Name/Title
Aug 1973 Bull PicnicEntry/Object ID
000563Tags
Bull PicnicScope and Content
The Good Life for the 'Bulls'
Thursday, August 30, 1973 Washingtonville, New York 10992
Price 10c
By Albina S. Orlowski
HAMPTONBURGH - The thing of it is, to use a countryism, there are several
hundred people living together outdoors for a few hours in
Hamptonburgh. No, they're not hippies. And, it isn't a rock
festival. Dr. Fred Bement, president of William Bull and
Sarah Wells Family Association and Mrs. Emma
J. McWhorter, secretary look over the 10-generation
genealogy record book. Crammed into the picnic
area are several hundred, mothers, fathers, children,
grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, just some of
the 20,000 descendants of Sarah and William Bull, the
first white couple to be married in the Orange County
countryside, 255 years ago, at Bull Stone House 1722.
And to hear it told in this quaint countryside, nothing
beats the lack of privacy, the noise and the makeshift living
at this annual gathering of the only Bull Family reunion for
the 106th time. Each year, in a meadow framed by the unspoiled
countryside, a small slice of a rapidly vanishing America materializes
in hours. The easy camaraderie that characterizes the mass
gathering of area rural and city Americans under shady
trees seems farther removed in time than distance from the
dehumanizing fear and mistrust of urbanized culture.
"You must think we're crazy to go to all this trouble,"
Mrs. Jane Allen, Brown's road, Coldenham, said as she
vigorously shooed a fly away from her picnic table as she
and Mrs. Mary Taft, Montgomery flipped a tablecloth
and laid out all the goodies for a luncheon picnic. "But we
love it." Mrs. Allen is the fifth daughter in the Esther Family
Line. Mrs. Taft is a honorary member. The two women, like the
hundreds who convened Saturday at Bull Stone House
1722 in Hamptonburgh, are descendants in blood as well
as in keeping the spirit of Sarah Wells Bull alive who
died in 1796. She had 98 grandchildren and 212 great
grandchildren. Sarah traveled down the Hudson and married
William Bull 255 years ago. Together, they built the imposing stone
house in Hamptonburgh, where the annual family picnic takes place.
The first basket lunch picnic, 106 years ago, now has
turned into a sumptuous outdoor feast, as each visiting
family brings along much homemade food to prolong the
conviviality of the once-a-year Bull reunion. Some of the families
jealously guard this one day of the entire year, just to be with
The Family, year after year. Some claim they've been
coming here all their lives. Each year, new faces are
seen among the rows of families seated at picnic tables. In the past, the
chairman and the master of ceremonies had to shout to
The Family. Today electrical wires stretch and all announcements and Bull stories are easily heard via the microphone on the public address system. The conveniences don't include bathrooms; however,
everyone knows where the old outhouse can be found.
"It's not too bad in there," one elderly lady commented,
wrinkling her nose as she emerged from the outhouse.
"You know, there's nothing really to draw people to this
place," an old-timer reflected as he relaxed in a lawn chair.
"No big entertainment, and yet they come here by the
hundreds." "I've grown up in it," said a visiting nurse. "I
wouldn't miss it." The many children still walk the grounds on missions
known only to themselves, popping the small balls on
elastic strings characterize each summer. Giggling
teenage girls are seen. Once in a while a family dog gets
loose, lurching frantically among the outdoor tables.
Despite an occasional touch of modernism basically
everything is reliably familiar, exercising a nostalgic hold on
The Family. Sometimes there is sadness mixed with pleasures. A
member of The Family passes away, and a reunion is
someone's first event without that person. Some will know,
but there'll be others who'll come around next year asking
for the deceased. It'll be hard on some of the members of
The Family. The chief industry is local Bull Family history,
according to Mr. and Mrs. Michael K. Brown parents of
seven children. The Browns are residents in the Bull Stone
House 1722, loaded with antiques, all belonging to the
Bull Family.
[Image Caption]
BULL STONE HOUSE
Scene of the Bull family annual reunion was the Bull Stone House. This home is located off Sarah Wells Trail in the Town of Hamptonburgh. (Other pictures on page 8)