Celebrating the 4th

Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, president

“There is in the juvenile heart a respect for the traditions of the Fourth (July 4), which no municipal neglect, no public indifference, no ill-timed respect for the peace and comfort of adult mankind can ever stifle, and until the race of boys is wholly extinct, The Fourth will never be forgotten,” declared S. Weaver, Editor of the July 9, 1874 issue of the Kansas New Era reporting the Independence Day activities of Grasshopper Falls (now Valley Falls).

The editor continued “We had a celebration of the fourth, in fact it commenced on the evening of the third, when Old Mc. and the rest of the boys set the ball in motion by opening a box of torpedoes . . hence all through the night of the third the cracking of torpedoes, the furtive popping of crackers on the streets and in dry goods boxes and the occasional bark of a rusty pistol undergoing preparatory trial, drove the drowsy God from the eyelids of our wakeful citizens. . . as usual, the shooting ordinance had been suspended so that we might trust the boys, the firecrackers, the small cannon, and the fifty-cent pistols to secure for us all a day of orthodox peril and discomfort . . .

“About eleven o’clock the merchants closed their doors and the procession headed by a band of horsemen and keeping step to the excellent music furnished by the Cornet Band, took their line of March for Frazier’s Grove where the truly interesting and enjoyable part of the day’s exercise took place.

“The weather was excessively warm and the roads very dusty, but despite all the disadvantages, the celebration taken as a whole, was a complete success. The speaking, especially that of Capt. George T. Anthony, was excellent. The music of the band was first-class, while the ladies and gentlemen of the Glee Club covered themselves with glory.

“The booths and stands and the grounds all around seemed to be doing a fair business. We should judge that the stand of the First Baptist Sunday School took in the most money. The Congregational Sunday School had the most artistic and inviting stand and the booth on the ground. The Methodist Sunday School had quite a large stand presided over by Weatherholt and Frazier. . .

“There were one hundred and twenty-seven loaded vehicles (city hacks not included) counted as they left the grove against one hundred and eighteen last year.”

The Valley Falls Historical Society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, July 4.