Benge Family celebrates 110th reunion in Hillsdale

The Benge family recently celebrated its 110th family reunion at Lewis Emery Park in Hillsdale.

The family first held a reunion 115 years ago and this year’s event included 60 family members from multiple states as far away as Florida and Texas.

Mary Shellenbarger said the first Benge family reunion was in 1907 by the children of John and Mary Ann (Goldsmith) Benge to honor their deceased parents who immigrated from Kent County, England, to Waterville, New York, in 1853 and then to Allen in 1857 where they raised eight children.

The first reunion was at the farm home of Herbert and Alice Benge on U.S. 12 just east of Quincy and reunions took place annually every summer except for four years during WWII due to gas rationing and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shellenbarger said.

Through the 1990s, the reunions were typically held at someones home and then were held at various parks with the Allen Village Park in Allen being the most common location.

Many descendants of John and Mary Ann Benge live in Hillsdale, Lenawee and Washtenaw Counties but also reside all over the United States. One lives abroad in Vienna, Austria, Shellenbarger said.

The Benge family historical information and memorabilia will be donated to the Mitchell Research Center in Hillsdale, Shellenbarger added, noting that participants in this years reunion all received commemorative items.

This year was the last year for the larger reunion, Shellenbarger reported, noting that many branches of the family will likely continue to gather for smaller reunions for years to come.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Benge Family celebrates 110th reunion in Hillsdale