McCullah-Wasson Family Reunion

Reunions, by their nature, often encounter situations that challenge the balance between maintaining tradition and implementing change necessary for the success of the gathering. They attempt to respect the past while planning for the future. For our family’s reunion, a major change is coming and we’re considering the steps needed to prepare.

The McCullah-Wasson families will celebrate their 133rd annual reunion one week the end of July and early August in the Ozarks on the banks of the Finley River near Nixa, Missouri. Since 1890, these families have gathered annually in fellowship to celebrate a tradition that is said to be one of the longest-running family reunions west of the Mississippi River.

The two families’ union began in the mid-1800s, when John Thomas Wasson was traveling by stagecoach through the Ozarks from Ohio to Arkansas. When the stagecoach he was riding on stopped, he saw a young woman named Caroline McCullah sweeping a porch. The story passed down is that he said to himself, “That’s her. That’s the woman I’m going to marry.” Wasson got back on the stagecoach, but returned later to ask McCullah to be his wife.

The first family gathering was a surprise birthday party held in honor of Samuel Calvin McCullah on July 1, 1890, near Marionville, Missouri. The party’s success inspired attendees to meet again the next year, and so the reunion became an annual one-day affair held at the homes of relatives. The gathering was later extended to two or three days and finally to a week-long event. Attendance increases as the week progresses, often reaching 125 people a night for dinner by Friday. The 100th annual gathering in 1990 recorded over 500 family members in attendance.

A permanent site for the reunion encampment was selected in 1908 on the old homestead of John and Caroline (McCullah) Wasson on the Finley River and continues to be the family camping site every summer.

The week before the reunion, local family members visit the campsite property to rake leaves, mow, and wash out the pavilion leaving the tree-lined campground clean and manicured. Elected officers and other members plan months ahead for the reunion to go as smoothly as possible, ordering ribbons for dessert and side dish contests, developing an event schedule, hiring an auctioneer for our

MASTERPLAN continued from page 21 craft auction, ordering potties, scheduling trash service, and making general announcements to members leading up to the event.

The head cook is a family member hired to plan the menu and prepare the main course for each evening meal. Family members prepare side dishes and desserts. Breakfast is a joint effort by campers preparing sausage gravy, frying bacon, and scrambling eggs in large cast iron skillets. Other morning meal staples include fried apples, biscuits/toast, sliced peaches and lemon butter. Everyone pitches in to help provide food staples, paper products, drink mixes and the countless other items needed to feed 150 – 200 hungry family members each day of the week.

Family members come from near and far. Some bring tents and campers, some rent a nearby Airbnb and others live close enough to drive in daily. This is vastly different from the wagons filled with straw their ancestors slept on in the early 1900s. The camping site has been modified over the past century including the construction of a concrete pavilion built in the 1940s with a 50-foot concrete table down the center for dining. Fresh water, formerly supplied from a hand-pump, is now supplied from a portable tank. Electrical outlets are stationed throughout the campground. Other “modern” amenities trucked in include refrigerators, freezers, ovens, stoves, event tents, tables, chairs and portable toilets (which replaced the “three-hole” privy which still stands on the property).

Modern conveniences have crept in methodically over the years, but the reunion now faces a major change. Hawkins Bridge, an iron truss bridge constructed next to the campground in 1915, is expected to be replaced by the end of 2024. The replacement will significantly alter the entry and aesthetics to the campground property on the east side, as well as remove an iconic landmark structure which has become a major part of the reunion experience.

The announcement of the bridge replacement has motivated the reunion members to consider actions that put the reunion gathering in a better position to handle big issues. It has also inspired discussion about the need to create a more formal organization to better handle this and other future challenges. Actions taken have included: proposing the creation of bylaws and incorporation, discussing campground property enhance- ments and modifications, and research of general liability protection.

As of this writing, the bylaws are drafted. This draft has been reviewed by the current reunion officers and an attorney. The officers are now turning it over to family members for review and feedback ahead of motions and considerations to approve at the 2023 business meeting on Friday evening of the gathering in August.

While we await bylaw feedback, we plan to draft a summary document that outlines a 501c7 not-for-profit entity (as it appears to best fit the organizational structure of the reunion) the benefits, the steps to take, if passed, and then the responsibilities needed to maintain. This summary will be provided to our members ahead of the business meeting to help with their feedback and decision making ahead of the vote for incorporation.

The plan then is to introduce the bylaws at the August business meeting for a vote to utilize. Next, we would present legal entity findings at the same business meeting and likely propose incorporation using a 501c7 non-profit model. If an incorporation vote passes, the bylaws would become part of the incorporation process. We would then seek further services of the attorney to assist with the incorporation process. If proposal to incorporate does NOT pass, the bylaws, if passed, can remain a governing document for a non-profit unincorporated association.

With these challenges addressed, planned for and voted on, we can focus then on the truly meaningful and memorable reasons that we gather: visiting and catching up, sitting in the river, fishing, float trips, and eating. Other fun activities include a ping pong tournament, cave tour on the adjoining property, corn hole tourney, card games, science experiments, bingo, sitting around the fireplace telling stories and standing above the river on the old iron Hawkins Bridge (and perhaps the bridge that may someday replace it). The popular craft auction raises funds to help with reunion expenses. Trophies are awarded to tournament winners and ribbons are continued on page 24

MASTERPLAN continued from page 23 presented to winners of the side-dish and dessert contests.

The family photo is taken on Friday evening right before the blessing of the meal. The business meeting is held after dinner to discuss old and new business (which is normally not as substantial as this year) and to elect new officers. The hat is passed to receive donations to take care of needed expenses to run the camp. There are no required membership dues or fees to attend. A memorial service follows in honor of those departed since the last reunion and closes

with the hymn, Until We Meet Again

It is with both excitement and apprehension that we move forward to see how these changes will affect our reunion experience, but like our relatives before us we must anticipate changes and prepare in a way that ensures the continuation of these events for ourselves and our descendants when we “Meet Again.” We expect to submit a follow-up report after this year’s business meeting and the changes brought on by the anticipated bridge replacement.