Charles Leonard Eesley extended-family reunion at Highland Ridge — c. 1971–1972, with full labeled cast of twelve

An extended-family reunion of Charles Leonard Eesley’s descendants, photographed on a grassy hillside slope at the Highland Ridge Road property c. 1971–1972. The labeled version of this print, transmitted by Chuck Eesley June 2026, names every figure and reproduces the Charles Leonard + Lilly Dale Chenoweth Eesley children-roster reference box that frames the group’s relationships.

The full cast — left to right

The label below the photograph lists the twelve figures left to right:

1. Helen “Little Helen” (Eesley) Burnes — Will Eesley’s youngest sister, the youngest of Charles Leonard’s eight children, born 16 January 1924.
2. Katie Burnes — Helen Burnes’s daughter.
3. Mary (Eesley) Bean — Will’s older sister, author of the 1985 Eesley Family History register.
4. Donald “Don” Eesley — Will’s older brother.
5. Roberta Burnes — Helen Burnes’s daughter, Katie’s sister, keeper of the 1940s Eesley letter collection.
6. Anne Eesley — Will and Peggy’s second daughter, the scholar of Spanish who would teach at Hillsdale, The Citadel, and Grand Valley State.
7. Peggy (McMaster) Eesley — Will’s wife, Chuck’s paternal grandmother.
8. Mafry Smith Hyatt — “Dad’s cousin” — daughter of Lilly Chenoweth Eesley’s sister Dr. Sciota “Ota” Chenoweth Smith, the physician of the older generation.
9. Wilbur Chenoweth “Will” Eesley — Charlie’s father, Chuck’s paternal grandfather, the Highland Ridge architect.
10. Helen “Big Helen” (Alspach) Eesley — Leonard (“Len”) Eesley’s wife.
11. Peggy (Yeoman) Eesley — Don Eesley’s wife, the other Peggy of this generation.
12. Leonard “Len” David Eesley — Will’s eldest brother, with a camera at the far right of the frame.

Five of Charles Leonard’s eight children together

The reunion captures five of Charles Leonard and Lilly Dale Chenoweth Eesley’s eight children in a single frame:

• Leonard David Eesley (b. 19 November 1904)
• Donald Eesley (b. 24 September 1908)
• Wilbur Eesley (b. 6 October 1910, d. 2 June 1986)
• Mary Eesley Bean (b. 25 August 1913, d. 23 July 2002)
• Helen Eesley Burnes (b. 16 January 1924, d. 1 June 2000)

The three siblings not in the frame had died before this reunion: Dale Eesley (drowned at Black Lake July 1939), Lyle Eesley (Cabanatuan July 1942), and Jean Eesley (died as a small child 1925–1930 per the labeled roster). Plus the next generation by name and the cousin Mafry Hyatt from the Chenoweth side.

The labeled reference box on the print

The print’s annotation box lists the Charles Leonard + Lilly Dale Chenoweth children roster alongside the cast, with dates:

Charles Leonard Eesley (26 Sep 1879 to 9 Oct 1972) Lilly Dale Chenoweth (5 Aug 1877 to 1969)

Children of Charles Leonard and Lilly Chenoweth Eesley: Leonard Eesley (19 Nov 1904 to Jan. 1976) Dale Eesley (5 Aug 1906 to 14 Jul 1939) Donald Eesley (24 Sep 1908 to May 1975) Wilbur Eesley (6 Oct 1910 to 2 Jun 1986) Mary Eesley Bean (25 Aug 1913 to 23 Jul 2002) Lyle Eesley (Jun 1917 to 25 Jul 1942) Helen Eesley Burnes (16 Jan 1924 to 1 Jun 2000) Jean Eesley (1926—1930)

The roster is itself a small piece of family-history scholarship by whoever annotated the print — almost certainly Roberta Burnes, who has carried the Charles Leonard documentary layer further than anyone else in the next generation.

Why c. 1971–1972 — Roberta’s correction

In a June 2026 email, Roberta Burnes — one of the labeled figures and the family’s source for the print — corrected the previous c. 1979–1985 estimate that had been on this page:

This picture was taken much earlier than the late seventies date, probably around 1971 or 1972. I was born in 1963 and Katie in ‘65, and she can’t be much more than seven years old in this picture.

Roberta’s age-of-Katie anchor is the controlling evidence. Katie Burnes was born 1965; at age 7 she would have been in 1972; at 6 in 1971. The print captures the cousins at that young range — not the late-thirties Anne the earlier date had assumed.

Roberta also adds the social context the photograph sits inside:

After Grandpa died, Uncle Will started having family reunions at his place in Marietta. We went every year and it was always so much fun. I have pictures of the little curved bridge being built, harvesting from Aunt Peggy’s garden, and so much more from these times. I remember going to your [Chuck’s] parents’ wedding for one of those gatherings as well, the first wedding I’d ever been to.

Charles Leonard Eesley died 9 October 1972. The annual Will-and-Peggy-hosted Highland Ridge reunions that Roberta describes thus began around 1973. If this frame is c. 1971–1972, it sits at the beginning of that tradition or just before it — one of the earliest Will-hosted gatherings, with Grandpa Charles Leonard either too frail at age 92–93 to attend or just-recently gone. The frame is the founding document of the annual Highland Ridge reunion tradition that ran across the next decade and a half, the same decade that produced Will’s small red bridge, Peggy’s garden, and the family ritual that culminated in Charlie and Terrie’s wedding.

Why this is the most important Eesley-side reunion frame in the archive

A single photograph of five of the eight Charles Leonard Eesley children together does not survive elsewhere in this archive. The c. 1937–1939 Charles Leonard with his sons group portrait and the various dyadic and tryadic frames from the Four Generations deck cover slices of the family. This reunion photograph captures the early-1970s consolidation of the surviving sibling generation — all five siblings, three of their spouses, two of Helen Burnes’s children, Will and Peggy’s daughter Anne, and the Chenoweth-side cousin Mafry Hyatt, all together on a Highland Ridge hillside — just at the moment Charles Leonard’s death was opening the next chapter and Will was about to start the annual reunion tradition that would run through the rest of his life.

Source: Eesley family archive, transmitted by Chuck Eesley June 2026 with full labeled cast and Charles Leonard children-roster reference box.