17th Reunion

The 17th annual reunion of the Pidcock Family was held at Neeley's Mills August 24, l929, with one hundred and fifty in attendance.

The President, F. Raymond Pidcock of Trenton, New Jersey, presided. Dr. Crooks, pastor of the Thompson Memorial Church offered a prayer. F. Raymond Pidcock eulogized our ancestor, the first settler, John Pidcock and then introduced George Pidcock of Bloomsbury, New Jersey, who served as program chairman. After a few brief remarks, he introduced Mrs. Annie Pidcock Davey who made the presentation address in which she emphasized the pride that is felt to have sprung from such honored stock. The bronze tablet on the rugged boulder was unveiled near the former home of John Pidcock, now the Thompson-Neely House, by Anna Pidcock of Moultrie, Georgia and Edith Pidcock, daughter of J. Cooper Pidcock of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, both direct descendants of John Pidcock. The bronze tablet bore the following inscription:

The bronze tablet was accepted by the Honorable Allan W. Hagenbach, President of the Washington Crossing Park Commission of Pennsylvania. Mr. Hagenbach asked the question, "Is it proper to have ancestors?" He commended the descendants of John Pidcock for marking the hallowed spot and urged that they make some recognition of the graves on top of Bowman's Hill. He promised that the commission would preserve the graves.

Samuel Eastburn, the historian, gave an interesting account of the history linked with the locale. He told of the services which the Pidcocks had rendered to their country; one being the running of a ferry during the Revolutionary War, the contributing flour from their mills to our troops, and another being their military record. He brought the history through the present generation, eulogizing the services of the Honorable James Nelson Pidcock, prominent in the affairs of state during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.