FAMILY
REUNIONS
This 1st
family reunion is from 1932, paper
unknown, but probably the Greenup Press.
A family
dinner was held at the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Earl
Snearley Sunday, November 6 in honor of the 52nd wedding
anniversary
of Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Ward. The occasion
was an enjoyable affair, there being 62 living of the four generations
and 40
were present. Mr. and Mrs. Ward were
married November 6, 1880 at Armstrong, Ill., where they lived for
1½ years. In 1882 they with 13
families formed a colony
and started out west to help settle what was then wild country. They homesteaded in Beadle County, South
Dakota and while there experienced many thrilling adventures such as
blizzards,
cyclones, forest fires, and mirages, the first year they spent in a
little sod
shanty and drove oxen but it was not until 1889 when 3 children of one
of the
families that went with them were frozen to death in a blizzard, that
they
turned their back on the west and moved to Keokuk, Iowa where they
resided for
4 years. The longing for home was
getting so strong that in 1893 they started for Armstrong in a covered
wagon,
it took them 9 days to make the trip.
Since then they have resided in and near Greenup where they have
many
relatives and friends who feel the need of them in their home and
community and
wish for them many more years of happiness.
They are each 75 years old and were blessed with 9 children. two
dying
in infancy and seven daughters living and present at the dinner. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Ward,
Mrs. May Matthews, Walter and Luella,
Mr. and Mrs. Ward Matthews, Mr.
and Mrs.
Herschel Mathews, Edsel and
Donald, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd
McDaniel and Glen of
Champaign, Mr. and Mrs.
Walter Matthews, Mr. and Mrs.
James Glenn and Oliver of
Urbana, Mr. and Mrs. Chall
Kellogg, Allen, Helen, Lyle and
Bobby of Tuscola,
Mr. and Mrs. Amos Hanners,
Bill and Clyde, Mr. and Mrs. Ivo Dunning and Betty,
Mr. and Mrs. Earl Swim, Leah and
Wanda and Mrs. And Mrs. Earl
Snearley and
Martena and Earl Jr.
Don’t
know the year on this one, except that is after 1950,
and probably before 1955, also probably from the Greenup Press:
WARD
SISTERS AT REUNION
AT GREENUP
The 24th annual Ward
Sisters reunion was at the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Snearley, 2 miles
southeast of Greenup on Sunday. The Ward sisters are the six surviving
daughters of a family of 8 girls and one boy born to Mr. and Mrs. John R. Ward
who left a farm near Penfield in May 1882, by chartered train, with 12
other
families to homestead near Huron, South Dakota.
After 7 years of prairie fires, blizzards and hardships, only 3
families
remained in Huron. That winter after 2
small boys on their way home from school froze to death within a half
mile from
home, the 3 families decided to leave.
The Ward family moved
to Bloomfield, Iowa,
then to Armstrong, Ill.,
and from there they settled on a farm 6 miles southeast of Greenup,
which still
remains in the family. The 6 sisters and
their families who attended the dinner were: Mrs. May Matthews, Champaign; Mr.
and Mrs. Roy Arnold,
Janesville, Wisc., Mr. and Mrs. Neily
Hammond, Stu and Sharon, Freeport; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Matthews, Champaign; Mr. and Mrs. Ward
Matthews and Kay, Urbana.
Mrs. Della
Hanners, Greenup; Burt
Hanners, Pierson Station; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hanners and
Joyce, Mahomet; Mrs. William
Hanners, Olney; Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Hanners and
family, Urbana; Mr. and Mrs. Gene Strader and Mike, Greenup; Mr. and Mrs.
Chester Kingery and family, Arthur;
Mrs. David Traxler and son,
Atwood; Mr. and
Mrs. W. J. Matthews and Mr. and Mrs. John Matthews, Urbana. Mrs. Maudie Glenn and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd
McDaniel, Tuscola; Mrs. Faye
Kellogg, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kellogg and
family, Tuscola; Mr. and Mrs. Earl Snearley, Greenup; Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Elam
and family, Strasburg; and Mr. and Mrs.
Earl Snearley Jr. and family, Indianapolis, Ind. Two cousins, Mrs. Amy Roan and Walter
Whitton, Casey were present, and Gerald Dunn, Greenup, attended in
the
afternoon. A total of 65 persons were
present for dinner.