Marian A. Bay, wife of George A. Bremner II, was born the 2nd of July, 1902, in Bellingham, Washington.
The earliest mention of a Bay is Blackburn Bay, who it is claimed is buried next to George Washington’s tomb in Mt Vernon, Virginia, so presumably the family
originated in that area. Just after the Revolutionary War the family floated their furniture down the Ohio River to Ohio.
T. John Bay was born in 1791. He was one of the earliest settlers in Crown City, Gallia County, Ohio. He married Ann Love
Updegraff and their children were Thomas, Pumphrey, James, Joseph, and Samuel. TJ Bay died in Crown City on July 7, 1841.
Thomas John Bay, son of T. John Bay, was born April 15, 1840, in Crown City, Gallia County, Ohio (see map). He worked as a
farmer in Crown City throughout his life. He married Louisa Plymale Oct. 25, 1863, in Crown City, Ohio. Crown City, a town on
the Ohio River in the southeastern part of Guyan township, consisted of 248 people in 1880. In an early description of the town:
“The surface is very broken, some of the hills being quite high... Fine farms and buildings are seen all over the township, presenting
a neat, tidy, and thrifty appearance (Historical Handbook and Atlas p. XVIII).”
The youngest child of Anthony Plymale and Bethia Bowen, Hugh Plymale, Sr., was born Dec. 6, 1807, on the family farm in Botetourt County, Virginia.
In 1820 he emigrated with his father to the farm on Racoon Creek, near Yellowtown, five miles from Gallipolis, Gallia County, Ohio, on the Mercerville
Turnpike. He attended a one room log school house at Mercerville, five miles from his home, which he had to walk to each day. On May 5, 1827,
he married Catherine Cottrell (1810-1852) and they had eleven children between 1827 and 1852: Roda, Elizabeth, Bethier, Theodosia, Mary, Isaac, Junis,
Louisa, Missouri, and Lourana. After the death of Catherine Cottrell in 1852 he remarried Rebecca Stevens and they had five more children, including
John, James, Anslem, and George.
Hugh Plymale went into the milling business about 1856 with a small grist mill powered by water from Raccoon Creek. He later bought the Pirate Farm
on the Ohio River three miles below Gallipolis. When the tugboat “John Porter” pulled into Gallipolis with passengers suffering Yellow Fever, Hugh
Plymale and his daughter Lourana, with her husband, contracted the disease, and he died Sept. 18, 1878. His daughter, Lourana, was found dead of
Yellow Fever with her baby sucking at her breast, although the baby survived. Hugh Plymale is buried on his old farm overlooking the Ohio River
(The Plymale Family in America). The daughter of Hugh Plymale and Catherine Cottrell, Louisa Plymale, was born Aug. 16, 1843, in Yellowtwon, Gallia
County, Ohio.
Thomas John Bay and Louisa Plymale Bay had eight children in Crown City, Ohio: Alta and Alice (twins), Emma, Effie, Curtis, John, and Harry and
Minny (twins). Alta and Alice contracted diphtheria as children. When the doctor attempted to cauterize her throat, Alice bit off the cautery
stick and swallowed it. She survived the disease, while her sister, who took her medicine more obediently, died. In 1878 Crown City was struck
by an epidemic of Yellow Fever, which took the life of Hugh Plymale, Louisa Plymale's father, on Sept. 18, 1878.
The epidemic originated with a fireman on the tugboat “John Porter,” soon after it left New Orleans on its trip tip the Mississippi River.
Yellow Fever quickly spread throughout the crew, and the tugboat, banned from all ports, dropped its patients off on shore as it continued up the river.
On August 17th, 1878, the “John Porter” arrived at Crown City. “The hardships up to this point were beyond description. People along the
shore avoided the boat as they would a wild beast-- not permitting her to land for supplies, and threatening the crew with direful punishment
whenever the attempt was made.”
At Crown City the tugboat was unable to pass a difficult place in the channel. When she attempted, the
cylinder packing blew out. This was repaired, but then the shaft broke. Before the panicked citizens
of Crown City were able to procure another shaft for the “John Porter,” the crew had deserted to shore.
Several curious local people who visited the abandoned ship contracted the disease, and soon the town was
afflicted by an epidemic. “During this reign of terror, that occupied but a few weeks, there was an
almost total suspension of business. Hotels were closed, hundreds fled from the town, and the streets were
almost deserted. Happily, several brisk frosts broke the epidemic (Historical Handbook and Atlas).” So
ended the Yellow Fever scare of Crown City, Ohio.
Thomas John Bay and his family lived in a large white house on the banks of the Ohio River with
a fireplace in every room. The house included 60 acres of property where they raised corn, hogs, and cattle.
The relations were buried in a small family cemetery on the property. After her husband's death in 1883,
Louisa lived there until her death at age 87, on Sept. 3, 1932, after which her daughter Alice moved in.
Curtis Blackburn (“Dad”) Bay was born Aug. 19, 1873, in Crown City, Ohio. His father, Thomas John Bay,
died when his son Curtis was ten years old, and as the eldest son, he took over the duties
of the farm. After completing his education at the local Academy, Curtis Bay went to work on the
Ohio and Mississippi River steamboats, and eventually became the youngest man on the river to have his captain papers.
An article in the Lynden Tribune dated May 18, 1950, describes Curtis (“Dad”) Bay’s career as an Ohio River
steamboat captain. He was quoted as saying: “Never had an accident. Biggest problem was fightin’ the low water
and ice. In those days, the Ohio wasn’t locked or damned.” Before he was a steamboat captain, he worked as a
purser on the river boats. “I was on a couple of boats that sank after hitting a snag. Also made a few trips to
New Orleans, but stayed on the Ohio most of the time.” In 1892 he went to Colorado were he was a cowboy for a year.
Curtis (“Dad”) Bay had a run between New Orleans and West Virginia, and it is presumably in Charleston,
W.V., that he met his future wife, Madelline “Ella” Rockey. Madeline Ella Rocky was
born in Sept. 6, 1873 in Lock Haven, Clinton Co., Pa. The envelope (in figure) from a love letter
written by Curtis (“Dad”) Bay to his future wife, Madeline “Ella Rockey, when she was living in
Central City, West Virginia, and working for the Huntington Glass Co., survived in the family. It
carries a picture of a steamship on the stamp with his name as one of the Captains. They were married
November 21, 1894, in Erie, Pa., and had one son, John, in Crown City in 1896. Ella Rockey was surprised
to find out on her wedding night that her husband was only 21 years old, instead of 24 as she had previously thought.
Madeline Ella Rockey was born Sept. 6, 1873, in Lock Haven, Clinton Co., Pa. The Rockey family had a long history in Pennsylvania.
The first recorded member of the family was David Rockey.
The family was thought to be of French Huguenot origin (an earlier possible spelling variant “Raquet”). Another
near Pleasant Gap, Centre Co., Penn. (Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania). There was a family tradition
that an ancestor (father of Barnett Rockey) lived in Lancaster County, was Pennsylvania Dutch (or spoke the German current there) and
fought in the American Revolutionary War, although his name is not known (either John, Peter or Michael Rockey (or Raquet)). The source
for this information is a letter written in 1920 from a cousin John Rockey of Lebanon, Penn. to his cousin Madeline Rockey Bay, then residing
in Lynden.
The son of this revolutionary soldier, Barnett Rockey (1772-1847) was born in Delaware County, Penn., raised in York County, Penn.,
and moved to Clinton County, Penn in about 1800. Per Hannah Howe, sister of Thomas Rockey, he was an orphan and had one known brother.
He was remembered as speaking largely Pennsylvanian German since he was raised in the “Lancaster” area. Barnett Rockey married
Margaret Dautin on March 25, 1807. Margaret Dautin Rockey was born in Maryland August 16, 1774, in a county near the Pennsylvania line. The
source for the information contained here is Lawrence Rockey of Freeport Illinois sent to Marian Bay Bremner. Based on accounts from Hannah
Howe, sister of Thomas Rockey, she was an orphan descended from a group of English who settled with Lord Baltimore in Maryland, who was raised
by a Southern family who were slave owners. Someone told me she was half Delaware Indian, although I have no evidence for this.
She had a sister and a brother who “went into the Virginia wilderness and were never heard from again.”
Barnett Rockey and Margaret Dautin Rockey had nine children between 1808 and 1826: Abraham, Jacob, Elizabeth, Michael, John, Susanne, Henry, David and William.
Barnett Rockey learned the tanner’s trade, and moved with his family to George’s Valley near Spring Hill and Millheim, Centre County, Pennsylvania, and
worked as a laborer until 1818. They then moved to Brush Valley, near Spring Bank, Centre Co PA and in 1826 to Sugar Valley, Clinton Co PA working as a farmer
in both places. He died January 26, 1847, in Tylersville, Clinton County, Penn., and was buried in the cemetery in that town.
In the History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Linn, JB; Everts, Philadelphia, 1883) there are several entries related to the Rockeys
and associated families. Jacob Rockey is listed on p 38 as a resident of Bald Eagle, Centre County, and died 1810. Henry Rocky lived in Potter,
Centre County, in 1801. Henry Rockey lived in Boggs Township, Centre County, in 1815.
Tylersville is part of Logan Township, which is described in the History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Linn, JB; Everts,
Philadelphia, 1883) on p 642f.
“The township is bounded on the south and west by Centre County, on the north by Porter and Lamar townships, and on the east by Greene.
It is nearly nine miles in length, and has an average breadth of two and a half miles. Nearly the entire township lies between what are called
Sugar Valley and Brush Valley Mountains, those two ranges really forming its northern and southern boundaries, therefore it includes a large
portion (nearly one half) of Sugar Valley. This valley was so called because of the very large number of sugar maple trees that formerly
existed within its limits, and the township was named in honor of that noble Indian chief, Logan, who, according to tradition, had a path
across the valley, which, with his dusky followers, he used to tread in passing to and from the hunting-grounds of his brother chieftain,
the noted Bald Eagle. The place where he crossed Nittany Mountains is still called “Logan’s Gap”. As having been conspicuous in the Indian
history of Central Pennsylvania, as well as giving the name to an important township, Logan is certainly entitled to especial notice in this
sketch. He was the son of the Cayuga chief, Shikellimy, who dwelt at Shamokin (now Sunbury) in 1742, and was then converted to Christianity
by the Moravian missionaries, by whom he had his son baptized, giving him the name by which he was ever afterwards known, in honor of James
Logan, at that time secretary of the province of Pennsylvania.
“The only stream of any importance in Logan township is Fishing Creek, which flows through nearly its entire length…
“The original timber of the township, consisting of pine, oak, maple, hickory, chestnut, etc was very fine, but the principal
part has been taken off by lumbermen, yet there is still much remaining of a good quality. Lumbering, however, as a prominent
branch of business, has nearly ceased in this region.
“The soil of this township is of the same character as that of Greene, a mixture of sandy loam and clay. When Sugar Valley was
first cleared the surface of a large portion of the land was almost literally covered with water-worn sandstone, but these have
nearly all been gathered into immense heaps, which may be seen here and there throughout the entire length of the valley…
“The first actual permanent settlement in Sugar Valley was made soon after the Revolutionary War by John Christopher Culby, who
had been a Hessian soldier, but deserted from the British and joined the American cause… Later others moved over from Brush valley.
Of these the most prominent were Frederick Womeldorf… and Barnet Rockey. The latter located in 1826, about one half mile east of
where Tylerville now stands. He died some years ago, but his widow is still living, at the advanced age of 102 years. Her home is
at present in Stephenson County, Ill.
“About the time Mr. Rockey settled on his farm, the State road, running from Milton to Bellefonte, was opened, and his son, then
a young man, now Squire Rockey, was appointed mail carrier from Jersey Shore to Aaronsburg. The route was a long one, and at that
time it certainly must have been very lonely, as there were but few settlers between the two places. Only one school house, a log
one, then existed in the township. It stood on the farm of Francis Cromley. In his younger days the Squire was a great runner. On
one occasion while carrying the mail, in order to make time, he ran with his mail bag on his back from Tylersville to Kleckner’s
tavern, a distance of eight miles, in one hour…
“Tylersville is located about four miles west of Booneville, near the mountain pass through which the road runs to Brush Valley.
Its found M.D. (Michael) Rockey Esq was a son of Barnet Rockey, who moved with his family into Logan township April 2, 1826, from
what is now Gregg township, Centre Co PA. MD Rockey was twenty five years a justice of the township, who built the first residence
here in 1842, now occupied by AT Greninger. About this time a Union Church was erected. There had been a school house erected on
the site of the village in 1828. The name “Tylersville” was conferred by Squire Rockey and his brother in honor of John Tyler,
at that time President of the United States. MD Rockey bought an acre of land of Paul Frantz, upon which he built his dwelling…
“Reformed and Lutheran Church. This neat frame edifice was erected in 1841-1842… in the cemetery surrounding the church are buried
the following old settlers: Barnet Rockey, born April 20, 1773, d Jan 26, 1847… John Bierly d Aug 27 1870, age 92 years, wife Mary
C died Sept 18 1861 aged 80.”
Margaret Dautin Rockey moved with her children to Illinois, when she moved isn’t clear. A newspaper clipping at
the time of her death read, “Margaret Dautin Rockey was a native of Maryland. She came to Illinois with her children in
pioneer days, and passed away in 1876 at the age of 103 years. One incident of her life pointed to with pride is the fact that
she participated in the inauguration of the first president, George Washington, being one of the group of ladies representing
the states.” Margaret died at the age of 102 in August 10, 1876, and is buried in the cemetery near Rock Grove, in Stephenson County, Illinois.
One of their sons, Abraham Rockey, was born in Loganton, Clinton County, Penn., on March 22, 1808. He married Lydia Wommeldorf of Germantown
PA on 5/11/1830 at Loganton PA. Lydia Wommeldorf was born to Frederick and Barbra Bierley Wommeldorf on Dec. 28,
1811. Little is known of the Wommeldorfs (Frederick was an orphan), the Biereleys came from Bavaria via New Orleans, and her grandfather on that side fought
in the War of 1812.
The father of Barbra Bierly, Anthony Bierly, is described on p 178f of the History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Linn, JB; Everts,
Philadelphia, 1883).
“Anthony Bierly was one of the pioneer settlers of Brush valley. He leased a tract of 300 hundred acres, on part of which Rebersburg is now situated,
from Col Samuel Miles in 1791, and it is probable that he brought his family into the valley in the spring of the same year. They came from Mahantango
Creek, now Snyder County. Mr. Bierly and his son Nicholas had been up during the previous fall to clear and put in grain a small piece of ground for the
family’s subsistence. A Mr. Strawbridge had cleared about half an acre and built a hut on this tract when Mr Bierly first came, and there were a few
huts standing in the woods through other parts of the valley. Mr. Bierly’s house was situated about midway between the present homes of Peter S. and
Anthony Bierly. There are several apple trees around the place which were brought from below, one measures thirteen and one half feet in circumference.
During the Revolutionary War Anthony Bierly served in the militia, but it is not known in what engagements he took part. On one or two occasions he, with
other parties, followed Indians who had murdered white families. This occurred while he was still living along the Mahantango. He came to the valley
with his family through Brush Valley Narrows, over the road which Samuel Miles had opened but a short time before, and was the first man that traveled
it in a conveyance. Anthony Bierly was a native of Bavaria, his parents and an only brother, Nicholas, came to America at the same time probably,
but in what year is not known. His brother settled in Ohio somewhere. His father’s name was Melchior, and he lived along the Mahantango also until
the Indian troubles of 1778, when he left with the “Great Runaway” and never returned from the eastern part of the state. His wife brought along a
beautifully ornamented bottle from the old country, which is today a cherished relic in the family of a great grandson, Melchior Bierly, of
Rebersburg. Anthony Bierly was married to a Miss Warner, he died in 1825, and was 82 years of age; both he and his wife lie buried in the
Lutheran and Reformed graveyard, Rebersburg, and neither grave has a tombstone with an inscription…
“John Bierly, second son of Anthony Bierly Sr. was born Feb 8, 1779, in Northumberland County, and was about 12 years old when his father came
to the valley. His mother used to relate to him how she secreted him, when but a few months old, in a sugar-trough in the woods, and fled with
the rest of the children while the Indians made an attack on the settlement. The Indians did not discover him, and he was found uninjured on
the return of the family when the danger was over. Mr. Bierly was married to Mary Catherine Berry, of Lancaster, and lived near Rebersburg about
45 years, then moved to Sugar Valley, near Tylersville, where he died in 1870, aged 91.”
Abraham Rockey and Lydia Wommeldorf Rockey had their first son, Paul, in Freeport,
Ill. In 1831, and 12 more children up until 1857: Jacob, Rebecca, Jeremiah, John, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Dautin, Lewis, William Barnett, Mary, James
Bigler, Harriet J., Hannah Barbra. Several of the boys fought for the North in the Civil War. Abraham Rocky was
mentioned in the History of Stephanson County: “Abraham Rockey was a farmer and proprietor of a sawmill, and made his home near
Loganton, Clinton Co., Pa. He was called to his final rest on Feb. 10, 1865, when nearly 57 years of age. Both he and his wife belonged to
the Evangelical Association.” After the death of her husband, Lydia Wommeldorf remarried Frederick Seaver of Sugar Valley, and died in Wisconsin,
Sept. 2, 1892.
One of the sons of Abraham Rockey and Lydia Wommeldorf Rockey was Thomas Jefferson Rockey, was born in Loganton
(Pleasantville), Clinton County, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1841. He fought for the North in the Civil War, was a sergeant of the
First Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry Reserves, Company D, and was in a number of campaigns including the battles of
Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg, Antietam, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Brandywine Station, and Culpepper Courthouse. He took part
in the famous cavalry charge of the Stonewall Brigade.
The Simcox (Simcock) family were Quakers from Clinton County, Pennsylvania, who came from a family related to John Simcock who came to
American in 1682 and was a friend of William Penn. Early recorded family members recorded in Nathan Simcock’s family Bible were John
and Hannah Simcock who lived at Charlton, Pine Creek Township, “up the hallow, back of the Betz place or near the old Helms property
near Chatams Run.” They had five children including Nathan Simcock (1795-9/22/1874) who was born in New Jersey and married Polly
(Mary) Kissell (8 children) and then Mary Oakes of Clinton NJ on 2/12/1839 (five more children, including Charlotte White
Simcox, b. Jan. 9, 1842, in Wayne Township, Clinton Co, PA). Nathan is buried in Union Cemetery, Clinton County, PA.
In 1900 Curtis Bay (known in the family as “Dad Bay”) moved west to New Whatcom (now Bellingham, Wash.). “When I first arrived out here,
a friend and I rode our bicycles over the old planked road [the Guide Meridian] from Bellingham to Lynden. The next Sunday we made another
bike trip to Nugents Bridge near Deming.”
His wife, Madeline “Ella” Rockey Bay, followed him to New Whatcom a few months later. Forced to travel alone on the train with her
little son John, the train was held up by robbers, true to the form of the Wild West. The robbers, however, never entered her car:
presumably they were forced off the train or killed before they had the chance.
Ella’s parents, Charlotte and Thomas Rockey, and her sister Ruth followed her to Bellingham in December 7, 1901. Thomas J. Rockey
died of a stroke in Silver Lake, three years later on November 4, 1904. His wife, Charlotte Simcox Rockey, continued to live at 306 Prospect
St in Bellingham until her death January 16, 1922, at the age of 80 years.
Ruth Rockey, Ella’s sister, taught school in Bellingham. She was paid in cash, and some of the local rabble knew when she was
paid and broke into her house to steal her money. Curtis Bay gave her a loaded gun and showed her how to use it to protect herself. The next
time the thieves came, she let 'em have it through the door, and never had problems with robbers after that.
Curtis Bay worked as a saw filer in a Silver Beach, Wash., shingle mill from 1900-1909. Two more children were born in Silver Beach: Mildred and Marian. At that time a street car connected Silver Beach with nearby Bellingham, and there were over 100 shingle mills
in Whatcom County, most of these now gone.
Ella was a school teacher and had a desire that all of her daughters should become school teachers as well. She traveled
to Lummi Island every day to teach school, a hazardous commute. One day a storm came up suddenly that blew the boat all the way down to Anacortes.
Luckily she survived the incident and taught school for many more years.
Curtis Blackburn “Dad” Bay and Madeline “Ella” Rockey Bay had more children in Bellingham, Marian in 1902 and Mildred in 1904.
Curtis Bay and his family moved to Lynden, Wash., in 1910, where Curtis, Jr., was born in 1911. He was offered a job in a saw mill,
up in the hills west of Lynden, and went to make a visit of the site. When he came home he said that he was glad he hadn't brought along his
tool box, as the mill burned down while he was there.
Curtis secured a job at Waples Shingle Mill on Fishtrap Creek in Lynden. “We used to supply the power for the first electric
lights in Lynden,” he was quoted as saying. “Everyone either had to go to bed at midnight or haul out the lantern, because
we didn’t make any electricity after 12 o’clock at night.”
In 1912, the family settled on a 20-acre farm on Benson Rd., where Bess Bay now lives. The farm had a few cows, some
chickens, and a lot of fruit trees. For a short time Curtis ran his own shingle mill with Herb Day on a site northwest of Lynden.
He worked long days, often seven days a week, between the farm and the shingle mill. From 1923-1935 Curtis worked as the Lynden Post Master.
“Dad” Bay first got his nickname in 1901 when Hugh Dodson took up residence in the Bay home and started
calling him “Dad”. “Dad Bay” never made his fortune in the new country, but he was an
intelligent man with a great deal of pride and charisma, a man well liked in the town of Lynden. In his
younger days he was a captain of steamships on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and was known
as the strongest man in Crown City, and in his older days he sported a fancy mustache and had an
“Arkansas twang” accent. He was an ardent Republican (in contrast to the liberal Bremners), a member of
the central Republican committee in Ohio, who counted President McKinley as one of his personal friends
when he lived in Ohio. In his free time he donned a coat and tails and went into town to attend the
meetings of the Masons, the odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pithaeus, of all of which he was a member.
“Dad Bay” was also a musical man who could play a tune on any instrument and sang in an excellent bass
voice. Curtis Blackburn “Dad” Bay died in Lynden, June 6, 1954. He had survived his wife, Madeline
“Ella” Rockey Bay, who died in Lynden on February 29, 1940. They were both cremated and did not request a
headstone, but their son-in-law, George Bremner II, later erected one for him.
Marian Alice Bay was born July 2, 1902, in Bellingham, Wash. One of her earliest memories was
when President Taft visited Bellingham, seeing that “big, fat man” riding by in an open car during a parade made an
impression on her that lasted for all of her life.
Marian Bay started school at Silver Beach on Lake Whatcom, where she was promoted from the first grade to the
second grade for not paying attention. She remembered her father helping to build the Methodist Church
there and how they went on a boat up the lake to pick wild blackberries. She was a sickly girl as a child and was
afflicted by abscesses as well as partial blindness from a “clouded cornea”. During her illness she stayed
with her grandmother Charlotte Rockey in Bellingham, for whom she later expressed the greatest affection. In
1910 the family moved to Lynden where she grew up on the Bay Farm 40 acres on Benson Road. On the farm they had apple,
cherry, pear, plum and prune trees. She walked to school and when the bridge was out would walk on narrow planks
over Fishtrap Creek. As a child she had to milk the cows because her father said his fingers were too short, her brother
John was gone, and her mother could not. She rescued her little brother Curtis (who was nine years younger) when
he went to catch a fish and fell in the Benson Road ditch when it was full of flood waters. She graduated from Lynden High
School in 1920, and by teaching winters and attending school summers, she graduated from Bellingham Normal School
(now WWU) in 1922 with a certificate to teach school.
At the age of 18 she taught school in Pleasant Valley near Blaine, and mathematics at the age of 19 at Maple Falls
High School. At that time Maple Falls was a large and lively town while the virgin forest in the area was being logged and
milled. She later taught at Washington School in Bellingham and Bailey Gatzgert School in Seattle before returning to
Lynden. She later said that she never really liked school very much, and went into because her mother, Ella Rockey, strongly
felt that her children should be school teachers like she was. She always said that she had “a head for figures” and
was happiest working as a tax accountant in a small business she and two other women set up in Lynden and ran for 15 years.
She met her future husband, George Bremner II, at the Lynden Post Office in the summer of 1924, where she was working
as a clerk after having quit her previous job. They were married soon after, on June 14, 1925, at the home of Marian's parents.
Her sister, Mildred, sang a solo for the wedding and was the bridesmaid. George’s brother, Raymond, was the best man.
The newlyweds went to Vancouver for their honeymoon, and afterward settled in a small house at the corner of 7th and Front streets in
Lynden. Marian cooked on a wood-burning stove and washed clothes on a washboard, and the young couple “were very happy
and thought we were extremely fortunate.” Margaret, and the twins, Don and Doris, were born in the Front -Street house.
In 1929 the family had outgrown their house, so they moved back to the Bay family farm on Benson Road in Lynden,
where Jim was born. They lived there until 1934, when they moved to a house on Benson Road, what they thought was a temporary rental arrangement.
But when they were made a good offer to buy they couldn’t pass it up, and stayed there until the end of their lives. Bill was
born later, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bellingham.
Although her husband liked to stray onto topics of politics or current events, Marian Bay’s compelling interest was
always her children, and later in life her expanding brood of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She always spoke with pride
whenever she talked about her children and grandchildren. This primary love was always a complement to the more ethical and
intellectual view that her husband took towards the value of families. My cousins and I have many happy memories of taking trips
to Lynden to stay on the farm at 3427 Benson Road. Grandma always had fresh baked cookies in plastic tupperware containers on the
kitchen table, bowls of blackberries and raspberries, and real milk transported directly from the cow to the table. We’d sit at
the kitchen table and grandpa would talk about something more intellectual, only to be interrupted by grandma who would say something
like “You know we used to call your father Jimmy Applesauce, cause he liked applesauce so much?” or “I wouldn’t let Bill try out
for the basketball team because he got a C in Latin, even though everyone in town begged me to let him, because school is more important than sports.”
I remember how Marian used to keep a book where she would write down jokes that she liked, and used to constantly urge us grandchildren
to get the best education we could. She seemed to have no limits on her expectations of what we could achieve,
and whenever anyone would present any kind of difficulty, she would just say “I’ve always had the utmost confidence in you
Bremners.” Many times I would recount that line to myself in later years when I felt myself in times of difficulty.
Marian Bay had these reflections on their life when her children were younger when I interviewed her for the first
edition of this book in 1986: “All of the children in the neighborhood played at the Bremner house. There were games of
croquet or baseball in the front yard, and hide-and-go-seek in the house. Before the days
of refrigeration, other methods had to be used. One time when Margaret was learning
to walk and say a few words, her parents put a watermelon under the faucet in the bathroom to cool
it. She saw the melon, then came running out, excitedly saying, “Punkin taking a baff.”'
“Don never bothered to crawl like a normal child. Before he learned to walk he ran around on all
fours like a spider, with arms at full length, getting around the room at a remarkable speed.
“When Doris was a little girl she was sent to the meatmarket for Mettwurst, a sausage which the family called
horse-collar because of its shape. The butcher soon phoned and asked what the little girl wanted, as she had asked for a horse-collar.
“Jim was known as “Jimmy Applesauce” because of his love of applesauce. He was president of the Methodist Youth Group,
and asked his mother to make chili for the Sunday meeting. She said she would, thinking there would only be about ten people.
But later, when she asked how many there would be, he said, “Oh, it’s the county meeting, so I suppose there will be 25 or 30-11
Needless to say she had to make quite a bit of chili.
“Bill was interested in planting the garden, and his father sent away for some seed. When the seed arrived, his anticipation was
so high, that he kept pestering his father to plant the garden. When his father was finally ready to plant the garden, he found that the
seeds were missing. Bill showed him where he had opened the packets and planted all the seeds in one hole under a walnut tree.”
Marian Bay told her grandson Doug later in her life, when being interviewed for this book: “Probably our happiest days were spent
with our children, playing games, going places together, and watching them develop. It has been said that in a marriage each gives
to each what else would never be.”
My cousins and I have many happy memories of taking trips to Lynden to stay on the farm at 3427 Benson Road. Grandma always had
fresh baked cookies in plastic tupperware containers on the kitchen table, bowls of blackberries and raspberries, and real milk (not
like the watery stuff you buy in the store nowadays) transported directly from the cow to the table. Having temporarily satisfied
our appetites, the kids headed out to the barn while the adults retired to the living room to discuss family events, farm news, or politics.
This is the end of what can never have an end, a family’s history, conceived as a growing thing with a past a present and a future.
Our family came to this country and learned to love the rivers, the tall firs, the vine maple and the salmon berries. We learned to
love curiosity for its own sake, the pursuit of knowledge, a wider awareness of the world. In the course of making a home in the wilderness
we created a set of values that continue to be passed on from generation to generation. I say these things because, in the process of
writing our history, I have learned more about what it means to be a Bremner. I hope that future Bremners will take an interest in
this book, and by coming to know our ancestors, they will come to know themselves.