At Last! Time to Get Together for Another Gleaves Reunion

What: 2012 Gleaves Family Association Reunion

Who: You, any descendant of Matthew Gleaves, any descendant of another Gleaves, or anyone who likes spending time with the Gleaves.

When: Wednesday, October 10 through Saturday, October 13, 2012

Where: Mt. Juliet, Wilson County, Tennessee (a few miles east of Nashville)

Why:  Fun, Food, Family

This year we will be meeting at the Victory Baptist Church (1777 Tate Lane, Mt. Juliet, TN) in their Fellowship Hall with a state-of-the-art sound and media system, plenty of seating, parking, and restrooms, and access to their kitchen with warming ovens & refrigeration.  We will have new and interesting programs on the Gleaves family; visits to local Gleaves cemeteries and to Fiddler’s Grove where we will view a cabin built by a Gleaves and lived in by Gleaves descendants and wonderful meals served by local caterers.

We are currently busy getting the final costs together and preparing the registration form, which will be sent to you by the first of July and after we have received your updated information.  In the meantime, you need to make plans for your accommodations.

Hotel: Quality Inn
            1000 Hershel Drive, Mt. Juliet, TN
            Web site: http://www.qualityinn.com/hotel-mt_juliet-tennessee-TN498
            Local phone#: 615.779.3600

            Tell them you are with the Gleaves Family Reunion
            Reservations MUST be made by Sep. 26, 2012 to insure the rates below.
            All rooms are non-smoking.
            There is one handicap accessible room available in our block of rooms.            

            Special reunion rates, including complimentary continental breakfast:
                        One queen bed: $56 + tax per night
                        Two queen beds: $64 + tax per night
                        Suite that sleeps six: $72 + tax per night

RV Facilities: Cedars of Lebanon State Park
                      328 Cedar Forest Road, Lebanon, TN 37090
                      Web site: http://tn.gov/environment/parks/Cedars/
                      Local phone#: 615.443.2769
                      Park Manager: Kenny Daniel

                    Notes: About 15 minutes from Mt. Juliet, 6 miles south of I-40
                        $20 per night includes water & electricity.  They have a dumping station.
                        They will not take reservations but should have plenty of spaces in October.
                        Campers should call a few days ahead.
                        TN senior residents can receive a discount with their state driver’s license.
                        Other RV facilities closer to the meeting place have long term construction workers renting and seldom have available space.

Reunion Attire: Casual, comfortable clothes and shoes.

What to Bring:
            Family photos and documents to share.  To add these to the GleavesFamily.com web site, bring copies on a CD or flash drive, or we will have a scanner available for copying.

            Auction items:  bring items to donate to the Saturday auction where the proceeds will be used to support the Association activities, such as the web site, postage, etc.  The bidding gets very lively, especially for items that you make yourself.

Your assignment:

            Click here for the information form.  Complete this form and return as soon as possible to receive the reunion registration form.  

            Make hotel reservations

            Collect your items to bring for sharing and the auction.

Rufus Turner Letter

Pierre Babasin reached us using the Contact page to tell us about a family letter that he owned and then gave us permission to add it to our Letters Section.  Click here for this letter.  He also told us about using the Goodspeed History of Cheatham County to research his family and provided its link which you can find under the Links Section.

Pierre,  thank you for sharing this with us.

If you have a family document that you would like to share with us and have preserved on this web site, let us know by using the Contact page.

The Care and Cleaning of the Thomas Gleaves Cemetery - 2011

For several years, Gleaves family members have been caring for this half acre cemetery located in the Burning Tree Apartment complex in Nashville, TN.  The cemetery is surrounded by a fence with a small gate opening.  During storms this past spring, many large trees fell damaging the fence.  This fence needs to be repaired and the gate replaced by a wider one to allow larger equipment access to keep the cemetery mowed.  The cost for these repairs is estimated to be about $500.  To support these family members who provide the physical labor with your financial contribution towards these repairs and continued upkeep of this cemetery as well as other Gleaves cemeteries (Absalom,  Michael and Gleaves-Clements), click here for the Contact page.  Let us know of your willingness to contribute any amount and detailed instructions will be emailed to you.  Thanks in advance for your support.

 
As you can see, the cemetery had become overgrown. 

 Through various family contacts, including the Director of Metro Beautification and the Court Ordered Community Service program,  the Sheriff’s Crew for mowing and clearing of cemeteries  was enlisted to help get the cemetery cleaned up.  Prior to their arrival, Owen Gleaves cut the downed trees into manageable sizes that could be carried off.  On Wednesday morning, August 17, Metro Public Works trucks arrived with equipment and a crew of about 25 people including 5 supervisors to clear and clean the cemetery.  The workers were serving their court ordered community service sentences.  From the after pictures, you can see that they worked hard and did a good job.  See the gallery for all of the pictures of the cemetery cleaning.

Arrangements have been made to add this cemetery to the regular rounds of the Sheriff’s Crew and it will be cleaned three times a year.  In September they will return and rake the entire cemetery.

New Content Recently Added

Here are links to Content added recently with the date added:

12/5/2011 Writings of Laura Keene Gleaves, the wife of Dr. Charles Wythe Gleaves and the great-grandmother of the webmaster: her magazines, journals and Biblical poems.

10/28/2011 Rufus Turner letter

8/11/2011 The final installments for the Gleaves in the 1850-1930 Census Records

Matthew Gleaves, Sr; Matthew Gleaves (son of William); & Sarah Gleaves Allen & her descendants.

8/07/2011 James Turk Gleaves & his descendants in the 1850-1930 Census Records

8/07/2011 Nancy Gleaves in the 1850-1930 Census Records

8/04/2011 Esther Gleaves Finley & her descendants in the 1850-1930 Census Records

7/29/2011 Margaret Gleaves Turk & her descendants in the 1850-1930 Census Records

7/14/2011 All documents loaned to us by the Dunkley family have been scanned and loaded to the web site in the Letters and Diaries section of the Family History.  New additions include:

James Turk Gleaves'

memo book from 1819,
his ledger beginning in 1836
and his ledger beginning in 1854.

James Turk Gleaves, Jr's record book of the Union Debating Society of Floyd Institute beginning in 1850. Some of the questions they considered were:

Ought capital punishment to be abolished?
Who serves the most, a warrior or a statesman?
Have the Indians received more or less from the whites than the Negroes?
It is probable that the Union will be dissolved in fifty years.
S. C. ought to secede from the Union.
There is more pleasure derived from the pursuit of an object than from the procession of it.

The account book for the Wythe Minute Men kept by Robert Harvey Gleaves beginning in 1860.

The ledgers and order book kept by James Taylor Gleaves from 1909 to 1945 after he inherited the family farm from his father, Robert Harvey Gleaves.

4/1/2011  Ramsey Family in Census and discussion of names

6/12/2011 New military cemeterie

Who was Matthew Gleaves' Father?

Several Gleaves cousins are having a spirited debate on this subject.  Do read what they have been saying, clcik here.

New Documents Added

New document categories have been added in the Family History Section.  During the Blunt Gleaves Reunion, family members shared documents that they had collected with us and those have been added to this section.  If you have documents you would like to include on the web site, use the Contact page to let us know about them.

Sam Gleaves and His Music

Sam Gleaves is a talented, young member of our Gleaves Family.  To learn more about him and his music, click here.

Thomas Benjamin 'Blunt' Gleaves Family Reunion

Gleaves Family members at the reunion.

The reunion was a great success and besides that, it was a lot of fun.  To read & see more about the reunion, click here.

To see pictures, click here

Gleaves Family Association in Pictures

While you are waiting for us to get the new site up and running properly. click on the title above and watch a history of the Gleaves Family Association in pictures.

Our Newly Redesigned Web Site

At our 2005 Reunion in Nashville, Tennessee, it was suggested that we develop a web site for our Gleaves Family Association.  We had no idea at that time what a success this venture would turn out to be.

We have added family history books written by our members, included cemetery information about Gleaves burial locations, and added historical letters written by and for our Gleaves ancestors.  We have posted information about past reunions as well as information for future reunions.

Most of all, the site has allowed us to reach out and find unknown (to us) family members.  We have heard from people all over the world.  Cousins have contacted us wanting to know how they fit into this family.

As a result of all of this activity, we outgrew our old site.  We had reached the limit on the number of cemeteries we could add.  Navigating the letters was awkward, cumbersome and time consuming.  Our repository for pictures incurred an annual fee.  We only had search capability for our letters.  In other words, we were bursting at the seams.

After much discussion with our web site server provider and research on other possibilites for the site, we have decided to continue with our same server provider and use their current, state-of-the-art software to maintain the site.  All of the content from the existing site is currently being moved to this site using the new software.

Please browse through the site and look at the changes:

• Content has been moved to a more logical arrangement
  • all family history items are in a section together; 
  • activities of the association have been moved together showing both the business of the association and family member activities such as cemetery cleanings, hobbies, etc
  • the gallery shows a cover for each of our picture albums.  These can be clicked on and the entire album easily viewed.
  • our ever important Contact page has a new optional ability for you to indicate your Gleaves line in the communication
• There is a new navigation path at the top of the page content (called 'bread crumbs' in the industry) to help you find your way back out of the 'forest' you have wandered into.
• A search of the site is soon to be available that will search ALL of the content on the site, including the histories, cemeteries, letters, etc.

There is a cost involved in setting up this new site which you will be able to see in the financial statement.  We currently have the money to cover this expense, but it will use up most of our treasury.  You might like to become a member of the $100 club or renew your membership (see the 2009 business meeting minutes for more information).

As always we want to hear from you.  You can use the Contact page to reach us.  Tell us what you think of the new site/design; what would you like to see added/changed; would you like to contribute to the content of the site or even to the cost.  In other words, whatever is on your mind.

Enjoy this Labor of Love!