Name/Title
Articles of the Bull FamilyEntry/Object ID
000608Tags
William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House AssociationScope and Content
Article 1: Independent Republican
INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN
Wednesday, August 29, 1984
Oldest and Youngest at Bull Picnic
[Photo: An elderly man holding a baby]
Little 5 month old Gordon Malvern Fair Sticke, 3rd, a 12th generation descendant of Sarah Wells and William Bull, first white settlers of this area wonders what all the fuss is about. He is sitting on the lap of 100 year old Homer Bull, also a descendant. The pair were the oldest and the youngest of the many hundreds of relatives that met this past weekend at the 117th Annual Bull Picnic at the Stone House at Hamptonburgh, just off Sarah Wells Trail.
INDYphoto by Fil
Article 2: ... family reunites (Snippet)
. . . family reunites
(Continued from page 5)
a lot of serious attention into looking after the family artifacts.
"These are the things that have been left to us by our ancestors," Brown explains. "They are our heritage."
Part of the ceremony this year was paying homage to Henry Bull, who died this month and had been a prominent member of the seventh generation of Bulls. To the rest of Orange County he was remembered as a well-known lawyer who was involved in Republican politics. But at the gathering of his family yesterday, he was remembered by Jim Sinclaire, president of the family association, as "Mr. Association."
Then came an event that happens every few years at the picnics — the family portrait, all 300 or so Bulls included. A photographer with a loudspeaker lines up the masses.
Inside the Stone House, while everyone else is outside taking their places for posterity, a black-and-white photograph from 1939 sits on a cabinet. It shows earlier generations in the same pose with the same Stone House behind them.
Article 3: Orange County Post
Tuesday, August 28, 1984
ORANGE COUNTY POST
Bull Family Holds Annual Reunion
[Photo 1: An elderly man, a man walking, and a woman holding a baby]
Among those present for the Annual Bull Family Picnic held at the Bull Stone House on the Sarah Wells Trail this past Saturday was Homer Bull, who at the age of 100 years is the oldest member of the family. Also pictured are his son Homer, Jr. and Jennifer Slick of Baltimore with her son Gordon.
[Photo 2: A woman and a man standing next to an older person]
June and Ben Meade of Ponca City, Oklahoma came the furthest for the family reunion and were awarded the Jackson Blue Ribbon by Marjorie Bull.
Article 4: Bull clan's tradition is measured in centuries
Bull clan's tradition is measured in centuries
By LANCE OLIVER
Staff Writer
CAMPBELL HALL — The license plates on the cars parked along the dusty gravel driveway told the story of travelers drawn by family ties.
Sharing a common ancestry whose roots intertwine with the history of Orange County, the descendants of William Bull and Sarah Wells, who built their home and lives in this area in the early 1700s, came home to the old Bull Stone House. They came from the swampy warmth of Louisiana and the northern reaches of New Brunswick, Canada. And Nita and Leland Bull came farther than anyone else, all the way from Carlsbad, Calif., and won a blue ribbon for their attendance.
It was a celebration of the ties that bind by a family for which traditions are measured in centuries. The annual Bull Family Picnic is among the strongest of those traditions.
About 300 relatives gathered under the huge oak trees next to the Bull Stone House yesterday. They applauded equally for 100-year-old Homer Bull of Goshen, awarded the honor of oldest man in attendance, and for tiny Meredith Cocks of Arlington, Va., who at the age of two months and 14 days was the youngest Bull descendant, napping her way through her very first annual picnic. Many years ago, Corinne "Joe" Brown of Montgomery was the youngest in attendance, but yesterday she was honored as the person attending the most picnics — 74, to be exact.
Others come now and then. Don Cornell took a break from his job running steam boats on Lake George to come down to the family picnic for the second time. He was looking through the Stone House which is stuffed with artifacts of the Bull history. Glass cases hold old books, photographs, dolls, plates and other reminders of the past.
"There's a lot of history here," said Cornell.
And more can be learned by mingling with those who show up for the picnic. "That's why I came," said Cornell, "to see what's going on and who's here and what people look like."
Michael Brown is the vice president of the association that keeps the traditional picnic going from year to year, and he is also the caretaker of the Stone House. He invests
[Photo: A photographer on top of a vehicle preparing a camera in front of the stone house]
Record photo by Jeff Botterton
Carmen Schettino tries to squeeze approximately 300 members of the Bull family into a single picture.