Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday photo is a line of cars which
brought to mind this photo:
The owners of these fine autos were lucky to grab prime
real estate close to the picnic area at Verbena Park. They likely had to carry
bowls of potato salad, trays of meat and sandwiches, jugs of tea and lemonade,
not to mention pies and cakes to feed the 120 folks who attended the 24th
annual Jollett Reunion.
It was a Sunday, September 1, 1940. Jollett descendants
along with a few close friends of the family gathered at Verbena Park in Page
County, Virginia. The park was close to the Naked Creek area where Fielding
Jollett had purchased land about 1820 to farm and raise his family. It is the
same area that came to be known as Jollett Hollow (or Holler as we say here in
Virginia).
 |
| Photo courtesy Craig Swain |
The park had grown up around an old flour mill. According
to the historic marker, the land was granted by King George III to Charles
Cropson in 1746. Then in 1783 the governor of Virginia granted the land to
Jacob Mire who sold the land to George Price in 1802. The next year Price built
a mill powered by the race channeled from Naked Creek.
The mill operated continuously until it was dismantled in
1936. The Hisey Brothers, William and Clyde, built a tavern there. The Verbena
Tavern was THE place to be with its full-service restaurant and dance hall. The
Hiseys were good friends of the family, thus earning them an invitation to the
reunion, which they did attend, by the way.
 |
| Photo scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People |
Other amenities at Verbena included a pool and campground.
As a child, I looked forward to going to Verbena when I visited my cousins in
Shenandoah.
 |
| Photo courtesy Mike Powell |
 |
| from Harrisonburg Daily News Record 11 Aug 1962 The last "and family" means my baby sister and me! |
 |
| Photo courtesy Ann Harman Thomas I am not in this picture but it is how I remember the pool. |
I don’t know when the Jollett reunions ended, probably in
the mid-40s when my great-grandmother’s sisters started dying. Reunions made
the news in those days. The local newspaper even included the names of everyone
who attended the one in 1940.
A family historian’s dream!
Get in line for more stories and photos of cars at Sepia Saturday.
Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
How great to have that history recorded...not just property changing hands, and uses! I am glad that newspapers kept track of family reunions, and wonder at all the work that they were to be prepared...probably by your grandmother's generation.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post and photos! I have also found a newspaper account of a reunion of my Charboneau ancestors in the New York Adirondack area — my great grandfather Will winning the prize for oldest to show up. Our family group also had officers like yours did. Amazing what a big deal reunions were back then. A shame that yours, like mine, did not carry on after key family members passed.
ReplyDeleteMy family on my father's side holds an informal family reunion at Lake Tahoe every summer during the first two weeks of August. Anyone who can make it comes. It began when my uncles began passing away and we'd gather at the lake to plant a memorial tree for them. After the third uncle died someone suggested we should maybe just get together at the lake to simply see each other! And so we have ever since - mothers, siblings, aunts, cousins, and growing families. Most of us are in California, but some come from across the country whenever they can. So much fun.
ReplyDeleteIts a shame that the reunions ended that no one "took over the torch" but that often seems to happen in families. I know for a bit our family would have a yearly reunion that my sister would go to since she was closer, but I haven't heard mention of it in a few years so that probably fizzled out too. I like that pool! I bet it was refreshing on a hot summer day!
ReplyDeletebetty
I love family reunions. We don't do special ones much either. If someone marries or dies, we gather. I wish we just would every couple years.
ReplyDeleteI think newspapers treated family events just like those of the many social, church, and fraternal societies. Any gathering of people was noteworthy because it promoted the local community network that sustained the paper. Sadly with the advent of internet social media, the bonds are broken now and newspapers don't even bother to compete with that kind of information. The collection of names in wedding parties, debutante balls, veteran reunions, summer camps, etc. are removed from our modern printed records. Where will genealogists find the family clues in 100 years? Not in the newspapers of the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteReunions in the newspaper? Hmmm, I need to pay attention to that hint!
ReplyDelete