Family Vacations
June, July and August are the big months for family reunions and vacations. It seemed that more than half the passengers on our train trip to California were going to visit relatives. We have planned for months for a reunion with our extended Lilly relatives and the last weekend in June turned out to be the perfect time. The little Methodist Church in Spanishburg has its annual Homecoming on Sunday of that weekend. Many of Percy’s family still live in walking distance of the church which is in a beautiful valley by the Bluestone River surrounded by wooded mountains.
These warm, friendly people shared their homes with relatives who came from California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia,. We had a reunion of the Zacharia Lilly descendants on Saturday in the new Spanishburg Fire Department Community building. The celebration was in honor of Effie Lilly Smith, 88, the only living child of Zach and his wife Dora. Out of 110 descendants, 80 attended. We and our four children and their families coming from Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and California were responsible for 21 of those attending.
All known Lilly families in this country descended from Robert Lilly, and his brothers, who came from England to Virginia in the mid seventeenth century. He married Mary Fanny Moody and they had 13 children. They settled in what is now southern West Virginia, particularly along the New and Bluestone Rivers. Robert lived from 1696 to 1810 and Mary Fanny from 1696 to 1806.
Information suggests that the descendants of one of his brothers settled in Texas and the others moved to Oregon. In l930, a reunion of the three branches of Lillys came together on Flat Top Mountain in Mercer County, in southern West Virginia. The major organizer was Abraham Lilly, a brother of my grandfather Zach.
The two day reunion continued to flourish and grow in number until it became a big yearly event in southern West Virginia. The number of Lillys and friends of the Lillys became so numerous that carnivals, side shows and small businesses came.
Cousin “Abe”, who had been Attorney General of West Virginia, was good at hob-nobbing with politicians and so the governor of the state, senators and state legislators attended and spoke to the large crowd in the amphitheater. Harold Stassen spoke on three different occasions when he was running for president of the United States. The programs also included gospel music, country and western bands, vocals, preaching, and contests. An estimated 60,000 people attended the l944 reunion.
Uncle Abe became ill after that reunion and the next reunion was not held until l964 in the Armory in Beckley, West Virginia. About 8,000 people attended including a United States senator. Now the reunion is back on Flat Top Mountain where it is held in late August each year. About 4,000 now attend.
Because so many of the Percy Lilly family were attending the Zach Lilly reunion this past Saturday, we decided to add a little excitement and gather a day early and go white water rafting on the New River.
Two of our family were not able to go on the river, so they baby sat the newest member of the family, Elisjah Joseph Ray Twardzik, our great grandson, so that his mother and father could go.
We chose a family rated rafting trip with mostly rippling, calmer water with only a few rapids. The weather was perfect, in the 70s and cloudy. We traveled in two large rubber rafts, and two kayaks. Some water fights developed between the two rafts and we were all soaked by the time we pulled to shore about four hours later.
There are many different groups who guide and provide equipment for white water rafting. The New River and the Gauley River have rapids that range from Class I to Class V+ so whatever the rafting experience, there is a trip that fits. Some of the most popular rafting runs go under the high bridge on U. S. 19 which is the second highest bridge in the U. S. and the longest single span steel bridge in the world.
Our son, Robert and his family, stopped to see the bridge on the way back to our home. The family has gone to Cedar Point with their aunt and cousins from Oregon, Ohio and we will spend a little while with them at the cabin in Michigan before they fly back to California. All good things must come to an end and we sill be sad to see them go.
– Mary