Family celebrates Christmas, full century at Phillips farm in West Beth
The dozens of relatives who converged on a West Bethlehem Township on Christmas Day were there for more than the holiday this year – they were also celebrating a century on the land.
“This was absolutely a huge milestone for us to have 100 years in the same place,” Karen LeBlanc said.
Members of the far-flung clan traveled from as far away as Oregon and California to celebrate the holiday together on the land along Highland Ridge Road that Abraham and Celia Phillips bought in 1917. The farmhouse was moved onto the land from nearby, and everything was ready in time for them to celebrate their first Christmas there in 1918.
The couple raised a family of six sons and six daughters that would have ignited the envy of Abraham’s biblical namesake.
“Of the 12 original children, 11 of them were actually born in the farmhouse,” said LeBlanc, 54, of Washington.
Her mother, Rose Friend, is the youngest of those children, and still lives on the land.
Photo courtesy of Karen LeBlanc
Courtesy of Karen LeBlanc
Back row, center, Abraham and Celia Phillips pose with their 12 children in this photo from the late 1940s.
LeBlanc said the “glorious chaos” of the holiday recalled the family’s Christmas holidays during her own childhood when an average of 75 people would gather on the farm every year.
This year, there were 67.
“We were missing a lot because of illness (this year),” LeBlanc said.
Photo courtesy of Karen LeBlanc
Courtesy of Karen LeBlanc
Sisters-in-law Lilli Phillips and Helena Phillips, both 91, were among attendees at a family reunion on the 100-year-old Phillips farm in West Bethlehem Township.
Of the three living Phillips children, Friend and her older sister, Bonnie, were there for the holiday.
“It was just nice seeing some people I hadn’t seen for quite a while, in the family,” said Bonnie Phillips, who lives in Coshocton, Ohio.
She still has her family’s last name by happenstance. Her husband, Donald, happens to come from another family with the surname.
Her memories of the holidays while she grew up on the farm aren’t ones of abundance.
“We didn’t have any special stockings.” said Phillips, 83. Instead, she said the children used to hang up their regular stockings. At least, “I know that we girls did.”
“I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything,” she added. “Sometimes it was hard, but you look back on it, and it was a good life. Sometimes you don’t appreciate things until you’re older.”
Friend, 81, recalled one year when the kids all got a sled.
“We walked a mile to the school,” she said. “And a mile to the church, and some (other families) had less than we did.”
“We never thought of ourselves as poor,” Friend added.
Even as relatives moved away, holidays on the farm remained part of the family heritage.
“I just always cherish the memories,” said Phillips. “My husband and I have brought our four children here for Christmases and in the summer, and they just loved it. They have good memories, too.”