The Annual Meeting/Reunion will be held this Saturday in Statesville, NC. For those wishing to attend in person and those who would like to join us by Zoom, please contact Larry Campbell at soupcan5@yadtel.net before Friday evening. The education portion will be on the first three John Gaithers.
Our Statesville, NC reunion is fast approaching! The schedule for the meeting is as follows;
Friday, 4 PM Meet and greet at the meeting room in the hotel. Supper will be on your own with Outback and Village Inn Pizza within sight.
Saturday 10 AM Our program on John Gater I by Nancy Jones and Mary Jane Simpson
Saturday 2 PM Business Meeting
We will attempt to zoom the program and the business meeting. If you would like to try with us, email Larry Campbell (soupcan5@yadtel.net) to get an invitation. Also, if there is enough interest for a Friday morning tour of the Gaither sites and other points of interest, contact the same Larry Campbell.
Fall is here (Thank Goodness!) and the 400th anniversary of John Gaither’s arrival in Jamestown, Virginia is fast approaching. Larry Campbell and I looked at various venues to host our 2020 reunion while we were in Williamsburg in July. After discussion with the Board, we selected the Best Western Williamsburg Historic District Hotel. The dates for the reunion are
Thursday, June 4th through Sunday, June 7th, 2020. I am excited to announce that we were able to secure a room rate per night of $135.28 (taxes included). That rate is nearly ½ the amount quoted to us by other facilities. Because of the low cost, we expect our block of rooms to fill up quickly. Make your reservations EARLY! While this hotel is not a destination resort, it has all the amenities - - -pool, fitness center, restaurant, lounge and meeting rooms. Best of all, it has ample parking near your room and is located about one mile from Colonial Williamsburg. It is an easy walk! We will receive a full, hot buffet breakfast with our rooms. You are going to need a full breakfast because you will be busy the remainder of the day! As it stands now, the schedule is as follows: Continue reading
The Society of John Gaither Descendants
Annual Meeting/Reunion
Stone Mountain Park, Georgia
June 20-23, 2019
Time to make your plans
Arrangements have been made at The Atlanta Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort, Stone Mountain Park Georgia, for June 20-23, 2019. A special room rate of $160.00 plus state and local taxes (currently 16%) and a $5.00 Georgia Hotel/Motel fee per night has been locked in for all Society Members. Rooms are standard rooms either 1 king or 2 double beds. Continue reading
Mike and I look forward to celebrating the roots of our Gaither heritage with you. We have many stories to share about the first generations of Gaithers as we visit the very places those events occurred almost 400 years ago! What a wonderful way to commemorate our Society's 35th anniversary. Historic Annapolis is the perfect setting for our celebration. Here are a few pictures I took the other day, on my morning walk, to give you an idea of the fun in store. Hope to see you at the Reunion!
Nancy Jones - 2018 Reunion Host
For the 35th Reunion, the family will return to Annapolis, Maryland, the city where the Society of John Gaither Descendants was formed in 1984 and to where John Gater fled in 1649 to escape the religious intolerance of Virginia. If you haven't registered yet, don't delay and don't miss the deadline. Click here for more information and registration.
With our upcoming Reunion taking place in Annapolis, Maryland, you may ask yourself - - why was it that John Gaither relocated to Maryland from his Virginia homestead? What could possibly have forced him out of that valuable holding, which he settled as virgin land, and had held for 14 years? Was it a natural disaster, need for better land, adventure? The answer is a broken promise of freedom.
At our June 2018 Reunion in Annapolis, Maryland, a highlight of our activities will be visiting "Abington", the Gaither family seat beginning in 1649 - - 369 years ago!
John Gaither and Robert Proctor were the original patentees of the 875 acres of what they named "Abington". Its size and Gaither family ownership has waxed and waned over the succeeding centuries. While I have not yet completed my research into the chain of title for the property, as late as 1855, a Thomas and Rebecca Gaither sell 46-1/2 acres of Abington, which were conveyed to them by Rezin and Sarah R. Gaither in 1853. Gaithers, by far, have enjoyed the longest period of ownership at over 200 years!
Today, Abington is a horse farm in private hands, with a fraction of the original acreage remaining under that name. In 1975, it was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places. The land's wonderful fundamentals, which surely motivated John Gaither's astute selection, are still apparent.