Lemont Furnace to hold annual picnic
Lemont Furnace residents old and new are invited to the fifth annual Community Reunion Picnic on Saturday. The small, coal, patch town, built in 1891 through the combined efforts of Lemont Furnace Company and McClure Coke Co., is getting new and old residents together to celebrate their past and chat about the present and future. All comers will meet at the North Union Township Fire Hall around 10 a.m. for socializing, with dinner served at 3:30 a.m.
This year, picnic-goers will be treated to a catered lunch, instead of covered dishes, and all the Lemont Furnace citizens groups ask is for a dessert or a donation to help offset costs. After dinner, a community photo and family photos will be taken.
Event organizer Connie Bryner said many of the residents have common backgrounds stemming from playing together as children to serving in one another’s weddings.
After dinner, the Falcons band will take the stage at 5:30 p.m. to entertain the expected crowd of nearly 300 people, and “kids’ hour” gets under way at 6 p.m. For the younger group, a clown, face painting and a variety of games will keep the excitement going as the adults reminisce about the good old days. Door prizes will be awarded at 7:45 p.m.
As for what history there is to remember, Bryner said the citizens group has a pamphlet outlining the landmarks of the town.
A large number of the residents were born in Lemont Furnace or came while young and were raised there, then went on to see their children also raised there, said Bryner. While her mother was actually born in the small, now-faded-to-memory patch town of Tinderloin, she moved to Lemont Furnace just before her second birthday. Tinderloin was located in the area behind Lemont Furnace, where the ovens used to stand.
“One morning, they woke up and the front porch was gone. By nightfall, seven houses had fallen into the mine, so everyone moved to Lemont,” Bryner said.
And so the community grew. In its heyday, the village had a Union Supply and Community Center, which is now a beer distributor, and a community baseball team, she said.
The oldest building in Lemont Furnace still stands today and is in use as a home. Children from the patch town used to attend their own community school from kindergarten through eighth grade, until the building was closed in 1956. Not long afterward, the building was lost in a fire.
With an eye on their roots, the group is selling at this year’s picnic commemorative coffee mugs featuring the landmarks related to the village’s history.
The red-and-white mugs feature a cross for St. Cecilia’s Church, another with a flame for the United Methodist, the only two churches that have traditionally served the community of Slovaks and German-Irish. The mugs also feature a beehive coke oven, the railroad tracks and other local points of interest.
All the funds raised from the picnic and throughout the year are used to fund the annual bicycle education rodeos in the summer, the reunion picnic in the fall and the community light-up night the first Sunday after Thanksgiving.
The group also is working to replace the community honor roll, which was lost through vandalism and neglect.
For those who stay for the entire weekend, a memorial service will be held at St. Cecilia’s beginning at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, with a coffee and donut social afterward. The service is dedicated to all residents of Lemont Furnace, both living and deceased.
In the true spirit of community, the North Union Fire Department is contributing to the picnic. Through sponsors and donations, the firefighters sponsor the annual fireworks display at the end of the night, around 10 p.m.