Sept 1942 The Independent Republican Bull Family Picnic Marriage List

Name/Title

Sept 1942 "The Independent Republican" Bull Family Picnic Marriage List

Entry/Object ID

000493

Scope and Content

75th BULL FAMILY PICNIC "One would be in less danger From the wiles of the stranger If one's own kith and kin Were more fun to be with." So said one whose experience was too narrow to justify the generalization. Had he known hundreds of his family well and been in touch with some thousands of them, he would have found men of all degrees of ability, of all manner of tastes, and plenty with whom it was great fun to be. One would be a Democrat, another a Republican, one would never be so happy as when discussing guns and hunting, another's books he would be proud to have on his shelves, tho' too erudite for him to read. He could travel the gamut of life's callings within his own kin. In fact he could take a Gallup poll among them, knowing that they formed a representative cross-section of the population. We prefer the viewpoint of a greater poet and a wiser man who said: "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." One advantage of having attended a large college is that the country may be filled with your friends. So it is if you have a wide enough knowledge of your family. Members can be found in nearly every large city, in countless towns and hamlets, on many a farm, and the common background assures a welcome to the visitor. We had intended to celebrate our 75th reunion with a pageant, featuring the changes which the decades have brought to our picnics, but the war prevented. Our present and our past are linked by Mrs. Elizabeth Bull Greene of Stony Ford, the only one now living who has attended every picnic. Her gaiety and energy reflect a timelessness of spirit which is more real than the apparent changes and decay which seems to surround us. One can safely say that in all the 75 years, no picnic was held on a better day, for this year nature was perfect. We have had many lovely days, but there is nearly always wind or chill or great heat or threat of shower; but not so this year. Of course the lack of gasoline kept the attendance down. Just a few more than 200 signed the register and there are always some who fail to register. "A" cards are across restriction of movement, but could not keep Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Harlow and Barbara and Charles, Jr., from driving down specially from Sidney, N. Y. They drove the furthest of any one just for the picnic. Probably second in that category were F. Pell Zabriskie, Jesse F. Zabriskie, their sister, Mrs. Harry H. Quackenbush, and Miss Jane Zabriskie, of North Hackensack, N. J. Anne Hepburn Smith, of Jamestown, N. Y., came down especially for the occasion. Others from a distance came by train or were visiting in the vicinage. The latter, of course, included Mr. and Mrs. John Vandervort of State College, Pa., and children, Phebe and Jack, who were staying with the Bartow Wright Bulls at Stony Ford, Mrs. Vandervort's parents. To them as to the Harlows, and many others, it would be unthinkable not to attend the Bull Picnic if by any planning and sacrifice it was possible to come. 1st Lieut. Robert A. Ackerly, of the Air Corps, Maxwell Field, Ala., home on furlough, was "the observed of all observers." "Who is our cousin with the red moustache?" one heard, and on looking up saw Bob in his uniform. He must have caused many hearts to flutter. His sister, Mary Emma, on from college at Ames, Iowa, was awarded the long distance ribbon. Sharing general admiration was the family of Alfred Booth Slaughter and wife, with their five children, the oldest about nine years. There are four boys, Barry, Terry Welles, William Harreson, III, Joel P., and their little sister Winona. This vigorous family is living at Ellenville, N. Y. There were four house guests of Mr. Jackson in the Thomas Bull stone house: Ralph W. Tobin, of Trenton, N. J., and Edith Whitney Shaw, of New York city, both of the tribe of John. Mr. Tobin had first attended a picnic in 1896, when a young man of 22 he and Hilah Terbell had bi- cycled over from Walden to the Gouge Grove in Campbell Hall; Helen Johnston Kyte of Wellesley, Mass., and her niece, Lemma Johnston Endersby of Princeton, N. J., were of Thomas's tribe. They come from the latter's granddaughter, Mary Bull, wife of the Rev. John Johnston, D. D., prominent in Newburgh in the first half of the last century. Though he has been dead since 1855, he is still known to a wide group as "Uncle Johnston"- so he is referred to by the descendants of the late Wm. Bull, V, of Stony Ford. The latter's mother, Keturah, was a sister of Mary Bull Johnston of New- burgh, and of course the families ex- changed visits between Stony Ford and Newburgh-something an atmosphere of the warmest cordiality is at once created when Johnston descend- ants come among us. New comers to our picnic included Mr. and Mrs. Silas R. Horton of Craigville. Mr. Horton descends from the tribe of Margaret, who married Silas Horton, and lived at Craigville. The late Miss Grace Horton maintained the homestead there until her death on December 29, 1940. She left the place to her nephew of Wichita, Kans., and now happily he and his wife have been able to take up their residence at the homestead. This old house is situated in a most delightful, retired, romantic spot, at the end of a long, woodsy no-thoroughfare. As one ap- proaches the house, lying across a meadow and up a slight rise, one passes to the right an ancient family burying ground guarded by a stone wall and cedars. Here are the graves of Margaret and her husband and many of their descendants, well marked by stones in good condition. The whole effect is one of remoteness from the bustle and traffic of our day. It takes but little imagination to see Margaret herself quietly moving in the twilight with food for a doe and her fawn, and something to spare for the cotton-tails and for the quail to find in the morning. We hope that Mr. and Mrs. Horton will be made to feel that they have come to live in the midst of friends. One group of Margaret's line made them welcome- i. e., their cousins, Pauline Crist Decker, her daughter, Genevieve Nave and Eleanor Van Keuren Booth. In these accounts we scarcely mention luncheon, so much else crowds our space; but we should say that this year we were very pleased to have among us the Rev. Henry Disbrow Hartmann, minister at Campbell Hall, who asked the blessing before we sat down to our food. After luncheon we held our 22nd annual corporate meeting. Three managers were elected for a term of three years, viz., Hamlet S. Roe and Charles F. Johnson, both of Chester, and Elizabeth Bull Schuerholz of Middletown. Margaret McClung Wilcox of Campbell Hall was elected assistant secretary in recognition of her great aid in addressing the envelopes for out picnic notice, of which nearly 1,700 were sent out this year. The secretary announced greetings from some who could not be present. Messages were sent by Mrs. Andrew Wilson, VII, Mrs. Craig Thompson, Mrs. Emily Duryea Hunter, Miss Martha Mould, Mrs. Harriet W. Bullock, Miss Jean Smith Hoeffler, Dr. and Mrs. Raymond C. Bull, the Hawkins and Andrews families of Rutherford, N. J., Mr. and Mrs. Russell Earle of Lawrence Harbor, N. J., and The Bull Family Association in Colorado. A telegram was received from Inez Bar- clay Kirby of Bethesda, Md., regretting inability to be present. Gifts were announced as follows: From Mrs. Jesse Booth of Campbell Hall, $75 to purchase a $100 War Savings Bond for the Endowment Fund; from Mr. Rumsey Coleman of Washingtonville, a number of antique articles, the most interesting of which was a little tin sanding box with a perforated top used before blotting paper came in; and from Miss Marion O. Teed of Montgomery, two framed pictures which had belonged to the late George Eager of that village, one of Eunice Bull Eager and the other of the old Peter Bull house, no longer standing. The youngest child present was Ruth Carolyn, aged 10 months, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Roe Conklin of Chester. Miss Edna Twambey, of the tribe of Ann, brought up an interesting subject in advocating that a group of Ann's descendants get together and subscribe a minimum of 25c a year to care for the graves of Ann and her husband, Wm. Eager of Neelytown. The suggestion met with a ready response. Doubtless many of Ann's line who were not present will wish to take part. They may do so by sending their subscriptions to Miss Edna Twanbey, 900 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York city. Miss Dolly W. Booth read an interesting paper on the history of our picnics, by way of marking our 75th anniversary. She brought out that the family was a pioneer in starting annual reunions, when they voted at the picnic of 1868 to celebrate the completion of the monument on "Bur- ial Hill" at Hamptonburgh to the memory of William and Sarah Bull by holding a picnic annually. Some of those prominent in the early picnics were Prof. Richard H. Bull of New York University, Jesse Bull of Oxford Depot, D. Kerr Bull of Middletown, William Bull, V, of Stony Ford, and Theodore L. Jackson of the Town of Hamptonburgh. At the early picnics they had a band and a guest speaker. In 1912 an historical pageant was presented. Arthur Pound, New York State historian, was giving a broadcast over WGNY on family reunions while we were having luncheon and spoke of ours as an outstanding example. After the annual meeting, the new Board of Managers met and elected officers for the ensuing year as follows: Henry P. Bull, Esq., of Middle- town, as President, to succeed Amy Bull Crist, who had filled the office admirably for several years; Vice- President, Charles F. Johnson; Treasurer, James W. Bull and Secretary, Robert McLeod Jackson. The President appointed committees as follows for 1943: Picnic Commit- tee, Bartow Wright Bull, Chairman, William Bull, VII, Dixie Ann Booth, Culver Bull and Mark Roe; Reception Committee, Chairman, Miss Jean Smith Hoeffler, Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Slaughter and Mrs. Alfred Booth; Entertainment, The Misses Perrie Ellen Van Tassell, Mary Emma Ackerly, and Barbara Harlow; Property, Hamlet S. Roe, Chairman, Charles W. Slaughter and Charles F. Johnson. Many stayed for supper and some, unable to come earlier, arrived in the late afternoon. One such group consisted of the Misses Marion O. Teed and Olive Teed of Montgomery, and their sister, Sarah Teed Lord and her sons, Irving and Ernest of Washingtonville, both of whom are about to enter in the defense of their country. The party did not finally break up until 10:30 p. m. Correction-The word "Find" in Mrs. Kirby's verses printed in our picnic notice should read "Finding". A list of marriages, births and deaths and of members in the armed forces, as far as known to the Secretary, follows: ________________________________________ Marriages 1939 Oct. 1 Ringlehan, Elizabeth Ann, of Campbell Hall, N. Y., to Wallace Joseph Cole, of Detroit, Mich. 1940 Sept. 22 Barton, Arthur P., of Middle- town, N. Y., to Inez Romannelli. 1941 March 31 Bowne, Ruth Gregory, of White Plains, N. Y., to Sumner C. Willis. May 25 Bull, Sidney Leland, of Grand Junction, Colo., to Juanita Bearce, of Greeley, Colo. Aug. 15 Nugent, Janette Carolyn, to Rendich Meola, both of Middletown, N. Y. Sept. 1 Bull, Robert McComb, of Newark, N. J., to Jessie Hughes. Sept. 7 Ringlehan, Catherine, of Campbell Hall, N. Y., to Joseph C. Hectus, Jr., of Newburgh, N. Y. Sept. 17 Collier, Jamie Polk, to James C. Purvis, both of Corinth, Miss. Oct. 4 Wells, Sarah, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Wells, of Newburgh, N. Y., to James Spencer Duffy, of New York city. Oct. 25 McKnight, Robert Hayes, to Dorothy Coll, both of Detroit, Mich. Oct. 25 Clarke, Leonard McLaine, of Milton, N. Y., to Marion Elizabeth Westlake, of Folin Heights, New- burgh, N. Y. Nov. 11 Darrah, Beulah Irene, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Darrah, of Smithtown, N. B., to Aura H. Kaye, R.C.A.F., son of Mr. and Mrs. Percy Kaye. Nov. 14 Whitney, Laura Eleanor, of Walden, N. Y., to Andrew Ruger, of Wallkill, N. Y. Nov. 19 Sheeley, Doris Irene, of Montgomery, N. Y., to Albert Jagger Halsey, of Southampton, N. Y. Dec. 29 Horton, Lois, of Washington, D. C., daughter of Silas R. Horton of the line of Margaret, to Robert Gries, also of Washington.

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Bull Family, Bull Picnic