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The photos from the Greenwood home are available for viewing at www.newcreationsstudio.com . Go to online gallery, then events, and Greene Reunion.
The news from The Marietta Times, July 11, 2008, looking back 100 years to the 1908 Greene Reunion:
- One of the most successful affairs of its kind ever held in this county was the reunion of the Greene family at the residence of Junius Greenwood at Newport. This spacious home was built 100 years ago and the reunion was held to commemorate that event. There were more than 100 people present at the affair, many of whom had come from distant points.
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We invite you to copy any photos or writings on this web site!
Photo sent to us by Togin (Lawton) Cassell:
The 2008 Greene Reunion is now a warm and joyous memory. We wish to thank all of you who helped in the planning and all of you who celebrated with us. We have amazing ancestors, but in the here and now we have unbelievable cousins! Words cannot begin to express our thoughts and gratitude, but we have tried. Following are some thoughts from the event coordinators.
July 25, 2008
Dear Greene Family,
The day is finally here! This last three years has been a gratifying journey. Thanks for all the great conversations, kind letters and/or emails. You were all so encouraging. Many offered to help; others added more funds to cover the costs, and I have met so many “new” cousins.
This couldn’t have happened without the help of so many. One of the first on board was not even of the Greene family. Herman and Eileen Thomas have gone above and beyond to make this event a success. Eileen planned and prepared most of what we will enjoy in Newport. And Herman did all the heavy work. They gathered a willing team of workers from Newport just to welcome the Greene family.
Gordon took time from his busy schedule to prepare for our Friday evening program. Using considerable talent, he has applied his skilled touch to the give the family a memorable event and all without compensation.
My greatest rewards of the past three years are the many new friendships. Marlene has become a dear and close friend. We have worked together through all the ups and downs of planning.
A special thanks to Sam and Vera for offering their home willingly for our family photo. (And parking)
However, all the planning, all the work, and all the time would go for naught if you folks had not come. You have been willing to put us in your vacation plans, expend money on plane fares, rental cars, hotel/motel rooms and GAS, all to spend a couple days honoring the Greene family.
Just a note about the NAME TAGS: Under your name is either the name of one of the children of John and Mary Greene or “Family Member” or “Guest.” John and Mary had ten children; Phebe, Daniel, Eliza, Mary, John Jr, Richard, Ruth, Sarah, Caleb, and Philip. Eliza had no children. Sarah died young. Thanks to the help of Togin Cassell, we were able to find descendants from six of the remaining eight children. Five families are represented here today. If you are a direct descendant your ancestor will be noted under your name. “Family Member” indicates you are a family member by marriage. “Guest” is for those who have chosen to spend the two days with us as our special guests.
If you wish to visit the Oospa Daisy in Newport, Saturday morning is the best time. The other merchants in Newport are open later on Saturday. Marietta shops close at 5 on Saturday evening. Marietta is full of history and many things to see and enjoy.
With dearest regards,
Susy Wetz
(insert in packet handed out at reunion)
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The planners of the 1908 Greene Reunion were looking to the past and honoring the ancestors who arrived in America in the 1630s as well as those who fought for independence and those who migrated to the frontier. They were looking forward, no doubt, knowing the photo taken that day and the booklet sent home with the guests would be carefully preserved.
It was the construction of the family home in 1808 that set the year for the centennial reunion. We are here this weekend because our grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles were here on July 8, 1908. There may have been other Greene reunions lost to history without a commemorative photo and booklet.
The family is now focused on a celebration following the turn of each century, and hitting the century mark is always a call for celebration and reflection.
Looking back to 1808, Washington County was the frontier. There was not much in 1808 that set life apart from the middle ages of Europe. Transportation was on foot, by horse, flatboats, and canoes. Good and bad news traveled slowly from the East Coast to the frontier. Medical care was primitive.
The pioneer families lost one of four children before the age of four. Women were lost in childbirth in appalling numbers. They lived in the shadow of cholera, ague, diphtheria, consumption, pneumonia, and smallpox. The miracle of penicillin was over a century away.
The census declared the frontier officially closed in 1890.
There were 46 states in 1908. Life expectancy was less than 50 years. Childhood mortality played a major role in keeping this number low. Millions died each year from the same infectious diseases that ravaged the pioneers. Industrial accidents accounted for another 35,000 deaths per year with most of the deaths spread among the working class and the poor. Two million children mined coal, labored in steel mills, and found employment in other hazardous environments. Per capita income in America was the highest in the world.
Fifty per cent of Americans lived in rural areas with no electricity and no plumbing. The average American had five years of schooling.
Perhaps there were suffragists at the reunion, but did they really think they would be allowed to vote in their lifetimes? My grandmother, a 22-year old in 1908, was given the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
From 1890 to 1910, nearly 13,000,000 immigrants arrived in the United States. That was a rate of 35,000 per day. The term “melting pot” was first used.
It must have been a glorious gathering at the Greenwood house, with long speeches, lap lunches, and all those layers of clothing in the heat of July! How thoroughly modern the folks in the picture must have felt.
The guests at the 1908 reunion had no idea what lay ahead. There would be two world wars, a Great Depression, and the Cold War. There would be television, transistor radios, and Gone with the Wind in Technicolor. There would be satellites, computers, and cell phones. They may have been in awe at the inventions of the previous century, but they may also have wondered at the practicality of these newfangled contraptions.
One century comes to a close, and we look back at the neatly packaged 100 years now relegated to the history books. We anticipate the uncertainty of the next 100 years. And we can only hope that this will be the site of another reunion and our descendants will be looking at the photos made in 2008 on the steps of the Greenwood home. We will leave more souvenirs of this weekend than one photo and one printed booklet. We will pass along the proud history of the Greene family and its connection to the land along the Ohio River known as Newport Township. May Newport be forever a magnet for the descendants of the pioneers, drawn to remember and to celebrate.
Marlene Morris, July 25, 2008
(introduction to writing of reunion guests)
Sources:
America 1908 by Jim Rasenberger
The Century by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster
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I will never forget the autumn day in 2004 when I typed a google search for "Torner famiy of Newport, Ohio." It took me right to the contents of the 1908 Greene Reunion booklet. I scrolled through the pages. There was my grandmother's name, Florence Torner, as well as those of her mother and siblings. I had no idea that the other names listed would become so very familiar to me over the next three years.
It seemed a simple enough idea when my husband suggested we have a bicentennial reunion. I had been to family reunions, and I knew that someone would bring potato salad and somene else a dessert.
Well, there is more to planning a 2008 Greene reunion than food assignments. Susy Wetz tracked down relatives. We started a web site, researched and wrote a book, and planned a weekend event. Relatives and friends shared their photos and stories. We located Grodon Greene and learned that he was not only an attorney but a professional actor Gordon would be in charge of entertainment.
I marvel at the booklets and photos that have survived a century. Descendants who were connected to the ancestors who spent an afternoon at the Greenwood home in 1908 are now connected to each other as we celebrate another 100 years of famikly history. I am deeply grateful to all who have preserved our family history and supported us during these past seveal years.
May God bless each of you, and may you know that you will forever have a special place in my heart.
Marlene Morris
July 25, 2008
(insert in packets handed out at the reunion)
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