The Old Settlers Picnic, at Ferndale’s Pioneer Park, has been a yearly fixture in my life for as long as I can remember, because my family was among the host of early settlers in Whatcom County. My great grandfather, Osmond Bridge, came to Whatcom County in the 1890s from Burnley, Lancashire, England, bringing his family with him: my great grandmother, Margaret; my grandmother, Charlotte; and a host of great aunts and uncles, all of whom are gone now. He built his homestead on land that now belongs to the oil refinery, and if they didn’t exactly “flourish” in the tiny settlement of Ferndale (life was hard in those days) they at least put down roots, and through intermarriage there sprang a host of family names that may still sound familiar to some old-timers, and even a few not-so-old timers: Bridge, Hoffman, Brock, McCarten, Holeman.

I can even trace a piece of my “lineage” to a structure that stands in Pioneer Park, today - the old “schoolhouse.” This was originally the Holeman cabin, and my Great Uncle Jack Holeman - who with my Great Aunt Florence raised my mother - was born there many, many years ago. He died in the 1950s, so I never knew him, but my older brother remembers him, and called him “Pop.”

Every year when I was a kid we would attend the Old Settlers Picnic, taking Chester Dawson, old settler and long time family friend along with us. Chet’s been gone for 34 years, now. I can only see him through a child’s eyes - I was just 12 years old when he passed away - but in my mind I can still see his face and hear his voice, and sometimes I still miss him. He was of a different breed, a genuine good old boy who remembered the 1910 apparition of Halley’s comet, who as a little boy came here from Kansas with his family in the late 1800s, seeking opportunity out West, just as my great grandfather and millions of others had. Old Chet was always kind to me, and the gifts he often brought to Sunday dinners reflected the values of a bygone day: utilitarian things like a hairbrush, a warm winter coat….but he never forgot the candy either.

My story is not original. Hundreds of families throughout Whatcom County can trace their lineage back to those early days, some even before the 1890s when much of my family came here. And that’s what the Old Settlers picnic is all about: honoring their memory, those who came and settled this place we all call home, here in the Great Northwest.