Reunions of the Past
It seems there are a lot of words being written about this year’s Hagenbuch reunion to be held on June 15, 2024 at Hidlay Church. And why not? The location is at a different spot, which allows those attending to learn about another part of our family history. According to Andrew’s latest tallying of RSVPs, we will have a good attendance. Best of all, there should be some new faces there—descendants from Andreas Hagenbuch’s (b. 1715) four sons: Henry (b. 1737), Michael (b. 1746), Christian (b. 1747), and John (b. 1763).
To be sure, it would even be sweeter if there were relatives attending from Andreas’ six married daughters. This is possible, as we have been in contact with descendants of daughters Anna Elizabeth (Hagenbuch) Reichelderfer (b. 1754) and Christina (Hagenbuch) Kistler (b. 1759). Andrew and I continually make efforts to bring all the relatives of Andreas together. But, if everyone attends who has RSVP’d, please put a feather in our cap; Andreas’ four sons will be represented at a reunion for the first time!
There have been no less than five other articles written about reunions of the past, not including the promotions we did for the 2018, 2022, and 2024 events. I urge our readers to search and read those past articles here. As mentioned in these previous articles, our family is very fortunate that for all previous 75 reunions, records have been kept of who attended, where and when the reunion took place, and activities that occurred. Detailed narratives were written by the elected secretaries and are kept in two large binders. For the 2018 and 2022 reunions (the reunion planned for 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic), articles were written which appear on our family website.
Mary (Hagenbuch) Beaver, c. 1965 Ass’t Secretary of the Hagenbuch Reunion in 1957
The typical report of our past reunions was either typed or handwritten by the secretary. For example on June 15, 1957, assistant secretary, Mary (Hagenbuch) Beaver, wrote 3 1/2 pages of information. This included a listing of the treasurer’s report (a goodly amount for that time—$17.20!), bills that needed paid, date and place for the 1958 reunion, election of officers, a report of the youngest and oldest persons present, a list of the marriages and births for the years 1956 and 1957 (since the June 9, 1956 reunion) and a long list of those folks attending: 54 in total. There were no deaths in the family for that year, but that is also a usual statistic and represents only the relatives of those attending.
Much credit has to be given to the reunion secretaries over the years from the first secretary in 1938, Miss Julia Hagenbuch (b. 1915) to the last secretary in 2014, Teresa (Hagenbuch) Hess. Between those years, secretaries included Ellen Hagenbuch, Florence (Hagenbuch) Robb, Barbara Hagenbuch (later Huffman), Leona (Bogart) Rathburn, Lisa (Hagenbuch) Jones, and Sue (Taylor) Hertzler.
Julia Catherine Hagenbuch, the first secretary of the Hagenbuch Reunion, c. 1938
As reported in the article about the first reunion in 1938, it was held at Sunnybrook Park near Danville, Pennsylvania—a popular park with picnic pavilions, a children’s playground, and a large swimming pool which was a great draw for the younger set. Over the years the reunion was held at Trout Pond Park near Hughesville, the Watsontown Park, the family church of Oak Grove Lutheran, and at Montour Preserve near Washingtonville.
In looking back at the secretaries’ reports for all these reunions, I am especially interested in who attended. For example, we are going to Hidlay Church for the reunion this year which we know was dominated by the Harris family after many of the Hagenbuchs dispersed to Montour County, PA. The Harrises are related to Hagenbuchs through Samuel Hagenbuch (b. 1806) and his daughter Lydia (Hagenbuch) Stahl (b. 1851) and her daughter Susan (Stahl) Harris (b. 1880). As reported in the Analysis of the 1938 Reunion, Susan (Stahl) Harris and her daughter Elsie were present at that reunion! So, we know that the Hidlay Church folks were aware of our Hagenbuch reunions from the very beginning.
First set of pages of the minutes from the 1957 Hagenbuch Reunion, submitted by Mary (Hagenbuch) Beaver (b. 1908)
Furthermore, looking through the hundreds of people listed that attended the reunions over the years, we see other names of related families. These include the Bibbys, Hesses, Reichards, and Taylors—although the Taylor family, descended from Mary Emma (Hagenbuch) (b.1879) and Raymond Taylor, did attend in full force in the late 1980s. The largest attendance was in 1991 at the 50th reunion with 147 people attending! Forty-eight of those people had the last name of Hagenbuch.
When I was working diligently in the 1970s and 1980s to identify Hagenbuchs and related families across the United States as well as publishing the newsletter The Beech Grove, the reunions were opened up to more than just descendants of William Hagenbuch (b. 1807). Families from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois attended; and, at the 50th reunion, a total of nine states were represented by the attendees.
Second set of pages of the minutes from the 1957 Hagenbuch Reunion, submitted by Mary (Hagenbuch) Beaver (b. 1908)
Andrew and I have hundreds of pages of archival materials and a multitude of ephemera, some of which may not have importance but still rests in our extensive files. We cannot seem to part with anything dealing with our Hagenbuch family! Of much importance, however, are the two binders full of secretaries’ reports of the reunions for 73 years. The last two reunions—2018 and 2022—Andrew and I did not keep records in the same way, but articles were written to serve the purpose of reporting reunion history. It is interesting that in the year 2005, reunion secretary, Lisa (Hagenbuch) Jones, began including newspaper clippings about births, deaths, and marriages in the reunion reports. This grew as the following secretaries included not only news clippings, but also informational pieces from The Beech Grove and other publications. The reunion binders are a repository of genealogical information which we are very fortunate to possess.
As Andrew and I have proved through over 9 years of writing on this site, our family history never lacks new aspects to research or details to share. Our reunions’ histories, since 1938, are certainly a huge part of that history, something that we can boast about with pride. Andrew and I hope to see you in a few days at the 76th Hagenbuch Reunion.
Let’s make reunion history once again!
