More than 20 descendants of the very early Klickitat County family of William Henry Leaton and Tamar Addie Barnes Leaton gathered at Darold and Janet Ward's residence near Northwestern Lake for a family reunion on Sept. 5.
This is the first Leaton Family Reunion since 1985. Cousins Frank Hunsaker from White Salmon, Frank's sister, Mary Ruth Brown, and Mary's husband Ralph Brown presented Family Tree findings that demonstrated Lucious Atwater Barnes and Kezia Almira Dexter Barnes were the common ancestors of the Leaton and Hunsaker families attending the reunion.
In the process, Frank Hunsaker and Darold Ward discovered they are third cousins. Others made even more profound discoveries.
The group enjoyed sharing stories, old pictures, poetry written by Tamar Leaton, and fellowship. For example, soon after Addie and William were married (Sept. 25, 1881), according to one source, Addie became the first teacher for a school located on the Missouri Flats along the Klickitat River. It is said that Addie was a descendant of Louisa Mae Alcott and often wrote poetry to describe things that interested her.
It has also been reported that Tamar Addie Barnes came to Lyle and taught school near Lyle before marrying William Leaton. They produced seven children who parented dominant Klickitat County families settling in Glenwood (James, Frank, and Cassie), in White Salmon (Orpha), and Bickleton (Ethel and Hazel). Winnie, born in Glenwood, lived in Yakima and other places in Washington state. All seven children of Tamar and William are now deceased with Winnie passing on in 2003.
Sue and Alan Atkins traveled from San Angelo, Texas, Faye Leaton Neff from the Spokane area, Harriet McCredy Manuel from Los Vegas, Nev., Lori and Tim Mackey from Newport, Ore., Elaine Duus Sinclair, from Gresham, Ore., and others from around Klickitat County.
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