2013 Miskimen Reunion newsletter To One and All, The 2013 Reunion was a stupendous event. 71+ family members were present. At least that many signed in. Eleven of the sixteen families were represented. They were Lucy, Catherine, David, Margaret, Paul, Jane, John, Charlotte, Harriet, Hugh and Dick. The “Fab 4” comprising of Margaret, Paul, John, & Hugh were present along with Aunt Peg and Uncle Don. Followed by countless cousins, nephew, nieces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,…. and so forth. Al Miskimen, Dan & Carol Ringer were there from the William line. Sally McBrayer, Alan & Patty McCullough were there from the Yost side. Sally is Wesley’s (Miriam’s brother) daughter. After all of the storms, heat and humidity, we were blessed with sunny skies, lower temps (80’s) and lower humidity. I guess that this coming week up, we will be back in the 90’s with high humidity and rain possibilities. Reunion Weekend started off with Uncle Hugh’s “Miskimen Reality Tour” on Fri, July 12th. There were 19 of us that converged on the Eureka Hardware store in Newcomerstown, OH at 12 noon. The significance of the store is that it was built by George Washington Miskimen in 1885 to transfer grain to the canal boats. We even saw the tie up posts for the canal boats. The building was named G W Miskimen. In 1889, he added the hardware store. In 1909, he sold it and the name changed to Eureka Hardware. FYI: George is on the William side (his son) of the family making him a 3-greats cousin to me. William was the brother to James, our line. Please correct me if I have this wrong. The store manager, Randy, took us on a “behind the scenes” tour. We went up 3 floors and worked our way down to the basement. It was a very interesting and fun tour. The store itself is a step back in time. Some of the original display cases are still in use. The hardwood floor is the original. The foundation blocks are 4’ X 1.5’ X 1’ making it a very solid foundation. If you are ever in Newcomerstown, be sure to stop by. From the store we walked to the Newcomerstown Museum. In the Museum, they have “Main Street, Newcomerstown.” You step through a doorway and onto Main Street. You saw the buildings that existed in Newcomerstown, from the G.W. Miskimen Hardware store to the Beauty Shop, the Printers, the General Store, the Jail and more. The “buildings” were about 8-10’ wide, 12-14’ high and 5-6’ deep. In G.W. Miskimen’s storefront window, you saw a picture of the original store, baseball bats, ball and glove, nails, rakes, and oodles more. What a cute little museum. Definitely worth the price of admission. ($3.00) We took a lunch break at Lava Rocks outside of Newcomerstown and then on to the Family Homestead and Cemetery. We started at the cemetery. It is amazing how much the stones have deteriorated since last year. We could still see Susannah and Emma, but the others are beginning to fade away. Uncle Hugh said that there are 18 people there (and that all of them are dead). He also has a list of the names of those buried at the cemetery. Then we drove over to the old Homestead. The hike back to the house was littered with obstacles, namely “cowpies.” After dodging them, we made it to the house. The state of disrepair was evident everywhere that you looked. It is amazing that the house is still standing. We walked thru the first floor. Door knobs, hinges, part of the banister and spindles were missing. More about that later. We headed back into Newcomerstown to visit another Miskimen gravesite. Franklin, Lucy, Anna (Thompson) are buried there along with other Miskimens. This ended the “Reality” Tour. Some of us ended the day at Uncle Hugh’s house. We sat out back and visited. Too tired to play cards. We must be getting old. Saturday – JULY 13TH - Reunion Day We arrived around 930am to “organize” the indoor dining hall at Tuscora Park in New Phila. We moved tables around, set up the Miskimen Memorabilia, from the family tree, to pictures, to a quilt, to notebooks with family history and more pictures. Uncle Hugh put out his “famous” caramels to sell for $10 per bag. The proceeds are going to help pay for the hall for next year. He brought in $270.00!!!! Uncle Hugh also had a table with Miskimen artifacts from the Homestead. Here we found the missing door knobs, ornate door hinges, a piece of the banister along with spindles. Hmm……. He had everyone sign the banister and gave away spindles and small pieces of the banister to those who wanted them. There was also 3 very old photo albums, but not sure who the people are in the pictures. I believe that Becky Loader will begin the work to try to identify these relatives. Carol and Dan Ringer brought a GW Miskimen Hardware 1909 Calendar plate, in mint condition. They placed it on Uncle Hugh’s table for everyone to see. Uncle Hugh suggested that they donate it to the Newcomerstown Museum and they agreed. I think that is will look nice on a plate stand next to the photo in the window. I see a new addition to the “Reality” Tour for next year. Cousin David brought the James & Anna/Miriam family tree wall hanging. Jim (Jane) Colton, David and Kent put it up. Then the leaves were added with the help of Becky and Jim. Others may have helped, but I left that area after putting up my name. Go figure! Becky W, Cindy, Jenny, and others helped to organize the food tables : We had 3 tables for appetizers, entrees and side dishes. 1 table for drinks, plates and plasticware AND 2 tables for desserts and snacks. Needless to say, there was plenty of delicious food. 12Noon: Uncle John welcomed everyone and said the Blessing. Everyone helped themselves to a spectacular meal. The food, as always, was OUTSTANDING! We had meatballs, baked corn, weenies, trays of little sandwiches, fried chicken, Johnny Marzetti, macaroni/meat dish, shredded chicken sandwiches, Mary Zifer’s Pizza; potato, pasta, fruit and 7 layer salads; veggies, cheesy potato dish, Buffalo chicken dip, cheese plates, veggie pizza; apple dumplings, blackberry and apple pies, s’more bars, cookies, blueberry bars; chips, pretzels, salsa, humus, and dips,…….. I am sure that I missed some items. Please don’t take offense. I forgot to take pictures of the food to aid my memory for this newsletter. Next year when you sign in, I will have you put down what you brought. That way all will be listed. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Then Becky Wortherspoon (Margaret) sold the 50/50 tickets. $1 per ticket or $5 for 6. She sold $220.00 worth of tickets. Becky had Sarah Colton (Jim’s daughter) pull the winning ticket. The lucky winner was Scott Miskimen (Hugh’s son). He and Jenny were headed to Canton later to spend their winnings. Thanks go to Scott for the use of “Freckles the Clown” sound system. This helped immensely to be heard over the Miskimens. After the meal, we had the “Fab 4” get up and share a childhood story or two. We limited Uncle Hugh to 10 minutes. Ha Ha! Aunt Margaret’s story dealt with gardening with Grandpa and ended up with feeding worms to Aunt Jane. Uncle Paul’s story dealt with taking firework duds, removing the powder to make their own and catching the pines on fire. He woke up to fire trucks coming to the house. Uncle John ordered black powder. He was told that is was too dangerous to transport and that he needed to pick it up. Guess what? He took the bus. Then he told the story of how he and Harriet burnt down the outhouse. Uncle Hugh shared a story of Uncle Dick peeing in the closet, with it dripping down on Grandpa’s head. Grandpa was furious. Dick got smacked for it. Dick said “Hah, that didn’t hurt!” . . . . THEN it did!!!! Aunt Dot asked me to share my Uncle Dick story about him telling me (4yrs old) that I didn’t have to eat my oatmeal. Bless him – he walked on water in my eyes. I hate oatmeal!!! After story hour, we had the traditional Ladies Carrousel ride. There were 30 riders. Alan McCullough treated! Thanks Alan. Throughout the day you could hear cards being shuffled, cries of Yahtzee and hammering. The kids were building birdhouses. At 330pm, we headed down to Evergreen Cemetery, New Phila to visit the Miskimen family gravesites, James and Miriam, MaryAnn, Catherine and Harriet and over to Uncle Dick’s. Prayers were given by Uncle John and Allan Ford (Paul). It was warm in the sun, but a nice breeze helped, along with the trees. Back to Tuscora Park for more cards, games, conversation and food. The day flowed smoothly and fun times were had by all. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped with the set up and the cleanup. We headed back to the Best Western for drinks, snacks, pizza and conversation. Everyone turned in by 11pm. We set an 8am meetup time for breakfast at Denny’s. Sunday, July 14th - 8am Breakfast at Denny’s. There were 21 of us! A little too much for Denny’s to handle, but they managed. Had a great last visit and by 945am we were on our way home. I want to thank everyone for coming. Special thanks to everyone that helped make this a tremendous success, plus a huge THANKS to Uncle Hugh and Aunt Kay for the use of your home, tour director, font of information,……EVERYTHING! Thank you all! For those of you who didn’t come this year, here a list of those who attended the 2013 Reunion AND signed the book: Dianne and Jerry Ackerman (David) Kristina and Ken Allen and Gabby (Catherine) Cindy Amos (Margaret) Sandy Archer (Charlotte) Don Ball Jim, Jan and Sarah Colton (Jane) Brad, Martha and Jacob Everhart (Harriet) Jacques Everhart Steve and Linda Everhart (Harriet) Michele and Allan Ford (Paul) Jane, Bob and Amy Hashman (Catherine) Karen Higgins (Dick) Becky Loader (Lucy) Sally McCullough McBrayer (Wesley – Miriam’s brother) Janet and Kent McClary (Harriet) Alan and Patty McCullough (Wesley) Terri, Mike and Hunter McLaughlin (Hugh) Jenny Miller (Jane) Al Miskimen (William Side) David and Dianna Miskimen (David) Gary and Mianna Miskimen (Hugh) Hugh and Kay Miskimen John Miskimen Paul Miskimen Peg Miskimen Scott and Jenny Miskimen (Hugh) Margaret Neff Dorothy “Dot” Neisen Erin and Derek Patterson (Charlotte) Emily and Martin Przekadzinski (Harriet) Carol and Dan Ringer (William side) Aaron and Mary Swank (Catherine) Linda and Mark Vogl (Harriet) Peter and Kristina Vogl (Harriet) Becky Wotherspoon (Margaret) Michael, Sarah, Michael Jr, Abigail, Gideon and Judah Zajacs (Catherine) Kayle Zurcher (Hugh) Tim, Flora, Timmy and Zach Zurcher (Hugh) Will your name be on next year’s list??? Now down to business…… We were able to confirm the entire Air Conditioned Hall for next year. The date that you will need to save is: Saturday, JULY 26, 2014. Please MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Since we have the entire hall, we want to make this one even bigger. I will be sending out information via emails/facebook/mail along the way. Once I confirm the hotel, I will send out a notice. It was great seeing everyone and I do hope to see the rest of you next year. Love to All – Janet McClary (Harriet)
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:37:48 +0000
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