The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1904-07-13
ADDRESS
At the somerville Reunion, 1904
Kindred and Friends. :


Kindred and Friends;
The time of the reunion has ar
rived and we are assembled on
these besutiful grounds, and by
the blessing of our kind Heavenly
Father, We are permitted to grasp
each other by the hand. renewing
old acquaintances and making new
ones as we enjoy a social season to-
gether, ct this the first general re-
union of the historic family, the
ancestors of whom were numbered
among the pioneers of this great
country and State. For almost
two years We have anxiously look
sd forward to this occasion. talk
ing, writing and dreaming about it,
but today We find that it is no
ohimerioaI evolution of distorted
brain. either sleeping or awake; no
will-'o the-wisp, no ignis fatuus,
flushing for a moment, then gone
forever, but a living reality, proud
of it's existence, its antiquity and
its future prosperity and we have
reason to be proud of it when we
take into consideration the fact
that less than three centuries ago,
on May 18th. 1907, brave band of
100 valiant Britons sailed up the
PoEhstsn, now the james River,
and located town on an Island di-
vided from the main land by a
swamp, and named it jamestown,
in honor of King james. establish
ing the first colony of whites on
the soil of North america which
event is to be celebrated in 1907. as
the 500th apniy> rsarY. an exposition
under the management of oorpor-
alton chartered by the State of
Virginis, of which Gen Fitzhugh
Lee is the President Not at
Jamestown, however. as that town
has never reached a population to
exceed 250, and is but a mass of
ruins. The walls of the old stone
ohurch may yet be seen within
which the first English marriage
was solemnized when the oelebra-
ted Indian Princess. Pocahontas,
became the wife of John Rolfe.
She had hoped to be welded to
Capt. John Smith. whose life she
had saved, but he having been
killed in battle at sea, she after
wards married Rolfe. The expo
sition will be held at Hampton
Rosds.
A little less than a century and
a hslf ago this branch of the Som
ervilfe family represented in tue
person of four brothers. landed at
Philadelphia. where one of them,
Samuel, entered into a mstrimo-
nial alliance with Rebecoa Young,
and later migrated to the Shanan
doah Valley, Va. and about 1894
or 8. he with his beloved Rebecca
and three small children, rounded
up in what is now Mason county,
as you may learn by reading the
family history.
l feel myself honored to have the
distinguished privilege of appear.
ing before you today at this historic
reunion to greet you as kindred
and friends, assembled in this no.
ted gathering, the most remarkable
.assemblage known in the history
of this large family 1t is noted
for many reasons; fret, ON account
of it's place of meeting, SO near to
the spot where the esteemed pro-
genstor first settled and erected his
frst home since leaving his paren-
aal roof in the Emerald Isle in the
18th century. After leaving his
fathers house at Conaut, FERN ny
County, Ireland, and turning his
face toward the setting sun beyond
the great deep on which their ship
battled with the waves for 81 days
of fearful storm, ~freighted with
Imminent danger before reaching
the land of the free and home of
the brave.
After spending a few years in
the Valley of Virginia, he braved
the forests and mountains through
an uninhabited wilderness with
wife and three children, found his
way to what is now Mason county,
and stuck his stakes, hacked away
the underbrush aud erected his ru-
-Fal cabin. on what was afterwards
iSomerville Ruu, nenr where Robert
w SomerVille now lives. He and
his wife entered upon the prob