The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-08-17
Evening Chat

Have you made arrangements yet TO
attend your family reunion? If not,
why not? Marion county is county OF
family reunions, and il your family has
not yet acquired the habit, it's time to
do SO. Ten years ago, one or two tam1-
lies with very extensive connections
were accustomed to meet annually in
this county to renew old acquaintance
ship and talk over old times; to listen
to stories Of pioneer adventures and
hardships, in which their ancestors
took the leading parts; and sometimes
to breathe a sigh for the good old
days" that were forever gone. Each
year few more families in this coun'
ty have joined the reunion group, I'M
til today there is scarcely family in
the county with any considerable mem.
bershp that does not hold an annual
gathering.
That this family reunion habit should
have so extensively established itself
here is of course due in part to the
custom of people in the same neighbor'
hood following in their neighbors' foot
steps. But it is due more largely to
the fact that Marion county, more than
a century ago, was settled by few
hardy pioneers whose descendants
now reside in this community in large
numbers. Half the population Of the
county can claim relationship in some
one Of a dozen of the more extensive
family groups. Settlers in the upper
Monongahela Valley came mostly from
a few communities in Virginia and
Maryland, and in many cases whole
family groups emigated together The
growth and separation of these family
groups and the constant lessening Of
the relationship between the various
branches of the same family, have de-
manded method by which friendships
and kinships can be renewed The
family reunion has solved the problem.
In western states family reunions in
such numbers as here would be almost
impossible, since the settlers there
were drawn, and still are being drawn,
from every section Of the east.
There is a striking similarity In all
these family reunions. Above every
thing else, they are picnics and out
ings, and therefore we'll filled baskets,
packed with toothsome morsels to
satisfy the inner man,-are necessary
adjunct. No respectable family re-
union can be success unless this one
thing Is given the most particular at
tenti0n And so far, l do not recall
having attended any family reunion
where the tables have not been heaped
to OVERLOOKING with the most tempting
of viands. The program of every fam
lily reunion is much the same Ia little
music with the family choir in the stel-
lar role, a family history, few ad
dresses, taken more seriously by the
speakers than by the audience, some
impromptu remarks usually worth
while, and adjournment until the next
year. Not much II might seem for
thousands of Marion county people to
look forward to. But there's something
more than the program. There's the
old friend who meets and greets you
with the old time handshake and the
old time smile, there's a feeling Of be-
ing with your own people in your AIN
Countree." there's a greeting to the
baby who attends his first family reun-
ion, and a good.by to the Oldest mem
Der who perhaps will never come again.
To many, these family reunions are
like real homecoming to Home,
Sweet Home"
Among Marion county families who
have the reunion habit" may be men,
tionedI-and these are only few Of the
many,-the Arnetts, who annually as
semble at ArnettsviIle, the Barnes, the
Conaways, the Dudley.Boggess group,
who regularly go to Gilboa, the Hoults,
the Harrises, the Merediths, the Nor
gans, the Nuzums, the Shuttlesworth,
the Swlshers, and many others. There
are, in fact, more than fifty separate
families of Marion county who now
regularly assemble each year to renew