Name/Title
77th Bull Picnic August 1944Entry/Object ID
000498Tags
Bull PicnicScope and Content
1944 BULL PICNIC ACCOUNT 498
[Under the Main Banner]
Scenes at 77th Annual Bull Family Picnic
[Image: A large group photograph of the picnic attendees gathered inside a rustic barn with hand-hewn timbers visible overhead.]
[Left Column (Main Body Text)]
For the first time in many years, the Bull Family, at its seventy-seventh annual picnic and reunion, held the business session in the barn that was reputedly built before the house. Massive hand-hewn timbers joined together with wooden pins line the inside of the ancient structure. Pictured (above) the aged timbers form a frame for Robert Jackson of Campbell Hall as he reads the minutes of the last meeting to the assemblage. Below, the oldest member of the Bull Family in attendance at the annual picnic holds the youngest member of the family. Mrs. Elizabeth Bull Greene of Stony Ford is eighty-two and has never missed a picnic. The youngest visitor was five-months-old Gordon Charles Thew, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gregory Thew, of Campbell Hall. Wearing the blue ribbon for the member having traveled the longest distance to attend was Frank Austin Bull of Presque Isle, Maine. He is a descendant of the branch of the family that went to Canada during the Revolution. That branch also has its annual reunions. — Photos by Conklin, courtesy Times Herald.
If any one wants to have a good time without cost or formality or any thought of keeping up with the Joneses or even without bothering about what to wear, let him go to a family picnic. Life nowadays is so full and rushes along at such speed that we cannot see our nearest and dearest half often enough unless we happen to live together or nearby. Sometimes quite by accident we run into an old friend whom we have not seen for years and we feel that the meeting is the high spot for the day or even week.
At a family reunion we have many such welcome meetings, in fact more than we should otherwise have in a year. We see old friends whom in the ordinary course of events we might well never have seen again. We renew happy memories, our young people meet, new associations are formed, based on old and solid foundations, which bring joy to all concerned. There are no initiation fees, no dues, no admission tax, no cover charge.
Here is something which like the family institution itself, is quite beyond the power of taxation; it is as free as the sunshine and the rain If you think about it, you will realize that a family picnic is unique. There is no other occasion which can take its place. For 77 years, without a break, members of the Orange County Bull family have enjoyed such days, come rain or shine. Storm has no effect on them, nor change of fortune, nor even death.
[Middle Column (Main Body Text)]
Through this permanence run the changes of a kaleidoscope. Every year people come who have never come before. Among the newcomers this year were William A. Jex of Somerville, Mass., husband of Anna Bess Van Keuren of Montgomery, who was also present. George B. Reimel of Coldenham, with whom was his wife, Bessie Bull, Mr. and Mrs. Reimel, as newlyweds, were heartily applauded. Other first attendants were: David Seaman of Gilbertsville, N. Y., an ROTC boy whose father, Raymond, was formerly of Washingtonville, of the line of Margaret; Hazel Wood Hunter of Matamoras, Pa., and two of her eight children, her eldest daughter Hazel Stellato of Port Jervis and Harold, in his later teens; Catherine Irene Bacon of New York, of the line of Ann; and Mrs. Robert E. Whitaker of Campbell Hall, whose husband is in the Navy now in the English-French area. He is the youngster of the six children of Lizzie McBride. Frank Austin Bull of Presque Isle, Me., came down by train for the picnic and won a red, white and blue rosette for coming the greatest distance. He is a member of an extremely numerous branch of the family, descendants of Thomas, son, “the late Capt. George,” the Loyalist, who went to New Brunswick, Canada in 1783 and settled at Woodstock. The gathering sent greetings to his branch by Mr. Austin Bull.
The oldest person present was Elizabeth Bull Greene of Stony Ford, who has attended every picnic and is the life of the party wherever she is. She is 82 years of age. The youngest baby present was Gordon Charles Thew, aged 5 months, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Thew of Hamptonburgh.
Every year greetings are received from some of those who cannot attend. This year more messages were received than ever. Especially timely was a letter from Miss Dorothy A. Bull giving particulars concerning her brother, Major General Harold R. Bull, a member of Gen. Eisenhower’s staff as Chief of Operations. Mrs. Waldo Dickey, formerly of Thompson Ridge, and now of Plainfield, N. J., wrote of her nephew, Lieut. John B. Kernochan, who has been a prisoner in Germany since last December 11, when the B17 bomber of which he was co-pilot was shot down over Emden. It was his first trip over enemy territory. He suffered a broken foot in bailing out but when last heard from on April 17th was in excellent health. He always praises the Red Cross.
[Right Column (Main Body Text)]
In addition to the five young men of the armed forces who have died and one missing, who were reported in the picnic notice, names of another killed and another missing were reported. Lt. H. Victor Crawford III, of Montclair, N. J., was killed in action in Normandy on July 26th. Staff Sergeant John D. Ringlehan of Campbell Hall, a radio operator-gunner on a 15th Air Force bomber has been reported as missing in action since a raid over Yugoslavia on July 28.
Since the picnic we have learned that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Griffin of Washburn, Me., have lost two sons in action. They have nine children left.
The Association suffered a heavy loss in the death on October 6, 1943 of Ernest M. Bull of Monroe, who had been our only treasurer and one of our managers ever since incorporation in 1920. Appreciation was expressed of what Mr. Bull meant to the association for practically the first quarter century of its existence. So much of disinterested devotion and generosity cannot be briefly summarized. One ever present reminder of Mr. Bull’s constructive interest is found in the living room in the Stone House. At his instance the room was restored to its original dimensions by the removal of a partition which had been placed across its easterly end. The result is admirable. The well proportioned spaciousness of the room imparts a sense of well being. For this we have Mr. Bull to thank.
Owing to the wind the business meeting was held in the barn. Three managers to serve three years were elected to serve as follows: George W. Ackerly, Robert McLeod Jackson and Carrie Bull Knight. Charles W. Slaughter was elected for two years to fill the unexpired term of the late Ernest M. Bull. Henry P. Bull was re-elected as president and Robert McLeod Jackson as secretary. Charles W. Slaughter was elected vice president and E. Myron Bull as acting treasurer. Hamlet S. Roe, Carrie Bull Knight and Alfred Booth were named as property committee; Bartow W. Bull, William Bull VII and Mark Roe as picnic committee. Elizabeth Bull Schuerholz was named as chairman of the reception committee with power to appoint such assistants as she may see fit.
The sunshine and the temperature were just right. The attendance was very small, probably about 175.
[Handwritten Annotations]
(Below middle column, pointing to Lizzie McBride)
* the Younger.
Independent Republican Sept 7, 1944