On Saturday, Aug. 13, the annual Collett-McKay picnic will be held on the four-acre tract of land on the Gurneyville Rd. in Clinton County which is owned by the Collett-McKay Picnic Association.

The original grant for this land was signed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and is in the possession of the McKay family. The Memorial Posts at the gateway are marked by bronze tablets giving a brief history of the two families.

About 300 years ago Stephen Collett, tradition says, was born on a ship as his parents were coming to America from France. In spite of the death of his mother at sea, a famine on ship board during which an allowance of one biscuit a day was issued to each adult, a ship wreck in which according to one account his father was lost, Stephen survived and founded the Collett family in the new land.

Daniel Collett, the grandson of Stephen, and his family moved to Ohio in the fall of 1812 and settled near Jonah's Run Church. Daniel's daughter, Mary, donated the land for the church and the cemetery.

The McKay family was established by Robert, a Scotch immigrant who settled in New Jersey before 1726. In 1731-1732 he joined an expedition that settled in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Here he acquired 828 acres of land.

Moses McKay, a great-grandson of the Scotch immigrant, left the valley and came to Ohio to become the founder of the family in this area. He and his wife, Abigail Shinn, whom he had married in Virginia, and their family moved to Waynesville in the fall of 1818 and built a double log cabin which they occupied until 1828, when both Moses and Abigail died.

(Webmaster's note: Moses and Abigail's son Robert S., remained in Virginia. He and many of his descendants intermarried with other branches of the McKay family in Virginia.)

In 1823 Jonathan Collett, son of Daniel and Mary, married Sarah, daughter of Moses and Abigail Shinn McKay. The next year her sister, Virginia, married Daniel Collett, brother of Jonathan, and in October, 1830, Francis McKay, brother of Sarah and Virginia, married Mary Collett. That same year Francis' sister, Maria McKay, married Daniel H. Collett, making the two families united by four marriages between 1823 and 1830, thus creating a strong interrelationship and close family ties among the members.

The Collett and McKay families have two Revolutionary ancestors, Daniel Collett and George Shinn. The two families purchased many acres of land, some three thousand acres which still remain in the possession of the descendants of Moses McKay and Daniel Collett.

The first Collett-McKay reunion was held in 1866 and a reunion has been held annually since that time. "The Picnic" as it is referred to by all, is always held on the second Saturday in August. In all of these years it has never been "rained out." Rain has fallen on "Picnic Day" several times, but there has always been a dinner and some time for visiting.

In a beautiful grove of young trees and stately old sugar maples three 50-foot are set up. The table boards were purchased in 1879. Coffee is made in a large iron kettle. For many years water was brought in a huge hogshead. The attendance has varied from that first picnic when 111 were present, to 542 at the largest gathering in 1888.

The men of the families who live nearby meet on the grounds on Friday afternoon, the day before the picnic, to prepare them and set up the tables. Extra space will be provided this year to display articles of interest. Any pictures, documents, or information about previous picnics, or about either the Scottish clan, McKay, or the French Hugunot Colletts, would be especially welcome for this Centennial year.

It is hoped that each family will send postal cards to non-attending relatives notifying them of this special occasion.

The 100th annual Collett-McKay picnic will be held on the family picnic grounds near New Burlington Saturday. It is probably unique in the United States.

The two families have met on the picnic grounds they own 100 consecutive years, it does not rain picnic day, there are no notices. The Colletts and McKays just gather once a year and the number has varied from 111 to 542.

The first Collett came to America in 1660 and the first McKay before 1726.

Departing from tradition for this centennial year, there will be a short program after dinner which Thurman (Dusty) Miller, well-known humorist, will speak. Mr. and Mrs. Miller not only have attended many picnics as guests, but also are "in-law-members" of the families, one of their sons having married a Collett.

The "Picnic" is rich in tradition and interest. The picnic grounds, in a setting of stately old trees and young sugar maples, have been set aside for the yearly gathering of two of the oldest pioneer families in Clinton and nearby counties. An imposing entrance with memorial plates on the gateway marks the grounds. Each year numbers of these families come from far and near to enjoy a long day together and the proverbially large dinner.

The men of the families who live nearby meet on the grounds on Friday afternoon, the day before the picnic, to prepare them and set up the tables. Extra space will be provided this year for displaying articles of interest. Pictures, documents, newspaper clippings, and anything pertaining to the two families or the picnic will be especially welcome for this special occasion.

These gatherings are called picnics because they began years before the term, "family reunion," was used; and they are still picnics because they are conducted in the same manner in which they started--no programs, no election of officers, no invitations, no selecting of a meeting place. On the second Saturday of August each year the Colletts and McKays meet in the same woods on Buck Run in the neighborhood where many of the families live. As the four-acre tract is owned by the families, the land will always remain a picnic ground for them.

Tradition says that it does not rain for the Collett-McKay picnic, and in all of these years it has never been "rained out." Rain has fallen on "Picnic Day" several times, but there has always been a dinner as well as time for visiting. Another tradition is the brewing of coffee over a wood fire in a big iron kettle like the first ones used. For many years water was brought in a huge hogshead. The boards used for the three 50-foot tables were purchased in 1879.

The record of attendance is kept in large registers. The attendance has varied from 111, the number of persons registered at the first picnic, to 542, the largest gathering, in 1888. Several years the number passed the 400 mark. Recorded on a page of one of the registers are the names of those who were in service in World War I, and two pages are given to the names of the connection in World War II.

In 1660 at the time of the Huguenot expulsion from France three Collett brothers were among the fugitives. One went to England, one to the mountains of France, and one set sail for America with his wife and baby. According to tradition, the mother died after a few days at sea.

The father managed to keep the baby boy, Stephen, alive during a famine on shipboard by sharing with him his allowance of one biscuit a day which he soaked in water. According to one account, the father was lost in a wreck of the vessel before it reached shore, but the child was rescued and founded the family in the new land.

THE FIRST Colletts lived in what is now Baltimore, Md. Stephen's son, Moses, was born in 1718. Moses' sons moved to Virginia about the time of the Revolutionary War in which two of them served. Daniel, a grandson of Stephen, and a son of Moses, entered the war as a volunteer and served at Valley Forge, at White Plains, at the defeat of General Gates and at the Battle of Monmouth Court House.

After the War Daniel Collett was Justice of the Peace in Virginia for many years. The story of one of the events in his administration has been handed down. The judges of the court of Jefferson County assessed a fine upon each of the Justices of that county for neglect in providing suitable steps to the jail at Charleston.

Justice Collett paid his fine then took the contract for the erection of the stone steps that still grace the front of that building.

Daniel Collett and his family moved to Ohio in the fall of 1812 and settled near Jonah's Run Church. They cleared the forests, built their homes, and lived on bear meat, johnny cake, and corn mush during those early years. Daniel's daughter, Mary, donated the ground for the church and the cemetery in which several members of the Collett family are buried.

The McKays sprang from an eminent Highland family in Scotland. General Hugh McKay invented the fixed bayonet which is still in use, and with his Highlanders assisted in saving Ireland for England. The McKays, like other clans, had a tartan or plaid: theirs was green, dark blue and black. The badge of the clan was the burush, and their war cry or slogan, Bealuiah.

(Unable to verify at present this account of the Clan Mackay being portrayed here.)

THE McKAY family in America was established by Robert, who settled in New Jersey before 1728. In 1731-1732 he joined an expedition that settled in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. There he acquired 828 acres of land. There is still in the possession of a member of the family an old-time stained parchment granting to Robert McKay this tract of land for "true and lawful knights' services together with an annual rental of two shillings for every fifth acre to be paid on the eve of the feast of St. Michael, the Arch Angel."

This old document was dated at the ancient Vice-Royal Capital, Williamsburg, Oct. 2, 1734, and bears the signature and seal of William Gooch, "our Lieut. Governor and Commander in Chief of our province and Dominion of Virginia."

Moses McKay, a great-grandson of the Scotch immigrant, Robert, left Virginia and came to Ohio to become the founder of the family in this area. He and his wife, Abigail Shinn McKay, and their family moved to Waynesville in the fall of 1818 and built a double log cabin which they occupied until 1828 when both Moses and Abigail died.

Extensive research into the family genealogy shows that both Moses and Abigail Shinn McKay are of royal descent, Moses from the Vernon line, and Abigail from the Crispin line. Her great-great-grandfather, Silas Crispin, came to America with William Penn, a first cousin. George Shinn fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War.

The two families--the French Colletts and the Scotch McKays--were united by four marriages between 1823 and 1830. They founded churches and schools and built a community. According to a newspaper account of the picnic held on Aug. 7, 1869, "The real estate owned by these two families...amounts, in the aggregate, to three-quarters of a million dollars, and comprises 6,000 acres of cultivated land."

THIS QUAINT and interesting account of 1869 begins: "A notable event, differing from ordinary public assemblages, occurred on the 7th inst. at Pisgah Heights, distant 10 miles from Harveysburg, where the entire kin and kith of two celebrated families of Ohio to wit:--Collett and McKay--joined in the pleasantest manner possible, to entertain one another agreeably to their own notionsof social enjoyment and propriety."

After commenting about the characteristics of the people attending the picnic, whose "manhood is to be measured only by the expressive word big," their history, number and conversation, this news reporter of nearly 100 years ago, at which time there was an eclipse of the sun, concluded: "We, four of us, took our departure just as the eclipse grew thickest, the dusty roads flying under our horses' feet with the music of the stones and the spheres under us, and the winds whipping our coat tails into very whip crackers; but ballasted with plenty of cake in the bottom of the vehicle, I rode home to find that I did not own the pretty word big in my possessions."

In no way was a second Collett-McKay picnic within a week an anticlimax to the first which was the 100th one of the clan Saturday at the clan's picnic grounds on Gurneyville Rd.

The second one, Sunday, was smaller (there were 309 at the big one). It included a number of out of town and area members of the family, some direct descendants of Maria McKay and Daniel Haines Collett, who were the last to marry of the four original Collett-McKay families.

It was Mrs. Edith Stanfield of New Burlington who instigated this second picnic at Kingman School. Several at the picnic of the same generation, who were direct descendants of the Maria McKay-Daniel Collett marriage on Nov. 4, 1830, were Mrs. Stanfield, Mrs. Wallace Edwards of Oxford, Mrs. Abbie Haydock of Springfield, Mr. Howard Wood of Olivos, Calif., Mrs. E. R. Crawley of Salem, Va., Mrs. David Jacobson of Harlingen, Tex., Mrs. Otho Hulse of Mingo, Iowa, Mr. Donald Collett and Mr. Charles Collett of New Burlington.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Wood spent a week with Mrs. Stanfield, and Mr. Wood's sister and husband, the Rev. and Mrs. E. R. Crawley, their daughter, Mrs. Lois De Masters and her sons, Mark and David, came from Salem, Va., for the picnic. Mrs. David Jacobson and Mrs. Otho Hulsa are sisters and first cousins of Mr. Wood and Mrs. Crawley and they and their husbands were present.

The afternoon after the picnic dinner was eaten passed all too swiftly. Mrs. Wallace Edwards had prepared a chart of the ancestors and everyone enjoyed examining it. There were old pictures. Recipes were exchanged and much talk on homey (and other) subjects made. The younger ones of the clan played softball and other games.

In addition to the out of state relatives, others present included Mr. and Mrs. Frank Graham of Enon; Mrs. Abbie Haydock of Springfield, formerly of this area; Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Edwards of Oxford; Mrs. Laura Collett, Mrs. Edith Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Beam of this city.

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Collett and Jane, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Collett and family, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Stanfield and children, Mr. Jerry Ames, Mrs. Edith Stanfield of New Burlington and Mr. and Mrs. William Schneider.

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