2,000 Attended Grant City 4th of July Celebration in 1882

On July 4th, 1882, around 2,000 people gathered to celebrate the 4th of July in Grant City. Other celebrations were held in Gentry, Allendale, and Isadora.

At sunrise, a national salute was fired. The parade began at 10 am. The Grant City Cornet Band provided the music, and W.F. Osman read the Declaration of Independence. There were sack races held.

The Worth County Progress Organization published this account from the Worth County Times on its Facebook Page:

“The glorious Fourth was celebrated at Grant City in first-class order. The principal feature of the day was the address delivered b y Judge J L . Berry. The address was delivered in the Judge’s usual fluent and easy manner, and is pronounced by many, who are competent judges, to be superior in point of merit and delivery to that of Schuyler Colfax, declared here last Fourth. 

Certainly, a more fluent and powerful speaker than Judge Berry is seldom if ever found. His knowledge of the English language, his smooth and easy manner of speaking, and his pleasing address, all have a tendency to rest his listeners, rather than to tire them; and to awaken in the heart that admiration of the noble and pure and good, that is sure to lead upward in the scale of life. 

To hear Judge Berry, speak is to become, morally and socially, a better man or woman -for his subjects are all the higher order. And, for us to attempt to do justice to Judge Berry by an compliment of ours, would be as futile as would be the attempt of an artist- no matter what the cunning of his hand-to paint, in true color and shade and tint, the glories of a sunset sky. J.D. Harrigan, J. Schooler, J.L. Downing, and Rev. M. Meyer, also delivered short but very interesting addresses. 

The music was of course good, as the Grant City band renders no other kind. There were not as many people as usual, on account of the condition of the weather and the crops. The weather was the most pleasant that have ever seen of the 4th of July, and while it was fine to celebrate, it was also splendid to work in the harvest field and in the corn, and many of the farmers wisely concluded to remain home and work. Everything went off pleasantly, with the exception of a few misunderstandings, resulting in the knocking down of one man and the arrest of another.”