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Posted by Garry Bell
on 7/26/2011, 9:17 am
Dear Family Member,
Today we welcome a new year - 2011! I pray that the year will bring indescribable blessings to each of you.
Throughout the year my thoughts turn frequently to that great gathering which we all know as the Patton-Patten Family Reunion. In my estimation the reunion gets better and better with each passing year. While I miss those dear ones who were so much a part of the gathering years ago, I feel so confident that with the renewed interest of younger families the reunion will continue throughout the years and this growing interest thrills me.
The date for the 2011 Reunion is August 20 at Gateway Park in Liberty, KY. Write that date on your calendar and join with me now in making plans to be in attendance. Casey County Fiscal Court is making an effort to secure grant money to build new restrooms, which are badly needed. I was so pleased with the renovations of the community center itself and hope that the court will succeed in its attempt to provide more pleasing rest room facilities. I know that each of you would appreciate that.
I hope you saw a copy of the group picture made at the 2010 Reunion. It was really good.
SOMETHING NEW This year we are going to feature a family stringed instrument band.
John H. Patton was a very good fiddle player and many of his sons played instruments as well. In years past there were some musical groups like Stanley and Herbert and Sam who played and sang for events. And, there are some today, like the Gilbert Mondie family who do the same thing.. Throughout the family there are people who play guitar, banjo, violin, mandolin, keyboard and other instruments. We are asking that everyone who plays an instrument to bring it to the reunion and right after we eat we are going to assemble one great band that will play throughout the afternoon. Randall Downey has agreed to be in charge of this event and I am really looking forward to it. Someone may even want to video the group playing. This promises to be a really enjoyable event.
REPORT ON MONUMENTS At the 2010 reunion the announcement was made about purchasing tombstones for our ancestors buried in the Dickenson Cemetery (originally the Patton Cemetery) near Crossville, TN. I was successful in securing a government monument for our Revolutionary War Ancestor, Joseph Patton. Approximately $800 was raised at the reunion and from this I was able to purchase monuments for Joseph's wife, Elizabeth Tipton Patton and for John H.'s parents, Isaac and Rebecca Patton and for one of Isaac's brothers, George Washington Patton who never married. Plans were to erect these monuments during the Christmas break from school but weather did not cooperate so I am now looking forward to Spring to complete this project. There were ample funds to cover all expenses, thanks to a very generous mark down by McKinley Monuments of Campbellsville.
That’s about all I have to say today but you will be hearing from me again in the next few months. But, please join with me in making the reunion in 2011 the best one yet. Through this we honor those gone on before and we prepare the way for coming generations.
Deut. 33:27 "The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Paul Patton
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