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Asbury Park Press, 10 August 1980, page A3
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Former state Sen. Richard R. Stout and his daughter, Penelope,
look at the Penelope Stout First Lady of Monmouth medallion on
display yesterday during the 52nd reunion of the Stout Family Association.
Stout family marks its 52nd reunion at Middletown
church
MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP — They came from all over the country, the Stouts, to
commemorate a family heritage that began 360 years ago with a shipwreck off
Sandy Hook.
The Stout Family Association, actually one of several Stout family
associations throughout the United States, held its 52nd reunion at the
Middletown Reform Church, Kings Highway, yesterday.
The church is not far from where Penelope and Richard Stout settled in the
mid 1600s to become one of the first 35 families to homestead in Monmouth
County, said Eric G Errickson, association president.
Penelope Van Princis married Richard Stout, an English sailor, after she
and her first husband were shipwrecked at Sandy Hook. Her, first husband
was killed in an Indian attack.
But Penelope, although seriously injured, escaped death by hiding in the
trunk of a tree. Later she was found by friendly Indians, who nursed her
back to health.
The Stouts, and some of their 10 children, settled here.
But as the family grew, some of its members moved west to Utah, with Brigham
Young while others headed south and settled in West Virginia.
Today, Errickson, Washington Township, said some Stouts hail from as far
away as Alaska.
The Stout Family Association has a mailing list of 450 names.
Although the descendants are not a closely knit clan, Errickson said they
tend to identify strongly with the family name and its history.
This, he said, is due to the availability of records with which to verify
their ancestry.
Genealogical charts lined one church wall, showing just how the family
grew.
The association receives requests each year from Stouts - the spelling of
the name varies: Stoudt, is a frequent Dutch or German spelling - trying to
determine whether they fit into the genealogical stream.
There's even a book about the Stout genealogy, "The Stout Family" by Herald
Stout, Errickson said.
After lunch yesterday, Gertrude Neidlinger, curator of the Shoal Harbor
Marine Museum, in Port Monmouth, presented Errickson and the association
with a medallion bearing the likeness of Penelope Stout.
A section of the museum will be dedicated to her. It will be called the
Penelope Stout Museum Crafts of Man.
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