COME TO OUR FAMILY REUNION!
We are only strangers till we meet,
then you become members of our family.
Friday, September 1st, 2000
Signing in at the Chanticleer Meeting Room, cold cut buffet, introductions
and swapping info. Greeting all those people you met years before and putting
faces to the names in the e-mails!
Saturday, September 2nd, 2000
Things started early over breakfast, followed by the trip to Corning
Museum of Glass on the Swarthout Bus Lines! Stories and genealogy
kept many of us up well past our bed times!
Sunday, September 3rd, 2000
More swapping of information. A small group visited the Swarthout Family
Cemetery, Ovid Cemetery and Lodi Cemetery. New arrivals brought new
treasures! Bob came in with a flyer for the 1869
Swarthout Family Reunion.
Banquet
Recognition Citations and Letters
were read from Govenor George Pitaki, Senator Michael Nozzolio
The speaker was Charles Swartwout - Charles told about the early Swartwout history and their involvement in the New York - New Jersey land disputes of the 1700s and 1800s. Read his speech here!
An excellant dinner was topped by an beautiful cake made by Sharon Stressing, Mary's daughter, and the raffle drawing, followed by dancing on the lawn! Again, more stories and genealogy kept many of us up well past our bed times!
Charles has been a life long resident ot the Town of Deerpark in Huguenot, Orange County, New York, Mr Swartwout attended local schools and graduated from Port Jarvis High School and from Nichols Collage in Dudley, Massachuetts. In 1994 he retired as Community Relations Manager of Orange and Rockland Utilities. He and his wife, Nancy, reside in their 1844 farm house in Huguenot in the beautiful Neversink Valley. Mr. Swartwout is a direct descendent (10th generation) of Roeloff Swartwout, who came from Groningen, Holland and settled in Esopus, which is now Kingston, New York in 1652,and whose family settled in the Neversink Valley in the 1690's.
In two years our family will be here 350 years . . . before there was a United States, Our forefathers went through hardships we can only imagine, but they were strong, honest men and women with the need to survive and prosper, and raise their families in a free world. There will be a head count of the Swartwout/ Swarthouts/ Swartwood/ Swartouts at this reunion to determine if there would be enough interest by our family and descendents to acknowledge our name in the Senate in the year 2002. This will give our family a standing ovation and it will go down in the minutes of history. If we can accomplish this, we will get notification of when it will be done in 2002 so that we can be present, and witness it. This can only happen if you come to this years reunion and get counted. The ONLY way of proving we are a strong family is to attend this reunion.
OTHER NOTES:
1) Beverlee Jenkins is still requesting recipes for the Swarthout Cookbook; send them to: 10739 E. Q Ave Scott, MI 49088 Please try to send at least one.
2) Mary is still requesting information on your families, to complete family trees. Please send them to me or send them to Mary Swarthout Rindfleisch at idlenot@flare.com
Copyright Mark W. Swarthout, 2000
Updated 3/29/2000