The Van Sickles are a founding family of Lynden and Sidney’s father owns several properties in the area. During the diary, Sidney rents a farm from his father which he co-farms with his brother-in-law Frank Mulholland. By 1912, the two men have left farming and Sidney begins working in Archer’s General Store in Lynden. He refers to farm work, squabbles with Frank, a holiday in Detroit, going to market – and his long-term courtship of Hep, who he eventually marries, once her widowed mother dies.

Wedding photo of Sidney Van Sickle and Harriet Eliza “Hep” Plastow, 1925.