Relatively Speaking Blog

September is Brown family reunion time. A couple of weeks ago my family gathered for our annual gathering in Indiana County PA. Despite the cool rainy start of the day, almost 40 descendants of Charles and Lucy Brown were in attendance. This marked the 24th consecutive year, excluding 2020 when it was cancelled due to Covid.

Besides this annual family event, a few times I have attended two other family reunions. Several times I went to a Fowler reunion and got to meet distant cousins descended from my great grand uncle Simeon Fowler. Twice I went to another Brown reunion, descendants of my grandfather’s brother, Harry. Besides these, I have wondered about reunions on other lines of my tree.

When doing family research, I sometimes have found cousins mentioned in their local newspaper as attendees at family reunions that were often not my lines. In the past I would glance over the article to see if I recognized those mentioned, but I have learned to thoroughly review it for additional clues on relatives and whether I can identify a connection to the common ancestor of the attendees. To see what reunions my distant cousins might have held, I recently searched online newspapers for several surnames, and I was surprised by some of the items I found.

Exploring the search results, one quickly caught my eye: the Swisher-Swank reunion. It was held in 1939 at Swisher’s Grove in North Mountain and had a nice write up. It was well-attended that year, with a few names I recognized as my grandmother’s aunts, uncles and cousins. I first thought attendees might be descendants of my 2nd great grandparents, Henry Swank and Matilda Swisher; this was the only Swank-Swisher marriage I knew. However, several of the families appear to be the descendants of Matilda’s brother, John Russell Swisher. There were also Reese and Rider relatives, who married into both the Swank and Swisher clans. With further research, I will determine how some of these other names fit in my tree.

I searched other years for the Swisher-Swank reunion and found announcements of the event in 1912 and 1913. The latter mentioned it was the fourth annual event, thus it began in 1910. The only other article for this annual reunion was in 1973, when it was again held at Swisher Grove. Only a few names were familiar, but these would likely be later generations, which might help me add names to the Swisher tree. Since the newspapers that are available online have so few listings of the Swisher-Swank event, I have not been able to determine its duration.

Like the Swisher-Swank event, the Rider and Reese family held a joint reunion in 1912 in North Mountain. They were held a day apart with the Rider-Reese event occurring first on August 9. This reunion continued over 100 years, as the latest announcement for the event was in 2013. I located a fair number of mentions for the Rider-Reese event in the 1930s and 40s that recorded attendees. In the review of the 1947 event, prizes were awarded: Charles Rider (probably son of John and Hannah Rider) for the oldest man; Christie Rider (likely daughter of John and Elizabeth Swisher) for the oldest woman; and 3 month old daughter of Kenneth Bilger for youngest in attendance. Entertainment was provided by some of the attendees with readings and songs.

When looking over the years at the attendees for the Rider-Reese reunion, descendants of the Peter Milton and Christie Swank Reese family were not listed. In 1955 members of this family began a Reese reunion of their own, holding it in Danville PA in 1960, just a few weeks before the Rider Reese reunion in Hughesville PA. In 1980 attendance seemed a bit lower, but the reunion survived into the 21st century as ads were placed in 2015 and 2017 for the approaching Peter Milton and Christie Swank Reese reunion in Muncy PA.

Moving to another line of my tree, I found references in the newspapers during the 1940s and 50s in Westmoreland County PA for events for the Rugh family. Although these reunions likely began earlier, the first mention I found was in 1941 when it was held in Mt. Pleasant at the Charles Grant farm. Fifty-three relatives attended. The next year it was held at the same place, but later advertisements for the reunion were at various places around Greensburg.

Mrs. Grant was Theora nee Rugh, great granddaughter of Jacob Rugh and Margret Brinker. Many of those who attended in 1941 were her siblings and their children. That year it was voted to include the Maxwell clan, which was Theora’s maternal side. The last listing I found for the Rugh reunion, was in 1958, when the reunion was cancelled due to the death of the president of the reunion, James Yezek. I did not locate any articles after this, so I do not know what became of the Rugh gatherings.

Turning to the Ludwick family, they also had gatherings in the early 20th century. In 1912 a Pittsburgh newspaper reported the Ludwick-Black reunion had over “500 descendants of these pioneer families” in attendance at Oakford Park in Westmoreland County. Attendees of this reunion were described as descendants of Adam Ludwick and his wife Eleanor Black; Adam, my third great grand uncle, was the son of Jacob and Martha Ludwick, early settlers of Allegheny County. Although only the organizers were mentioned in the paper, some were cousins descended from other children of Jacob and Martha Ludwick, others were descendants of the Black family only.

In 1914 the reunion attracted 300 attendees. J.M. McKeever, president, Willis Ludwick, treasurer, and Mrs. Joseph P. (Florence) McCurdy were all great grandchildren of Jacob and Martha Ludwick, but through a different line than Adam and Eleanor. Florence prepared a sketch on the Ludwick family that was presented at the reunion in 1912. Samuel Black McCormick, a descendant of the Black line only and a chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh, read a history of the Black family at the 1912 event, and had it printed into a book for attendees to have in 1914.

There was a void of articles on the Ludwick-Black reunion until some 30 years later. In the 1947 and 1948 announcements Earl Ludwick, great-great-grandson of Jacob and Martha Ludwick, was listed as the head of the reunion. Both years it was held in Mt. Odin Park in Greensburg on the first Saturday in August. 1948 marked the fortieth year, making the initial year 1909.

While searching for these family reunions, I was surprised by their duration, with one documented as lasting over 100 years. The reunions I have attended have similarities to these five reunions I researched. In addition to enjoying a meal together, other common activities include having games, sharing family history, and taking family group photographs. Being the family historian, I document the event with photographs of attendees.

I always enjoy my Brown reunion and the chance to catch up with my cousins, share stories and remember the generation before us who have passed on. It’s a time that we come together as an extended family to celebrate our common ancestry. While the adults play bingo, the younger children, many third cousins to each other, become acquainted as they play together in the nearby field. I wonder how long the reunion will endure. Will it last as long as some of those other family gatherings? I hope when those third cousins grow up, they will continue the tradition of the Brown reunion for many years to come.