We are deeply indebted to Teddie Sue Carter, our extremely gifted Membership Chairman, for her account of the 2006 Reunion and Meeting:

If you couldn’t be with us at The Carter Society Reunion this year in Lancaster County, Virginia, you really missed a great time! We had 40 in attendance from Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

A big Thank You is in order for the 2006 Reunion Committee! You did a great job, cousins!

Dick Zieman, Chairman
Margaret Gunn, Friday leader
Bob Lumsden, Saturday leader
Carol Hendricksen, Registration

Thursday evening we started our reunion by gathering at the Rappahannock River Yacht Club, greeting everyone on the covered veranda as they arrived. We visited awhile and shared family notebooks and Carter family charts. About dusk, we enjoyed an informal barbecue catered by Smokin' Joe's. Relaxing on the veranda, we had a great view of Carter's Creek and the Rappahannock River while watching a beautiful Virginia sunset.

Friday morning we met at Historic Christ Church (HCC) in the Baynes Center. Executive Director of HCC, Bob Cornelius, welcomed TCS and Camille Bennett, Development Director, gave us an introduction to the Foundation for HCC. Our key speaker, Nathaniel "Nat" P. Neblett, gave a Historic Status Report on The Architecture of Christ Church, including a personal tour. He was a walking history book! He serves on the board at HCC and authored "Christ Church, Lancaster County, Virginia, circa 1735." Margaret Gunn's artist friend and our guest for the day, Miriam MacCarthy Bell, exhibited her paintings in our meeting room. They depicted Carter-related buildings and local scenes. Margaret made a note card for each attendee featuring one of Miriam's paintings of HCC and also made packets of note cards with Miriam's scenes as gifts for our guest speakers throughout the reunion.

Willaby's in White Stone, VA, catered our lunch where I learned of a new food item "Hummus!" After lunch, Robert Teagle, Educational Director of HCC, presented a slide show, "Carter Houses in Virginia," and made comments about each one. Robert was going to take the group to tour Robert "King" Carter's Corotoman home site in Weems, VA, but the rain hampered those plans.

Friday evening, Margaret Gunn and her husband Ken Levine invited us to their lovely home "Carter Cape" on Carter Creek in Irvington, VA, for cool drinks before driving to Kilmarnock, VA, to have dinner at Rose's Crab House. After dinner, several folks staying at the Whispering Pines Motel in White Stone drove back to the motel for a good night's sleep before another full day of fun activities on Saturday!

It's Saturday morning already, up and at 'em, to Lee's Restaurant in Kilmarnock for breakfast with our group. After that second cup of coffee, Fay Parrish Wade, TCS President, conducted the general membership meeting around our breakfast tables.

From the restaurant, Bob Lumsden was our leader for planned tours of some Carter family homes in the area. Our first stop was the Bondfield Farm, which was established in 1806 and has been in the Carter family ever since. Miss Mary Bond Edmunds married Mr. James Carter I. Miss Edmunds' aunt, Miss Caty Bond, left the property to Mr. and Mrs. James Carter I in her will. In gratitude for their inheritance, the Carters named their property Bondfield in honor of Caty Bond's family name. It now belongs to our own Wallace and Ann Carter (both of whom are Carter descendants).

With Bob leading, the group followed to Yankee Point Marina and Yacht Club for a group picnic overlooking a picturesque view of sailboats on the water. This location was the last home site of Major Edward Dale, as documented by Charles R. Carter, TCS founder and award-winning researcher. (For the 2005 reunion Charlie presented a PowerPoint slide program of his findings entitled "Home Sites and Insights - Found in the Records Left by my Carter Family.") The Carter connection to Major Edward Dale is through his daughter, Katherine Dale, who married (1670-Lancaster County, VA) Capt. Thomas Carter of "Barford," one of our Carter Society early ancestors.

Our next stop was "Midway"--a former Addison Lombard Carter home. Dave and Sharon Stokes are now managing this property for the owner (Anita Poppinghaus) who lives in Germany. Sharon had made fresh-baked cookies served with iced lemonade and sassafras tea. What an old-fashioned treat on such a warm day! We took a picture on the steps of this home of our Carter Society touring group. It was hard to round people up since everyone was walking around the premises, indoors and out.

Not far down the road we stopped at St. Mary's Whitechapel, still an active Episcopal Church today. It was established about 1669. This was one of the churches the Thomas Carter and Edward Dale families attended, as well as the Ball family, maternal ancestors of George Washington. It is recorded that Edward Dale and Thomas Carter served as vestrymen here. The interior has the oldest set of altar tablets (The Lord's Prayer, Apostle's Creed, and The Ten Commandments) to survive from Colonial Virginia. A ninety-year-old gentleman who was a church member met us at the door and gave us an interesting overview of the church history, mixed with a bit of humor.

Continuing down the road to Lancaster, VA, we toured the Lancaster County Courthouse (where portraits of Edward Dale and Thomas Carter, Jr., are housed), the Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library (with its gift shop), and the Old Jail.

Then on to "Verville," a home that stands on land that was once part of the Capt. Thomas and Katherine Dale Dale Carter plantation called "Barford." This land was part of a 1674 wedding gift to Thomas and Katherine from her parents, Major Edward and Diana Skipwith Dale. It is believed that wood used in the central portion of Verville dates back to 1690, about ten years before the death of Capt. Thomas Carter. By 1711, Verville would have been located on the land bequeathed to Edward, the eldest son of Capt. Thomas and Katherine Dale Carter. He called this his Upper Plantation. In 1742 a James Gordon purchased the two acres on the hill by the road where Verville now stands from Thomas Carter, the son of Edward Carter. John Carter, the sons of Henry Skipwith Carter, sold a James Gordon an adjoining five acres below the hill in 1749. Josiah Carter, a grandson of Henry Skipwith Carter, sold the 95 acres adjoining to the south of Verville, to a James Gordon in 1754. Edward Carter, the grandson of Edward Carter, sold the remaining 98 acres adjoining to the north of Verville to a Colonel James Gordon for a bond of 1,150 pounds money in 1782. Colonel James Gordon was granted a license to build the City of Gordonsville on the land surrounding Verville in 1786.

Our last home tour of the day was Clifton, a hunting lodge built for Landon Carter (1785). It has been designated a Virginia Historic Landmark and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Bud Hudnall family owns the home today. Hollyhocks in the backyard brought back many memories of childhood.

It's now time to reassemble in White Stone for a buffet dinner at Willaby's, a unique little place with great food! While sitting around the tables, Charles Hoskins Warner (with his lovely wife Anne) was our guest speaker for the evening. He doesn't need much of an introduction to most of the folks gathered in this room because he is a Thomas Carter descendant, and most know him personally. Charles is a historian and an author of three books as well as an Honorary Member of The Carter Society. The portraits of Major Edward Dale and Thomas Carter, Jr., that are hanging in the Lancaster County Courthouse were gifts of Mr. Warner. He loves to share his research and is a wealth of information. We owe Mr. Warner a debt of gratitude for his many years of interest and research so generously shared with us through the years!

It was Sunday morning and raining! Umbrellas were necessary to gather in Historic Christ Church for the early service. The Carter pew was reserved for us, so as many Carter cousins as could fit sat together. It was an awesome experience to reminisce while sitting in the very pew that your ancestors sat so many years ago. At one point, the windows were opened to hopefully let in some air. The church ladies served lemonade after the church service and greeted us as honored guests.

The final event of the reunion for this year was strolling down the flower and grass-lined pathway onto a dock to enjoy the company of one of Virginia's grand dames, the "Miss Ann," a 127-foot yacht in celebration of her 80th birthday year. Since she arrived a half century ago, she has been the heart and soul of the Tides Inn in Irvington. The interior was neat with period furniture and carpeting. Our group was seated in the air-conditioned middle section of the yacht where we enjoyed brunch, an elegant array of food served while we sailed down the Rappahannock River. What a perfect ending to such a wonderful reunion!

While some (13) of us were not leaving until Monday morning for our journey home after the reunion, Bob Lumsden called Hughlett's Tavern in Heathsville, VA (1795--on the Virginia and National Register of Historic Places) with a special request asking if they would open their restaurant for a private group on Sunday evening. They consented to accommodate us and prepared a gourmet meal. Our compliments to the chef!