Name/Title
1935 Bull Picnic Newspaper August 26, 1935Entry/Object ID
001871Tags
John Thews, Charles W SlaughterScope and Content
MIDDLETOWN TIMES HERALD, MIDDLETOWN, N. Y., MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1935.
New Member Born as Bulls, Assemble for 1935 Count
Thew Birth Announced at Stone House Picnic Saturday;
More Than 300 of 4,000 Descendants Gathered for
Annual Party on Ancestral Site
HAMPTONBURGH-Their clan increased by the advent of a new
member that very day, more than three hundred persons who bore
the name of Bull or descendants of persons who bore it picnicked,
transacted family business and renewed family friendship ties Saturday
in the shadow of the ancestral stone house and its fine old trees in
the hollow of the rolling Hamptonburgh meadows. It was the sixty-
eighth annual family picnic of descendants of William Bull, English
stone mason, and his wife, Sarah Wells, who were married in 1712,
treked westward to the untamed interior of Orange County and ten
years later built with their own hands the homestead that now
annually beckons to more than 4,000 descendants of that pioneer couple.
The new member was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Thew of
Hamptonburgh. Born just about the time the first of the picnickers
arrived at the stone house, announcement of his arrival silenced
all conjecture as to where the designation of youngest member of
the family would fall.
Scores of descendants of the builders roamed during the day
through the comfortable homestead, admiring paintings and photographs of their ancestors and studying curios and household articles indicative of how they lived.
Plans are materializing, it was announced, for preservation of the
ancestral home and its contents as a permanent family museum.
Necessary improvements will be made, but the general lines and
atmosphere of the house will be maintained, it was indicated.
An Orphan - Sarah Wells, mother of the family, was an orphan, adopted by
Chirstopher Denn of New York, an investor. He had been given a
grant of land by the English crown and in order to preserve his grant
it was necessary to take formal possession. The sixteen-year-old
girl set out for Orange County with three carpenters and six friendly
Indians to settle on the grant. William Bull, a sturdy English stone
mason, was building a tavern at Craigville when the party arrived. A
short time afterward, in 1712, he married Sarah, and erected a log
cabin near the site of the present stone house, where the couple lived
about ten years. Bull worked at Greycourt. He also built the General Knox headquarters near New Windsor. Apparently he was so busy that he had but little time to build his own home, for it took several years to complete it.
Descendants of the family point with pride to the sturdy structure,
which the couple planned and built unaided. Sarah carried much of the
stone with her own hands. Members of the family now disagree as to the
number of children, but at least twelve married and reared large
families.
During the War of Independence there was a family split. One son
left for Canada to remain a British subject. One of the heirlooms of
the family is a scarlet soldier's tunic worn by the Tory ancestor, who
left a good sized group of descendants in Canada. The coat was presented by the English descendants to the American group for preservation in the family museum.
World War records show eighty-eight casualties among descendants
of the Bulls. A glass case in the homestead contains photographs of
nearly 100 members of the family who were in military service in the
English and American army.
Miniature of Homestead
It is related that at the death of Sarah Wells, at the age of
102, she had 335 descendants. She is buried beside her husband in
the little Hamptonburgh cemetery, a short distance from the farm
house.
One addition to the museum Saturday was a miniature of the
old stone house, made by Charles W. Slaughter of Warwick and his
son, Guy, members of the family. The miniature serves as a depository for a museum fund, to which members may contribute for repairs and preservation of the homestead. The presentation was
made by Mrs. Lillian Bull Waite of Newburgh, who suggested the model, and pointed out that the old stone house is the visible material
symbol of the invisible strong bond of family union.
Harry Bull of Chester, president of the organization, presided at the
meeting. He introduced Mary Ophelia Houston of Newburgh,
eighty-eight, as the oldest descendant of the family present. The
youngest he said was the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. John Thew of
Hamptonburgh, born at nine o'clock Saturday. Nancy Madison
Bull of Buffalo, a daughter of Mr.and Mrs. Walter Bull and a grand-
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bull of Monroe, attended the picnic.
Marion O. Teed of Montgomery presented a chair formerly owned
by Peter Bull, and a blanket quilted by daughters of William
Bull and Sarah Wells, owned by George Eager of Montgomery as a
gift to the museum.
Robert McL. Jackson of Hamptonburgh, secretary of the association, was elected, with Mrs. Amy Bull Crist of Montgomery and Albert C. Bull of Chester, as a member of the board of managers. Other managers whose terms hold over are E. M. Bull of Monroe, treasurer; Harry Bull of Hamptonburgh, Hamlet S. Roe of Chester, Jessie Zabriskie of Hackensack,
Miss Cornelia Hawkins of Rutherford and Miss Dolly Booth of
Campbell Hall.
It was announced that Mary Ellsworth, in charge of the homestead for many years, would be unable to continue. Mr. and Mrs.C. B. Howell and Mrs. Charles Howell of Washingtonville will be in charge after September first.
It was voted to hold the next reunion August fourth, 1936.