(Provided courtesy of Mary Lou Inwood.)

The Daily Grist

     AT THE NOW-FAMOUS Collett-McKay picnic I took time out from thumbing my nose at the OPA and its point system long enough to examine the old "worm" rail fence that skirts the north side of the four-acre park families bought some years ago as a permanent meeting place for the annual reunion.
     The fence is made of walnut rails, a product of the farm.
     Howard Collett, the encyclopedia of his family and contemporary history, told me his father, the late Robert Collett, of Virginian stock, whose forebears came to the Ohio country when it was new and settled at the "Hole in the Woods," the estate of 1,000 acres, still intact on the border line of Clinton county this side of Harveysburg, was born in 1840.
     The ancestor, an attorney and farmer, discovered that walnut trees were not used in rail-making after "clearings" were made, and fences built around the original fields. He saw that land owners were not using walnut for rails in his boyhood, and by asking questions of older men he learned that walnut rails went out about the time he came in--in 1840.
     It is easy to prove that the rails in the fence on the north side of the Collett McKay picnic park, on the New Burlington pike, about 10 miles north of Wilmington, are over 100 years old. They are solid and strong and give every promise of serving another century.
     "A piece of black walnut will last forever," a veteran farmer in the group talking about the old "worm" fence, said, adding, "if you keep it off the ground."
     Saving the surface to save all, the painters' slogan, is minimized in the case of black walnut.

Collett-McKay Families Hold 80th Picnic

     Once again the present generation of the Collett-McKay families were united, Saturday, at the picnic grounds designed only for the use of the annual gatherings and owned and kept for that purpose by the families. Four acres of land part of a sugar camp lying along the Gurneyville road are yearly the scene of a colorful gathering of the descendants of two of the oldest pioneer families in this section of the country. Gate posts at the entrance of the grounds bear handsome bronze inscriptions sketching the history of the picnic and families. The site is a beautiful one, having a grove of magnificent trees sheltering the green, rolling terrain where cars, people, tables, and chairs are all part of the picnic picture. A rail fence is on the north side of the grounds, the same kind of fence that has always been there, one of the very few that is in existance today. Many of the rails are walnut and walnut rails have not been made for over 100 years.
     The boards that are used for tables are white pine and were purchased in 1879. The coffee is made in two large iron kettles and that has always been the way it has been done.
     Hiram Poor, a colored man came for 35 consecutive years to make the coffee, and now, John Simpson, another colored man completed his 15th year this time.
     An interesting feature is the large registers of those in attendance. The first picnic was held in 1866, when there were 111 present which is the smallest number recorded, with 542 in 1888, being the largest number to attend, though several years, the number passed the 400 mark. From 1872 to 1884 there was no register taken. During these past years the register shows that 23,078 have attended. Besides many present from Cincinnati, Dayton, Springfield, Columbus, and Cleveland, from out of the state Allen McKay Terrell, Philadelphia; "Buzzie," Mary E. and Patricia Rawsey, Huntington, W. Va.; Rev. and Mrs. W. P. McGarly, Kansas City, Mo.; Thomas Muthersole, Cumberland, Md.; Cathrine Cossum and Meriteth Brown, Chicago; and Faye Orelup, Lawrence, Kans., attended.
     The picnickers lingered and talked and frolicked and relaxed in the sun-flecked shade until nearly dark Saturday, in accordance with the yearly custom, then they reluctantly dispersed with the enthusiastic and yearly comment that it had been the best picnic ever.

COLLETT-McKAY PICNIC

     The 80th Collett-McKay picnic will be held at the picnic grounds on Saturday, August 11.