Waters Family to meet in Malta for 100th Picnic

For 99 years the Waters have held a family picnic during mid-June in Phillips County, and this Sunday members of the family will be meeting in Malta to celebrate the 100th Annual Waters Family Picnic.

“We are looking for 150 people to show up, coming from as far as Helena and a few from out of state,” said Donny Waters.

Donny’s son, Scott, said that Alba was the first Waters into Montana and Phillips County. He said that if he had to guess that he would estimate around 30 Waters in Phillips County and most of them are Farmers or Ranchers.

Actually, there have been Waters in Phillips County for 102 years, but Claire Waters admits that the big family get together is a couple of years behind schedule.

“Alba showed up here in 1912,” Claire said. “He and his brothers, Shield ( to Montana in 1913) , Turner (to Montana in 1914) and Jon (to Montana in 1915) came here from Southern Illinois.”

The Waters first hit North America in the mid 1600’s and like many immigrants of the time, the Waters were indentured servants when they first arrived here.

“Jon Waters was an indentured servant for 10 or 15 years” Claire said. “He came over from Whales. He got on a ship in Bristol, England in 1642.”

After touching down in Maryland in 1642, the Waters also posted-up in Tennessee before making their way to Montana.

Clair said that at the time, from what he knows of his family history, competition in the field of sharecropping was fierce. He said that the Waters continued to move west each farming season because of the competitive nature of sharecropping in the east. The early Waters led a nomadic existence for many years before finally, over 100 years ago, they finally landed in Montana, where they stuck.

“They really didn’t have anything to go back to,” Claire said. “There was nothing to go back to.”

Claire’s Great Grandfather, Turner, brought sorghum corn seed with him from Illinois, planted it in Phillips County his first year here and saw a nice yield.

“He plowed up a little patch, had a good crop that year and thought he was in Heaven,” Claire said. “Of course, since then we have learned that this isn’t corn country, but it rained so much that first year that he had a good crop.”

Unfortunately, Disappointment wasn’t far behind, as the corn crop wasn’t as fruitful as the first year here, Claire said, but things got better and Phillips County became home.

On Friday the Waters will be holding a family get together, on Saturday, the Waters will be given tours of the farms of Donny and Scott’s property and Sunday the public is invited to join the Waters for a potluck picnic at Trafton Park.

“We have had a Water’s family picnic in the park for 100 years,” Claire said. “We try to have it around June 12 which was my grandfather’s (Turner) birthday. The public is sure welcome to come on down and join us.”

The picnic is set to begin following church on Sunday and if the weather turns sour, the festivities will be taken indoors to one location or another.

“Sometimes we have really nice weather for the picnic and sometimes not,” Claire said. “But we will have the picnic one way or another.”