"People want to work in this country, they can make it go, " said Otto Hahnel, of Bellingham, who came from Germany and landed in New York July 4, 1922. "It's open to everybody."

OTTO EMIL WALEMAR HANEL, of Bellingham arrived in New York Harbor on July 4, 1922 with his wife Emilie, and his daughter, Elizabeth, to start their new life in America. He and Emilie didn't leave Europe with a child but arrived with one: Elizabeth was born one month early during the trip across the ocean. "I used to be able to tell the exact longitude and latitude" where she was born, Hahnel said. He does remember the doctors charged $30.10 to deliver her and the ship's captain baptized her.

Hahnel was born in April 1895 in Germany, where he grew up and learned the butcher's trade. When war broke out in late summer, 1914, Hahnel went into the Army where her served in both France and Russia. By the time the war was over, he lived 20 months in a French prisoner-of-war camp.

When he got out of the Army in March 1920, he was much decorated for his work as an infantry man, but found "there was no butcher business, " he said. He married Emilie, a young woman he had met years before, and the eventually decided to immigrate to the United States. Like many immigrants, they chose to move where relatives already lived. In their case, Emilie had a sister living in Silver Beach.

Hahnel's friend, Elaine Zobrist, of Bellingham, has written an account of his odyssey. "Unable to speak the language, with their meager funds depleted, a newborn baby in their arms, not much more that the clothes on their backs, Otto and his wife went to work to fulfill the vow that they took when the applied for immigrant status… to become self sufficient within six months" or face deportation." The came over on " a big, old fashioned ship" chock full of other immigrants, including many Jews for Poland, Zobrist wrote. They encountered 50 foot waves on their odyssey. Because they had their immigration papers taken care of in Leipzig, Germany, they weren't required to be processed at Ellis Island. But they did see the Statue of Liberty.

"I hate to tell you the truth, but we cried when we saw it, " Hahnel said. "That's the truth."
After crossing the country by train and arriving in Washington State, Otto's first job was a section hand on the railroad at $2.50 per day before he was able to return to his original trade as a butcher, at Frye and Co. in Bellingham for $35.00 a week.

In 1927, he invested his money as a silent partner in B.B. Meat and Sausage, which was owned by Emil Ludwig. Ludwig soon left and Hahnel took over. He took a partner in 1934 and the business grew to 22 employees. Along the way, he acquired farm land on Y Road and worked at both the meat business and the farm business. "I did everything, " he said. " I worked night and day." As the meat business grew, Hahnel took on even more responsibility; he became active in the meat dealers union.

He finally retired from the business in 1970 and now lives on James Street Road and Orchard Drive. Hahnel became a citizen in 1928 after taking citizenship classes at the old Washington School in Bellingham.
"Once I got that paper, I felt a foot taller, " He said of his citizenship papers, and still carries a laminated copy of the document. He and Emilie, who died four years ago, had three children. Their first born Elizabeth, lives on the Y Road farm. As with many who have adopted America as their country, he has strong feelings about it. He recalls standing outside his farm at night on the Y Road in World War II, with a gun, because of rumors that enemy planes might fly over.

"Honest people can live here, exist here, make a good living and be good neighbors, " he said of the United States. His assessment of America is summed up in one phrase: " I call the United States the land of impossible possibilities," he said.