Centennial Independence Day Celebrations

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Ahnapee was festooned with bunting and flags and appeared ready for a grand celebration.  But, the local newspaper proclaimed July 4, 1876 would be more of a “sizzle and fizzle” than a “kaBOOM”.  The celebration of the nation’s 100 year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it seemed, was met with apathy by Ahnapee’s  town folk.

While Philadelphia held a stupendous Independence Day celebration as part of the first World’s Fair in the U. S. at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, plans in Ahnapee were far more sedate.  “We could have had a respectable celebration if our citizens had been willing to have expended a little money,” the local newspaper declared.  But Ahnapee residents weren’t alone in their concern about spending to put on an Independence Day celebration, there were many people in Philadelphia who were alarmed about the expense of the Centennial Exposition, too.

The significance of the 100^th anniversary was not entirely overlooked in Ahnapee.  Boedecker, Stransky and Co. promised to do their part to contribute to the BOOM.  They procured a cannon from Sheboygan for the festivities.

The night before, Ahnapee’s string band had played at a ball at Weilep’s (now the Stebbins Hotel).

For the July 4^th  celebration, Wenzel Wenniger hired the Ahnapee Brass Band to play at a picnic at his Willhelmshoeh (Wilhelmshöhe) on Wenniger Heights, the hill on the north side of the Ahnapee River.  Wenniger’s new shooting gallery and bowling alley had just opened.  He offered shooting for prizes in the afternoon with a Grand Ball to wind up the evening.  The event was largely attended.

It was observed that quite a number of strangers came to town from the country on Independence Day and that many people listened to Father Rhode and D.W. McLeod, Esq. speak at the Centennial Party near the school house.

The First Baptist Church held a Centennial Dinner which was proclaimed a success.

It turned out to be a fairly typical 4^th of July celebration in Ahnapee.  It was common at the time in Kewaunee County for Independence Day celebrations to include a reading of the Declaration of Independence in English and German.  Presentations and orations were made by local dignitaries.  Often a picnic and baseball games were part of the day’s schedule of events.  A celebratory flag raising was usually a part of the festivities.  Dancing and music at a ball were a given.

A report from Philadelphia described the amazing event that transpired there on Independence Day 1876.  At the Fairmount Park grounds, the main exhibition building enclosed 21.5 acres making it the largest building in the world.  In all, more than 200 buildings had been erected on the Philadelphia event grounds to house the displays and operations of the event.

On display was the right arm and torch of Bartholdi’s statue of “Liberty”.  For 50 cents one could climb a ladder on the colossal hand and torch to the balcony.  Proceeds went to pay for the pedestal for the statue.

Also on display were Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, Remington’s Typographic Machine (typewriter), and Heinz Ketchup as well as curiosities such as a full-sized Liberty Bell made of soap.  There were hot-air balloon ascensions and fireworks.

 

Over the course of the entire anniversary event that year, 10 million people including President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife visited the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.  That figure was equivalent to 20% of the U.S. population at the time.

In Ahnapee, the 4^th of July might have “passed quietly” in the opinion of the local newspaper but the town celebrated the 100^th year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in a grand, not over-the-top, fashion.