The Yoder Family in North Carolina, in conjunction with our 50th Annual Reunion,
will host our second gathering of the entire Yoder Clan on August 11-13, 2000,
in Hickory and Newton, Catawba County, North Carolina.

Similar events occurred in Catawba County in 1995, and in Reading and Pleasantville, Pennsylvania in 1996.
We're invitin, all y'all Yoders from all lines to celebrate our wonderful common heritage.

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The Quality Inn,
1725 13 th Ave. Drive NW --------- (U.S. Hwy. 321 at Clement Blvd., 2 miles north of I 40)
Hickory, NC 28601
(828-431-2100, fax 828-431-2109),

The Quality Inn, a new hotel featuring both individual rooms and suites- and free full- buffet breakfast- will serve as our host accommodation. The cost is $66/night, double occupancy. Call them to make reservations ASAP- and remember to tell them you're comin, down for the YODER REUNION! If you're a camper, Lake Hickory Campground is approximately 10 miles from most of the reunion sites, and is the nearest full- service campground.

The weekend will begin Friday night at the Quality Inn with a get- acquainted and orientation session featuring YNL editor Chris Yoder of Battle Creek, Michigan- some fun entertainment, and hors d'oeuvres. Sometime during the weekend, you'll actually meet "Conrad Yoder" and "Heinrich Weidner" themselves!

On Saturday morning beginning at 8:00 a.m., chartered motorcoaches will transport participants on a guided tour of the City of Hickory (its first mayor was Marcus Yoder) and Lenoir-Rhyne College (founded by Dr. Robert Anderson Yoder) where you will see the Yoder memorial and Virgil Yoder's wonderful slide show "The Yoders in Switzerland and America."

We will then proceed through the old "Yodertown" area (including the homesite and final resting place of North Carolina progenitor Conrad Yoder); Grace Union Church (founded 1795 by Yoders and the burial ground of many Yoders, including Conrad's sons John and David, and Col. George M. Yoder, Catawba's 19 th century historian); and Old St. Paul's Church (founded 1760, first church in Western N.C.); and the Catawba County Historical Museum (repository of many Yoder artifacts).

An indoor box- lunch picnic will be provided (included in the tour cost) with more entertainment while you eat!After lunch, we will tour the Museum, hear from representatives of the various Yoder lines, and from Gary R. Freeze, Ph.D, a Morehead Scholar and professor of history at Catawba College. Dr. Freeze is a noted historian and author of The Catawbans: Crafters of a North Carolina County (the first of a 2- volume work) who will captivate you as he easily and humorously recounts the early days of Catawba County pioneers. Dr. Freeze brings to life stories that have a direct relation to each of us- whether or not your name is now Yoder!

Also at the Museum on Saturday, the children and grandchildren of Fred R. Yoder, Ph.D., author of History of the Yoder Family in North Carolina, who have generously returned many Yoder artifacts to North Carolina and funded the History's reprinting in memory of Dr. Yoder and his work, will be present to help dedicate both the Yoder collection and his book.

The banquet Saturday night will be held in the Zion Lutheran Church parish building, just 10 minutes from the Quality Inn. Delicious down home Southern cookin, will be served by the Ellen Yoder Coffey Caterers. Don Yoder, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, will be the featured speaker. Dr. Yoder is an articles contributor to the Yoder Newsletter and one of the world's foremost scholars on Pennsylvania Dutch folklore and the immigration of Germanic- speaking people to the New World. He has authored and edited many books and articles and has traveled and researched extensively in both Germany and Switzerland. He is descended from the earliest Oley Valley Yoder immigrants, Hans and Yost Yoder, and counts at least three separate lines of Yoder descent in his genealogy. Don is a dynamic, humorous and scholarly speaker. Don't miss this opportunity to hear and meet one of our own most distinguished family members.

On Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m., an ecumenical Yoder clan worship service will be held in the 1886 chapel of Zion Church. The Rev. Dr. J. Larry Yoder, Professor of Religion at Lenoir-Rhyne College and Pastor of Grace Church, will lead the service. Marcus Yoder (first mayor of Hickory) provided some of the original funds to build this chapel, and its bricks were hand-molded at the Conrad Yoder homesite and at the nearby Reuben Yoder mills.

After the service just around the corner in the Zion parish building- we N.C. Yoders invite you to "come on over for Sunday dinner" (that's really lunch)- for more home cookin, and more surprises- at our 50th Annual Reunion and a chance to view the many Yoder displays brought for our Reunion, including Conrad Yoder's original Bible (ca. early 1700s).

Costs for the weekend events are: $15 registration/overhead; $17 bus tour and lunch, $18 banquet; for a total of only $50 per person for the whole weekend (excluding the hotel cost, of course)! Further information and a registration form will be mailed to all YNL subscribers soon after you receive this issue. Registration deadline is May 15, 2000.

Information will also be included about ordering Y2K-YNC shirts (with lots of spelling variations of "Yoder"), our now-famous Yoder crest (coat-of-arms) golf shirts, and reprints of History of the Yoder Family in North Carolina. Please order these items in advance-we hope to have very few left by August!

We're still working out the final details but we promise to have planned for you a full and exciting Yoder weekend in the South! Even though this gathering will be similar to our 1995 event, it will be different and you'll have an even better time this year! The hotel accommodations are great and we're going to have even more fun together than we did last time- singin, and dancin, and laughin, and sharin, and learnin, and eatin, and prayin,- and we'll remember those who were with us then.

So from Rachael, Bill, Ted, Regina, Neal, Richard, Larry, Rhoda, and all of us Yoders in North Carolina, "Y,all come on back!"

***Hickory is located 50 miles northwest of Charlotte, 85 miles east of Asheville, 75 miles west of Greensboro and Winston-Salem, and 25 miles west of the intersection of I-77 and I-40. U.S. Hwy. 321 connects I-40 to I-85 30 miles south of Hickory at Gastonia, just 15 miles from Charlotte downtown and airport. (Your registration packet will contain a N.C. state map.) Air service is available to Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh-Durham (with commuter service to Hickory). The Hickory Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau website is HYPERLINK http://www.hickorymetro.com
(telephone 800-509-2444). Call 1-800-VISITNC for North Carolina tourist information.

Hickory is the "Gateway to the Blue Ridge" for mountain attractions including the Biltmore House, Grandfather Mountain, and the Great Smokies- all less than 3 hours from Hickory. Dr. Robert Hart, a local physician and restoration benefactor, has developed Hart Square not far from Hickory- Newton. It's an authentic reconstruction of original local homesites, preserving the antiquities and heritage of our early ancestors. North and South Carolina beaches are 4-6 hours away and Old Salem is in nearby Winston-Salem. The Hickory Unifour area is home to "25 miles of furniture"- a large number of retail outlets including the two largest in the country, Catawba Furniture Mall and Hickory Furniture Mart.

We can be contacted at:

Yoder Family in North Carolina
POB 10371
Mtn View Station
Hickory, NC 28603

Bill Yoder 2707 Zion Church Rd.Hickory, NC 28602-9732
Ted Yoder email: tyoder@hickorychair.com 828-328-1802 ext 7115 work 828-294-0054 home
Rachael Hahn Kennedy email: rkennedy@rbh.com 704-350-7132 work704-455-5621 home
Neal D. Wilfong 310 Cook Rd, Cleveland, NC 27013 704-278-4922 home

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