Reunion - Introduction
The Hiram A. McAdams family reunion has been held annually since 1935 and is currently scheduled for the last Sunday every April at the McAdams Reunion Grounds on FM 1696, about half way between Huntsville and Bedias, Texas. Folks start arriving around 9:00 AM with plenty of picnic/pot luck food. There is a short program at noon, followed by a wonderful lunch. Most of the family members then visit some more until mid-afternoon, when they begin to disperse.
1935 - Reunion Held For McAdams Relatives
The following is a summary of a newspaper
account of the first McAdams reunion, as reported in the Huntsville
Item:
Several hundred people gathered at the old John R. McAdams home Sunday
and under large oak trees near the home held a celebration of this
ancestor and also observed the ninetieth birthday of Hiram McAdams,
oldest living member of the family.
The
log house, which is still occupied, is built of logs 87 years old. More
than two hundred and fifty of the family signed the guest book. Several
descendants of slaves on the McAdams homestead were present and had a
part in the festivities. The home stands thirteen miles west of
Huntsville on the Bedias road.
About ten thirty in the morning, after the crowd had arrived, Ted and
Marie Yates, great grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Wood, gave a
vocal solo with piano accompaniment and Edwin Anders, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Arthur Anders, sang "An Old Spanish Custom," playing his own
accompaniment on the guitar. A reading, most appropriate for the
setting, "Woodsman Spare That Tree," was given by Bob McAdams. Jack
Langley, son of Era McAdams Langley, read a toast written by Jud
Mortimer Lewis to Mr. McAdams for this occasion. It was entitled "Your
Ninetieth Birthday." The bounteous repast was spread at noon on long
tables and served buffet style. A large four-tier twenty-pound birthday
cake with ninety candles and holders was in the center of the table.
1936 - McAdams Family in Mammoth Reunion
The following is a summary of a newspaper
account of the second McAdams reunion, as reported in the Huntsville
Item:
McAdams,
Guerrants, Bankheads and their kin from all over Texas gathered at the
Josey Scout Lodge in Huntsville Sunday for the second annual reunion of
the McAdams. Guerrants and Bankheads are related to the McAdams family
by marriage and were guests at the reunion. The high point of the
ceremonies for the day was at noon when Mrs. Mattie McAdams Roberts,
celebrating her sixty-fifth birthday, cut a huge birthday cake with a
sword used by her great-great uncle, Hiram McAdams, in the American
Revolution. Dedicating the meeting to the four remaining daughters of
John McAdams: Mrs. Caroline McAdams Wilson, Mrs. Theodocia McAdams
Wilson, Mrs. Margaret McAdams Barron and Mrs. Mattie McAdasms Roberts,
some five hundred joined the all day celebration.
At a short business session, the assembly decided to buy five acres near
the old McAdams cemetery, 14 miles from Huntsville, where the reunion
will be held from now on. The McAdams', Guerrants and Bankheads are
among the oldest families in Texas. In 1834, these families settled in
Walker County, and from the original families there have sprung some of
the most noted and highly honored men and women of Texas. The older
families have married and intermarried until they are kin in some way or
other to almost everybody in the county.