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Newspaper 124th Bull picnic reunion & weddingEntry/Object ID
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Bull PicnicScope and Content
Bull reunion site of new union
By CHRIS FARLEKAS, Staff Writer
CAMPBELL HALL - "This is America coming home to itself," Jo Bull Brown said yesterday, as she helped her daughter-in-law, Betty Brown, tidy a table of family heirlooms.
Mrs. Brown wasn't far wrong. The 124th annual Bull Family Picnic is one of the richest traditions in Orange County - and looking at the car license plates, as well as the register book, you could understand what she meant. More than 150 of the 400 people there came from across the United
States: California, Iowa, Florida, Rhode Island, Texas, Arizona, etc.
There are more than 10,000 descendants of William and Sarah Wells Bull - the first white couple married in Orange County.
A reunion is many things - a chance to catch up on the living and the dead: Winnie Van Houten, 74, of East Lebanon, Maine, was marking names on three generations of photo albums for Adele DeVries of Oakland, N.J.; and memories: Ross Hallock, 94,talked about how he flew an old Jenny bi-
wing plane here to the reunion 70 years ago "and what a stir it made. Some of the old-timers had never seen an airplane up close before."
But what set this particular reunion apart was a wedding.
During the Bicentennial Summer of 1976, there was a mock wedding ceremony, recreating the Sarah/William nuptials.
But yesterday, for the first time, a wedding was held for real.
Melinda Jones and Peter Vollmer decided to get married during the reunion
"because it seemed so appropriate," she said. The germ of the idea came four years ago when they came to a reunion and saw a large quilt tracing the Bull genealogy.
"When I saw my line, I thought it would be fitting to be married here in the presence of this extended family and the generations that went before," said Melinda, a sixth-generation Bull.
The Long Branch, N.J., couple came early, bringing wedding cakes, which were served following the 2:30 service. They walked hand-in-hand in and around
CHRIS FARLEKAS/The Record
Ten-year-old Joey Jones wipes away his mother's tears wedding held during a Bull Family Reunion. More than of joy as she says "I do" to Peter Vollmer at the first 400 Bull descendants attended the 124th annual reunion.
the Bull Stone House, admiring Sarah Wells' wedding dress, talking about "love that lasts through the generations," as Melinda said.
These thoughts were reflected in the short wedding ceremony, held outdoors,
next to the intricate stone wall William built more than 200 years ago for Sarah. Judge Michael K. Brown, who performed the wedding, told the extended family, "in your hearts, renew yourselves as Melinda
and Peter take their vows."
Then he read from the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, accenting the passage that "love is eternal."
As the couple exchanged rings, tears could be seen in their eyes - and in those of many of the guests.
After the ceremony, after the pictures, it was time for the cake - and good wishes, given by some of the old married couples.
Then, as the reunion's youngest guest, 3- week-old Hannah Wells Leach started to cry, Mrs. Vollmer said "The generations are all here and now, Peter and I are a part of them."Relationships
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