The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Family celebrates 100 reunions
Summer gatherings have deep roots in Lorain County
A family with deep roots in Lorain County celebrated 100 years of annual reunions.
With new leaders to plan the summer gatherings, the members said they hope for another century of their extended family coming together.
The 100th Annual Bach Family Reunion took place with events Aug. 17 and 18. It culminated in a picnic held Aug. 19 at the Pittsfield Town Hall, at the corner of Ohio Routes 58 and 303 in Pittsfield Township.
“The goal was to get it to 100 and get it solidified and know where to go next,” said Paul R. Bach, Bach Family Reunion president. He also is a Lorain native who now lives in Arizona.
The gathering began in 1918 to honor the 25th anniversary of Paul and Mary Ann Gerhart Bach.
Lorain County natives, the two met when they both worked at the Lorain Brass and married on May 10, 1893.
The first family reunion
was held May 30, 1918, in Lorain to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
For the centennial, there were 100 reservations by family members and more came out, so the planners estimated total attendance between 125 and 150 people. 100 years of family The day was more than just hamburgers, fried chicken and dessert on a pleasant summer day.
The committee assembled gift bags with candy, crocheted hearts, bookmarks with the family crest, a proclamation from Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer, an apostolic blessing from Pope
Francis and a certificate of special recognition from the U.S. Senate.
Paul R. Bach included family documents, photos and records on portable memory drives given to participants. He also read from “The Story Teller,” an essay about the importance of researching, remembering and respecting family history.
There were prayers for the family and honors for relatives who died in the last year. Everyone stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and pay tribute to members who served in the military in the past or present.
And there was banter and wisecracks because, after all, it was a family gathering.
Paul R. Bach recounted his grandfather, John Joseph Bach, saying everyone had to eat a whole bucket of dirt before they die.
Gerald Bach Sr., 91, of Morenci, Mich., said he missed only seven of the reunions. When asked for his words of wisdom, he said: “Don’t eat dirt,” and his relatives laughed. How to go on In their annual family meeting, the group took up a serious question.
After 100 reunions, would the Bach family descendants continue the tradition every year? Every two years? Every five years?
After a century, would the summer homecoming come to an end?
On the first show of hands, it did not look good for meeting yearly. But Mary Jane Neal of Punxsutawney, Pa., a member of the 100th Reunion Planning Committee, spoke up.
“If you can’t make it, fine, but let the younger folks carry it on every year so that their children and their grandchildren can continue this tradition,” she said. “This is something so rare. There are so many families that totally lose track of everybody.”
Her son, Kurt Neal, 26, of Uniontown, sought the nomination to become reunion committee president. An Army National Guard veteran, Neal works as a loss control representative for an insurance company.
With the family’s approval, Paul R. Bach, 61, passed the gavel to his younger cousin.
“First and foremost I want to thank Paul for his outstanding service to this family,” Kurt Neal said, and the family offered cheers and applause. “Really everyone together has just done a phenomenal job. Growing up with this, it’s really been an amazing thing, something we always look forward to.”
His elder sister, Cassidy Lavis, 27, of Pittsburgh, became vice president, following her aunt, Gena Sproul, 50, of Pittsburgh. Lavis also served in the Army National Guard and Sproul, a hotel human relations director in civilian life, remains a Navy chief petty officer.
MaKayla Miles, 19, of Elyria, became the new secretary. Her predecessor was Michael Hovinetz of Elyria, who kept the meeting notes since 2005.
Miles is studying engineering and business at Lorain County Community College, “which involves a lot of note-taking anyway, so it’ll be easy,” she said about the record-keeping. Her son, Jordan, now 1 ½ months old, will be her honorary assistant.
When asked if he would miss the work, Hovinetz simply said “no,” and had a laugh.
“At some point, you just look forward to passing it along to the kids and seeing what they do with it,” Sproul said.
Treasurer Joan Dull of South Amherst, who is step-grandmother to Miles, agreed to continue the bookkeeping. “I’m not quite that old yet,” she said, prompting laughs from the group.
The new leaders asked for another vote on how frequently the Bach Family Reunion will happen. The family’s reply was encouraging.
“So I believe, given our count, we’re going to remain an annual event,” Kurt Neal said.
“For the next hundred years,” someone called out. Fun next year With the leadership transition in place, everyone gathered for a group photograph. They went in the hall for more food and unsealing a family time capsule.
There was a raffle for a table full of prizes and a cake walk to raise money for the annual reunion expenses.
The 100th reunion theme was “The 50 Nifty States.” After judging some various state-themed outfits, fhe family members shared ideas about a theme for the 101st reunion.
Kurt Neal announced the winning concept for 2019 would be life a century before.
“The theme is going to be, A Hundred Years Ago,” he said. “That could be fun.”