Joel & Susannah Wright Reunion

I have been camping in the Knott County at Littcarr.  I had planned the trip to coincide with the the Wright and Potter reunions which were held August 2nd and 3rd at the Breaks Park in Virigina.

At the last minute, Lana, my granddaughter, went with me.  We drove to the campground, set up our pop-up screened room and then drove over to the Breaks.  We had dinner in the lodge and met Nell and Ben Blumel. As other family arrived, Nell introduced us to them.  She brought a copy of her book that she wrote on the Wright Family.  It is a great book.  One of our cousins, Bill Owens, is going to get it reprinted so we get copies for other members of the family.

We talked and I was so exhausted that we just got a room and stayed at the lodge instead of going back to the campground.

The next morning Lana and I went over to the lodge and signed in at registration.  We got our meal tickets and saw Nell again. She started introducing us around.  One of the cousins was Daisy Wright Nowlin.  She is the granddaughter of Mary Wright who married William Jackson Wright.  Mary was the daughter of Andew Jackson and Harriet Adams Wright. Her brothers included  Elijah Wright and Marryin' Booker Wright.  She brought pictures of her grandmother and other members of Andew and Harriet's family.  She also brought pictures of her parents, John Q. Wright and Georgia Compton.  She had newspaper clippings that her grandmother had kept.  She knew so many things about the family.

Daisy and her friend who said she was not a Wright, but just drove Daisy to the reunion, so she was a "wrong".

While I was sitting on the floor copying Daisy's pictures (near the glass door so I could get the outside light) I heard a familiar voice and knew that cousin Lois had arrived.  I met her in person though I feel like I have known her for a long time.  She introduced me to her brother in law, Jimmy and his daughter Sharon.  These are the greatest people.

I met lots of cousins -- many from Andrew Jackson's line, some from Joel Ellis's line (ours) and those of Devil John's line.  I didn't meet anyone else from Nancy Ann's line although our cousins Sharon and Mark are also related to the Mullins. 

Theda and Sherry told me so many things about Pike County and the locations of several graves.  When Jesse Wright's father-in -aw died, Jesse was listed as the undertaker and the location of the grave was listed as the Jesse Wright Cemetery in Pike County. I asked Thedda if she knew where this graveyard might be.  She told me about a cemetery that is called the Bentley cemetery and said there were a lot of Wrights and Bentleys buried there. She gave me the directions and going back to the campground I am pretty sure I picked out where she was talking about.  We were too tired to stop, but I plan on going back there.

Sherry had a lot of information about different family things she had investigated.

Lana fell in love with her cousin Grace. Grace was a little older, but the two of them hit it off and they spent the whole day together.  Grace was a doll. 

Suzanne Tackett was there with her family.  I met Becky Wright Knick.  There were so many great cousins there.

Anyway, we played a game -- which Ben and Nell had found on the internet. I had found the same game and wanted to play it in Septemeber.  It was a nice ice breaker.

Nell called us together.  We sat down and someone lit a  pillar candle representing the family.  Suzanne Tackett read a piece.  Then each  person who had died since the last reunion was mentioned and someone from their family came up and lit a taper candle  from the big candle as a sign that their memory stilled lived on as part of the family.  Then we had a moment of silence.  It was a very nice way to remember those who are no longer with us.

After a few announcement, Ben said a prayer and we ate lunch .  It was a buffet prepared by the lodge.  The food was great.  I am not saying it was the same as some home cooked meals my mother or my aunts have made, but no one had to stay up all night to fix that dinner.  And someone came around and took the plates away.  The emphasis was not on the food -- although we greatly enjoyed it -- but the fellowship. 

Later, Bill Owns talked about the Buckhorn Childrens home and the work they do there.  Nell said several people where she lived in Florida had adopted this group as one they raised money for and encouraged the family to donate to them.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting.  We did have a raffle and door prizes.  The afternoon flew by.

I know I plan on attending next year.  I want to see people again that I met and meet others who might attend who could not attend this year.  I will stay at the lodge though.  I think that it was one of the best reunions that I have ever attended.

I take so many pictures.  I copied Daisy's pictures to my computer to try to check them out to see if they were clear.  Later, I filled that disk in my camera and when I replaced it, I lost the disk so the good pictures I took of people at the reunion were lost.