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The ninth triennial Isaac B. Good family reunion was held the
weekend of June 12, 2004 in Lansing, Kansas. Rick and Karen Good, who
also live in Lansing, had volunteered at the last reunion to be the
coordinators and our hosts for this reunion. Our heartfelt thanks to
Rick and Karen
for all of their work in making this
reunion another very enjoyable event. This was the first reunion not
to be held in Peabody, Kansas, which is the location where Isaac and
Elizabeth Good lived most of their lives. Once again, all nine of our
first cousins were there, along with many others of our Good family.
The weekend started with several family members arriving on
Thursday, so they could participate in some of Friday's reunion
activities that Rick and Karen had arranged for us. Several of the
gals (Karen Good, Marcia Edmonds, Ethel Gordon, Jan Good and Josie
Elliott) along with Jeff and Josie's son, Brodie, spent part of the
day in Weston Missouri. Weston is a small town about 20 minutes from
Lansing that has a historic downtown area filled with craft stores and
antique shops.
Don Good arranged a family history trip to Clarinda, IA, which is
about a two-hour drive north of Kansas City. Accompanying Don on this
excursion were John Good, Wayne and Millie Croy, and Ginny Traycik.
The Clarinda area is the burial place and former home of our
great-great grandfather, David Good. Don, Rick and Ginny had made
visits to this area before. Don had prepared a folder for each of us,
entitled Good Ancestry Tour, which had a lot of information about our
family history that was pertinent to Page Co., IA.
We first drove to the little post office in Shambaugh and met our
cousin, Judy Herzberg,
who lives in that area. Judy
accompanied us on our tour of the area, first going to the
Butler Cemetery,
where David Good
and many other
family members are buried. We walked around the cemetery identifying
many of our ancestors' graves and taking pictures.
From there we
drove down the country road along the property that had been the David
Good farm.
We stopped along the road at the location
where we believe the house had been located, walked on the land, and
picked up a few pieces of bricks and rocks that may have been parts of
the buildings. Even though Judy has lived in this area all of her
life, this was her first visit to the farm location. We continued on
our tour to the
Davis Cemetery, which is the burial location of more
family members, including Judy's grandfather, Levi W. Good.
Our next stop was our 1:00 p.m. luncheon appointment at the
Nodaway Valley Museum
, where we met Phyllis Fulk,
author of the Beery family history book, along with two other cousins
that Judy had invited, Iris Woods (Judy's sister) and Patsy
Eberly. The gals all contributed the food for our
lunch, which we ate in the museum workroom.
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We enjoyed our time
together, especially visiting again with Phyllis and bringing her up
to date on what Don and I have done with our family history research
since we saw her almost four years ago. Don and I were the only ones
who had met Phyllis before, and it was a delight for the others to
become acquainted with her. Phyllis told us that occasionally someone
from our extended Good family stops at the museum. We told her we
would make up a flyer giving Don's and my contact information that she
could give out. We spent at least an hour and a half there. When we
left, we drove into the town area, driving around the town square, and
then headed back to Kansas City.
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Ginny Traycik
Donald I Good
July 17, 2004
Friday evening some of our group (Rick, Kevin, Meredith and her two
grandsons) also attended a Kansas City Royals/New York Mets baseball
game at the Kaufman Stadium, which was about a forty-five minute drive
from Lansing.
Thirty-seven family members, coming from Missouri, Iowa, Colorado,
Illinois, Texas and Florida, attended the actual reunion day
get-together at the Wallula Christian Church in Leavenworth.
We were
honored to have Paul and Nina Good come from Wichita, along with
Paul's son and daughter-in-law, Jerry and Mildred.
Paul had celebrated his ninetieth birthday in January. We were also
thrilled that Judy Herzberg, and her husband, Gerry, drove down from
Clarinda, Iowa.
Several brought photo albums to share,
and our thanks to Meredith Mauck for copying a lot of her mother's
family photos onto CDs which she gave to each of us.
Rick and Karen provided a wonderful meal
that was catered by a local restaurant,
Bichelmeyer's Steak House, and several of the cousins brought dessert,
including homemade ice cream,
which has become a family
tradition.
After everyone enjoyed a time of fellowship,
we gathered in the church sanctuary to take our traditional family
photos. The nine first cousins
also met together to plan
the next reunion. Millie offered to host the reunion with her
daughter, Tammy, again in the Kansas City area. We all agreed that
this had been a wonderful location for the reunion. We decided that
we would use the order of our ages to determine who will host the
reunions from now on. We also discussed a potential family history
trip, which would possibly take place in the fall of 2005 going to
Pennsylvania and Virginia, visiting the locations of our ancestors,
including our earliest known ancestor,
Peter Good (GC), who came to America
in 1727. We also mentioned that the savings account that was created
at the last reunion is still at the Peabody State Bank.
Another item discussed was the maintenance of the
Catlin Cemetery
near
Peabody, KS, where many of our ancestors are buried,
including our great-grandparents,
Joel & Susanna Good. Currently,
Chuck and his sons are doing the mowing and trimming. Presently,
Chuck Good and Roger White are the two remaining cemetery "board"
members, although Roger White doesn't want to continue. We discussed
possible ways to obtain more funding to hire someone to maintain the
cemetery. John offered to check on whatever he could find out about
the relationship between the Catlin Church and Cemetery with whatever
parts of the current Mennonite church that might still be relevant.
That would include where the old church records might be. Rick
offered to check on current legal obligations within Kansas with
regard to old cemeteries.
All too quickly the weekend came to an end. We left with warm
memories of a great time together and look forward to our next reunion
which will be held, once again, the second weekend of June in 2007
(June 9, 2007).
Future Reunion Hosts
2007 Millie Croy
2008 Meredith Mauck
2009 Don Good
2010 Ethel Gordon
2011 John Good
2012 Marcia Edmonds
2013 Ginny Traycik
2014 Rick Good
2031 Chuck Good
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