Supplina & Jane's 46th Anniversary and 1904 Hamilton Reunion

December 26, 2018

The Colfax Gazette sent a reporter to St. John, WA to cover the Hamilton family reunion in June of 1904. A version of that article was also printed in the Sunday edition of The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR) on June 26, 1904 (attached), which would have ensured that some of the family's Oregon relatives, friends, and fellow Indian War veterans saw the news. Supplina & Sarah Jane 'Jane' (Sumpter) Hamilton were married on June 10, 1858 by John Alkire Powell in Linn County, Oregon. Forty-six years later they were living on their wheat farm just south of St. John in Whitman County, WA; Supplina was 72 years old and would have less than a year of life left. This was the 3rd major family reunion they held every three years after moving to Whitman County. Glen's grandfather, Maurice Lake Hamilton, would have been one of the grandchildren present (though only three and a half), as were the grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents of all of Supplina & Jane's descendants in the group today. Other than their daughter Effie (Hamilton) Gilbert-Darland's memories written in the late 1940s, basic vital stats written on the back of photos and in family bibles, and interviews by family historians like Joyce (Stover) Hamilton collecting memories generations later, no one recorded what Supplina shared at this and other family reunions of his history in the West and their 46 years together -- the family is still working to fill in those gaps.

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