How the Dutch came to Lynden, Washington
13.3% of Lynden's first male Dutch settlers were my great-great-grandfathers, and possibly yours, too.
Lynden, Washington is one of the Dutch immigrant enclaves at the edge of the CRC Circulatory System. But it wasn’t always Dutch—and it almost never was.
Reinder E. Werkman and Dutch migration to the northwest
In March, 1895, the first Dutch immigrants arrived in northwest Washington. They were brought there by Reinder E. Werkman, who was something of an entrepreneur from Holland, Michigan. After several failed business ventures in West Michigan in the 1880s followed by an unsuccessful trip to Europe, in 1894, Werkman arrived, broke, in Seattle. He found work at a lumber camp, where he met a banker from Rotterdam who hired Werkman as his agent on the spot, and sent him north from Seattle to New Whatcom, Washington (now Bellingham). There, Werkman was impressed by what he saw, and sent “a section of as large fir tree, eight inches to a foot thick” back to Holland, Michigan.
That same year, Werkman convinced his firm, S. Ellens and Company, to buy 18,000 acres of land on Whidbey Island, roughly halfway between Seattle and New Whatcom. Werkman told his superiors there were “thousands of Hollanders” in the Midwest whose farms were failing and could be convinced to move west.
These Dutch settlers in the Midwest had first emigrated to Pella, Iowa (the other destination considered was Jakarta, Indonesia, which is a fun counterfactual history to think about). In subsequent years, new waves of immigrants, in search of available land, settled to the north and west, spreading to northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and the Dakotas—as far as Lakeview, South Dakota to the west, Holland Center, South Dakota to the northwest, and Hull, North Dakota to the north. Colonies established further afield in western North Dakota, in places like Zenith, would not survive.
For these struggling farmers, as well as others from more well-established colonies in West Michigan, Werkman’s promise of fertile soil and a milder climate in northwest Washington was enough to make them consider leaving. Werkman’s friend and business partner, made the case on Werkman’s behalf, traveling to Dutch immigrant towns throughout the Midwest promoting Werkman’s plans.
Meanwhile Werkman, back in Seattle, began working to get land titles for future migrants. In November 1894, he sent “a box of fruit of vegetables” to Holland, Michigan, and in January 1895 Werkman himself made the journey to West Michigan, bringing with him “a Mastodon tooth of 14 112 pounds, very fine work made by Indians, cornstalks 13 112 feet long, 50 or 60 mountain views, smoked salmon, a section from a spruce tree 11 feet in diameter, 50 different varieties of lumber, different grains and fruits and hundreds of articles worth seeing” (van Reken). The Holland City News noted: “He is now engaged in organizing a Holland colony in Washington and will shortly exhibit here a collection of agricultural products, fruits, cereals, minerals and lumber from that far away Pacific coast state.” The next week he brought his exhibit to Grand Rapids.
The first Dutch settlers in the northwest
By March 1895, Werkman’s efforts were enough to convince a small group of Dutch settlers in and around Holland to migrate (including my great-great-grandparents), and they left on March 11, 1895 for Oak Harbor, Washington. Even after he left, Werkman continued to place ads in the Ottawa County Times throughout promoting cheap land.
He returned to Holland, Michigan a second time, in November, 1895 to bring the next group of Dutch settlers back to Oak Harbor with him. This group included “R. Zylstra, D. Zylstra, E. Eerkes, R. Eerkes, R. Boerhaave, Wm. De Wilde and L. Van Dyke, all of South Dakota, M. Fakkema, Chas. Nienhuis and H. Riksen of Michigan... The majority of these are married men and have with them their wives, children and household effects” (van Reken).
Werkman benefited financially from these migrations. He worked as the agent for Judson Starr, which was the investment company that purchased land on Whidbey Island, Washington, which Werkman resold to Dutch migrants. He was also an agent for the Northwest Orchard Company, headquartered in Grand Rapids, which promoted products from the Northwest to Dutch immigrants in West Michigan. Sometime during these years, he also became a traveling agent for the Great Northern Railroad; he benefitted by arranging transportation and land sales on behalf of the railroad. In the following decade, he would bring Dutch settlers to towns along the railroad in Montana.
From Oak Harbor to Lynden
In 1896, three Oak Harbor settlers, Douwe J. Zylstra, Herman Oordt, and Oordt’s brother-in-law Aart Veleke made a trip from Oak Harbor to Lynden, Washington. Lynden had been virtually abandoned after the depression of 1893 ended its thriving lumber industry. Shingle mills closed, and the town emptied, houses emptied, and land became cheap. Veleke had originally immigrated to Oak Harbor from Vesper, Wisconsin, where he met Zylstra and Oordt. A former neighbor of Veleke’s from Vesper had gone to Lynden, and reported to Veleke that after the lumbering boom, the area was mostly abandoned stump land that, with some work, could be converted to farmland.
These three men—Zylstra, Oordt, and Veleke—took a steamer from Oak Harbor to New Whatcom (now Bellingham). From there, they traveled on foot through woods that would, the following year, be cleared for a plank road, later known as the Guide Meridian Road. Once they reached the Nooksack River, local Native Americans took them up the river by canoe to the landing at Lynden. After exploring the area, they returned to Oak Harbor to report of cheap land and farming potential.
The next year, in 1897, the first wave of Dutch settlers, led by Zylstra, Oordt, and Veleke, arrived in Lynden from Oak Harbor. They set about building their community. Zylstra wrote articles that promoted Lynden in De Grodwet and Volksvriend, Dutch publications based in Holland, Michigan, imploring others to join them. He touted Lynden’s “good soil, cheap, an equable climate, no crop failures, no violent storms, no bitter sub-zero temperatures” (Brink)—all familiar to Midwestern farmers.
The origins of the Christian Reformed Church in Lynden
News of this tiny Dutch colony on the West Coast, 1500 miles from the nearest Christian Reformed Church, prompted Henry Beets of First Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center, Iowa to pay a visit see whether a church could be organized. He arrived in Lynden in May, 1899, and preached at the Methodist Episcopal Church (Lynden’s only church at the time), and returned to Sioux Center with a petition to Classis Iowa to form a church.
In response, CRC Home Missions sent Rev. Abel J. Brink, who arrived on a Saturday evening in September, 1900. The trail that Zylstra, Oordt, and Veleke had hiked from New Whatcom a few years earlier had been replaced by a stage line that operated on the new plank road. The stage driver dropped off Brink and his wife at the front of the town’s general store, owned by Zylstra, and yelled into the store “Here’s your preacher!” and drove off (Brink). The next morning, Brink arrived, ready to preach, surprising Fred Bierlink, who was preparing to read a sermon. Because nobody in the town knew how to call a pastor, Brink wrote his own call letter. He operated as a Home Missions missionary for nine months until a fellow CRC pastor could arrive in Lynden and officially install him into his position. This happened when Gerrit Westenberg of New Era, Michigan arrived in July 1901.
The charter members of First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden, Washington were:
John Block and his family from Allendale, Michigan
Fred Bierlink and his family from Allendale, Michigan
Marius VanderGriend and his family from Firth, Nebraska, and Charles Mix County, South Dakota before that.
Fred Stremler and his wife from Beaverdam, Michigan
Peter Krol and his family from Beaverdam, Michigan
Johannes Potgieter and his family from Grand Rapids, Michigan
Aart Veleke and his family from Oak Harbor, Washington, and Alto, Wisconsin before that.
Harm Oordt and his family from Oak Harber, Washington and Iowa before that.
Harm Hendricks and his family from Oak Harbor, Washington, and Allendale, Michigan before that.
Peter Dykstra and his family from Oak Harbor, Washington, and Orange City, Iowa before that.
Douw J. Zylstra, from Oak Harbor, Washington, and Charles Mix County, South Dakota before that.
Jan. D. Helder and his family from Oak Harbor, Washington, and Holland, Michigan before that.
Aalert Tap from Oak Harbor, Washington.
Ulbe J. Faber from Oak Harbor, Washington.
John Troost and his family from Oak Harbor, Washington.
By the end of 1900, these families were joined by VanderLindens, Ripperdas, Schuylemans, DeGraffs, Verduins, and Niemeyers. Brink stayed at the Christian Reformed Church in Lynden only a year, before he took a call to Bemis, South Dakota and was replaced by Evert Bos. Brink later retired in Lynden.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
Sources
Arnold Brink, “Lynden: A Home Far Away from Home”
Phil Dougherty, “D. J. Zylstra arrives in Lynden on June 17, 1898”
Henry S. Lucas, Netherlanders in America
Donald van Reken, “The Life and Actions of Reinder Edward Werkman”
Howard B. Spaan, “Early Pacific Coast CRC Churches,” Origins (2008)
Brings back (some) fond memories from my WA State history class, covered a lot of the same ground as this did. Thanks for the review.
Good stuff.