When the Mount Angel Schwab family puts on a reunion, they do it in a big way.

Family members recently took over the Oktoberfest Building in Mount Angel and attracted 525 people to the event, held every five years. The relatives of Louis and Josephine Schwab traveling the farthest were Greg and Lisa Theisen of Japan and Arnold and Sonia Schwab and Elke Kraemer, all of Astheim, Germany.

The oldest attendee was Margaret Scharbach, 103, of Salem.

Louis Schwab arrived in the United States in 1825 and gradually made his way west, arriving in what was to become Mount Angel in 1881. The family was instrumental in helping start and sustain the Benedictine's Mount Angel Abbey.

An interesting historical side note at the reunion was shared by Bob and Merri Flury of Portland. She is a great-granddaughter of Louis Schwab, and he is a great-grandnephew of Abbot Adelheim Odermatt, who purchased property from the Schwabs to start the abbey.