FREWSBURG – The Frew family held a reunion Aug. 9. It marked a bicentennial: 200 years to the month that James Frew, fresh out of military service in the War of 1812, joined his brother, John Frew, at his little start up venture, a sawmill among the pine forests of the Conewango River, New York side, and a one-day walk from their folks’ home at Lander, Pa., where Hugh and Mary Frew had established the local gristmill.

Essential to this year’s reunion was the fact there is still one Frew family in town. And so it was Mike Frew who signed the family up for the Willis Hale Town Park, off Frew Run Road, located next to Maple Grove Cemetery. A brand new baby, Benjamin Frew, celebrated with the family. Many feet splashed in the Frew Run, the very creek that ran the Frew mills of the 19th century.

The family shared photographs, memories and the young ones played games together with cousins they never knew before. Many family members sang with the help of local D.J. StrayKat Karaoke.

During the festivities, the family was privileged to have the Carroll Historical Society open their doors. An illustrated, “Seussically” inspired verse was composed for the event by Steve and Amy Frew. The family also enjoyed food that featured the famous Frewsburg corn, cooked by Mike Frew, so much appreciated by the Californians in attendance. The family had cookies provided by Ray Frew’s wife, Kim, decorated with many icons of Scots ancestry. This California group also stayed to enjoy subsequent happy days of local exploration and fun, thanks to our the cousins.

Many paid a visit to the old Frew section of Maple Grove Cemetery. Family members located with excitement the stones of Hugh and Mary Frew, who sailed from Belfast, Ireland, in 1794 with the John Russell family, and found their way to the Conewango region. Family members were sad to find Mary Russell Frew’s stone in fragments. The family also found the monument for her son, James R. Frew, and his wife, Rebecca Wheeler. James and Rebecca had five boys, including lumberman Josiah Frew, who married Sabra Atlanta Wilcox in 1847.

Josiah and Atlanta were common ancestors for all of those at this reunion. They raised their children over in Guernsey Hollow, where the trees were beckoning, and the Allegheny River provided the transportation infrastructure for the lumber rafts. Later, they returned to Frewsburg, to a farm on Ivory Road.

Old records show much of Frewsburg was owned by one or another Frew, along both sides of “Frew’s Run.” There were sawmills, Hugh Frew’s relocated gristmill, homes and farms. By the early 1900s it seems all the descendants of James’ brother, John Frew, a prominent community builder of the 19th century, were either dead or had left the area.

On the other hand, the descendants of James Frew have continued to live in or visit Frewsburg to the present day. The last grandchildren of James R. Frew and Rebecca were: Minnie Grace Frew Foster, died 1947; Bertha Frew Hunt, died 1959; Alice Frew Lyon, died 1959. A few of the senior attendees of the Frewsburg gathering have fleeting childhood memories of these 19th-century women, who lived into the mid-20h century.

Of Josiah and Atlanta Frew’s children, Darwin, (1854 1929) oil rigger, and his wife Mary Weight Frew (ca.1874-1942) had the most children. Their five children kept the “Frewsburg Frew” line going strong. These were the five siblings all born between 1904 and 1917 it includes two daughters who were born in the oil boom town of Coalinga, Calif.: Jeannette, Josiah, Mary, Florence and Marvin. They all grew up on the Ivory Road farm where the Robert Jackson Elementary School is today. Each one of them married and had families. This reunion consisted of the descendants of these five siblings, who had immense fidelity to their heritage, and shared it deeply with their children and grandchildren.

Those who organized the gathering on Aug. 9 were all descendants of grandparents Mary and Darwin Frew.

The active organizers were Ray D. Frew, his daughter Lisa Yaggie, David Frew, Mike (Marshall) Frew, Sally Miess and Kathryn (Kit) Akatiff, with her husband, Clark Akatiff.