THREE RIVERS — One hundred years after celebrating the safe return of family who fought in World War I, descendants of Uriah Mason Adams and Jane McKain Adams will gather to mark the 100th annual Adams-McKain Reunion at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 with a dinner at Pine View Golf Club, 52065 Pulver Road, Three Rivers.

That first family gathering was hosted July 6, 1919, at the home of Horace Chester Adams and his wife Roxanna at what is now the Centennial Farm, Porter Township, Van Buren County. The first reunion honored the safe return of Capt. Ross Uri Adams, MD, who was assigned to the surgical team in St. Mihiel, the Meuse and Argonne, and Lt. Harry Alford Adams, who was stationed with the infantry in France. Grace Daly Adams, an Army nurse and the wife of Dr. Adams, was also honored at the “Welcome Home” assembly. Guests at that first gathering so enjoyed the event they vowed to meet again the next summer.

Adams’ ancestors have had a proud military tradition and family members have served in nearly every war in American history dating back to Lt. Joel Adams who fought in the American Revolution, family members said. The Adams and McKain families have lived in Cass and Van Buren Counties since the Horace Hale Adams family moved to the area in 1839.

Throughout the past century, reunions have remained in southwest Michigan and have been hosted at locations including: The Centennial Farm, Hudson Memorial Building in Marcellus, the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery, Portage City Park, Upjohn Park, Kalamazoo, and various other sites.

Correspondence between family members connected reunion guests and a Reunion Committee comprised of a president, secretary and treasurer assumed most of the organizational tasks from year to year.

Family members said they wanted to give special mention to the late Hyldred (Adams) Gale and her daughter Barbara Lucille Gale, who acted as reunion secretaries for most of the past 100 years. They created binders that have chronicled the history of the Adams-McKain Family reunions through the decades. Robert Brown continues the work of Barbara and her mother.

In honor of the 75th Reunion James Ross Adams started a newsletter and served as editor until Brown took over duties of editor in 2006. George Adams is currently president of the Reunion Committee.

Adams family members attending them 100th Reunion are descended from Robert Adams of Newbury, Massachusetts, who in 1635 became the first of the family to come to this country. Jane Woods McKain, arrived with her family in Honeyeye Falls, New York, after immigrating to America in 1847 from Ireland.

The July 21 reunion members are direct descendants of Jane Woods McKain and her husband Uri Mason Adams and is expected to draw nearly 100 family members from as far as Montana, Maryland, North Dakota, Virginia, as well as throughout Michigan and neighboring states of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.