over the years, especially back when Zee Brothers Logging was in full swing. They employed a lot of people
in this community, and a lot of them were also relatives,” Jordan Zender said.
Though Zee Logging has ceased operations, the family’s timber tradition persists through members like Gabe, who continue working in timber-related industries with Zender Tree Service. Reflecting on past generations, Gabe fondly recalled the days when logging
was both livelihood and legacy, shared across familial bonds.
“The logging era was a time of physical labor and tradition,” Gabe said. “My father and his brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, forging a deep connection to the industry.”
As times changed, Gabe acknowledged a shift in the industry’s draw.
“The next generation saw fewer drawn to the labor and danger,” he said. “But for me, the passion for climbing and cutting persisted after gaining experience in logging.”
Jordan Zender has also been one of the people who continued the family’s logging tradition. He owns Zender and McNielly, a logging company “and we have a cou-
ple of cousins who work with us and a couple of uncles who haul logs.”
Zender and McNielly opened three years ago and specializes in tower logging. Today, the company operates much like the original Zee Brothers company and shares some of the same workspaces.
“We are operating out of one of the buildings on the homestead,” Jordan
Zender said. “The family does not own the place anymore, but it is pretty cool to still be utilizing a piece of the family’s physical history that they built.”
Beyond logging, the Zender family’s legacy intertwines with local sports history. “All Zenders of Whatcom County are connected through baseball and logging,” Gabe said,
then highlighted the family’s dual roles as players and workers in various leagues over the years.
Three of the Zender brothers had so much baseball talent that it earned them some attention from Major League teams across the nation. In 1947, Bernie was inked by the Brook-
Continued on next page
lyn Dodgers and spent seasons in the minor leagues before his career ended in 1949. Bernie passed away in 2002 in Kendall. Nick Zender also played in the minors in the late 1940s. Nick Zender passed away in 1991 in Maple Falls. The other brother, Dick Zender, played in the minor leagues with teams affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1942-1948, with a break in the middle due to World War II. After their tenure in the minor leagues, Dick, Nick and Bernie returned to Washington State to work in their career fields.
“Our family’s history holds some remarkable tales,” said Gabe.
One of those tales is when the brothers helped establish the Deming Loggers. The
at the
More than a story of logging, the Zender family narrative embodies resilience, tradition and a closeness with the land. As they continue to shape Whatcom County’s timber industry, the Zenders exemplify values of hard work, unity and a deep-seated love for their heritage that spans generations. (Photo courtesy Zender family)
semi-pro baseball team featured a roster of nine Zenders and had a fierce rivalry with the Bellingham Bells, who fielded a team that included Zender brothers Bernie, Dick and Pete. Due to a dispute over playing time, they went their own ways and eventually played for the Mount Vernon Milkmaids and other area teams at the civic level before founding the Loggers, according to local reporter Matt Benoit, who has chronicled the family’s baseball history.
In addition to the rivalry with the Bells, the Loggers played for the SemiPro Championships in 1956. The Loggers would fall to the Indiana Dairymen. The runner-up finish by Deming Loggers remains the highest place for any team from the Pacific Northwest to this day, with the series known today as the National Baseball Congress World Series.
The Deming Loggers’ competitive spirit endured until their final season in 1962 when they competed in the Dewendy League against five Canadian teams.
More than a story of logging, the Zender family narrative embodies resilience, tradition and a closeness with the land. As they continue to shape Whatcom County’s timber industry, the Zenders exemplify values of hard work, unity, and a deep-seated love for their heritage that spans generations.
By Racquel Muncy
For the Tribune
My family has been born and raised in Whatcom County for generations, with many family members sticking around for most of their lives. My great-grandma on my mother’s side, Patricia “Pat” Hanowell, has lived in North Whatcom County all her life. She was born in 1932 and she is the matriarch, representing six generations of family living in North Whatcom, five of which are still alive and in the area.
Continued on page 10
starting
Pat was born to Mary Marguerite Bailey and George Luke Hitchcock. She was born at the Saint Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham and moved down to the Axton Road when she was about 5 years old.
George Hitchcock was from Michigan, but Mary Marguerite was born locally.
According to Pat, her father came to the area as a young man, moved to Anacortes around 1910 and then moved further north to Whatcom County by 1920.
Mary Marguerite was born in 1906 to Ransome Edward and Minnie May Watson in Maple Falls. Minnie was from Chicago and Ransom was from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, according to the 1910 census, which makes Mary Marguerite and her nine siblings the first generation to be Whatcom born.
Pat said her mom learned to cook when she was 10 so she could help her own mother around the house, due to Minnie May being pregnant for much of Mary Marguerite’s early years.
“She enjoyed it,” Pat said, as she thought back fondly of her mother’s cooking.
She said her mother’s lemon pies were always a favorite.
Pat married Richard “Dick” Hanowell in August 1949. She was 17 and he was 20.
A bricklayer and dairy farmer most of his life, Dick grew up in the Ferndale area. His mom Agnes Bjerke came over from Ohio around 1930 and his dad George Hanowell from British Columbia around 1920.
Pat said they first met when she was 14 and
working picking beans. Dick was a bus driver who transported the bean pickers from the field home. One day her normal bus got into an accident, so Dick came to drive everyone home.
“That’s how he knew where I lived,” she said.
The first time Dick Hanowell showed up at her house he was on horseback.
A month after she graduated from Meridian High School the couple was married and they were together for 74 years. He passed away in September 2023.
The couple loved country western music and were avid square dancers.
Pat said they went out dancing twice a week for more than 10 years.
They had five children: Steve, Dan, Dixie, Sue and Dawn. Sue passed away in March 2022, but the rest of siblings are still alive and in the area.
Pat said they were able to buy 30 acres with an old house for $6,800. The home ended up burning down, so Dick built Pat a new four bedroom, two bathroom brick home.
“I loved it,” she said.
She said Dick converted the plans for the home from one meant to be made from wood.
He also did all of the plumbing, electrical and anything else he could figure out. It only took him three years.
“He did it virtually by himself,” she said.
“He thought I was the smart one and he was the dumb one. It wasn’t true.”
While Dick was busy building the home, Pat said she was busy, too.
“The whole time he was building the house, I was planting the flow-
Pat and Dick Hanowell. Born in 1932, Pat is the matriarch, representing six generations of family living in North Whatcom, five of which are still alive and in the area. (Photos courtesy Racquel Muncy)
ers,” she said.
There isn’t a kind of flower Pat said she doesn’t enjoy and the gardens around the home showed that.
Dixie said growing up she can remember several renditions of the property.
“The farm changed its looks,” she said. “It was always an event in progress.”
When she was little, Dixie said she remembered huge firs all over the property and at one point the trees were
cut down for a dirt race track. Over the years more trees came down for various purposes and now the property is all but clear cut.
While the farm changed, the family grew.
Dixie married Rick Lane in March 1972 and had their first child Erica not long after. Erica was the oldest of four, with Richard, Amanda and Ariel following. Erica married Ricky Rollins in April 1995 and had four children: Racquel
(myself), Haley, Rebekah and Chance. All live around Whatcom County.
Ricky’s mom, Viola, could also be considered from a pioneer family, as her mom was a Meeker. Family lore says the Meekers came over with the Hovanders.
I have two children, Brielle and Jacob, who make up the fifth generation of the family that lives within the county.
In total, Pat has more than 50 grandchildren,
Pat Hanowell with Brielle Muncy, Hanowell's great-granddaughter. In total, Pat has more than 50 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. (Photos courtesy Racquel Muncy)
great-grandchildren and great-greatgrandchildren.
Pat said she never thought of herself as being a part of a pioneer family, but she grew up in Whatcom and never once considered leaving because it is where all of her family is.
“Quite a large part of Whatcom County is made up of relatives,” she said.
Spending time with family is one of her favorite pastimes. It was also a favorite pastime for Dick, that and spending time in Winthrop with their daughter Dawn and her husband. They went to stay in Winthrop 21 times over the course of seven years.
After 74 years of marriage, Pat said what she will remember most is how much they loved each other. That the love was a permanent throughout all of the change that occurred over the course of 74 years.
With Dick passed, Pat said she continues to appreciate her family being close. It provides comfort knowing that her children and grandchildren are nearby to help with everything from entertainment, to transportation, to meals, so she doesn’t have to cook.
She said she has also tried to go do things she is passionate about, such as dancing. Without her life partner she said square dancing was no longer an option, so she tried out line dancing. She has also taken the opportunities to see friends and visit the Ferndale Senior Center.
Ira Yeager was a true Whatcom County pioneer. He arrived by wagon in 1903, and lived in cabin at Wiser Lake for ten years while they harvested and sold the cedar. They eventually purchased a house in Bellingham, but Ira felt constrained by civilization, and moved in with his grandfather on a boat down at Citizen's dock and worked at the PAF cannery. Together, they opened a second hand furniture store, and later expanded to include outboard motors and hunting supplies and became "Yeager's Sporting Goods". Ira was hired by all sorts of people from Chico Marx and Eddie Bauer, to President Roosevelt's family on local fishing expeditions.
Since 1884
Morse Steel
3002 W. Illinois St. Bellingham, WA 98244 360-756-6200
Since 1910
Ebenezer
Christian School
9390 Guide Meridian, Lynden 360-354-2632 www.ebenezerchristianschool.org
Since 1932
Oltman Insurance
8850 Bender Rd. • Lynden 360-354-5988 2417 Meridian St. • Bellingham 360-734-3960
Since 1952
Hytech Roofing
7381 Guide Meridian Rd., Lynden 360-354-4335 www.hytechroofing.com
Since 1969
Pete’s Auto Repair
6209 Portal Way Bld.2 • Ferndale www.petesautorepair.net 360-380-2277
Since 1885
Ferndale Record
113 6th St. • Lynden, WA www.ferndalerecord.com
360-384-1411
Since 1888
Lynden Tribune
“We believe in community news.” 113 6th St. • Lynden, WA www.lyndentribune.com 360-354-4444
Since 1938
Western Roofing
3705 Irongate Rd., Bellingham. WA
www.westernroof.com
360-734-1830
Since 1957
Jensen’s Ferndale Floral 2071 Vista Drive Ferndale, WA
360-384-1616
Since 1969
Windsor Plywood
1208 Iowa St., Bellingham, WA www.windsorplywood.com 360-676-1025
Bellingham - 360-734-3840
Since 1947
Northwest Propane
8450 Depot Rd. • Lynden
5494 Barrett Rd. • Ferndale www.nwpropane.net • 360-354-4471
Since 1969
Al’s Electric & Plumbing
302 Hawley St., Lynden 360-354-2187 alselectricandplumbing.com
Since 1971
DeYoung & Roosma Construction Inc. 141 Wood Creek Dr. • Lynden 360-354-3374
Since 1975
Boice-Raplee-Ross Accounting & Tax
304 Front St. • Lynden 360-354-4565
Since 1984
Northwest Surveying & GPS
407 5th Street • Lynden, WA 360-354-1950
Since 2005
Sorensen Truck Repair & Equipment
8195 Hannegan Rd. Lynden, WA
360-318-1000
Since 2011 EPL Feed LLC
411 West Front Street Sumas, WA 98295 • (800) 821-6288
2098 W. McManamon Rd. Othello, WA 99344 • (800) 572-6454 www.eplfeed.com
Since 2009
Final Touch Auto Spa 1916 Iowa St. Bellingham, WA 360-392-8676
Since 1983
Portal Way Farm & Garden
6100 Portal Way, Ferndale, WA 360-384-3688
portalwayfarmandgarden.com
Since 2001
Northstar Stone & Landscaping Supply “Good Old Fashioned Service” 4840 Pacific Hwy. • Bellingham 360-383-9090
Since 2010
Imhof Automotive 2869 W. 63rd Ln., Ferndale, WA Over 40 years in automotive experience 360-393-8938
By Luke Seymour Staff Reporter
For many retirees, the best items to collect are cars. Whether it’s due to their rarity, their aesthetic appeal, or symbolic meaning, cars continue to be one of the most attractive collector’s items for older Americans.
In the eyes of farmer and retired truck driver Fred Polinder, tractors are where it’s at.
“You know, not that many people collect old tractors,” Polinder said. “I grew up on a farm and I always liked old tractors and the like. My great uncle was a John Deere dealer and I used to hang around there when I was a kid. So if it had a motor in it, I was interested.”
For most of his adult life, Polinder has collected antique tractors of all kinds and has worked to preserve Whatcom County’s cultural history. He is currently president of both the Puget Sound Antique Tractor and Machinery Association and the Lynden Heritage Museum's board of directors.
It’s this love of antiquated machinery and respect for history that lead to Polinder being asked to take part in the production of a major motion picture being filmed in Colville.
The film, titled Train Dreams, is about “an average man living in extraordinary times, working as a day laborer in the American West at the beginning of the 20th century,” according to IMDB.com. The
"Not that many people collect old tractors,” Fred Polinder said. “I grew up on a farm and I always liked old tractors." (Photo courtesy Fred Polinder)
movie is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated novella of the same name written by Denis Johnson and also stars acclaimed actors such as Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones and William H. Macy.
According to Polinder, the production company behind the creation of Train Dreams got in contact with him because they needed an old fashioned steam tractor for a logging scene they wished to shoot that year. Due to his status as PSTAMA president, they knew Polinder was the man for the job.
“Initially, what they wanted was a steam donkey,” Polinder said. “But the logistics of moving such a thing was too difficult, so I told them that I had a steam tractor and when they got back to me they asked me what it would take for me to bring the tractor over there. I told them that I could rent it to them, but it’s a pretty old machine and so I pretty much would have to drive it myself and be the operator.”
Although the movie producers initially offered to send a truck to pick up the tractor, Polinder insisted on driving it there himself, pointing to his decades of experience in the truck-driving industry as proof that he could handle the transportation of the vehicle.
“I drove a truck for 35 years and I was still in good standing with Farmers Equipment, so they let me rent a truck to haul the steam tractor with.”
Polinder said that he made sure he was in Colville the day before shooting would begin. The trip itself was only a day’s drive and it was a day’s worth of work.
“They wanted me to have the steam up by 10 a.m., so we drove for around six hours the day before. I got all dressed up in the old-timey clothes they gave me and they basically just shot a scene with me on the steamer in the background while all these guys were logging. Then we loaded it up in the dark of night and got it out of there.”
Polinder said that, while his time working on the film was brief, he enjoyed the experience and said it gave him a unique look into the real time and effort that goes into making a movie.
“There were so many people involved, I mean hundreds of people, all cutting and mowing and clearing and handling real equipment,” Polinder said. “I was so surprised by how long everything took too. I would drive forward on the tractor and then they’d cut and then I’d back up. It was a lot of work just to get that one little shot but it was a movie and I still took part in it, which feels good.”
Although Polinder has no plans to offer any more of his tractor collection for film shoots anytime soon, he said this was a great opportunity to employ a jewel in his antique tractor collection.
“I’ve had that tractor for over 40 years. I was about 34 years old when I got it,” Polinder said. “The tractor itself is over 100 years old. To have something that old isn’t very common these days. People scrap things every day. So to have someone ask me to come down and help them with this project and to have one of my tractors in a movie, that was a pretty great experience.”
-- For more than a century, Fred Polinder’s family has owned and farmed 120 acres of land along Kamm Creek.
For most of his adult life, Fred Polinder has collected antique tractors of all kinds and has worked to preserve Whatcom County’s cultural history. He is currently president of both the Puget Sound Antique Tractor and Machinery Association and the Lynden Heritage Museum's board of directors. (Top photo courtesy Fred Polinder. Photo above by Luke Seymour/Lynden Tribune)
Peggy Adkinson is pictured at her business, La Ve’s. Adkinson said the name came after long consideration when she found an old wooden V from one of the old shops she ran. When customers asked her what La Ve’s meant, she always told them, “the best.” (Photo courtesy Peggy Adkinson)
By Libby Williams For the Tribune
Peggy J. Adkinson has made her mark on Whatcom County as a shop manager-then-owner, mother and nature enthusiast in her 97 years as a local.
Born in 1925 on Valentine’s Day in Ronald, Washington, Adkinson grew up with her three brothers and one sister. The family moved to Bellingham when she was in early elementary school, and that’s where she’s mostly stayed ever since.
“When I got out of high school in 1942, I couldn’t go to college, so I found retailing,” Adkinson said.
Retailing was offered as a course at Adkinson’s high school, where for a semester women from Nordstrom would teach students the ins and outs of the industry.
Adkinson said while she was enrolled in the course, she worked at a store
Born on Valentine’s Day 1925, the mother, nature enthusiast and retired shop manager/ owner has been in Whatcom County since early elementary school
called Montgomery Wards, where she advanced her knowledge of the trade.
“It was a union store,” she explained. “The employees hid me in the drapes so I wouldn’t have to pay the union fee. They kept me hidden.”
At the time, Adkinson said she made about $1.98 a day, plus social security.
Adkinson worked at Montgomery Wards for a few years, until a manager asked her to move to Seattle to manage a store. With her boyfriend, Dean Adkinson, in the war, she took the chance and her mother helped move her to the city.
“I lived at a resident’s place run by the salvation army,” she said. “It was a nice safe place, no boys allowed … we got our breakfast and dinner from there … I was a breakfast person, so
they gave me extra.”
The store Adkinson ran was so small, she said customers had to stand shoulder to shoulder. It was so small that her bosses rarely came by to check on things, so Peggy could run things the way she liked.
The store mostly sold women’s gloves that had to be perfectly fit to a woman’s hand. Adkinson said she and her employees were able to know a woman’s hand size just by looking at it.
When Dean returned to Washington, the couple married in 1946 and moved back to Bellingham. Adkinson then managed a little store called Moss’s, which sold gloves and handbags and other women’s accessories.
The couple and their two daughters, Cheryl and Deanne,
briefly moved to Tenino so Dean could search for logging work. When work was scarce, they returned to Bellingham and he started to work at a mill, and the family lived in the projects. Adkinson recalled becoming close with the other wives living in the area.
In the late ‘40s, the Adkinsons moved to their first home on Russell Street. Dean used his carpentry skills to completely update the home. Peggy said that as soon as work was finished, the for sale sign went up.
They moved into a home on Walnut Street in 1953, and that’s where they stayed through the ‘80s while their daughters grew up and started their own lives.
Peggy managed stores during this time, even traveled
Continued on next page
to New York trade shows to buy products for the shops.
Then, “when she might have thought about retiring,” daughter Cheryl said, Adkinson made the move to put all those years of retail experience to the test: open her very own shop.
La Ve’s, a wom-
en’s clothing and accessories shop was open for 17 years. Adkinson said the name came after long consideration when she found an old wooden “V” from one of the old shops she ran.
When customers asked her what La Ve’s meant, she always told them,
“the best.”
After her husband died, Adkinson said she got reconnected with what she loves most about this part of the state: nature.
Peggy and her sister heard about a small motorhome for sale. They decided to buy it and start adventuring.
“It was just what two women in their 70s wanted, so we bought that little thing, and we went everywhere,” she said, “Sometimes we were gone for three weeks. We went to forests, parks. I’ve been through Utah and the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon. We did some scary
things and some fun things.”
Adkinson said she always traveled with her sister and emphasized the importance of going in larger groups for more treacherous excursions.
Peggy’s daughter Cheryl remembers these times fondly.
“It was so much
fun to see that stage of her life,” Cheryl said. “She was so happy and so pleased because she and dad would go RVing, but he would do everything. Well now suddenly she was doing it and going exactly where she wanted and staging exactly how long she wanted to stay.”
During the first picnic of 1896, members were separated into three classes and were given badges depending on how long they had lived in the area. The Chechakos had lived in Whatcom County for 10 years, the Chacos for 15 years, the Hachette Chacos had lived here for 20 years. Each year the list was maintained, and as time went on, more classes were added. The tradition continues today, and there are thousands of registrants in our Whatcom Old Settlers Association (WOSA) collection of program booklets. Purchasing a ribbon registers you as a member of this year’s celebration and helps support the park and future Old Settlers Picnics. The following are WOSA badges and Chinook translation:
• Red: 1-20 years (newcomer)
• White: 21-30 years (high class or rich person)
• Royal Blue: 31-40 years (a good friend)
• Green: 41-50 years (an early settler)
• Golden: 51-60 years (an old friend)
• Purple: 61-70 years (we came first)
• Aqua: 71-80 years (I am not a newcomer)
• Red, White & Blue: 80-plus years (an old person)
The Old Settlers Trustees would like to thank you for purchase to help us continue to celebrate what the forefathers of Whatcom County believed in — preserving the past and sharing its valuable history.
Cecilia Hoferkamp Connell received the Neterer Cup at the annual picnic. She was two years when she came to Bellingham Bay in 1867 with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Hoferkamp. Cecilia was born in San Francisco in 1865, where her father Herman Hoferkamp received his U.S. naturalization on March 30, 1870.
He was born in Hanover, Region Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany on Dec. 28, 1835. Her father operated the general store for the coal company under the old town of Sehome and acted as telegraph operator for the community. Her mother was one of the first Old Settlers trustees in 1905.
Cecilia married Medill Connell on Aug. 16, 1886 in Bellingham. In 1900, Mr. Connell’s occupation was a journalist for The Reveille newspaper. They had a son named John, who was born in 1893 in Bellingham.
John followed in his father’s footsteps. He was the evening editor for the Oregon Journal. Cecelia Hoferkamp Connel passed away on Jan. 1, 1946.
Jacelyn Jodock King …….... 1989 Don
1994 Allan
Lynda
Steve
Kathi
…....................…. 2000
……..............…. 2001
….......…...…. 2002
2003
Pioneer Beer Garden ……………….................................... Steven Rauch
Pioneer Classic Car Show ………......................……….. Susan Anderson
Kids Pioneer Corral Entertainment & Vendors ……......….. Jackie King
Children’s Pioneer Passport Hunt …………...........…….. Pauline Zender
Stage Entertainment …………….....................................….. Lynda Lucas
Program Roster, Advertising, Posters & Facebook .......... Lynda Lucas
Registration ………….......... Jody Johnson, Jackie King, Lynda Lucas
Signs ………………............................................. Al Gitts, Steve Leibrant
Sponsorships & Media Advertising .............……….......….. Lynda Lucas
Volunteers ………......………........... Erin Gunther & Yvonne Goldsmith
Grand Parade ………………..................................... Volunteers: Bertella
Hansen & Nancy Knapp; Trustees: Mollie Gandy & Lynda Lucas
Construction …………….........................….. Steve Leibrant, Don Imhof
Stage Set Up …………..........................................…......…... Jon Mutchler
President's Assistant & Program Booklet Editor ….........….. Ben Hines
Cabin Curators ………………........................ Ferndale Heritage Society
Ferndale City Council Member Liaison ........................... Erin Gunther
