Fort Dodge Messenger, Friday, August 20, 1976 3-family reunion tradition of 45 years comes to an end The Kinne, Kramer and Schram families met for ther 46th --- and final --- reunion in Loomis Park Sunday. As a special program for the final reunion, the Wilbur Schrams of Clear Lake displayed the family tree --- descendants of the August Schram family. Recalling the days of the first reunion and history of the Kinne family by others present, members were invited to the Robert Theiss home nearby for a social afternoon and business meeting. The Kinne, Kramer and Schram reunion tradition began at the Martin Johnson home near Gowrie on Thursday, Aug. 6, 1931 by Mrs. Martin Johnson (the former Madge Kinne) and Mrs. Fred Theiss (Tillie Kramer) of Fort Dodge. The initial event was planned to honor their cousin, Miss Dena Schram of Norfolk, Nebraska, who was visiting Iowa relatives. Letters were written, telephone calls made, and the first reunion was held on Aug. 9 at Oleson Park. The families also invited the August and Will Schram families, the Alvin and Henry Kramer family descendants and the Henry Miller family, bringing together pioneers and descendants of pioneers, all of whom had homesteaded near Dayton. Later many reunions were held at Dolliver Park with more than 100 attending. The bonds between the three families began back in 1867 when, on July 9, Fuhrman Heinrich Kinne , 45, of Roklum, Kreise of Halberstat in the Province of Saxony, Germany, applied for emigration papers to North America. He planned to emigrate with his wife and four children: Wilhelmina (Mrs. Charles Schram, Norfolk, Neb.); Heinrich Christian , Dayton; Friedrich Heinrich , Buffalo Center and Blue Earth, Minn., and Johanne (Mrs. August Kramer), Dayton, now all deceased. The emigration permission was granted by the Royal Prussian government, and in August the family sailed from Bremen, Germany. They came ashore at Castle Garden in the New York Harbor. From there they traveled by train to Proviso, Ill. (later stockyards were built there), and they farmed in that area. They stayed with Mrs. Kinne's sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Christoph Miller , who later came to Iowa and settled on land now utilized for the Girl Scout Camp near Dayton. In 1868 the Kinnes also came to Dayton, settling on a farm now known as the Earl Blair place. The Schram family, who had settled earlier, occupied the area known as the Grabenhorst farm near the Millers. They all lived through many hard times. There were no roads in those days, just trails across the country through the prairie grass. (Walking was a popular mode of travel, one of the pioneers noted.) The late Charles Schram, who was a pioneer railroad engineer between Boone and further west, often recalled how the Indians had resisted the invasion of the white man by train, and piled dead buffalo on the rails to stop him. An early history of the Kinne family was written by Mrs. Johnson and the late Mrs. Ross Shurtleff of Norfolk, neb.