Mrs. Anna Wright Helder, a member of the faculty of the Bellingham School of Music and Art, a teacher of years of experience and widely known in art and musical circles throughout the northwest, may properly be accounted as a member of one of the pioneer families of Whatcom county, for she has been a resident here since 1887 and has thus been a witness to the amazing development that has been brought about during the past forty years. From the days of her girlhood Mrs. Helder has been interested in musical and artistic expression. She was about ten years of age when she came with her parents, the family settling at Lynden, and her formal education was finished in the Northwest Normal School and in Puget Sound University, in both institutions majoring in art and music, specializing in oils, china painting and wood carving. Her initial training in artistic expression was gained under the direction of Mrs. Hugh Eldridge, then Dilly J. Bowers and continued under Professor Gilstrap, and Max Meyer, Puget Sound University, Tacoma, Washington. From the time she left school she has been engaged in teaching, her influence in the social and cultural development of the community, thus having been one of marked benefit for years. In 1923 she became formally connected with the staff of the Bellingham School of Music and Art and is now thus serving that admirable institution, a teacher of wide experience of long approved methods.
Mrs. Helder was born in Van Buren county, Michigan, daughter of James S. and Eliza M. (McIntyre) Wright, and was about two years of age when in the early '80s her parents moved with their family to Smith county, Kansas, settling on a homestead. James S. Wright, a veteran of the Civil war with a record of three years service in the navy, proved up on a homestead claim and in 1887 disposed of his holdings and with his family came to Washington Territory, settling in Whatcom county. He established his home in the Lynden settlement and there opened a hotel, the first one in the town. His son, Fred S. Wright, presently opened a drug store in Lynden, the first in the town, and the Wrights thus became definitely connected with the commercial and social development of that place. James S. Wright continued in the hotel business in Lynden only a short time and then leased the place, afterwards converting it into a residence, where his last days were spent, one of the best known men in the county, his death occurring June 27, 1914 May 27, 1913. He was treasurer of Lynden for a number of years and was an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Masonic order and his funeral was conducted under the auspices of these organizations. Both he and his wife were natives of the state of New York and members of colonial families there.
On May 9, 1899, in Lynden, Anna Wright was united in marriage to Rynard R. Helder, present secretary-treasurer of the Americanadian Mining Corporation, and they have two children, Z. Vanessa Helder and R. Wright, the latter of whom now (1926) is pursuing his studies in the high school, taking a science course. Miss Vanessa Helder, under the capable preceptorship of her mother, has become an artist of considerably more than local reputation, the highly original treatment of some of her designs having gained for her the praise of competent critics throughout the northwest. She specializes in water colors, and her entries exhibited in the Northwestern Artists Exhibition in seattle in 1926, were the subject of much admiring attention and high praise. Miss Helder's education was finished in the University of Washington, which she entered following her graduation from the Bellingham high school. She is now engaged as a teacher in art, with particular reference to Batik and water color and has an interesting class of pupils in Bellingham. In ethics Mrs. Helder and her daughter incline to that system of philosophy promulgated by the Theosophical Society and are numbered among the most interested and helpful students of this school of thought in this region. The Helders are republicans and take an interested part in general civic affairs as well as in the general social and cultural activities of the community, helpful in all movements having to do with the promotion of the common good.
Rynard R. Helder is of European birth but has been a resident of this country since the days of his infancy and thus has ever accounted himself an American. He was born in the kingdom of Holland was was but two years when he was brought to the United States by his parents, Jan D. and Trintje (Roseboom) Helder, who settled in Holland, Michigan, where he was reared and educated. His father was a shoe merchant and he grew up with a mercantile training, associated with his father in Holland until that business was sold in the middle '90s, when the family came here into the Sound country and settled on Whidbey Island, moving from there in 1898 to Lynden, where in the next year Mr. Helder was married. He has long been connected with mining operations and since 1925 has been associated with the Americanadian Mining Corporation as secretary and treasurer, being widely known in mining and general commercial circles. The Helders reside at 2001 G street, Bellingham, where they are very pleasantly situated.
