Collett-McKay Picnic grounds

Saturday 9th August 2025 at 12:00 noon (Dayton, OH time)

Click here to go to the meeting. Collett-McKay Picnic Moses McKay (a great-grandson of Robert Mackay Sr.) & wife Abigail Shinn, moved with their family except for one son, Robert S. McKay, from what is now Warren County, Virginia to Chester Township, Clinton County, Ohio along with some other Quaker families. His last two children were born in Ohio. Many of his descendants still live in the area. Moses also owned some land in Warren Co. Ohio where he built his house. This house was used during the Underground Railroad to hide runaway slaves. A photo of it is on a different page in this website. In 1866 some of his descendants gathered together for the first Collett-McKay picnic partly to see who returned from the Civil War. The reason it is called the Collett-McKay picnic is because four of Moses's children -- Sarah, Francis, Virginia & Maria -- intermarried with four members of the family of Daniel Collett & Mary Haines (Their family record will be added later.) The Collett-McKay picnic is held annually every 2nd Saturday in August starting at 12 noon on a portion of the original Moses McKay tract of land in Clinton Co. Ohio which was set aside many years ago and is held in trust by some of the descendants as a permanent site for the gathering.

Tradition says that it does not rain for the Collett-McKay picnic. Rain has fallen on the second Saturday in August several times since 1866 but there has always been dinner. For over a hundred years the two families have met in the picnic woods of Buck Run. There are no programs, no election of officers, no invitations. The men meet on the afternoon before the picnic and set up the 50-foot tables made of boards bought in 1879. For many years water was brought in a large hogshead, and coffee is still brewed in a huge iron kettle over a wood fire. The record of attendance is kept in large registers. The number attending has varied from the 111 people at the first picnic to 542 in 1888. The four-acre grounds, in an oak and sugar maple grove, is owned by the families who say it will always be a picnic ground for them.

The Collett-McKay Picnic, formerly known as the Collett-McKay Picnic Association was incorporated as a Corporation For Non-Profit on 5 August 2019. It is made up of the trustees who maintain and care for the Collett-McKay Picnic grounds.

A treasury is maintained for the purpose of caring for the grounds. If you would like to send a tax deductible donation to help with the upkeep of the Picnic grounds you may do so by making cheques payable to The Collett-McKay Picnic and mail them to this address:

You may also make a memorial gift or a will bequest to the picnic fund if you wish. The interest collected from such a fund will be used to cover annual expenses.

The picnic grounds are located at the corner of Inwood and Gurneyville Roads in Chester Township, Clinton County, Ohio.

Below are two plaques which used to be located on both sides of the the picnic grounds gate but are now within the picnic grounds due to a road expansion project that took place on Gurneyville Road.

(Webmaster's note: Please note that it hasn't been proven that Robert Mackay Sr. came from Scotland. The information on this plaque is based on 'family tale'. Also, we do know from the marriage records of some of Robert's children and Robert's will that Margaret was Robert's 3rd wife. It's likely they were married while Robert was in Cecil County, MD although we do not have details on when or where Robert married any of his three wives. Moses & Abigail emigrated from the section of Frederick County, VA that later became Warren County, VA as mentioned above. MLM)