07/13/2021
154th Annual Bull Family Reunion and Picnic is Aug. 7, 2021
Descendants of 1715 immigrant William Bull and Sarah Wells will once again reunite at the historic Bull Stone House for their annual family reunion, a tradition they have been doing for more than a century and a half.
The 154th Annual Bull Family Reunion and Picnic, which is the second-longest continuous family reunion in America, will be held in person and virtually on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. The picnic will be held at the family’s historic homestead just off Sarah Wells Trail in Campbell Hall on land that has been in the family since 1718. The homestead is part of the original Wawayanda Patent purchased from 12 leaders of the Indigenous People by 12 merchants from New York City in 1703. The original deed hangs in the government offices of Orange County.
William Bull was an early settler born in England and raised in Ireland. He came to Orange County in 1715 as a hired stone mason to build in Chester for New York City merchant Daniel Crommelin. Six years earlier, Sarah Wells was just a teenager and an indentured servant to New York City dock master Christopher Denne when she accepted the mission to lead a small expedition into the unsettled wilderness of Orange County.
Along with three men of the local Munsee tribe and three hired carpenters, Sarah sailed north on the Hudson River by single-mast sloop to Plum Point in New Windsor. In May of 1712, the small expedition hiked 20 miles to the banks of the Otter Kill, where the native men and carpenters built Sarah a tree branch wigwam. The settlement became the first by European immigrants in the interior of the county.
William built many stone houses over his years in Orange County, including what is now Knox’s Headquarters in Vails Gate. It was used by American generals in the American Revolution and is now a state park.
The couple were married in 1718 and raised to adulthood 12 children, who all married and had many children. William died in 1756 and Sarah died at the age of 100 and 15 days in 1796. She had 335 descendants when she died and her grandchildren began the family genealogy on the day of her funeral. The Bull family has been recording the genealogy ever since and now counts more than 100,000 people in their genealogy with more than 20,000 people alive today.
“This year’s gathering will be pretty special after the year we have all gone through,” said family President Lyle Shute of Campbell Hall. “But William and Sarah’s stories are remarkable and perfect examples of how we are all capable of overcoming even the toughest challenges.”
The family has owned and occupied for 10 generations the Bull Stone House throughout the centuries and it is currently the residence of a descendant from the ninth generation. It is likely the last house in America from this period still occupied by the same family and is an example of how one family has sustained a house from early settlement to modern times.
The family incorporated 100 years ago to maintain the homestead, the genealogy, the family reunion, and to share the incredible history with the general public.
The in-person picnic and the virtual reunion will begin at 10 am on Aug. 7. The William Bull and Sarah Wells Stone House Association, a nonprofit membership corporation, will hold its annual meeting during the event at 1 pm. The membership will vote on Board of Trustees appointments.
All descendants of the intrepid couple are invited to the reunion and picnic. For more information, please go to www.bullstonehouse.org. Tours of the homestead are available to the general public by appointment only. For tours, please contact the family resident caretaker Julie Boyd Cole at [email protected], or text or call 845-496-2855.
