[Szt-newsletter] Snell-Zimmerman- Timmerman 79th Family Reunion

[Patrick Babcock]

August 5 th and 6 th 2017 was a busy place at Snells Bush Church. The Snell-
Zimmerman –Timmerman families - including many various families of the
Mohawk
Valley enjoyed meeting and greeting family members at the reunion held at
the
Historic Snell Bush Church. On August 5th we held an ice cream social and
the
beginning of the event was very interesting when one of our tents blew over
by a
strong gust of wind and had to put up again. The ice cream social went on
as usual
and everyone had an enjoyable time watching the sun set over the valley
eating ice
cream. It was a beautiful sunset and everyone was taking photos of the
sunset.

On August 6 th Sunday was our annual family reunion which started off with
a flag raising ceremony led by the American Legion from St. Johnsville.
This was
followed by the re-dedication ceremony of soldiers in the cemetery. Each
year
we honor two of our soldiers buried in the cemetery and this year we
rededicated
two graves of William Atinburgh a Hessian soldier who gave information to
General Washington about British troop movements after he defected to the
American patriots. The other patriot we honored was Peter Wollever a patriot
who fought to defend various forts throughout the Mohawk Valley from the
British and Indian attacks.

At 11 am the church bell was rung to call everyone to the service in our
historic Snells Bush Church. This year our minister was the minister from
the
Inghams Mills Baptist Church—Gertrude (Trudy) Ortlieb who is also a family
member. We had family members attending our reunion that came from near
and far. Some on the states represented were Massachusetts, Michigan,
Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio. Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, California,
Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana and New York.

The church service began with an organ prelude performed by Nancy
Schuyler “You are My All In All” arranged by D Jernigan. The music was
played on
our historic pump organ which is over hundred year old. The call to Worship
was
presented by Pastor Ortlieb. Our traditional family reunion hymn was sung
by the
entire congregation—“Faith of Our Fathers” which was followed by The Lord’s
Prayer and Gloria Patria and Responsive reading. The children’s Message was
given by Jennifer Schuyler, who usually gives the children’s message at the
Inghams Mills Baptist Church. The children all came up to the front of the
church
to hear her interesting story. Our special music was presented by the
Inghams
Mills Baptist Church Choir singing “Jesus I Love You “arranged by Marty
Parks.
The next Hymn was entitled “Living for Jesus” which was followed by the
Scripture reading Matthew 14:13-21. Pastor Ortlieb’s sermon message was
entitled “What really fills us?” which was very interesting. The offering
music was
again by the Inghams Mills Choir in which they sang “This My Prayer”
arranged by
Marty Parks. The Choir music was enjoyed by all of the congregation and we
thank the choir for the participation in our annual church service. The
Doxology
was next which was followed by announcements from our President Bill
Timmerman where he urged everyone to stay for the short business meeting and
the luncheon afterwards. Our closing hymn was entitled “Faith Is the
Victory”.

Each year the Inghams Mills Baptist Church is usually closed and the
members are encouraged to attend services at the historic Snells Bush
Church,
Pastor Gertrude Ortilieb is been officially serving the congregation at
Inghams
Mills Baptist Church for fourteen years. She received her certificate as a
lay
minister in the American Baptist Churches of New York State in 2003. We are
very pleased to have her officiate at our annual Family Reunion Church
service as
she is a family member.

A Short meeting was held after the church service which was conducted by
our president William (Bill) Timmerman. The meeting was called to order,
Secretary Report was read and accepted the treasurer report was read and
accepted. Our wedding coordinator reported that we had one wedding this year
and will have one in the fall. Old Business-- - we received a matching
grant for
$7000. From Sacred Sites. We received enough funds to pay for the repair of
the foundation that the powder post beetles were eating. We also will be
spraying each year to control them. Last October, the work was done to
repair
the foundation by replacing the beams that were damaged beneath the church.
The building was lifted by jacks on one side to replace the damaged beams.
The
work was done quickly –about a week to do the work, and now the building is
again safe from the beetles. There is still work that needs to be done on
the
interior where a few cracks appeared. We are still working on repair of the
windows. We are working on scraping the old paint off and repainting the
outside of the building. One side is done.

We are officially have status of 501-c3. This will allow us to get grants
for
future work needed on the church and cemeteries. A new flag was donated by
the American Legion of St Johnsville . A financial brokerage account has
been set
up to receive donations. We are also working on a plaque to be place in the
front
hallway listing large donations for the maintenance of the church. Plaque
will also
be placed on each window of the donation to restore the windows in the
church.
We would like to thank Stewart Shops for donating ice cream for our ice
social
which went very well and everyone enjoyed the ice cream. We would also like
to
thank St Johnsville American Legion for donation a flag to us and also for
conducting the flag raising ceremony and the salute to our patriot
soldiers. The
two director’s term that expired were reinstated for another term. We are
looking
for someone who would like to be treasurer as Marlene term will be up next
year.
We would also like to get some more interested members and friends who would
like to help in the running of the reunion as some of us are getting older
and need
to retire.

After the meeting lunch was served. Everyone had a get time at the
luncheon and groups got together for genealogy and to look over old posters
of
genealogy and maps and old photos. The book room was a busy place with
members buying genealogy books. We have some books on genealogy of the
various families that lived in the area. They tell many stories about how
difficult it
was to live on the frontier in the days of Indian attacks and British
attacks.

We like to get comments and suggestion from our members. Please contact
us at our mailing address- SZT Family Reunion Inc. P O Box 623 Little
Falls, New
York 13365 or on Face book-- - Snells Bush Church. Please check out our web
site at-- -- szt-geneology.org Kevin Jorrey our web master would like to
receive
information on family members and would like interesting stories about your
current family and events to be put on the web site. Updates also are
important –
we need to keep track of family members birth deaths and marriages we send
out
our newsletter on e-mail. Please send us correction of your e-mail and also
your
mailing addresses. Thru the years we have lost many members by not having
the
correct e-mail or mailing address so please send us updates. Send your
updates to
sarahtisrael at yahoo.com or ncioch at yahoo.com.

Sincerely-- -- -- -- Sarah Timmerman Israel
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