Stories about logging in the Pacific Northwest are one of the common threads of labor history found in our region today. If you travel around to any small town or city in Washington and Oregon, chances are you will see displays of iron-worked logging tools, donkey engines used for hauling cut logs, portable mechanical saws, choker hooks, cables, hand axes, and long-saws (“Swedish fiddles”) of all shapes and sizes, many rusted over the many years of use and seasons.
Family histories, too, can illustrate stories of grandparents, parents, sons, and daughters, who have worked together over the decades to built family-led companies, in an industry like logging as a shared work passion, and likewise, in recreation and off hours, where family members play sports together: baseball, for instance.
We have a great story, one such story of the Northwest, with the Zender Family and the ball team they put together as a minor league team in 1952, known as The Deming Loggers. The team took its name after the town in Whatcom County where the family first put down roots with Peter Zender, and immigrant from German who came to the US in 1884, married a North Dakota gal, Anna Mary, and started a farm with a plot of purchased land in Whatcom County in 1896.
While Peter worked his land as a farmer and dairyman, his family grew to include three sons – Henry, Jacob, and Antone (Tony) and a daughter, Christina. Stands of tall timber in heavily forested Whatcom County led to the sons starting Zee Brothers Logging, with their father’s homestead outside of Deming as a base of operations. By 1940, the prosperity of the business had led the sons to establish large families of their own: Jacob and his wife raising 11 children all told, with nine sons and two daughters.
As a new generation of Zenders came of age during the 1940s, they entered into the family logging business, and played baseball in their off hours: first in High School, and later for local teams like the Bellingham Bells and the Mount Vernon Milkmaids. Three of the older brothers – Bernie, Dick, and Nick – were good enough that they tried out for the majors (Brooklyn Dodgers, St, Louis Cardinals, and Dodgers’ farm teams, respectively) but returned home to Washington state.
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the saying goes. The nine Zender brothers formed the nucleus of a newly created minors’ team in 1952. The Deming Loggers were in play, with their Uncle Henry as a manager for the team. Work continued as it had all along, with the Zenders putting their skill, strength, and endurance from long hours of logging operations to their benefit as ball players. Good hand-eye coordination had become a standard both on and off the field. The team ended its first season in fourth-place at the state tournament.
A big payoff came in 1956, when that season saw all nine brothers – Nick, Jim, Lawrence (“Red”), Bernie, Dick, Pete, John, Jake, and Dan – when the team beat the Bellingham Bells 6-4, and earned a playoff berth in the national semi-pro tournament in Wichita, Kansas. A bus used by the family company to transport loggers was put into service taking the team back east.
The 31 teams in Wichita were from all over: Johnstown, New York, Hazelhurst, Mississippi, and Wichita CIO. The Deming Loggers proceeded to beat them all. They capped off their fifth game of the series again Greeneville, Tennessee, with a come-from-behind finish in the ninth inning to win by one run, 12-11. The next game against the Alpine Texas Cowboys for the semi-final round was a blowout, with the brothers unloading 8 hits and 6 runs out of 18 hits total.
Alas, it was not to be. The final game of the championship against the Indiana Dairymen of Fort Wayne, was a repeat of an early loss against that team. By the end of the third inning, The Deming Loggers were 16-0, and despite the best efforts of the Zenders, were able to get in just four hits and a single run. The game was ended in the fifth inning, with a final score of 18-1.
The second-place semi-pro finish by the Deming Loggers remains the highest placing by any team from the Pacific Northwest to this day, with the series known today as the National Baseball Congress World Series.
For the Zenders, they continued with their team for two more seasons: in 1957 and 1962. The passion of baseball stayed with the family regardless of the team’s official status. A new generation of Zenders has now taken to the field, with a legacy of both logging and baseball in the Pacific Northwest to their credit.
