90th Ingalls Reunion meeting minutes
The 90th Ingalls Reunion was held on Saturday, October 13, 2018, at the Asbury United Methodist Church of Greenville and Norton Hill. Fifty-one people were in attendance. There was rain overnight, and it was 44 degrees at 6:30 a.m. Although it was cloudy with light rain in the morning, it cleared in mid-afternoon. The high temperature was in the low to mid- 50s.
The Warren T. and Clarence Ingalls Families of the Ransom Benjamin Ingalls branch hosted. Pretty autumn decorations were placed on the tables.
The Historian, Krista Ingalls Haushalter, displayed various family photograph albums and framed copies of family deeds.
Copies of the 2003 Genealogy and History of the Jacob Ingalls Family were available for twelve dollars each. Copies of the 2019 Greenville Local History Group calendar also were for sale for ten dollars each.
Gary Elliott, the President, rang Jacob Ingalls’ cowbell at 12:00 noon to call all of those present to gather for the group photograph. Since Kay Ingalls Sutton, the Family Photographer, was not at the reunion, Don Teator took the photograph.
After everyone was seated, Gary asked Walt Ingalls to say grace. Those present partook of a delicious luncheon.
After the meal, Gary rang the cowbell to call the meeting to order, and he welcomed everyone to the 90th Ingalls Reunion. He thanked Pastor Dale L. Ashby of the Asbury United Methodist Church of Greenville and Norton Hill for the use of its church hall, the host family, and Janet Lockwood for helping out in the kitchen for her fortieth year. Janet was supposed to be a guest this year, having "retired," but she came to mentor Vicky Tripp, who was hired to assist in the kitchen. A round of applause was given for Janet and Vicky.
The person who traveled the farthest to attend the reunion was Richard Stevens, from Pinellas Park, Florida. Noah Ingalls, age two, was the youngest person in attendance, and Shirly Spad was the oldest, at 95. Donny Palmer (Aubrey Haushalter's husband) attended an Ingalls Reunion for the first time. Also notable were two Hales relatives from Pennsylvania who were in attendance at a reunion for the first time in many years.
The Secretary, Paige Ingalls, read the minutes from last year’s reunion, which were approved as written. She sent around a get well card for Jacob Ingalls for those present to sign. Jacob was seriously injured when he was hit by a car and is presently undergoing rehabilitation. He is the son of Kevin Ingalls and the grandson of Walt Ingalls.
Paige also sent around the book for everyone to sign, along with a folder of “Ingallsiana.” Included in the Ingallsiana folder were the following:
--a brochure from an exhibition at Olana State Historic Site. Olana is a historic house museum and property in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church, one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The exhibit, "Costume & Custom: Middle Eastern Threads at Olana," runs until November 25th. Sarah Stevens, a Textile Conservator with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, from the Lucinda Ingalls Hunt branch of our family, is listed as having worked on the exhibit.
--a copy of a newsletter from April 1957 with a photograph taken at the first "Farm Bureau Kitchen-Konference" held in Greenville, NY. Five Ingalls were present and shown in the photo: Ruth and T. Merritt Elliott, Edna and Adrian Elliott, and Gerald Ingalls.
--the Spring 2018 Messenger, the membership newsletter of the Greene County (NY) Historical Society, Inc. On page 11, there is a note of "Special thanks to GNH Lumber." The lumber company donated the use of their warehouse to store the disassembled Heritage Barn while timbers were being assessed and prepped for the move to the Bronck Museum. Stan Ingalls and Family own and operate GNH, which has been in the family since 1937.
--an article from the Washington Post pertaining to the
Association for Library Service to Children voting this year to rename its Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for children's literature after complaints about Wilder's portrayal of Native Americans. It will now be called the Children's Literature Legacy Award.
--a brief summary of the nonfiction book "Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder," by Caroline Fraser, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 by editors of The New York Times Book Review.
Paige noted how, through the years, our family has been, and continues to be, "community minded."
Paige read a letter ("Correspondence") received from Carlton Simons, who again sent a donation of $50.00 to put towards the reunion. She will write a note to him on behalf of the family to thank him for his generosity.
Paige also noted that Alayne Williams Wright stopped by the reunion before the meeting began to apologize that she wouldn't be able to join us this year. She then generously donated $20.00 to put towards the reunion.
The Treasurer, Alliene Applebee, gave her report:
There was $1,901.46 in the savings account prior to the reunion, which included $2.53 interest earned during the past year.
The day’s income totaled $503.00, from the following--
Dinner Collection $409.00
Donations from Carlton Simons and $70.00
Alayne Williams Wright
Two Genealogy Sales $24.00.
Dispersals/Expenses totaling $344.54 were made for--
Printing of the Invitations ("Postcards") $92.54
Postage for the Invitations $77.00
Vicky Tripp’s Services ("Kitchen") $75.00
Church Hall Rental $100.00
The cost of the Meat, Biscuits, Butter, and Decorations was graciously donated by the Host Family.
This left a profit of $158.46 and a grand total of $2,059.92 in the savings account. This was an increase of $160.99 from 2017’s reunion.
It was moved and seconded to accept the Treasurer’s report.
Gary inquired if there was any “old business” to be addressed? There was none except for something he followed up on from last year's reunion.
--Gary reported back on contacting Micah Ingalls, who had posted an e-mail inquiry on the Jacob Ingalls Family Website in February 2017 asking about our family. Although Micah is not part of any of our branches, Gary said he was very interesting to talk with. Micah has a Ph.D from Cornell University, and he currently works for the Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern (Switzerland), as a Senior Research Scientist (technical advisor) - Sustainable Land Systems Impact Area. He is placed in the Lao People's Democratic Republic in Southeast Asia. He speaks English, Lao, Thai, and Bengali. He grew up in the Cooperstown/Hartwick area of New York State, where his family settled around 1787.
Gary then asked if there was any “new business?”
--Paige reported some very sad news. The original Ingalls Homestead's house has been torn down. Alliene, Stephanie, and she took some Ingalls relatives around a couple of weeks after last year's reunion, and when they drove to the homestead property on Elm Lane (formerly Ingalls Road), they were shocked to see nothing where the house used to stand! If anyone wants to see photographs of the house, they are on the "Ingalls Homesteads" PowerPoint from October 2014, on the Jacob Ingalls Family Web site (www.jacobingallsfamily.com).
The Walter Henry Ingalls Family volunteered to host next year’s reunion. After a vote, it was agreed to hold the reunion on Saturday, October 19, 2019.
The Officers elected for next year were:
President-- Carolyn Myers
Vice President-- Kevin Ingalls
Secretary-- Paige Ingalls
Treasurer-- Alliene Applebee
Historian-- Krista Ingalls Haushalter
Family Photographer-- Kay Ingalls Sutton
The Historian, Krista Ingalls Haushalter, spoke about some of her activities:
She began by asking for the report of births/adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths.
The family quilt she is making includes squares with the personal signatures of family members aged 12 and older. There are more squares yet to be filled. Please be sure to sign, if you haven't already.
She also has squares for children to "sign" with their hand prints, and these will become the reunion's tablecloths. The children can sign and decorate squares multiple times.
She reminded those present always to put names on and date their photographs. For example, she has a photograph of an "Aunt Laura Smith," but no such name appears in the Genealogy. Who was she? She also has a photograph of a Cousins Picnic with a poem written on the back, but she doesn't know by whom.
She informed the group that she had placed a "soapbox" (an outlet for delivering opinions) on the Historian's table with forms there to fill out.
As a reminder, she asked for copies of "generation photographs" for the Historian's albums. These are pictures taken at weddings, baby showers, etc. They can be given to her as hard copy or sent as an e-mail attachment.
She also reminded people to send or e-mail her information about any new births/adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths that becomes available from year to year. This is used to update the Ingalls Genealogy.
Deeds from Joseph to Jacob Ingalls and from Jacob to James Ingalls are available for $10.00 each. She suggested they might make a unique Christmas present.
She concluded her remarks by sending around a form requesting people to write down their e-mail addresses. She then asked them to "Keep in touch!"
Krista led the Roll Call of Families, and the following numbers indicate how many people from each branch were present at the Reunion:
Enoch Ingalls Branch 0
Henry Ingalls Branch 2
John Ingalls Branch 4
Lucinda Ingalls Hunt Branch 10
Eleanor Ingalls Winegard Branch 2
Diantha Ingalls Smith Branch 0
Joseph Truman Ingalls Branch 20
Ransom Benjamin Ingalls Branch 26
William Henry Harrison Ingalls Branch 2
Thaddeus Warsaw Ingalls Branch 0
Cyrus Ingalls (Westerlo) Branch 0
This year's “entertainment” was a presentation by Greenville, NY, Town Historian Don Teator. He reported that he replaced Edna Ingalls Adams Zivelli as Town Historian thirty years ago. He then described transcribing and summarizing the diaries of Carrie Spalding Ingalls, known as "Little Grandma" to many in attendance.
Carrie was the wife of Truman Ingalls of the Ransom Benjamin branch of our family, and she kept diary starting with her marriage year of 1886 through 1893, and again from 1913 to a few weeks before she died in 1951. She did not keep diary from 1894 to 1913, because she had nine children to care for. After her death, the diaries passed on to her youngest child, Leona Rundell.
In Don's fifth year as Town Historian, he was looking for a worthy local history project, and Leona and he agreed he would borrow one of Carrie's diaries, transcribe it, and return it for the next year's. He noted that he would return to Leona's forty-six times, asking her any questions he had before heading home. He transcribed a half hour a day, finally finishing the entire set of diaries in just over four years. He then summarized the information from the diaries, which gives insight into the life of a farm family in the Greenville area and the joys and travails of everyday life.
Don passed around a hand-out of the diary entries Carrie wrote pertaining to past Ingalls Reunions, from 1925 through 1950, and commented on them. There were thirty entries in total. In those years, the reunions were held in different locations (i.e. at Charles Rugg's home, Antoinette Gardner's, Addison Smith's, Henry Ingalls' [the original Homestead in Lambs Corners], the [Methodist] church hall in Norton Hill, the Westerlo Hall, and the church hall in Cornwallville), and on different months (i.e. May, June, July, September, and October). There were no reunions held in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945, when World War II was being fought.
From the diary:
--Per Carrie's diary entry dated October 10, 1925, she attended the first Ingalls Reunion: "Snowing & a regular high gale . . . A terrible day & Ther. 28 . . . We all went to Chas. Ruggs to the Ingalls Reunion a new organization for us but expect it to be permanent. About 90 there day so bad there were a good many did'nt get there. Had a nice sociable time."
--On June 26, 1926, Carrie wrote that "Henry Ingalls gave quite nice little History of the family." [Note: This Address was the launch of the "Genealogy and History of the Jacob Ingalls Family, Giving the Descendants of Jacob Ingalls, who settled in Albany County, New York, in 1793."]
--On July 2, 1939, a Sunday, Carrie noted that, "Once again for the 15th year we have met with the Ingalls reunion . . . About 100 [were] there."
--Carrie's final entry pertaining to the Ingalls Reunion was dated October 21, 1950. She would die the following year, on August 25, 1951, having missed only one reunion. It was on June 28, 1941, when she noted in her diary, "I have been dizzy for a few days so I have taken calomel. Scott & Elgirtha called on their way to the Ingalls Reunion held at Lambs corners. I did’nt feel like going." [Note: Carrie's husband, Truman, had just died the month before, on May 21, 1941.]
Per Carrie's diary, the largest reunion, held on June 26, 1926, had about 120 in attendance, and the reunion on June 28, 1941, had the fewest, only 47. She frequently made mention of planning for the reunion, baking for it, and relatives coming from as far away as Wisconsin to attend.
Gary thanked Don for an interesting presentation. Don has given the Ingalls a remarkable gift of his time, effort, and ability to capture the story of our family as described by Carrie through her diaries. He is considered an "Honorary Ingalls" for all he has done!
Gary closed the meeting by inviting everyone back next year for the 91st Ingalls reunion, on October 19, 2019.