Cuba City's First Fourth?

What must have been one of the earliest Fourth of July celebrations in the vicinity of present-day Cuba City took place in 1871, one year after Congress declared Independence Day a federal holiday. 

 

 

The local event was put on by the Sabbath School of the Mt. Pleasant Church, a Methodist church located where Mount Pleasant Cemetery is today and dating back to at least 1868. Below is the account of the celebration published in the Galena Gazette on July 15, 1871:

“It being something new for us to celebrate, it may not have been done constitutionally, but it was decidedly a success. There were about 600 people present, old and young, who did their best to clear the tables, but failed. Rev. W. H. Palmer, of Jefferson, and H. Mitchell, of Hazel Green, orated; and to the pleasure and edification of all present.

 

The most prominent feature of the day was the parading and drilling of a company of Cavalry, gotten up and commanded by Capt. John Stephens. They were a fine looking company of young men, and went through the evolutions creditably. 

 

Under the gentlemanly management of the Marshal, H. Willey, everything passed off pleasantly and harmoniously. The Superintendents, Bawden and Warren, may well be proud of their undertaking.”

 

Image credit: "The day we celebrate" 1876 / painted by F.A. Chapman ; engraved by John C. McRae, N.Y. Digitized by the Library of Congress.