Brown Family Reunion at Park for 109th Year

It has been a tradition for the Brown family to have their annual reunion the Sunday before Labor Day.

This year the event will happen on September 1.

James Brown said it started in 1915 at the Morrison’s Cove Memorial Park even before there was a park, when it was known as Snyder’s Grove.

According to Morrisons Cove Memorial Park website, the park was founded in 1915, when a group attending the Brown family picnic decided the area with White Oak trees would be a beautiful place for a park.

He believed the first reunion was in 1910, but he has been unable to find out when or where it took place.

Over the years, Brown said the reunion keeps getting smaller, but it is still going after 109 years.

“We are trying to get the word out about the reunion this year, in case any members of the Brown family would like to attend,” he said.

He has spent many years researching the genealogy which involved spending a lot of time at the Bedford County Courthouse, and Bedford and Blair Genealogical Societies to find the information to learn more about the history of his family.

The oldest family member Brown was able to find was Joseph Brown who was born in 1743 and died in 1820.

He is buried at the Schreiner-Reininger Cemetery in Lafayetteville near Bakers Summit.

“I believe he was one of the first Cove residents – many of the early settlers were Scot-Irish,” Brown said.

Through research in newspaper archives he was able to find more information on the history of the Brown family reunion as well.

In the August 17, 1915, edition of the Altoona Mirror, he found an article mentioning that the reunion was the fifth annual reunion held at Snyder’s Grove.

Brown also found an article in Altoona Tribune from 1913, which mentioned the reunion being at Snyder’s Grove again.

Then he found another article in the Altoona Tribune in 1914, that reported that the reunion was happening at an orchard in Curryville, and 200 people were in attendance.