The Breidford Family

-By Theo Hull*

  
        Agust and Margaret Breidford came to Blaine in 1916 from Manitoba. Margaret's health had begun to fail and the severe Canadian winters were becoming more difficult to tolerate. Some of Margaret's relatives, the Bardarsons and Straumfjords, were living in the Blaine area, so with their encouragement, the Breidford family moved to the coast. It was a time of sadness, leaving their Icelandic roots, old friends, and familiar places, but also one of adventure and anticipation.

 
 

Their oldest children were born in Manitoba: Augusta was born in 1899, Elias in 1900, Olive in 1903, Julina in 1905, John in 1911, and Rosalind in 1913. The youngest, Leonard, was born in 1917, soon after the family's arrival in Blaine.

The Breidfords built their first home on a farm on the Kickerville Road, just south of what is now the Birch Bay-Lynden Road. The older children attended California Creek School. Besides farming, Agust also worked in the Morrison Lumber Mill.

In 1924, the Breidford family moved to B Street in Blaine, very near what is now Peace Arch Park. They lived there until 1933, when they build another farmhouse on Loomis Trail Road. Leonard and his wife, Lila (Bame), still reside there.
 		  
  Agust and Margaret in the 1920s.    
 

Mrs. Breidford died in 1937, and Mr. Breidford in 1971 at the age of 101, leaving well over 100 direct descendants. Besides Leonard, Agust's son Elias, and daughters Laura Kley Finnson and Olive Gudmundson still live in Blaine. John owned Breidford Ford in Blaine and later in Ferndale before his retirement. He passed away in 1982. His wife, Nina (Freeman), resides in Blaine. Their other daughters are Augusta Brock, of Edmonds, Julina Breidford, Seattle, and Rosalind Bame, Bellingham.

Elias, now retired, has been a well-known photographer in Blaine for many years. His work appears in a number of locations in the area.

There are also a number of third, fourth and fifth generation family members residing in Blaine. They include Marie Kley Bring, Virginia Breidford Claymore, Norma Jean Gudmundson Bakarich, Margaret Gudmundson Rutherford, Theo Gudmundson Hull and Diana Breidford Christianson. Bakarich and Hull are co-owners of the Forget-Me-Not Gift Shop. Great-grandson Harold Kley owns Chuck's Drive-In in Blaine.


 

Agust visiting with son Johnnie at Breidford Motor Company, as Nina, Johnnie's wife looks on.

*This article was originally published in the 1984 Blaine Centennial History, A Symbol of Our Heritage,…The Old Fir Tree. Reprinted with permission.