George & Dora Hatch reunion!

I went to Arizona for Pioneer Celebration/Heritage and George P & Dora Palmer Hatch family reunion. It was a wonderful reunion planned by my cousin Jodi. She put in so much time and thought into everything and it showed, even though my pictures don't show all the fun that I had.

The reunion started on July 16th at 1:00 pm, Patti was only able to come for Thurs. so off we went with our parents for our own personal tour of Taylor and the surrounding areas in the morning. My mother was born in Taylor and spent many a year there. But she was funny and she said frequently "I don't remember that being there", well you moved over 60 years ago. I hope things have changed.This museum in the former general goods store of my great, great grandparents, Alma & Alzada Palmer. His original store was in Snowflake and later he purchased this building in Taylor for his store. Alma Z. Palmer was one of the very first settlers in this Northern Arizona area, and many of his descendants still live there.
His wife also has a very interesting history and story, here is a short read about Alzadas' history.
George P. and Dora Palmer Hatch are my Grandparents. They owned this store until my mother was 6 years old. They lost their business because of the generosity of my grandfather and giving many, many people (and family) in the town; credit. The people couldn't pay so the store was lost, (George burned the very large stack of credit receipts so no one would know who owed him and be embarrassed).
All of these Palmer/Hatch descendants had a store in this building for a while.

This is headstone of my Great Grandparents John & Jane Hatch (Mary Jane Standifird), George Phineous Hatchs' parents.
Here is the resting place of Katy Hatch (my Grandfather's sister), scroll down a little farther for more information about her and her short life. She is buried next to her parents in Taylor, Arizona cemetery.
Now I'm in Woodruff, Arizona in the small cemetery there. As you can tell it is a very desolate place. I think it was 110 degrees while I was there. Her husband and his other wives are buried in Utah, and she is here alone. The life of Alice Hanson Hatch link.
This is a picture of the damn in Woodruff as it stands today. Lorenzo Hill Hatch was called to Northern Arizona to colonize, and one of the first things that they did was to build a damn so that they could farm. The stones were huge, and the first three damns would wash out during the rainy season because of the great rainfall. This fourth one was built a little farther up the river and has stayed today. Amazing.
Here are my parents at the Woodruff damn, we spent the week together. I slipped back into the daughter roll and let them take me where they wanted (I played the part well, sitting in the back of the car with my ipod).
Jodi and her husband Keith arranged for us to go horseback riding while we were there, mine was a very short ride (I wasn't feeling well), but enough for a picture.
The next day we drove to Pine Top, AZ to go to the Katy memorial but first we stopped and had lunch together and told the story of her life (we were kicked off the land by an Indian Marshall even though we had a permit), but he guided us straight to the memorial that was on Indian land but we were allowed to be there.
The Katy story is a part of my history, I remember my mother telling me this story when I was young and I remember it being sad but oh, so intriguing, and then as an adult making me weep as I viewed this story as a mother. Grab a kleenex and read her story, told by Katy's sister who was 11 years old at the time. Here is a shorter version from the news paper if you would like a short read.
Everyone in this picture is one of the originals (my mom and her sisters), and then first cousins and their spouses. There was another pic took of everyone that came to the monument grandkids, great-grandkids, and so on, but too many people.
Here I am after shooing the little kids off the monument (there are three kids behind, they didn't want to leave). So many places I went, so many people I saw that I hadn't seen in a while. It was a great blessing to be able to go and share my genealogy with so many wonderful family that I love. Thanks for a great reunion at the land of my (part of)heritage.