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"Family First"
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Evans-Howell-Moore
The annual gathering of three clans began in July 1990 in Williamston, NC, where the elder Evanses and Howells grew up. Philmore Howell met and Married 16- year old Mary Magdalene Moore in 1896. James Felton Howell, Thelma Howell Rouse, Mary Howell Whitfield, Mary Howell Williams and Haywood Howell were the siblings and cousins – grandchildren of Philmore and Mary – who are responsible for the beginnings of the Family Reunion. They discussed for several years, after attending one funeral after another, the need to get together as a family to celebrate life, not to mourn death, while there were people left to pass the tradition on to the young. It was time to pull together descendants of Mary Moore and Philmore Howell to make the meaning of family more inclusive than the little group of brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles living within close proximity to each other. With Evans blood flowing in their veins, and an Evans “brother” who grew up in their home, Thelma and James Felton felt it was appropriate to include the Evanses as well. The Family Reunion welcomes not only the Evans Family, but people who are aligned with either branch of the family just because they love us.
The small band of family members did not give up. James Felton planted the seed. It did not bear fruit, however, until Thelma returned to North Carolina after many years in New York City. It still took three years to put that first reunion together. There was an overwhelming need to attract family members and to keep them coming. Perhaps it was the roast pig. Perhaps it was the knowledge that our parents and grandparents worked played, suffered and died, loved and worshipped on the land where we came together as family. Perhaps it was just renewing old acquaintances and making new connections. Whatever the reason, the tradition continues.
Family members travel by car, by bus, by plane and by train to get to wherever the reunion is held. After the first three years in Williamston, the family decided to meet for two-yeas-at-a-time in the same place. Subsequent reunions have been held in Elizabeth City, North Carolina; Dover, Delaware; Baltimore, Maryland; Norfolk, Virginia and Syracuse, New York. Because of the large number of family members in Delaware and because family longs to return to its roots, more reunions have been held in various locations in close proximity to Dover, Delaware and in Williamston, NC than in any other location, to date.
The 2008 reunion is slated for the Washington, DC area, the seat of our nation, which everyone can claim as homeland.
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By: Audrey Howell Sharpe
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Welcome Family
