1899 Tate Reunion
A FAMILY REUNION
Held at the Residence of C.W.Tate, Saturday, July 1st, 1899
A reunion of the Tate family took place July 1st, at the residence of C. W. Tate, 5 miles south of Mineola (Missouri). The meeting was held under an arbor prepared for the occasion near the house, and the exercises of the day consisted of shaking hands with relatives and friends, and the following
PROGRAM
Song ----- Softly and Tenderly
Invocation ----- Robert H. Tate
Address of Welcome ----- Joseph W. Tate
Response ----- Thomas N. Tate
Announcements ----- J. Burton Tate
Dinner
Song ----- Wheel of Democracy
Biography of C. W. Tate and wife
Joseph W. Tate1
Speeches by George N. Tate, Robert H. Tate, Jefferson P. Tate and
Andy R. Tate.
By invitation W. B. Rigg and H. H. Atterberry made interesting addresses.
Song ----- God Be With You
Below we give the biography referred to, with number of descendants.
They were all present except James N. Tate, five of his children, and his eleven grandchildren, John C. Tate and Edgar, who is a son of George N. Tate. We are very sorry they could not be with us, and our sorrow is deepened by the hindering cause which was the death of Archie, son of James N. Tate. Walter, a son of Joseph W. Tate, was also absent, being in New Mexico.
Caleb Warren Tate was born in Bedford Co. Va. Dec. 31, 1814. He was the son of Zachariah Tate, a native of Amherst Co. Va. and he was a son of Nathaniel Tate, one of the old slave owners of Virginia. Caleb Warren, on his mother's side, was a grandson of John Nichols, who lived to the age of 70 years, and who was a farmer and a blacksmith, and served his state as a Captain in the Militia.
At the age of 7 years C. W. was left an orphan by the death of his father. When 14 years of age he lost his mother and was thrown upon his own resources. He worked for his brother, Jesse until he was 20 years of age, when he decided to come to Missouri. The fall of 1834 he joined a company composed of Joe Johnson and Meyer Hunley with their families. The means of transportation comprised a 5 horse wagon and a 4 horse wagon and a 2 horse carriage. After a toilsome journey of 55 days they reached Fulton, Callaway County where he spent the winter. He says the first work he did in Missouri was gathering corn where the (Fulton) Lunatic Asylum now stands, for which he received fifty cents a day. During that winter he drove a team hauling goods to Fulton from Portland and other points on the Missouri river. The next year he worked on a farm for Steve Dudley.
In the autumn of 1837 he enlisted under Capt. Wm.H. Russell who was raising a company in Fulton for the Seminole War in Florida, and was mustered into the service in Columbia under Col.Richard Gentry.
"We marched from Columbia to Jefferson Barracks on horse back where we were quartered for several days. From there we went to New Orleans on steamboats; remained a few days at that point waiting for transportation.
From there we sailed for Florida, and were six days in crossing the Gulf of Mexico and landed at Tampa Bay.The transports on which our horses were, was caught in a storm and blown 30002 miles out of their course, and they were three weeks making the trip. Many of the horses were killed. We were attached to Gen. Taylor's Army and from Tampa we marched to Lake Okeechobe.
"On Christmas day, it being Sunday3, while marching through mud and water, (we) were fired upon by the Indians, and there in that mud and water was fought one of the bloodiest battles ever recorded in Indian warfare. I stood behind Col. Gentry, and by taking one step could have touched him with my hand when he was shot, and saw the dust fly from his pants when the ball struck him. He fell on his hands and knees and exclaimed, "Oh Lord, I am killed."
"I helped to carry him from the field and as we carried him out he said, "Boys we must run them." After the battle was over dead men lay so thick could have walked on them without touching the ground. This battle virtually ended the war, and we were discharged at Tampa in February, 1838 when I came home and engaged in farming."
C. W. Tate was married to Miss Emily Hamblin October 8, 1839. Of this union were born 4 children, Mary A., who died in Callaway County at the age of 18 months, James N. who has 6 living children, and 11 grandchildren, John C. who remains unmarried and George who has three children.
Being left a widower, he married Miss Orva A. Hamblin, a sister of his first wife. They were the daughters of John Hamblin who settled in Callaway County about the time (1821) Missouri was admitted to (the union) as a state. Bears, panthers and wolves were very numerous at that time. He had to go to St.Louis to mill. John Hamblin was a native of Kentucky and a son of George Hamblin, who was a native of Virginia. John Hamblin's wife was Lucy Boone, a niece of Daniel Boone.
The number of children and their children's descendants, are as follows
------
Robert, who has three children and one grandchild
Lucy A., three children
E. Jane, three children
Joseph W., three children
Martha E., three children and two grandchildren
Charles B. five children
Jefferson P., two children
Edward L., two children
L. Virginia, one child
Susan G., died when two years old
Andy B., two children
Celia E, two children
S. Bell, two children
Luther G., unmarried
Making a total of eighteen children, (Of C. W. Tate) fifteen of whom are living; forty-
four grandchildren (only 31mentioned above) and fourteen great grand children.
C. W Tate is the only survivor of a family of eight.
Copied from a clipping from the Montgomery Standard
Notes from the Webmaster:
Our thanks to Bessie Weeks of Montgomery City, Missouri for making the copy of the clipping available.
I think that from the looks of the above PROGRAM it may be said that the Tates at the turn of the 19th century were a God fearing, patriotic group that respected their elders. Let us hope that when looked back upon from the 21st century, we of today, look as good.
Footnote 1 - Editing by the webmaster consisted mostly of word placement. Any additional words that have been added, for clarity, are in parenthesis. There was some correction of spelling, ie., Joseph in place of Joesph which I believe occurred some time in the distant past during retyping. Most of the spelling errors were, I believe, typos made by the one who originally transcribed the article. I did not have an original clipping, only a retyped copy. It may be that the transcription is the reason that the name of Joseph W. Tate in the Dinner section of the PROGRAM is somewhat unclear.
Footnote 2 - While it is obvious that Homer R. Tate writing in his NAME AND FAMILY OF TATE, was aware of this newspaper clipping, he was also aware that the Gulf of Mexico is only about 500 miles across. This knowledge was probably the reason that, instead of saying the ship carrying the horses was blown 3000 miles out of their course, he said they were, "caught in a storm and blown several miles out of their course, and were three weeks making the trip."
Footnote 3 - Christmas Day was on a Monday in the year 1837. Of course it must be remembered this an 84 year old man speaking of memories some 61 years old.
Footnote 4 - This trip of over 90 miles was reduced to some 10-15 miles 8 years later when the brothers Thomas and Nathaniel Dryden opened a horse mill just west of High Hill, Missouri. Thomas is the great great grand father of Jerry Tate Dryden, a contributer to this web site. [Robert’s old website] and provided this information-
Footnote 5 - While the number 11 appears in my copy of this clipping, I know this to be my great grandfather, Robert Henry, and he is shown present on the program of the day. This is the type of mistake that can occur when one of modern day genealogist's most valuable tools is used... the scanner.
Footnote 6 - I wonder which one wasn't counted. Esther Alice, Joseph Burton,
Robert Thomas, or Grace Matilda. Surely not Joseph Burton as he was on the program. All but Esther Alice are shown in the picture taken that day.