Hello Hartshorn cousins,

Here's a short report on the recent HARTSHORN REUNION held on Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Rather than burden your servers and your band width, I am presenting this material without a bunch of pictures to minimize any download problems. You can skip through the links or you can check out each one, depending on your connection.

The Hartshorns are one big family, regardless of the 25 or more different "clans" in the USA. Many more families in the UK, So. Africa, New Zealand and Australia add significantly to our number. The world wide Hartshorn clan probably numbers less than 6,000 families, all spellings. The 2004 reunion, (June 20-23rd) embraced half-a-dozen different Hartshorn clans and they blessed us all with warm fellowship. First-time reunion attendees have already become fast and sincere friends. I will soon be posting photos taken at the reunion. This includes St. Michaels, Oxford and Annapolis--the state capitol and the U.S. Naval Academy. The food, fun and fellowship we experienced was a real delight. Our hosts, Linda & Jack and Barbara & Elden deserve the lion's share of the credit for organizing such a fantastic get together. Our Neal cousins, first-timers to a Hartshorn reunion, were gracious hosts, arranging our gathering at the Fleet Reserve Club in Annapolis and at the Miles River Yacht Club. They amused us with their strong sense of family, their humor and their close comradery.

Our trip to the US Naval Academy was awesome. We saw the chapel, the tomb of Capt. John Paul Jones and so much more. After touring the Maryland capitol building, including visiting the House and Senate chambers and the many historical exhibits, our tour guide provided fascinating pages from history, one after the other. Local involvement with the Revolutionary War was explained in detail. Maryland taxpayer dollars are certainly being well spent displaying Maryland government, past and present.

The many fine dinners we enjoyed featured the food that Chesapeake Bay is famous for. Fish, crabs and oysters have no better taste, anywhere in the world! The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels ("the town that fooled the British") was one of the more interesting spots we visited. Having been to the Mystic Seaport Museum, I can personally testify that this was a premiere site to visit. Watermen (oyster and crab fishermen) and light house keepers were a unique breed of men and we had the chance to meet some of them first hand.

We visited the town of Oxford and strolled down the main street with a guided tour of the historic town. Oxford was the home of Robert Morris, father of the financier of the American Revolution. The inn bearing his name was established in 1710. We also has the pleasure of touring the cemetery where Col. Tench Tilghman is buried. He was General George Washington's aide-de-camp, the man for whom the island where we stayed was named.

A sail on the skipjack, "Rebecca T. Ruark," was called off on account of the unpredictable bay weather. In lieu of the trip, Capt. Wade Murphy, a waterman of the bay for five generations, gave a fascinating account of Chesapeake Bay watermen and the history of his boat, the oldest working skipjack on Chesapeake Bay, built in 1886. While slides don't provide the excitement of a cruise, Capt. Wade's personal account of history filled the gap. We had the opportunity to discover the reasons for the decline of Chesapeake Bay seafood harvests.

Thirty-six Hartshorn cousins attended this reunion-probably the largest number for any Hartshorn Reunion. Next year, 2005, we will be going to the English Midlands, origin of the Hartshorn family. Details are still being worked out but we will probably be in Derbyshire when the the larch blossoms begin to bloom, in late Spring, 2005. Derby is the shire (or county) where the Hartshorns made their first recorded appearance [Domesday book, 1086].

The town of Hartshorne probably was probably the first mention of the first Anglo-Saxon 'Heartshorne' recorded [Domesday AD 1086]. Recent US travelers fail to find any Hartshorn listings in the local telephone book.

My great grandfather, Newton Timothy Hartshorn kept notes in his Civil War diary of his service in eastern Virginia. He also wrote extensive war time letters to his brother, Rev. Vaola John Hartshorn. Newton spent the summer of 1886 at the "Ivanhoe House," in the village of Hartshorne. This was the place where Sir Walter Scott lived while writing his classic work, Ivanhoe. The trip was made with Newton's wife, Annabelle, their children and Annabelle's grandmother, Rachel Roberts Sibley. Rachel caught pneumonia andl died during the trip. She was buried in the cemetery at Smisbury, Hartshorne. I would love to travel to England to visit her last resting place.

During our 2004 reunion, we selected a site for the 2006 reunion. For the first time, we will be gathered at the home of Thomas Hartshorn, progenitor of many of our American Hartshorns. As for northeastern Hartshorn reunions, we have gathered in New York and Vermont but never have we been to Massachusetts. Reading and Wakefield, Middlesex County, Massachusetts will play host to descendants and cousins of Thomas. This will give us the opportunity to see first hand, the land of our ancestors and experience the historic sights of eastern Massachusetts. We are especially delighted that our hosts will be Stan and Sally Hartshorn, of Gardner, Mass. Stan is a descendant of Timothy Hartshorn (my ancestor). Stan shut out the lights at the C.H. Hartshorn Furniture Company of Gardner, Mass. ythus ending a wonderful era of birch casual furniture, a native New England tradition.

If anyone would like to be put on the Reunion newsletter list, I will be happy to add your name.

The HARTSHORN-L list is a separate list which is designed for genealogical postings. If you would like to subscribe, please see instructions.

If somehow you missed the Hartshorn Web Page, please pay a visit.

Please send me some e-mail commenting on this latest Hartshorn post.

--Derick

Derick S. Hartshorn - ©2008
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