A reunion for the generations

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photos by W. Cameron Phair Spencer family descendants gather for the traditional group photo. Below, kids are treated to face-painting and numerous other activities.

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NEAR MORDEN -- Starting in about 1905, Amanda Spencer suffered four straight miscarriages.

The miscarriages were as painful and heartbreaking as they would be today. She and husband, Ernest, were of Irish stock and had moved to the Morden area from South Gower, in the Ottawa Valley, the day after their marriage in August 1897.

It shows the mettle of Ernest that on the same day he married, he worked in the field threshing, purchased the train tickets to Morden, obtained a marriage licence and bought an ostrich fan as a gift to his bride -- it's still in the family -- and still made it to the wedding on time.

In other words, there was no quit in the Spencer family and not just when it came to making babies. The 120 descendants, who gathered recently for a family reunion on the original Spencer farm, are a testament to that. Amanda and Ernest would go on to have 10 children -- six more after the string of miscarriages.

The family reunion. "It's better than only meeting at funerals," said Adrian Phair, a grandchild.

Every five years, Spencer descendants from five different provinces -- and parts elsewhere, such as California -- gather in Manitoba to celebrate the fact that so-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so and so on, resulting in the miracle of each and every one of their births. They are certainly not alone. "We get a lot of visiting friends and relatives (VFRs). That's a big part of our (tourist) market," said Cathy Senecal, Travel Manitoba's manager of media relations.

One could expect Manitoba might get even more than other provinces, considering the size of out-migration from this province. However, Travel Manitoba could not produce comparative figures.

Visiting friends and family account for 39 per cent of visitors to Manitoba. They aren't as big spenders -- 28 per cent of tourist expenditures ($333 million out of a total $1.19 billion in 2009, the latest figures) -- partly because they often stay with family instead of in hotels.

The other tourism categories are pleasure, business and "other." Pleasure accounts for the most visits, 46 per cent. Those visitors are also the bigger spenders at 51 per cent of the total.

"I've heard some family reunions of 25 people and some approaching 200 to 250 people," said Senecal. "Some of the French families have big ones... That's my background. I can tell you that from experience."

Tourism Manitoba tried to tap into the popularity of family reunions with its Manitoba Homecoming 2010 campaign last year. It's hard to quantify how much the campaign prompted people to visit. Organizers estimate an economic return of about $30 million, about a 10 per cent uptick in VFR expenditures.

The Spencers are a little late for Homecoming 2010 but they didn't want to break their tradition of family reunions every five years.

Aunt Jean Spencer and her grown-up children host the events on the original farm where she still lives. Some people have a firm handshake. Aunt Jean has a firm hug, the kind people comment on. Your body needs to un-crimp afterward. She holds you there a little longer, too.

Amanda and Ernest's 10 children are all gone now. Aunt Jean is one of two remaining daughters-in-law.

The last to die was Aunt Jean's husband, Mervin, the youngest child. One son, Ralph, was killed at Normandy on D-Day. Several Spencers since have been named Ralph in his honour. His photo and military decorations were on display at the reunion.

This was their sixth family reunion (1950, 1976, 1993, 2001, 2006, 2011), so the Spencers have it down to a science. Registration started at 1 p.m. Friday, followed by a golf tournament and games for kids, then some fun at Hywire Zipline Adventures near Manitou (4 p.m.), then a pot-luck supper sponsored by local families under a big carnival tent (6 p.m.), then more games and visiting, then a bonfire at 9 p.m. Dinner seating is prearranged so people get to know other families.

Saturday is similarly scheduled with a barbecue, hayride, dunk tank, games, dinner, auction, open mike, kids' movie, fireworks and a bonfire. Also, people wear specifically coloured T-shirts on Saturday to indicate which branch of the family they are from: Uncle Orville's family in yellow, Uncle Mervin's red, Uncle Baden's green.

I arrived in time for the Sunday service in the same church Amanda and Ernest attended. This is another Spencer reunion tradition. The service is held in Dunston United Church, built in 1895, on Dunston Road (like the old posh-sounding Dunston cigarettes). About 50 people sat in the quaint 80-seat church.

One of the hymns was Little Brown Church in the Valley. The theme of the service was family, of course. "A family that honours and cherishes its roots... is a family that will continue to be honoured by God," said minister Karen Orchard. "One day we will all be joined again as family," she said in closing.

Then it was back to the farmstead, where people shared family stories and reminiscences. Amanda and Ernest initially lived in a turned-over hay rack when they arrived at this spot north of Morden.

They covered the hay rack with tar paper and lived there until Ernest could build their home.

Rocky Spencer, one of Aunt Jean's sons, said Ernest actually enjoyed "grubbing"--clearing trees to make farmland -- and liked to do it in his spare time. "He loved to grub-hoe. It is a man-maker of a job, I tell you," he said.

"He was 210 pounds at age 16, with a 16-inch neck. He was a strong man," said Arden Phair, who came from St. Catharines, Ont., of his grandfather, Ernest.

Ernest lived until 1964, longer than Amanda. The one thing he couldn't get used to was motor vehicles. He tried to drive a car once and ran through two fences and never tried again.

No one has a good answer why the Spencers remain strong together four generations later. However, everyone points to the importance of the original farmstead still being in the family. Aunt Jean still lives there, as does one son, Grant Spencer and his wife, Grace, in another house.

It gives people an actual place to return to. People are emotionally attached to the farm. It's also large enough for them to congregate. Carnival tents are set up for the event. Some people stayed in campers.

Arden Phair thinks the Spencers are part of a trend. "We're of the generation, the baby boomer generation, that I think is looking back at roots now and is really engaged with the past," he said.

Phair estimates about 350 people descended from Amanda and Ernest. And counting. "We just had nine new descendants this year," he said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 12, 2011 A6