Name/Title
Bull Family members celebrate priceless heritage at the 145th Bull Family reunionEntry/Object ID
000668Tags
William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House AssociationScope and Content
300 years after Sarah Wells arrived in Orange County and 294 years after Sarah and husband William Bull built their stone house in Hamptonburgh, nearly 600 Bull Family members come 'home' to celebrate their priceless heritage at the 145th Bull Family reunion
from: Goshen Independent - Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The 300th anniversary of the arrival of Sarah Wells to the Hudson Valley was celebrated at the Bull Stone House in Campbell Hall Aug. 4 by nearly 600 descendants of the pioneering teen and her husband William Bull.
Despite 90 degree heat, relatives of all ages from as far away as Honolulu, gathered at the homestead for a celebratory picnic and reunion.
"We try to attend Bull Picnic every year but we really had to make it for this one," said Carrie Spivey of Hertford, N.C. "This is my family's tradition and it is an incredible feeling to show my children where they came from, especially as we are celebrating our familial matriarch."
As is tradition, the William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association awarded blue ribbons to the eldest male, Eugene Richter, 95, and female, Delores Richter, 91, in attendance. The Richters also received a ribbon for being the longest married, 72 years.
The youngest female was awarded to Andi DeWitt, 7 months, and the youngest male was Logan Wells Bull, 4 months.
Pamela Bull LeGasse received a ribbon for being the first to arrive for the reunion.
The Jenkins family was given the blue ribbon for their 6,500 miles traveled from Hawaii to attend.
This year ribbons were also presented for quilts family members shared, most of them heirlooms handcrafted by Bull ancestors.
Family members and the Friends of The Bull Stone House acted as docents of the 1722 fieldstone home for attendees who viewed the unique architecture, period farm tools, furniture and household items. One of the highlights is the hand-sewn wedding dress made by Sarah Wells for her daughter Margaret, one of her 12 children.
"The attic is really cool cause there's a Native American lookout and a lot of really old stuff," said Campbell Cole, 13, of Gainesville, Fla.
The Association president, Todd Vandervort of Albany, conducted the annual business meeting during the picnic to report on all things Bull. He thanked ninth-generation descendant Sarah Brownell, of Goshen, for her hard work in organizing this years' exceptionally large gathering as well as all of the board members including reunion chairpersons Judy Wood, Bull Family genealogist from Texas, and Michael Brown, board vice president and resident of the Bull Stone House.
Vandervort also commended Lisa Forst, of Goshen, volunteer co-chair for the year long Sarah Wells Tricentennial Celebration. The days' activities included colonial crafts, pony and cart rides, visits with a multitude of farm animals, Civil War re-enactors and the building of a Dutch Barn model inside the New World Dutch Barn on the Bull property.
Poet and descendant David Sorrell, of San Mateo, Calif., read a moving poem about the fearlessness of his sixth-great grandmother who travelled through the wilderness to make a home. This year's picnic was one of the largest attended in recent years.
Three hundred years ago, 18 year old Sarah Wells landed near New Windsor after sailing up the Hudson in a sloop to claim for her employer, Christopher Denn, his portion of the Wawayanda Patent.
The Bull Stone House was built by stone mason William Bull after he and Sarah Wells married in 1718. Sarah helped with the construction by carrying some of the fieldstones in her apron. She lived to be 102 years old and had 335 descendants when she died. She and William are buried in the Hamptonburgh Cemetery near the house.
Today the Bull Family has more than 65,000 names in their genealogy. Thanks to diligent generations who kept track of the family history in written form and the current genealogist, who has spent thousands of hours converting ard compiling the data into electronic form, today's descendants are well-informed on the details of their family's entry into the New World.
The final event of the Sarah Wells Tricentennial Celebration year is the "Running with The Bulls" Sept. 22, a 5k fun run and walk. The course goes from Hill-Hold, another colonial stone home built by Sarah and William's son, Thomas Bull, to the Bull Stone House.
The Bull Stone House is open to the public for tours by appointment. Visit www.bullstonehouse.org for more information.
By Julie Cole and Sarah Brownell