LIPPARD FAMILY REUNIONS

by Harriet Schroeder

Click on a year below to jump to that year.

1988
2001
2006
2014
2019

1988 National Reunion, Philadelphia

Four Lippards whose families had moved back to the Philadelphia area – Seth and his son Jonathan; Homer and Homer's brother Daniel (Chip) -- decided to hold the first nationwide Lippard reunion.

Over a 4 day Labor Day weekend, 250 years after the Lippards arrived on a sailing ship in 1738 at the port of Philadelphia, Seth, Homer, Jon, and Chip Lippard treated over sixty Lippards from all over the country to a wonderful family reunion. Most of us were in for a surprise in meeting so many interesting cousins we never even knew we had. We socialized and shared our lives at a Friday evening reception and a Monday cookout.

A Saturday bus trip took us to visit Faulkner Swamp German Reformed Church near Gilbertsville where the Lippards attended church during their years in Pennsylvania and where several of the children were baptized and/or confirmed. We also visited the adjacent Lutheran church where Seth and Jon sang for us in their beautiful baritone voices, and the pastor talked about the history of the church and his connection to the Lippard family. We ate our lunch in a historic roadside tavern before visiting a colonial farm, which introduced us to a life similar to what the Lippards must have lived in Pennsylvania. In the evening I presented a genealogy program, assisted by Seth, and Gary added a very interesting historical look at the life our ancestors encountered during their early days in North Carolina. Delmas Lippard told us some stories of his branch of the family who had moved west to Texas.

Sunday took us, again by bus, to visit the major sights in Philadelphia where we had lunch in the harbor on a tall ship (reminiscent of the Lippards' arrival there on a sailing ship in 1738). Afterward, we admired the paintings at the Brandywine River Museum, a Wyeth family art museum at Chadd's Ford. That evening we all gathered ‘round to listen to fascinating and entertaining family stories cousins volunteered and shared with all of us.

2001 Piedmont Area North Carolina Reunion

As the years went by, Homer received from time-to time requests for another reunion, requests which he shared with some of us. With Lynda Cock as our motivator, a group of us cousins discussed organizing another reunion. Homer, in a letter to me, reflected on his thoughts and concerns as he had worked to organize the 1988 reunion and explained his feelings about any future reunions we might plan. Homer (Bud) wrote, "I guess what worried me before our 1988 reunion and now worries me from afar is what scope a 2001 reunion will take. If it isn't planned to entice the Lippards from Indiana and California, if it can't be an adequate attraction for some folks from Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts, it is likely to implode into a gathering of the descendants of your, Gary, and my great-grandfathers. That would be unfortunate. The Lippards I've yet to meet aren't any different or better than the ones I've known, probably. It just seems that way; the fascination of the unknown." And Gary and I have felt the same – most eager to reunite with relatives we know, but in some ways even more eager to meet those previously unknown to us. As we planned, we made every effort possible to invite as many Lippard descendants as we could find by mailing out over 600 invitations, hoping for a sizeable but not unmanageable crowd of one hundred to one hundred fifty participants who would enjoy meeting new relatives, seeing relatives already known, and learning about our family through the years since their departure most probably from Germany for a new life in America.

After a year of planning and preparations, we did organize another reunion, this time based in Statesville, North Carolina, over a four- day Labor Day weekend in 2001, slightly over a week before the tragic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the airplane in Pennsylvania. The primary organizers were Lynda Cock and Wendy Lippard who helped with planning and arranged reservations; additionally, Lynda handled our correspondence. Gary Freeze and Harriet Schroeder were in charge of planning and presentation of the program (the history, culture, and genealogy). Homer (Bud) Lippard gave us wise advice. For this and our 2006 and 2014 reunions plus again in 2019, Jesse (Buddy) Lippard helped with planning as well as acting as our treasurer and emcee. Seth Lippard helped with planning and with his son Jonathan Lippard and Becky Lippard accompanying on piano, entertained us with music. Norbert Schroeder provided our address list, name tags, and technical support. Duane Schroeder video-taped the entire event as a record for posterity. Mike Mayse photographed us under a huge tree on the grounds of Lower Stone German Reformed Church, a church the early Lippards were instrumental in founding and building. We were very fortunate to have many additional cousins join in to make this reunion attended by one hundred thirty cousins from all over the country a great success.

As at our previous reunion, we devoted our Friday evening reception and Monday cookout to introductions and getting to know each other. On Saturday Gary led us on a bus trip to see the world in which our ancestors lived in Mecklenburg/Cabarrus Counties, where they first settled in North Carolina. First we toured the farmland and an historic Presbyterian church and its cemetery in the "Irish," actually Scots-Irish, section settled by the Germans' neighbors.

Then we moved on to see the "Dutch," actually German area, including the farm and barn owned by John Lippard, our third-generation ancestor in America. We toured the old home of John's friend Michael Braun and then had a traditional southern barbecue lunch at Lower Stone German Reformed Church, the deed to which was at first held by Johannes Lippard and another member for the congregation. After lunch we toured the historic town of Salisbury including the national cemetery at the location of one of the major Confederate prisons. Then we stopped for a few minutes of shopping at an "old-timey" general store. Gary arranged for us to enjoy a traditional German supper of a variety of sausages, sauerkraut, German potato salad, rolls, and various desserts at his St. John's Lutheran church in Salisbury. After dinner a gospel group including Becky Lippard entertained us, and we then spent the evening sharing family stories.

On Sunday we first had the opportunity to tour two old Lippard farmhouses and two cemeteries where a number of Lippards are buried in Iredell County near Troutman. Our next events took place at the old Troutman Graveyard (Norwood) School, which opened in January 1907, educating many local Lippard and other children until consolidated with the Troutman village school in 1927. Several Lippard teachers taught at this school. Eventually the old school came into the possession of the Troutman Association. Here at our Lippard reunion the Reverend Bernard Troutman (son of Zella Lippard and Nathan Troutman) spoke to us about the importance of religion and our ancestors in influencing our lives as they are today. Seth and Jon, with Becky playing piano, led us in an old favorites hymn-sing. Curtis Fortner told us the history of the old school where some of our elder family members such as Gary's mother and Lynda's and Harriet's fathers gained their early education and made memories never to be forgotten. Paul Rumple, Harriet's father, and Joe Lippard, Lynda's father, entertained and educated us with their answers to questions about attending a small country school house posed to them by nine year old Ethan Rumple. To mark the conclusion of our Sunday morning session, Ethan rang the old school bell to usher us out.

A few miles down the road in Troutman, we had lunch at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the home church of many Lippards through the years. Following that, Harriet presented our genealogy session with the assistance of Norbert Schroeder, Seth, Carl Lippard, Bill Lippard, and Bob Lippard. Gary followed with more fascinating historical information about the area, and Patricia Beck talked about her branch of the family who remained near the Lippards' original farms in Cabarrus County. Although out of chronological order but recognizing that we were beginning to lose our "Greatest Generation," Sunday evening we honored our relatives who participated in World War II either as military veterans or as civilians on the home front. Some of the cousins shared with us their or their close family's personal experiences. Seth and Jon again led us in singing, this time popular songs of the World War II era.

At this reunion Amy Bearden, a very talented Lippard artist, presented our reunion organization with a beautiful, colorful, educational Lippard family tree taking our family's genealogy from Conrad and Wilhelm up through anyone born during the Civil War period.

2006 West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania

At our 2006 reunion we plunged ourselves into the tumultuous time of the Civil War. We imagined the stresses, contentions, and even enthusiasms as North Carolina joined the Confederacy, but not all Lippards were in approval. Most fought bravely for the South whether they volunteered with enthusiasm or were conscripted in spite of their lack of enthusiasm; some few even fought for the Union cause from the beginning of the conflict, and others defected after being captured by Union forces and traded imprisonment by joining Union forces in fighting Indians on the western frontier.

We chose to concentrate on and follow the two military units the majority of Lippards were enrolled in. We followed on our travels, led by Gary, in the footsteps of these Lippards to the battles at Harper's Ferry and South Mountain, to Sharpsburg/Antietam, and to Gettysburg. We experienced an excellent guided tour at the Civil War Medical Museum in Frederick, Maryland. We also were informed that Lippards fought both in the East and in the West and what happened to them. We learned about Civil War prisons, concentrating on Point Lookout Union Prison for Confederate Soldiers in Maryland, and heard Civil War music.

2014 Iredell, Rowan, and Cabarrus Counties North Carolina

We held our 2014 three day long Labor Day weekend Lippard Reunion. The reunion was organized around the next significant historical period in our family's progression through time from the Civil War, including some of the aftermath consequences as they impacted the Lippard family, basically from the end of the Civil War up to 1940, before the beginning of World War II. Our major theme was the Lippard "Diaspora" from farm life to the west, to mill villages, to the city, etc., in other words from an agrarian society frequently to the new era of industrialization. We were very fortunate to have a Lippard family from Kent, England (Brian, Caroline, and their son Christopher) join us. Son Paul was unable to attend.

We began with a family fair where attendees shared Lippard artifacts from our chosen period, we heard numerous stories concerning individual Lippard families, we visited a number of relevant Lippard related sites, and we included meals appropriate for the time period. We also enjoyed a sing-along organized by Becky Lippard to include songs of our chosen period.

2019 Troutman North Carolina

In August we held a one-day reunion at Randy's Party House with Randy's Barbecue Restaurant staff serving us a typical regional barbecue buffet. We had hoped to attract a dozen or two local Lippards to hear new information Gary and I had discovered over the last few years. To our surprise we had 53 attendees from both the local area and as far away as Massachusetts and New Mexico. We discussed my experiences in researching our Lippard family in the days before computers with contributions of information from my older close North Carolina and Pennsylvania Lippard relatives, and others both near and far, searching in the various Washington, DC, area (where I was living) research facilities to which I had access such as the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the DAR Library, and the local LDS (Mormon) genealogy library, and the University of Maryland libraries. I shared the discovery of Conrad and many of his immediate family's baptismal, confirmation, and marriage records in Mittelhof-Gensungen, Hesse, Germany; Conrad's life in Germany; the problems of migration to Pennsylvania; and Conrad's life and death in Pennsylvania. Gary discussed our Lippard's arrival in Philadelphia and early experiences there including Wilhelm's eventual decision to move his family south to North Carolina, including surprising and shocking events that have never been passed down through the family. Amy and Ernest Lepperd helped us with set-up of furniture and displays and registration including name tag and information packets.

We hope that all who attended our four national reunions enjoyed as much as we did our voyage toward a greater knowledge of our early and present family members. But just think how many more Lippard descendants there must be out there, especially those with other surnames, waiting to be "discovered." And now in the age of computers, the opportunity to discover not only family information but also helpful people and long-lost relatives scattered around the world is without limit.