The Greeley tribune., 1906-06-28
Gree|ey's First "Fourth OF July"
...Celebration...
BY John LEANY
By JOHN LEAVY

Once upon a time Greeley had
real Fourth of July celebration.
That was the first year that Union
Colony lived here. This is the way
that John Leavy describes that first
Fourth of July celebration;
The trustees concluded we should
have a grand OLD fashioned Fourth
of July celebration, and the motion
was unanimously seconded; public
meetings were held, arrangements
were made, etc. At the second
meeting about the middle of June
one OF the trustees to whom lad been
delegated certain duties informed us
that the band from Fort Russell
would he here, also large deleations
from Cheyenne, Denver. Fort Col
lins, and in fact from the entire sur
rounding country: he also laid great
stress on the necessity of being fully
prepared to feed the multitude which
was expected to assemble here that
dav. The effect of that remark
seemed to stimulate the industrial
spirits of many of our people, parti-
cularly those who were fortunate
enough to rejoice in the possession of
a cook stove with oven attachment
and for several days before the Fourth
they were all busy in preparing those
toothsome viands by which they were
to assist in feeding the, multitude
as well as being deeply absorbed in
contemplating what shall the har-
vest be?n For some reason Or Other
the preparatory element seemed to
expend its main force in the manu-
facture of pies. Yes, there were
pies of every description and form.
''On the afternoon of the third of
July my neighbor, Mr.. Allen,
member of the firm of Woodward 4
Haddox, whose place of business was
on Walnut, now Ninth street, the
building now owned by e Heaton,
invited the writer to see his refec-
tory in the rear Of the store: to in
spect his stock of pies which he in
tended to display next day before the
gaze of the expected hungry multi
tIde,' and after giving me an idea
of the amount he expected to realize,
l congratulated him on his prospec
l-tpI nf
pie that attracted my attention
above all others and recalled to mind
some tender recollection. 1t was
the pumpkin pie, which invariably
formed the companion piece" of
the ''sassige" of my infancy. But
the pie spectators were not the
only ones looking forward to the
Fourth with anxiety. Society at
that early date was in stage of in
cipient crvstalization, and many OF
the leaders were to make their debut
at the grand ball that evening, with
which it was intended to close the
exercises of the day.
well, the morning of the Fourth
arrived, and the sun appeared on
schedule time as given in the al
manacs. Many we're up before its
benign rays shone upon us-nearly
everybody rises earlier than usual
that morning. Our first act was to
march to the office at headquarters
of the colony officers, then situated
in front of the park, little south
of where the First National bank
now stands, and after saluting them
in becoming manner we continued
the line of march to the flag staff
in the center of the park, which we
had erected the day before: and
there upon that glorious summers
morning, beneath the shadows of the
eternal Rockies, with betitting cere-
mony we flung to the breeze from
its summit Sl25 worth of the en-
blem of our country's pride and
glory.
Considerable activity was visible
all over, even at that early hour
Those who were interested in feeding
the approaching multitude" were
getting ready, believing that the
early bird might be looking for a
worm, and as the sun rose higher and
higher, interested parties would oc-
casionally scan the horizon to see if
the expected multitude was APP
preaching. Occasionally a solitary
horseman would ride into town and
many would suppose he was the ad-
vance guard of the visitors. but upon
the being interrogated he supposed
he was the crowd himself, as he knew
of no others.
The morning train from Cheyenne
brought with it Gen. e. NJ. Lee and