REUNION REMINDER: CAMP SOLES-August 25, 2001
Camp Soles, a YMCA Camp about 20 minutes southwest of Somerset,
has been reserved for Saturday, August 25th. The Camp features a large
meeting-dining mom that can seat 200. Meals will be provided and can
be chosen from a variety of menus. We can have breakfast, lunch or
late dinner. There are rustic (no a/c) cabins that sleep 8 with bath
and shower available for over night on Friday and possibly Saturday.
The cost for food and lodging is very reasonable, but we can't quote
prices yet.
Kids should love this place. The Camp has a beautiful 18-acre
lake with fishing, swimming and small boats available. There are also
stables, and horse trail rides or hay rides can be arranged. John
Leichliter's (Levi's great-grandfather) original land grant of 200
acres in 1801 is located about 10 miles from Camp Soles, and many
of our ancestors are buried in cemeteries close by. Two optional activities
may include a Cemetery Tour on Sunday, and a visit to Frank Lloyd
Wright's home "Falling Water" which is also nearby. There are also
many other points of interest in the vicinity. Because plans an still
being worked out, reunion Chairperson Dutch Lichliter is soliciting
help and input in order to put this reunion together. He would like
to formalize a committee to plans for the reunion. Dutch would like
to have the agenda subject to what people want the reunion to be.
Please contact him via mail, email or phone. (480) 595-7915 or Dlichliter@aol.com
For those of us who don't want to rough it, Somerset offer lots
of motels: Holiday Inn, Ramada, Hampton Inn, and Days Inn. There is
also a nice RV Park about 10 minutes from Camp Soles. Dutch has also
reserved a block of rooms at the Somerset Ramada Inn near the turnpike
entrance. n you want to get the discounted rate of $68.00 a night,
mention that it's for the Lichliter Reunion! The Ramada has a pool
and a restaurant. The phone number is 814-44b 4646.
Lichliters Celebrate Longevity
(An expanded version of this article appeared In The Meyersdale
Republic In November 2000.)
On Sunday, November 12, 2001, two of John C. Lichliter's children
and a grandson gathered at the Oakhurst Tea Room near Somerset to
celebrate their birthdays. But these were no ordinary birthdays. Rees
celebrated his 95th birthday, his sister Winnie (Lichliter) Newman
celebrated her 90th birthday and Rees' son, and Riley Lichliter celebrated
his 75th birthday. Rees and Winnie's "younger" sister, Emily Jane
(Lichliter) Hickson, who is 77, was also in attendance. Brother Johnny
Lichliter died in 1986.
Rees, who was born November 29, 1905, also had a long career In
Somerset county politics, was the Burgess of Salisbury during the
1950's and worked for the Pennsylvania Auditor General's Office for
20 years. Also on hand to celebrate the birthdays were Rees' daughter
and husband, Biz and John Blocher, and son John "Dutch" and wife Lois.
Rees has seven grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. Granddaughter
Bev (Blocher) and husband Barry Ricks were in attendance as were grandson
Steve Lichliter and granddaughter Shed (Lichliter) Pepper who brought
great-grandchildren, Miles and Gabriel Pepper, from California for
the party.
Winnie Newman, who was born November 8, 1910, Is a homemaker who
has been active in the United Methodist church In Confluence and worked
with Meals on Wheels. For many years Winnie and Emily Jane also made
and contributed as much as 60 pounds of peanut brittle yearly to the
Fantasy Fair candy table. Winnie and Ward's son, Buck, his wife, Sarah,
daughter, Shannon, and husband, Matt Christ, live in Missouri. Emily
Jane's daughter, Nancy (Hickson) White from New Hampshire was also
on hand for the party.
A World War II veteran, Riley Lichliter handled radioactive ammunition
for early nuclear weapons experiments in the Bikini Islands during
Operation Crossroads. He is a life member of the American Legion and
Veterans of Foreign War posts In Salisbury and is retired from Salisbury-Elk
Lick school system, where he was head of maintenance. His wife, Helen,
to whom he has been married for 52 years, was unable to attend the
festivities due to recent hip surgery. Riley and Helen's son, Tom
and his wife, Donna, and their children, Brian and Melody, live In
Salisbury. Riley was born October 28,1925.
Longevity seems to run In the Lichliter family. Father John C,
born on October 13, 185, was nearly 84 when he died in 1959. Mother
Mary Jane, born February 2,1876, was nearly 94 when she died in 1969.
Cousin Wilbur "Wib" Bolin Lichliter passed away in January 1998 at
the age of 94. Wib's brother, Levi G. 'Lee' Lichliter, was 91 when
he died, and Wib's sister, Florede (Lichliter) Riley was 93 at die
time of her death. Family genealogist, Dutch Lichliter, commented
on family longevity saying, "Maybe they got it from Jacob, Levi's
grandfather (great-great-grandfather of Rees, Winnie, and Emily Jane)
who came to Somerset County about 1795 at age 7, and lived to be 92,
after fathering 19 children with two wives."
Another Branch of the Family Found!!! Lichliters In Florida
We are a much bigger family than we think. Within the past year
Dutch Lichliter has made contact with a number of distant relatives,
Linda Cron and Charlotte Crawford among them. They are related to
our branch of the family through Jacob Leichliter, grandfather of
Levi who had two wives. (This is the prolific one mentioned by Dutch
in the birthday story.) In 1812, Jacob married Jemima Campbell, a
native of Ireland, with whom he had eight children. Jemima died In
1826 at the age of 34. One of their sons, John Campbell Leichliter,
who died at an 32, was Levi Lichliter's father. (It appears that the
spelling variation in the name began about his time.) After Jemima's
death, Jacob married his second wife, Martha Williams, about 1830,
with whom he had another eleven children. One of their sons, Albert
Marsden, was born in Springfield (now Normalville), Fayette County,
Pennsylvania, the next county west of Somerset. Albert Marsden became
a minister and went west, settling In Iowa, where he served as pastor
at a United Brethren Church and several Congregational Churches. His
son, Charles Homer, was a newspaper writer and editor, who eventually
moved to Florida. Charles' daughter, Lorena was the grandmother of
Linda Cron.
