The First Newcomer Family Reunion

Copied by Carol M. Newcomer-Cox from The Waldron Recorder, July 8, 1937, Waldron, Michigan USA. The family group in this account are the descendants of George Debolt Newcomer.

The Newcomer Family reunion was held Sunday July 4 at the beautiful country home of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Newcomer.

This was the first reunion to be held by the family group. A bountiful co-operative dinner was served. All but four if the family group were present for the first gathering. Guests included Mr. and Mrs. Clare Tedrow and son George, Mr. and Mrs. Wave Tedrow; Mrs. James Tedrow, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Tedrow and son Jimmy of Delta, Ohio, Mrs. Mert Newcomer, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Leininger and daughter Ruth of Wauseon, O. Miss Dorothea Leininger of Detroit, Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Lee and Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Lee and family of Waldron, Mr. and Mrs. N.J. McCully and daughter of Midland, Mich., Mr. and Mrs. C.O. Merrifield, Montpelier, O., Mrs. Lawrence Ruffer and daughter, Nancy of Archbold, O.

An invitation was extended by Mr. and Mrs. Clare Tedrow for the next reunion to be held at their home the first Sunday in July 1938.

The Newcomer - Tedrow Family

It has been my intent for some time to write a post about the Newcomer - Tedrow connection, with a special reference to the Newcomer - Tedrow - Oates line.

Mary I. Newcomer was born on July 6, 1886, the youngest child of George D. Newcomer and his second wife Malinda (Mikesell) Newcomer. She married Clair Tedrow, and I have record of three sons:




Robert Wave Tedrow (Nov 26, 1909 - May 28, 1996)
Roy Earl Tedrow (Oct. 6, 1911 - Jan. 4, 1940)
George Monroe Tedrow

My father's dad was Mary's brother, Guy Vernon Newcomer. I have memory as a young lad of our going to visit one of dad's Tedrow cousins on their farm near Delta, Ohio.

Robert Wave Tedrow married Julia Elisabeth Willeman. They had five children:

Paul Eugene Tedrow
Dorothy Jane Tedrow
Mary Ann Tedrow
John Robert Tedrow (1940 - 1969)
Thomas Clair Tedrow

Roy Earl Tedrow married Eunice Johnson. They had two sons:

James Earl Tedrow
Richard Clair Tedrow

George Monroe Tedrow married Helen Garber. They had four children:

David Tedrow
Michael Tedrow
Jerry Lee Tedrow
Carol Tedrow

The above gives a basic outline of the Tedrow families connected to my Newcomer line. I now want to look at the Tedrow - Oates part of the family, as I have a particular connection with the Oates family.

Dorethy Jane Tedrow, daughter of Robert and Julia (Willeman) Tedrow, married Raymond Oates. They had a farm just north of Hartley Rd. on US-127 (Meridian Rd.) near Waldron, Michigan.

A big part of Raymond's farm business was selling hay to horse farms in the south; North Carolina sticks in my mind as one of the places he shipped hay to. He would go to local farmers in the area and cut a deal to buy the hay out of their field. He did the cutting and the baling, then would load the hay on semi trailers to be hauled to the buyers down south.

In 1967, the summer after I had graduated from high school, Raymond had bought some hay out of one of my father's fields. As it was, I needed a summer job to fill in until I went off to college in the fall, and Raymond needed an extra hand. So it was I spent the summer working in the hay fields, loading wagons, off loading into semi trailers, or stacking bales in the barn hay loft. By the end of the summer I was in the best physical shape of my adult life.

It was also in that summer I got to meet their children; Betty, Barbara, Ron, Bonnie, Beth, and Brenda. They were pretty young then, and I suspect they don't remember who I was. For myself, though I knew we were remotly connected somehow, at the time I didn't make the connection that "Mrs. Oates" was my 2nd cousin, and all these little kids were also part of "my family".

I went on to college and the rest of my life. Those "little kids" grew up, and recently I connected with Betty via Facebook. That summer job working for Raymond Oates was my first "real" job outside of our farm. It marked a turning point in my life as I transitioned from my high school teen years to adulthood.

Guy Vernon Newcomer (1879 - 1940)

OBITUARY

Guy Vernon Newcomer was born August 17, 1879 near Wauseon, Ohio, the son of George D. and Melinda Newcomer.

In 1901 he was married to Miss Sadie Gray of Fayette, O. To this union were born five children. The first ten years they made their home near Wauseon. In December 1910 they moved to the present home near Waldron, Mich.

He was an active member in the Masonic lodge and for four years was worshipful master of Leonard lodge No. 266, F. & A. M. At the time of his death he was a member of the school board of the White district.

After an illness of several months, he passed away Tuesday, May 7, 1940, age 60 years.

Survivng him are his widow, five children, Mrs. Clare Merrifield, Montpelier, Ohio; Mrs. Nathan McCully of Midland, Mich.; Mrs. Lawerence Ruffer of Waldron and Rex and June at home; two sisters, Mrs. E. C. Lee of Waldron and Mrs. Clare Tedrow of Delta, O., and nine grand children and many friends.

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CARD OF THANKS

Words fail to convey our appreciation of the many beautiful things done for us by our friends in this our last sorrow.

Mrs. Guy Newcomer and family.
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This obituary of my Grandfather was transcribed from a copy my sister Carol sent me. There is no indication on that copy of which newspaper the obituary was originally published in. The Card of Thanks did appear under the obituary. Grandpa's mother was Melinda (Mikesell) Newcomer. It is through Melinda that our line of Newcomer is connected to the Mikesell and Bayes families.