The earliest record found of any of the Bader family from Warmond, Holland, in North America was a ship manifest showing Anthony Bader arriving in the USA in New Orleans in May of 1924. The manifest shows that Tony was working as a baker on the Holland American Line ship the S.S. Ryndam. This matches up with the family stories. How he became employed as a baker on the ship is unknown at this time. (If anyone has a story about this, I would love to hear it.)
The next Bader to be found in North America is Tony's older brother Gerald. A ship passenger register shows Gerald travelling to New York City in 1924 via the Holland America S.S. Volendam from Rotterdam arriving on July 2. He was listed as a tulip bulb merchant. I don’t know if he actually was a bulb salesman or if that’s just what he said he was.
Another document shows Tony arriving in New York in September 1924. The ship manifest indicates that Tony was not scheduled to leave the ship in New York, so he may have done so without telling the authorities or he may have continued working on the boat and disembarked at another port later. But no other ship documents have been found, so it is likely that was his last voyage, and family stories say that Tony 'jumped' ship in New York.
The two brothers arriving separately brings up many questions for me. Had Gerald been waiting in New York City since July for Tony to arrive that September? If yes, how were they to find each other in New York? Did they have contacts in the city? Had they done research on New York city and had made a plan? There was at least one other passenger manifest showing a Gerald Bader earlier that this. Had Gerald made a previous trip to New York City? If yes, had he found people who could assist or made a plan?
One family story tells that the boys arrived in the USA on the east coast and hitchhiked across the country to the west coast to see a family friend. The friend was supposedly a young priest sent from Warmond as a Catholic missionary to a small Dutch settlement in the Washington state. But another story says that after leaving the ship in New York, they confessed to a priest what they had done. The priest told them that if they wanted to avoid being deported, they should head west where residents were more forgiving of illegal aliens.
An immigration card for Tony dated May 1926 indicates that his ‘passage’ to Washington State had been paid for by a man called Father Hoen. Research shows a Father Hoen at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Whatcom County from 1923 to 1926. This indicates that there was a priest involved in the boys’ settling in Washington State, but it does not prove whether they knew of him before or after they arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
The border crossing card makes note that Tony had spent time in Michigan. Did he and Gerald work in Michigan on their way to Washington State?
Again, there are different stories about the boys' time in Washington State. One tells that one or both of them found work in Seattle for a time. A photograph of Gerald and Tony in aprons had a notation on the back that read, "Tony & Gerald working at hospital in Seattle 1925." This caption, however, may have been added many years after the photograph was taken (it appears to have been written using a ballpoint pen, but ballpoint pens were not in common use until after World War II).
Another story says that they were referred by someone to a bakery in Ferndale, Washington that was looking for workers And yet another tells that they heard about a Dutch community in Lynden, Washington, and when they arrived in the state, they found work in a bakery there.
There certainly was a Dutch community in Lynden. The first Dutchman to arrive in the Lynden area was in 1883, but many emigrants from Holland followed in the late 1800s. This immigration continued through the first half of the 1900s, and these Dutch settlers created a strong dairy industry in the region, which still thrives today. Dutch heritage is represented throughout the region with windmills, murals and Dutch food.
There certainly was a Dutch community in Lynden. The first Dutchman to arrive in the Lynden area was in 1883, but many emigrants from Holland followed in the late 1800s. This immigration continued through the first half of the 1900s, and these Dutch settlers created a strong dairy industry in the region, which still thrives today. Dutch heritage is represented throughout the region with windmills, murals and Dutch food.
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| Lynden, Washington (Wikimedia Commons) |
The immigration card mentioned earlier shows that in 1926 Tony was employed at the Ferndale Bakery. Ferndale is a few miles away from Lynden, so, one way or another, Tony landed in the area.
The next family tale says that the couple who owned the Dutch bakery wished to sell it and retire. After the Bader boys went to work for them, the owners proposed that the boys buy it from them. Gerald or Tony (or both) must have seen the potential for their family in a bakery business, because word was sent home suggesting that their parents and siblings, as well as Gerald's fiancée, join them in North America if they could raise enough money to buy the business.
The boys probably lived in Ferndale illegally through 1924 and 1925. But to buy the bakery, they'd need to have US residency, which they could not do as illegal aliens. So they were forced to travel across the border to Canada to make their immigration application. Since the process was long, they found work in Canada while they waited, but may have been travelling back and forth between BC and Washington State to work during that period.
Family stories say that back in Holland, the boys’ father, Adrian, had been passed over for appointment as mayor. The town, which was predominantly protestant, couldn’t appoint a Catholic to such an influential position. This discrimination is reported to have contributed to the family leaving Holland.
One of Adrian’s children said he remembered a group of town leaders coming to call at their home and asking Adrian not to go to North America because he was so well regarded. And 25 years later, when Adrian’s youngest son returned to Warmond, he was greeted at a large gathering of residents held in his honour who all had stories about his father and the esteem with which he was held in the town.
But before the parents left Holland, they sent their eldest son, Ted, on ahead, possibly carrying cash to help Gerald and Tony prepare. A ship’s register for the Canadian Pacific Montcalm shows that Ted departed Liverpool, England on 26 March 1926 arriving in St. John, New Brunswick.
The document showed that he had arrived in the UK on the Batavier Line. The Batavier Line ran a service between Rotterdam and London from 1830 until the 1960s. The document doesn’t show the name of the ship Ted travelled on, but the line had only two vessels in 1926: Batavier II and Batavier V. We also don’t know how he got from London to Liverpool or why he took this route rather than one directly from Holland to Canada. Timing and/or cost may have been the reason.
The next family tale says that the couple who owned the Dutch bakery wished to sell it and retire. After the Bader boys went to work for them, the owners proposed that the boys buy it from them. Gerald or Tony (or both) must have seen the potential for their family in a bakery business, because word was sent home suggesting that their parents and siblings, as well as Gerald's fiancée, join them in North America if they could raise enough money to buy the business.
The boys probably lived in Ferndale illegally through 1924 and 1925. But to buy the bakery, they'd need to have US residency, which they could not do as illegal aliens. So they were forced to travel across the border to Canada to make their immigration application. Since the process was long, they found work in Canada while they waited, but may have been travelling back and forth between BC and Washington State to work during that period.
Family stories say that back in Holland, the boys’ father, Adrian, had been passed over for appointment as mayor. The town, which was predominantly protestant, couldn’t appoint a Catholic to such an influential position. This discrimination is reported to have contributed to the family leaving Holland.
One of Adrian’s children said he remembered a group of town leaders coming to call at their home and asking Adrian not to go to North America because he was so well regarded. And 25 years later, when Adrian’s youngest son returned to Warmond, he was greeted at a large gathering of residents held in his honour who all had stories about his father and the esteem with which he was held in the town.
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| Warmond, Holland in 1903 |
But the family did apply for immigration to the USA. They were, however, turned down. I’m not sure
why they were rejected, but other Dutch families were also turned down around the same time. Because the two boys were living in Canada awaiting US residency status, they suggested the family apply to Canada with the possibility of going south later. The family was accepted to Canada — as farming settlers — and they sold everything and booked passage on a Canadian Pacific ship called the Marburn departing from Antwerp on 23 April 1926.
But before the parents left Holland, they sent their eldest son, Ted, on ahead, possibly carrying cash to help Gerald and Tony prepare. A ship’s register for the Canadian Pacific Montcalm shows that Ted departed Liverpool, England on 26 March 1926 arriving in St. John, New Brunswick.
The document showed that he had arrived in the UK on the Batavier Line. The Batavier Line ran a service between Rotterdam and London from 1830 until the 1960s. The document doesn’t show the name of the ship Ted travelled on, but the line had only two vessels in 1926: Batavier II and Batavier V. We also don’t know how he got from London to Liverpool or why he took this route rather than one directly from Holland to Canada. Timing and/or cost may have been the reason.
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| Batavier V, the ship that Ted would have taken from Rotterdam to London |
Ted departed Liverpool on March 26, 1926 and arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick on the Montcalm April 4, 1926. On the ship manifest, he was shown to be a gardener and his status was 'landed immigrant.' Ted then made his way across Canada, likely by train, to British Columbia where his brothers were waiting.
In the meantime, the rest of the family was preparing for their immigration to Canada.
On the ship’s manifest were Adrianus and Johanna along with 10 children: Cornelia (Nellie), Antonia (Tonia), Martinus (Tinus), Adrian Jr. (Ed), Bernard, Johnny, Cor, Bill, Joanne and Henk. In addition was Gerald’s fiancée, Catherine Maria Francina Bonnet.
Missing were Gerald and Tony, who we know were already in North America, and Ted who, as noted earlier, left a few weeks earlier.
One Bader family story says that the family had claimed to be farmers and applied as settlers. They were required to take up residence where the government sent them, and that they were assigned to somewhere in the prairies. But the ship's manifest shows the destination of the family as Cloverdale, BC, and the “relative or employer” expecting them was shown as G.J. Bader and Martin Ryan, a farmer. So at least part of the story is true: they were expected to be farmers, and Adrian was listed on the manifest as a farmer. Gerald had obviously found a farmer to sponsor the family. Adrian did work on a farm in Cloverdale at some point after he arrived in Canada, but there is no evidence that any of the other family members worked on a farm. In fact, most of them became bakers in various businesses.
In the meantime, the rest of the family was preparing for their immigration to Canada.
On the ship’s manifest were Adrianus and Johanna along with 10 children: Cornelia (Nellie), Antonia (Tonia), Martinus (Tinus), Adrian Jr. (Ed), Bernard, Johnny, Cor, Bill, Joanne and Henk. In addition was Gerald’s fiancée, Catherine Maria Francina Bonnet.
Missing were Gerald and Tony, who we know were already in North America, and Ted who, as noted earlier, left a few weeks earlier.
One Bader family story says that the family had claimed to be farmers and applied as settlers. They were required to take up residence where the government sent them, and that they were assigned to somewhere in the prairies. But the ship's manifest shows the destination of the family as Cloverdale, BC, and the “relative or employer” expecting them was shown as G.J. Bader and Martin Ryan, a farmer. So at least part of the story is true: they were expected to be farmers, and Adrian was listed on the manifest as a farmer. Gerald had obviously found a farmer to sponsor the family. Adrian did work on a farm in Cloverdale at some point after he arrived in Canada, but there is no evidence that any of the other family members worked on a farm. In fact, most of them became bakers in various businesses.
(See more in the Baders in other posts.)
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