Renovo at 150 – The Sixty-Five Association
by Lou Bernard
Renovo was officially incorporated on May 26, 1866, making this year the community’s 150th anniversary. You know all this. I’ve been writing about it for weeks now. What you may not know is that it’s far from the first time Renovo has celebrated its founding.
This has been a long time coming, and even back then, they knew they were making history. Some of the early settlers came to Renovo in 1865, and campaigned to incorporate the community.
Twenty years later, the survivors got together for a reunion, with the intent of creating a group and a celebration to commemorate the anniversary.
They called themselves “The Sixty-Five Association.”
As group names go, it’s not as catchy as “Justice League” or “The New York Mets.” But it was enough for these guys, who spread the word that they were looking for residents of the town from 1865 to help.
They met at Harvey’s Hall on a Saturday evening in May, gathering to discuss what they wanted to do for a celebration. Elections were held, and Joseph Kendig was elected president of the group. Kendig was a distinguished citizen of Renovo, and a veteran of the Civil War. Before his death in 1905, he was known as one of Renovo’s oldest citizens.
John P. Dwyer was elected as secretary. Dwyer was much younger, but counted as an early settler because he’d been born there in 1865. He had begun his career working for the Renovo Evening News at age fifteen, and later grown up to manage the Record.
The men discussed what they wanted to do about the twenty-years anniversary of Renovo.
The Clinton Democrat mentioned it in a column entitled “Latest From Renovo” on May 20, 1886. It was sandwiched in between a piece on the electric lights in town, and a preacher giving a sermon about Hell. The article said,”Committees were appointed to devise plans for a proper reunion and celebration, the general sentiment favoring an excursion to some point of those who are eligible for membership and the members of their families.”
The men talked about their plans for a while, most likely over a few drinks, and then adjourned the meeting with a promise to return the next Saturday night and talk about it some more. Probably over a few more drinks.
The group did meet a week later, same time, same place, to talk further about their plans. The Democrat commented that the “Sixty-Fivers” were meeting again, also referring to them as “old-timers” and speculating on what they were going to do to celebrate, exactly. (I feel the need to point out that at least one of these “Old-timers,” Dwyer, was twenty.)
Initially, it’s not too clear if the Sixty-Fivers were all that clear on their plans, either. They were pretty adamant that there were, in fact, plans of some sort, but they weren’t exactly precise about what those plans were. They knew that they’d founded a community twenty years ago, however, and by God, there was going to be some sort of an event to celebrate it.
It turned out to be a picnic. Held along the Sinnemahoning at the end of the month, it acted as both a celebration and a reunion for the men, who hadn’t drifted far from Renovo and didn’t particularly need to be reunited. But it was a pleasant event anyway. The men and their families came out, and had a good time.
They were the Sixty-Five Association. They were men who founded a community, and twenty years later, they wanted to remember it. But they had plans, enjoyable plans. Since the current anniversary is over seven times the length of that one, this year better be over seven times as good.
