Collett-McKay Families Meet For 91st Picnic

     The descendants of Stephen Collett and Robert McKay met Saturday for the 91st picnic on a tract of land owned by the picnic association which is a part of the original survey granted to Moses McKay and which is located three and one half miles southeast of New Burlington on the Gurneyville road.
     The posts at the entrance to the grounds are marked by bronze tablets commemorating the memory of the immigrant ancestors, Stephen Collett from France and Robert and Margaret McKay from Scotland, and the pioneer ancestors, Daniel and Mary Haines Collett from Jefferson County, Va., (now West Virginia) and Moses and Abigail Shinn McKay from Frederick County, Va.
     Those present from a distance were Mr. Everett J. Nickerson and daughter, Frances, Riverside, Calif.; Rev. Samuel E. Collett and family, San Bernardino, Calif.; Mr. and Mrs. John Babcock (Harriett Cossum) and family, Watertown, S. D.; Mrs. Anna E. Stockwell, Topeka, Kan.; and Mrs. Mary Browning VandenBerg and children, Milan, Mich.
     Those attending from Ohio represented 14 counties.
     Mrs. Abbie Collett Clapper of Dayton, a semi-invalid, was the oldest member of the Collett family present and Mr. B. M. McKay of New Burlington was the oldest member of the McKay family.
     The youngest member was Margaret Elizabeth Hess, 19-day-old great granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Haydock (Abbie Inwood).
     The register showed an attendance of 234 persons and, by request, Rev. Collett asked God's blessing on the group and gave thanks for the bountiful supply of food which had been prepared.
     The day was an ideal one for a picnic and the established custom of visiting was maintained with an interesting feature being a special table where the Collett and McKay charts, old pictures, and other articles of historic interest were on display.
     In the 90 years this picnic has been held it is notable that it has never been completely rained out. The Colletts and McKays have always met and enjoyed at least part of the day together.

Collett-McKay Picnic

     Annual Collett-McKay picnic and reunion will be held Saturday at the picnic grounds near New Burlington, with a basket dinner at noon. This pienic, which is the oldest family reunion group in Clinton county, has never been completely rained out, although there have been a few times when rain began to fall before tables were cleared, a member of the family said today. A number of out-of-town relatives are expected. to attend.

I Remember: 25 Years Ago

     Rev. Floyd Faust of Columbus, former resident of Clinton county, was conducting revival services at New Antioch Church of Christ. A delegation from the local Christian Church went to the service in a body on this night.
     Dr. J. B. H. Waring was appointed local surgeon for the B&O Railroad in Wilmington to serve during the vacation of Dr. U. G. Murrell, who was the official surgeon.
     More than 200 persons attended the 65th annual Collett-McKay reunion at the family picnic grounds near New Burlington.
     Donna Wendell of Dayton came for a visit with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Howe.
     Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Bergman of Memphis, Tenn., arrived for a two weeks' visit with the former's mother and sister, Mrs. D. D. Griffin and Miss Cleo Griffin, joining their daughters, Phyllis and Jane, who had been here several weeks.

THEY OWN THEIR OWN GROUNDS

90-Year-Old Reunion Held Same Day Without A Miss

     WILMINGTON. July 23.--Ninety years ago when 111 members of the Collett and McKay families met for a family picnic in a beautiful sugar-maple grove in Clinton County, they had no idea they were establishing a custom that almost a century later would spread throughout the country.
     The Colletts and McKays, descendants of two of the oldest pioneer families in this locality, know of no other family reunion that antedates theirs. Every year since 1866 the members of the two families have met on the second Saturday in August for what they prefer to call their annual picnic, instead of a reunion, as throughout the years the informality of a picnic has prevailed.
     There has never been a set program outside of the meeting, eating and visiting, never any speeches, never any election of officers, never any discussion of when and where to meet the next year, only the happy exchange of news as members of the families visit in congenial groups and exchange bits of information of interest only to those of kith and kin.

     THROUGHOUT THE 90 years the picnic has been held in the grove where there is no shelter outside of the wide spreading limbs of the big maple trees, but so benign has been the favor of the weather man that there never has been a time when the families have not been able to enjoy the picnic dinner together. The picnic has never been rained out.
     The beautiful, sunny weather that usually smiles upon the occasion has become traditional in the community and "Collett and McKay picnic weather" means the finest.
     The picnic grounds consist of four acres of sugar maplewood land which the families have dedicated solely to picnic purposes. It is a part of a large tract of sugar maplewood land owned by the Collett family and adjoining a tract of land owned by the McKay family. It is on what is known as Gurneyville road, about eight miles northwest of here.

     WHEN THE SETTLEMENT of an estate threatened for a time the sale of the picnic site a "hat collection" was taken at the next reunion and enough money was contributed to buy the four acres and insure its being available to the coming generations as the place for their annual picnic.
     After purchasing the site the families decided to erect a memorial gateway to replace the old wooden gateway that for so many years had marked the entrance to the grounds.
     As a memento of "ye olden days" a section of old rail fence has been preserved along the north side of the grounds. The rails, which are from the original fencing of the woodland, are of walnut and are more than a hundred years old. They are still in excellent state of preservation. Climbing the old rail fence presents fascinating adventure for the kiddies attending the family picnics.

     THE COLLETT FAMILY traces its descent from Stephen Collett whose father was expelled from France at the time of the Huguenot expulsion in 1660.
     The Colletts came to Ohio in 1812 and settled on a large tract of land in Clinton county where the first home was built. About two thousand acres of the original tract still remain in the possession of members of the family.
     Robert McKay, the ancestor of the McKays, came from Scotland in about the year 1690 and was one of the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. According to well founded family tradition, Moses McKay and his wife, Abigail Shinn McKay, came up to Ohio from Virginia in 1818.
     In the spacious parlor of the McKay home in 1823 Sarah McKay became the bride of Jonathan Collett. In the years between 1823 and 1830 there were three more marriages between McKays and Colletts, making a fourfold family tie. The descendants of these four marriages were the originators of the family picnic.

     THE FIRST PICNIC had the smallest attendance on record, 110 persons. The largest attendance was in 1888 when 542 members of the families and invited guests signed the register. The average attendance is between two and three hundred people.
     On a shelf, attached to the lobe of a big old tree, is the large family register book where every one attending the picnic is morally obligated to sign his or her name and address. These books have been carefully kept from year to year and furnish ready reference to the addresses of relatives throughout the country.