Mills, Horn, Crum Reunion this weekend
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN STAFF
INEZ — For 114 years, the Turkey Creek community in Inez has celebrated a special homecoming event. This event — the “Mills, Horn and Crum Reunion” or “September Meeting” — begins this weekend.
Anyone who wishes is invited to attend the services and eat with families who have prepared a meal.
This year’s activities begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Turkey Creek Church of the Nazarene. The Glory Way Quarter will hold a concert at the church. This is a dynamic group that typifies good gospel music. Everyone is invited to attend.
Sunday morning service will begin at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 4 at the Mills Cemetery on Turkey. Once again, the Glory Way Quartet will be delivering the music. Dr. Garrett Mills will lead the memorial service. A rose will be handed out to family members who have lost loved ones during the year.
The reunion on the Mills Cemetery on Turkey Creek was started in 1908 by patriarch Jim Mills to honor his wife, who had passed away earlier in the year. The circuit rider could not conduct a funeral service at the time of her passing, so Jim started the service as a memorial to his wife.
According to Charles Mills, the September Meeting moved “on the hill” for the first time 114 years ago but is much older. In the late 1800s, the meeting took place at the church schoolhouse at the mouth of Dry Fork.
“Once a year, in September, they had their September meeting,” Mills said. “They would gather there and have their dinner there.”
Intertwined with the Mills family are the Horns and Crums, who married into the family. All believe the service has lasted long because it focuses on church and family.
Each year, hundreds gather to attend the services and enjoy the company of family. After the Sunday morning service, family and friends gather at homes to enjoy a delicious meal.
Mills recalls the long-held tradition from his childhood. Next to the schoolhouse was a jockey, where men did their cattle, horse and livestock trading.
“It was kind of like a mega stock market,” said Mills. “They would have church and do their funerals. They didn’t have a preacher here, so the circuit rider would come and do everybody’s funeral that had died that year.”
After the September Meeting moved to the hill in 1908, dinner was in the orchard.
“All that side of the hill over there was big fine apple trees,” said Mills. “The women would start making pies on Thursday in the old wood stove. Poppy always had a late patch of beans and a late patch of corn, so we had lots of vegetables and lots of apples. And Poppy always saw that we had a special hog — and sometimes they would do a sheep — and always chickens, lots of chickens. They’d butcher them on Friday and cook them on Saturday. Sometimes they would cook them out in open kettles, especially the sheep.”
Those September Meetings were basically the same as the current meetings – a time when people come together in peace and harmony to memorialize those they have loved and lost and to celebrate family, those relating genetically through blood, and those relating through the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“They had huge dinners. They had people coming from far and near. By 10 o’clock, you could hear the wagons coming up the hollow,” said Mills. “There was lots of eatin’ and lots of pickin’ and singin’.”