{"id":474,"date":"1953-09-18T10:55:44","date_gmt":"1953-09-18T15:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/?p=474"},"modified":"2016-06-26T10:57:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T15:57:11","slug":"1919-methodist-outing-in-flemington-nj-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"1919 Methodist Outing in Flemington, NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"33_image01\"<\/a>In casting about in her mind for a source of more material for this concluding article on the big Methodist picnic at the A.M. Ware farm, near Flemington, N.J., in the summer of 1919, your columnist suddenly bethought herself of the files of \u201cThe Suburban.\u201d And there on the front page of the issue of September 5, 1919, was a two-column spread on the big event.<\/p>\n

It now comes to light that this affair was a Labor Day celebration. By mere coincidence, your columnist wrote the first article for the present series for the September 4 issue of \u201cThe Suburban\u201d, just 34 years, minus one day, from the date on which the original article appeared.<\/p>\n

The start from Wayne was earlier than remembered by Mrs. Austin Houck, and given in last week\u2019s column as 9.30. According to one original source, it was some two and a half hours earlier on a rainy Labor Day morning.<\/p>\n

R.C. Ware\u2019s costume, as commented on in previous columns, is explained by the fact that he was \u201cconstable\u201d for the day\u2019s outing, and wore on his chest the very large tin star which shows so clearly in the group picture in last week\u2019s column.<\/p>\n

Albert Ware was \u201ctraffic officer\u201d for the 26 cars which started on the 58-mile run to Flemington. Just how many arrived is not a matter of record. However, these two sentences are suggestive of trouble along the way. \u201cAsk Mr. Wolf, William Bryan and Austin Houck how many cars they gathered together and started going. It was like an army motor truck train, with a repair crew every few cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from these unexpected and unwelcome stops, the first scheduled halt was at the summer home of D.G. Bickley Burns, in Hatboro. The Rev. Burns, who was one of the guests of honor at the picnic, was at the time Methodist District Superintendent. Before going on their way to Flemington, the automobilists refreshed themselves with \u201cquantities of grapes, pears, peaches and watermelons.\u201d The next stop was at Lambertville, where the party pulled up at the Methodist Church and met with Dr. Wells, the pastor. However, as only \u201cmusic and ice water were served here, the stop was not as long as at Hatboro.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Flemington, the Rev. B.F. Armstrong joined the group, making a total of seven ministers all bound for one picnic. In commenting on this number, \u201cThe Suburban\u201d says that \u201ceither the crowd was such that they were needed or the company so good that they were wanted\u2026 or did the half chicken served each guest have anything to do with it?\u201d The half chicken for each guest was but a part of the bountiful fare provided for the 200 guests assembled at the long tables set up in the big tent. A generalized description is given in the statement that \u201ca chicken dinner with all the \u2018fixings\u2019 was there, real lima beans and the fruits of barnyard roosts, fields and orchards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"33_image02\"<\/a>Once the dinner was over \u201ca poultry parade\u201d was held with the \u201cducks, turkeys and chickens marching along the line\u2026 that is, the ones that were still left alive.\u201d And after this \u201ceveryone enjoyed the trip through the barns, the demonstrations of farm machinery, the tractor plows, the views of the fields and stock, and the close-ups of the orchards.\u201d This was evidently done between showers, for \u201cwhen the rain fell the tent was the gathering place where singing and laughter made everyone happy. It was like a Fair Day in a country town with games and crowds and joy.\u201d Mrs. Houck, in giving her reminiscences to your columnist, recalls particularly the sweetness of the voices of the young people of the party, as their songs drifted out from the big barn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eating was certainly the order of the day. For, to top off the chicken dinner, cookies and fruit in large quantities were passed out to the guests as the procession of cars made their way down the lane. Along with these refreshments each guest received \u201ca neat booklet as a souvenir description of the farm.\u201d On the last page was the verse:
\n\u201cGood-bye \u2013 God speed you on your way,
\nThe end, we trust, of a perfect day,
\nBut whether one of loss or gain,
\nWe know it wasn\u2019t spent in Wayne.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so ended the big Labor Day picnic of 1919 on the New Jersey farm of Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Ware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In casting about in her mind for a source of more material for this concluding article on the big Methodist picnic at the A.M. Ware farm, near Flemington, N.J., in the summer of 1919, your columnist suddenly bethought herself of the files of \u201cThe Suburban.\u201d And there on the front page of the issue of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radnorhistory.org\/archive\/articles\/ytmt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}