Calling all Kennebec Scotts and Olden Coxes to a fall 2016 gathering!

Harvey Scott | Oct 05, 2016

About 1855, Daniel Scott and Phoebe Parks, of American Loyalist families, came with their young family up the Salmon River from Hay Bay and Sheffield and settled on the river just below the current Arden town site. They made a livelihood there and other places in Kennebec and their children had families there and many remain today, living happily with an ever-greater extended Scott family, marrying with other settlers and later arrivals. Other Scotts arrived about the same time and have also stayed here.

In the 1860s and 70s, two Cox families arrived from St. Giles, Quebec and settled in the Mountain Grove area; a third family stayed in Quebec. They had emigrated from County Monaghan, Ireland early in the 1830s. They farmed and thrived in Olden and Kennebec and joined in marriage with other families in the area, and many continue to enjoy lives here in Central Frontenac.

Other Scotts and Coxes together with other families have moved to other parts of Ontario, Western Canada and the United States in search of new jobs, livelihoods and other opportunities. In the early 1900s we saw large numbers of our ancestors leave to take up farms on the Prairies. Although some have returned and some come back for holidays, some emigrant Coxes and Scotts have never been back and have lost touch with kin who have stayed to look after our homelands.

For many years some of us 'from away' have thought about coming back for a Kennebec and Olden reunion. Some of us have worked together on family history and have been able to reconnect somewhat in that way. While we have thought about gathering, many of our elders and family knowledge carriers have passed on, taking all their experience and wisdom with them. Every year it’s too late to meet and learn from some of our history carriers. We need to get together now!

So, although it’s last-minute, a small group of us have decided to begin the important process of gathering family together Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16. We call out to all Kennebec Scotts and Olden Coxes and their related families to gather back in their homelands to get to know each other, to visit and share our stories, our family histories and our place in it and to have some family fun!! Please bring your old family pictures, film, Bibles, memorabilia and keepsakes. Come prepared to share your stories - humorous and serious!

The gathering is free and open to all with an interest in getting together and sharing our family experiences and history. We will visit the old family home sites and trails. On Saturday Elders Leigh and Dale Scott will guide us around the Daniel Scott and Phoebe Parks sites. Cox descendants will show us around the Cox family homesteads. We will have lunch together, on Saturday at the Arden Legion and on Sunday at the Mountain Grove Community Hall, and give thanks to the generosity of family who have stayed here and kept the homelands and the home fires burning while the rest of us were away.

We will have family histories available for you to study, change and add to with your own family tree. Kellie Cox Love and other genealogists will be with us to help. Family pipe major Reg Scott of the Kalamalka Highlanders Pipe Band, who was born here in Arden, will call us to gather, celebrate our ancestors at the old homesteads and salute them at the burial grounds.

We invite you to join us at this inaugural Kennebec Scott and Olden Cox gathering October 15 & 16. For information please contact:

Harvey & Evelyn Scott; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 780-675-4158

Reg & Heather Scott: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 250-545-4280

Sherri Scott: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 613-335-3759

Kellie Love: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 705-439-2983