Michigan family hosts 115th consecutive family reunion in Milan

On Aug. 19, 1908, George Washington Rendel hosted the first Rendel family reunion on his farm in Milan, Michigan.

Fifty people attended the festivities, bringing with them enough food to test the strength of the table it covered. After dinner, the family held a meeting. Officers were elected to plan the next reunion and minutes were diligently taken, recording the events of the afternoon.

Today, 115 consecutive reunions later, not much has changed at the Rendels' annual get together. A seemingly endless row of tables covered with all sorts of meats, salads, sides, and desserts lines one side of a massive barn, while farming tools covered by tarps line the other. A couple dozen picnic tables fill the open space, each adorned with a few U.S.A.-themed trinkets. Open doors on either end of the barn allow sunlight to pour into the place, as children run toward the cornfield and set up a game of cornhole.

As guests trickle in, 51-year-old Jen Reum (also known as George Rendel's great-great-granddaughter and the current family secretary/treasurer) helps her father, Duane Reum, and cousin, Lori Galanti, sort through old photos and documents.

She opens a small binder of worn, yellowing pages, and explains that these are the meticulously kept minutes from each family meeting since 1908, collected, retyped and passed down over the years, documenting the evolution of the Rendel family. The minutes from the first reunion mention that ice cream was served to mark the conclusion of the celebration, just one of many traditions that all guests have continued to look forward to every year since.

Jen then opens a book from the 1970s called "Ancient and Modern Milan" which gives the history of the town's citizens. In it, the Rendel family history has been documented in a few short paragraphs. Jen points to it as evidence of Rendels in Milan, Michigan, since before 1851, when George's father, Job Rendel, bought several acres of land.

When Job died, George inherited 17 acres of the family farm and over time expanded it by 115 acres, building two houses, a barn, and a granary on the land, hosting the first reunion there just a couple decades later. Unfortunately, George soon became sick, and his son Roscoe had to take over the farm at just 15. Despite using crutches for the last 20 or so years of his life, he ran 80 acres of farm until the day he died.

"Grandpa Roscoe bought a new tractor at 82-years-old!" exclaims Duane while looking through pictures of his childhood.

When Roscoe died in 1980, his granddaughter, Joyce, and her husband, Dick Vershum, bought the farm. Every year since, they have held the event at this location, effectively hosting the reunion on the same land it was held at more than a century ago.

Joyce and Dick recently passed away and gave the farm to their son, Rodney Vershum, known to friends and family as Rod. Because of this, the former president of the family committee, Don Reum, said it was very possible that this might be the last year at the location.

When asked if this was true, however, Rodney only chuckled.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "We've got a roof if it rains and I like having everyone here, and cooking for them. Why wouldn't it keep being here?"

Each year after dinner, the group holds a "family business meeting" where the minutes from last year's event are read, and the births, deaths and marriages of the past year are announced to the group. Awards are then handed out to the youngest and oldest family member in attendance, as well as the member who has traveled the furthest.

"When we had the 100th reunion," says Don Reum. "Only two continents in the world, Australia and Antarctica, didn't have representatives." This year the award was given to a young man from Finland.

There had been talk of calling this reunion the last consecutive one, and switching the gathering to take place five years. Without support and interest from the younger generations, it's hard to keep these things alive, especially annually, explained Don.

Rodney also expressed some frustration with past attendance records, and says he wishes more people would come to the event. He lamented how hard it can be to stay in touch with everyone, citing how one relative recently called and asked how his dad was doing.

"I told him 'Well, he's been in a horizontal position for over a year now.' He was like 'Oh no, he's on bed rest?' 'Yeah, something like that,'" Rodney had told him.

He shakes his head with a laugh. "I ask people like, really? You go to church, you go to the grocery store, you can't stop by here to catch up for a minute once a year?" This year, however, Rodney was happy to see a little more than 80 relatives making their way to the Vershum farms, talking to and welcoming all as he roasted hotdogs in his bull-shaped grill.

Jen Reum echoes her cousin's appreciation of the reunion as a place to reconnect with family. Having moved out of the area in junior high, she says "the reunion was the main way we were able to stay in touch with relatives."

"I also enjoy hearing the stories and seeing pictures of those that went before me," she adds.

With so many branches of the family tree, it is easy to mix up where they all connect. Duane has been attending the annual family reunion for all 88 years of his life and can't remember missing more than a couple. But when asked details about the family history he exclaims, "Oh now you're shaking the bushes!" Even the new president, Ashley Hintz, remarks, "Oh, I never remember everyone!" and says she has no idea how she's related to half the guests.

There is something special, however, about the Rendels' blind acceptance of family that continues to attract relatives to the reunion through the years. In the 100th reunion minutes, the writer even noted that "it was amazing the number of people that returned to participate in a reunion they only remembered from their childhood."

No matter how long it's been or how many times removed you may be, whether a member remembers where their branch intersects the family tree or not, the annual reunion seems to say: "You will always be one of us, and you will always have a place here."

At the end of the meeting, the new president asks if all are in favor of continuing the tradition next year, and a resounding "AY!" is heard from the crowd. After a few small business matters are settled, the meeting is adjourned, and ice cream is served, marking the end of another successful Rendel reunion.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rendel family holds 115th annual reunion in Milan, Michigan