Independence Day - 100 Years Ago

Happy Birthday, America! In honor of the Fourth of July, I decided to look up how this holiday was celebrated in Cincinnati exactly 100 years ago. Enjoy!

Cincinnati Enquirer, July 4, 1919, pg. 4

CELEBRATION

To Be Safe and Sane.

Starts With Patriotic Pageant This Morning.

Neighborhood Parades in the Afternoon,

Followed By Festivities at the Playgrounds.

Fireworks Displays in Eden Park and at Fairview Heights To-Night – “Big Doin’s” in Suburbs.

Cincinnati’s third safe and sane Fourth of July celebration will be formally inaugurated at 9 o’clock this morning, when the patriotic pageant, arranged by the Fourth of July Carnival Association, will be set in motion from the corner of Eighty and Elm streets and will traverse a number of the streets in the center of the city. The parade will be but one of the features of the day’s celebration arranged by the Carnival Association, which during its activities covering a period of something over two years, has succeeded in turning the National Birthday from an occasion of more or less destruction into a day of patriotic and safe enjoyment. The record of the organization consists in reducing the number of causalities from 104 in 1910 – the last year under the old order of things – to 18 in 1912, none of the accidents in the later year being of a serious nature. The fire losses, too, have been minimized, so that Independence Day no longer is one of apprehension and hard work for the Fire Department.

The celebration planned for this year is along the same lines as that of 1912. There will be a parade in the morning, exercises of various kinds on the public and school playgrounds in the afternoon, and fireworks displays in Eden Park and on Fairview Heights at night. The parade, arranged by Grand Marshal Judge William H. Lueders and Dr. Arthur C. Bauer, Chairman of the Parade Committee, will include a number of American and foreign patriotic societies, as well as many beautiful floats. President Ph. Morton and Prof. Nicholas Seuss planned the playground programs, while the fireworks display also is in charge of Judge Lueders.

The formation of the patriotic pageant will be as follows:

Detachment of Police

Grand Marshal Judge William Lueders and staff

Troop C, First Ohio Cavalry

First Regiment Band

Second Independent Regiment, Colonel Arthur Bauer, commanding

“Insane” Float

“Sane” Float

Boy Scouts

Band

Royal Order of Moose

Float

Knights of the Maccabees

Float

Band

Italian Societies

Liberty Bells Float

Greek Societies

Motordrome Float

Servian Societies

Hungarian Societies

Queen City Aero Club Floats

Business Men’s Club

At the conclusion of the parade the members of the Business Men’s Club and invited guests will gather at the Garfield and Harrison Statues on Garfield Place to put wreaths on the monuments of these two Ohio Presidents. The address will be delivered by Judge Albert Nippert and ex-Judge Woodmansee.

The programs for the public playgrounds in the afternoon, including Lytle Park, Pearl Street Playground, Sinton Park, Lincoln Park, McKinley Park, Hanna Park, Walnut and McMicken Playground, Inwood Park, Woodward Park and Filson Outlook will be as follows:

At the Playgrounds

At 1:30 p.m. – Assembly

At 2 p.m. – Neighborhood parade

At 2:30 p.m. – Flag-raising exercises

(a)    – Song, “America”

(b)   – Flag salutation: “We give our heads and our hearts to God and our country, one language and on flag.”

(c)    – Fourth-of-July oration

(d)    - Song, “Star Spangled Banner”

At 3 p.m. – Athletic contests:

Boys: Running races, sack races, novelty races, tug of war, &c.

Girls: Running races, basket ball throw, potato race, novelty race

At 4 p.m. – Folk and gymnastic dancing

Distribution of prizes, serving refreshments, prize-carrying, balloon ascensions, inspection of grounds, &c.

The school playgrounds on which celebration will be held under the auspices of the Fourth of July Carnival Association are the Oyler School, Sherman School, Windsor School, Peaslee School, Eleventh District School and Twelfth District School. The programs for the school playgrounds are as follows:

Morning – Usual playground activities

Afternoon – Neighborhood parade; flag raising; song, “Star Spangled Banner;” oration, reading of Declaration of Independence; special athletics and games for prizes; refreshments and sending up of prize balloons.

At the Peaslee School playground, opposite Woodward High School, there will be a neighborhood parade, with over 1,000 children in line. Three hundred prizes will be distributed to winners of the athletic contests, which will include running races, relay races, dashes, jumping, volley ball, kick-foot ball, throwing, &c. Prizes were donated by Alms & Doepke, Hanke Bros., Windhorst Company and Mueller Bros., and were secured by Councilman Wittenborg. There will be patriotic songs, folk dances and music both by a band and by a large victrola provided by Mr. Gross. An abundance of ice cream and bags of peanuts will be given to the children. Men and women in the neighborhood of the playground are requested to volunteer their services in helping to serve the little folks.

At night there will be magnificent fireworks displays in Eden Park and on Fairview Heights, lasting one hour. President Ph. Morton, of the Fourth of July Carnival Association, was busy Thursday putting the finishing touches to the arrangements, all the details of which have been completed.

Chief of Police Copeland yesterday detailed a company of foot men, the entire mounted division of the city and the color squad, to accompany the Fourth-of-July parade this morning. The third relief will be on duty along the line of march, and policeman will be detailed to the various play grounds and private houses where large celebration are to be held. The order prohibiting the use of revolvers, canes, potash on the car tracks, and other dangerous methods of celebrating will be strictly enforced. Those breaking the law will be arrested and their apparatus confiscated.

Lincoln Park, circa 1915
Source

I hope your Independence Day celebrations for 2013 are "safe and sane" as well!