Roots run deep - family members gather for 100th annual Rinehart reunion

Mort and Bev Gordon of Elgin, husband and wife, and Bob Wilkins of La Grande, right, are among more than 120 who attended this weekend’s Rinehart family reunion in Cove. All three are Rinehart family members. Wilkins’ family hosted the reunion. The Observer/DICK MASON

The village is gone but its legacy, like the Oregon Trail the Rinehart family traveled, is far from forgotten.

It was revitalized again this weekend at the 100th annual Rinehart Family Reunion — a reunion that saluted Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart, the founders of Rinehart Village.

The Rinehart family reunion tradition is of such note that it was a prominent part of an article in the 1970s in Life Magazine on family reunions. The magazine article and many family photos and memorabilia were displayed at this weekend’s reunion, which ran through Sunday at the Ascension School Camp and Conference Center in Cove.

The Rineharts’ western roots date back to the early 1850s when family members came west on three different wagon trains on the Oregon Trail from Iowa. They settled in the Willamette Valley. Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart and their young children moved east to Summerville in the early 1860s.

“They did not like the wet weather in the Willamette Valley,’’ Smith said.

A focal point of the “village’’ the Rineharts started was its creek-powered flour mill. There was also an extensive farming operation. Members of the community were engaged in the care of 400 acres of wheat land, 1,000 acres of grass land, had a band of 200 horses and a large number of hogs, according to D.H. Stearns, “A Tour of Union County,’’ published in 1882.

The flour and farming operation was run for several decades by Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart and many of their children. Lewis Rinehart died in 1881 and Elizabeth passed away in early 1903. The Rineharts’ children decided to begin holding an annual reunion following their mother’s passing, the first of which was in July of 1903. Since then the reunion has been conducted annually except during World War II and in 1956.

The first three reunions were conducted in the Summerville area. Since then they have been held throughout the Northwest but rarely in Union County. This weekend’s reunion was the first in this area since 1993 when it was also held in Cove. Prior to 1993 the last Rinehart reunion in this area had been in La Grande in 1962.

Smith, who has attended the Rinehart family reunion for years, attributes its longevity to the respect family members have for Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart.

“It is a tribute to the great character of Lewis and Elizabeth,’’ Smith said.

And a reflection of the love their children had for them. Smith said this love is evident in Lewis and Elizabeth’s obituaries and in the poetry their children wrote about them.

The success and longevity of the Rinehart reunions also reflects the common thread of the Oregon Trail. The Rinehart clan came to the Northwest over three years though 1854, and amazingly everyone arrived in one piece.

“There was no loss of life. In fact we added one,’’ said Smith, referring to a Rinehart child born on the Oregon Trail.

Everybody who is part of the Rinehart line is a descendant of or closely related to someone who came came to the Northwest via the Oregon Trail in the early 1850s.

“We have that as part of our story,’’ Smith said. “It united our family. ... There is lots of love in the family and an Oregon Trail tradition.’’

Annual reunions also strengthen family ties.

“We are all so used to getting together. When 10th-cousins get together each year they become much closer than 10th cousins,’’ Smith said.

The reunions will not stop at 100, not by a long shot. Bob Wilkins of La Grande, a Rinehart descendant, noted that family members have already committed themselves to hosting the next four annual reunions — all outside of  Northeast Oregon.

Wilkins’ family hosted this weekend’s reunion, which included a bus trip to the Summerville area and its cemetery.

Wilkins does not foresee a day when the family reunions will end. Indeed he and other family embrace the words of the 1978 Life Magazine article.

“ ... In the family’s past we have reason for being in its future we hope to be remembered. No wonder then that thousands of Americans band together each year for one of the most joyful of all rituals, the family reunion.’’