we started appearing--so many of us that we needed a second picture!
Standing (above, left to right): Phil West, Anne Grant, Jim O'Toole, Robert M. Denton, Lana O'Toole, Russell Komline, Judith Denton Komline, Jean Denton, Tom Barnes, Hildy Benjamin, Jim Roberts, Derreth Roberts; Seated: Bernice Piper, Flossie Gordon, Kevin Frank, Gordon Piper, Carol Gordon, Art (Larry) Benjamin.
Standing (below): June Piper Horton , Amy Horton, Tim Horton, Margaret Moran, Vivian Piper. Seated: John Fallon, Meredith Fallon, Evelin Caiafa, Chris Caiafa.
When Ernest and Glendys Case died within months of each other in 2006, the family cherished him as our genealogist. His volumes of meticulously kept records and photographs came at considerable cost to his own family. Derreth poignantly described her sense of inadequacy, pain and anger when her father would close himself away from his children to focus on his ancestors.
So we begin this reunion with a cautionary tale that is ironic and full of feeling for all of us who dearly love Ernest and appreciate the enormous gift he has given. He became the repository of a vast treasure of family photos. With it came a burden that took its toll.
These papers became the catayst for bringing us together again. Perhaps his compelling reasons for needing to do this work will grow more clear.
We gathered in the basement of a building important to our history over generations--the Methodist Church, where weekly worship and holidays, baptisms, weddings, and funerals marked the lives of many in our family. As a young teen I heard my cousin, Larry, a Princeton seminarian, preach here. Now he is back in Rock Hill, along with other cousins, like Derreth. Both came carrying boxes full of family photos and papers.
Coming together gives us new insights about feelings that shaped us and about people whose personal quest fed into our own in ways we are beginning to understand.
Bob studies the family tree that Judith and Russ prepared for us to write notes about children and grandchildren.
Lana fills out the form that she and Jim produced for us to accurately record our information:
But some information cannot be reduced to a spreadsheet. For that we need sacred lore that goes something like this:
"Verily the day has come when the children of those who could not talk to each other shall shout for joy
and shall ponder the lessons of life and the things that bring peace.
And lo, even their spouses shall work together in one accord.
Their PCs and Macs shall rest upon the same table,
and the sound of laughter shall resound throughout the land. Selah."
Judith, Anne, and Lana try to identify an old picture:
Tom and Jean appreciate a letter from long ago:
Reunions are bittersweet. They can bring back good memories and painful reminders.
Hildy, Larry, Lana, Tom, and Jean mull over the word "reunion." We list words beginning in "re" that come from re-calling the past. Memories bring back re-grets (things we wish we or others had done or not done) and re-sentments (things that caused hurt, intentionally or not). Once we re-member, we can decide to re-lease the pain, re-concile the past, re-pent, re-deem, re-store, re-plenish, re-fresh, re-new.
(Jim keeps us from getting too solemn by adding the word re-gurgitate.)
Do I look like a schoolmarm here? Seeing this picture later, I suddenly realize my own mother, Florence Denton Grant, taught public school (three grades at once) in this very room half a century ago. (Cue the spooky music!)
Century-old photos are watching Jim shoot video for future generations to figure us out.
Ernest traced his mother, Wilhelmina Denton (1885-1955), back to Richard Denton (1603-1662/03), born in Yorkshire, England. (Ernest is eleventh generation, written "XI.")
On the Case side, most of us are descended from Mary Emma Hopkins Case (1856-1918). Her lineage includes Stephen Hopkins, who signed the Mayflower Compact in 1620. Mary Emma's husband, Wallace Wheeler Case (1854-1928), goes back to Absalom Case (I, 1757-1828) born in Middletown, Connecticut, who fought in the American Revolution. (Ernest appears to be XII Generation in both those lineages, which means the Hopkins women were really busy.)
Here are three generations in the same lineage, through Florabel Case Gordon (1882-1964): Amy Horton (XV Generation), Gordon Piper (XIII), Jean Piper Horton (XIV).
Much to our delight, Vivian Piper (XIV) has accepted the family mantle as curator of Ernest Case's papers. She has set up an amazingly extensive website at: http://thecasefiles.com
Russell and Judith Denton Komline's website includes Denton data as well as our historic link to the Komlines at http://www.easterhi.com/tng
Flossie (XII), once the baby of the Hopkins-Case-Gordon family, has now become our matriarch! She took us on a tour of Case homes.
Three miles down Katrina Falls Road, at the T-junction where Wolf Pond Road comes to an end, stands the Case family homestead, where my brother Douglas Denton Grant and I (XIII) grew up in the 1950s and 60s.
Our great grandfather, Wallace Wheeler Case (X) lived here. Our parents married here and cared for our grandfather, Jake Denton, and for two elderly aunts, Addie and Nellie Blockley Case. They are the sisters shown in the photo below who married two Case brothers.
Addie's husband, Will Case (XI), took this photo of the old Case Homestead around 1900. Lying in the hammock on the porch is Sanford Case (XI), Nellie's husband, who later built the stone well.
The well "Sand" built appears in a century's worth of family photos.
It was hard for our mother to sell this house out of the family. I wish she had met Evelin and Chris Caiafa. After our parents moved to Florida and realized they could no longer maintain their home, the Caiafas bought it through the mail. (Chris apologized that the house needs paint, but we are glad just to have him with us. Two years ago, a limb fell on him and he went through extensive surgery on his head, neck and spine.)
The wedding picture behind Evelin and Chris is that of Dorothy Case (XII) and Arthur Benjamin (Larry's parents) who built this retirement home on the hill leading up Wolf Pond Road.
Out near Route 17 on Katrina Falls Road is the stone house Sanford and Nellie Case built after their wooden house burned. Sand, the stonemason, was determined that this house would never go up in flames.
When our caravan of cars from the reunion stopped here, we met Bradford and Nicole Smith, just married two weeks ago. They also are in love with their new home. Bradford shows it to Kevin and Carol.
Sanford built a well here with a sculpture of a house in it that resembles the Case homestead of his childhood.
All along these roads are homes built by members of the Hopkins-Case family.
On Sunday morning behind the Days Inn at Wurtsboro, we pool our food for a tailgating party before Lana, Anne, Jean, Meredith, Jim, John, Tom and Phil (beind the camera) start for home.
Lana shares more letters to decipher the mysteries that kept her family and Jean's apart:
Decades ago, on their first day of college, Jim offered his cushion to a girl fidgeting on the hard bleachers. He never could have imagined the extended family they would find together in a little town in the Catskill Mountains called Rock Hill. Welcome home!
We are trying to schedule the next Rock Hill reunion for July 25-26, 2009. The firehouse does not make reservations more than one year in advance and may be under construction at that time. (The Lodge in Rock Hill is prohibitively expensive. Other ideas for meeting spaces are certainly welcome!) The Dentons may plan a gathering before that on Long Island. Of course, the Cases are always welcome!
Please pass the word to other cousins and people who live in the original Case houses, and let us know about any Denton homes still standing in Brooklyn or Queens.
We hope to add other photos and stories from the past to this blog. If you would like to be automatically notified when that happens, send an email (as well as corrections and additions) to anne.grant@verizon.net
Cheers to all!
Anne
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