The Baraboo news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1884-1911, 1910-07-07
1soDendenCe
Day Celebrations
Some Queer Proceedings and Unusual Program ms
in the Pioneer Dogs of Baraboo.

: fourth of July celebrations of the early
J times that always interested The
Juvenile element, that was the shoot
} ing of pennies by the young Indians
from the Indian camps, who generally
visited Baraboo on the Fourth. These
were the kids of the Winnebago tribe
from to Is years old, who were usual
ly on hand with bows and arrows to
shoot the old fashioned copper cent
The way this was done was to set a
stake in the ground and place the
penny in notch or split in the top OF
it; and the contestants would be
placed in line at distance of about
ten PAGES and made to toe the mark;
and at signal commence shooting
AS soon as one of them got penny he
put it in his mouth and it did not take
long for some of them to get mouth
full of pennies. This sport was con-
tinued as long as the stock of pennies
held out.
Henry Schermerhorn, Unique Orator
! I do not remember many of the
orators of these early days except one,
Henry Shermerhorn, and he was GER
tainly the most unique and peculiar
figure IN Sauk county at that day. He
was called "Hank" but the appellation
that pleased him most was Glider"
His figure was not only "Unique",
but it was picturesque. He usually
came to town, early in the morning of
the Fourth on foot, drivinga yoke of
steers, dressed in his best attire. He
wore high hat, and long tailed
coat. When the program of public
exercises was over he could be found
among the crowd on the public square
ready to preach to all who were there
to listen. He usually mounted bar
rel or dry-goods box but his position
was not altogether insecure, and it
was attended with more or less danger.
The kids would sometimes pull him
off the barrel or box by his boot-straps
and sometimes he would have the
! barrel knocked out from under him.
Then the boys had d1sagreeable
habit of dropping lighted fire crackers
in his boots to explode there, and some
times they would take whole bunch
of fire crackers, and fire them Off in
side the barrel or box under him. But
he was very tenacious of his position
and such Interruptions as these could
not break off the thread OF his dis
course nor prevent the delivery of his
sermon. His sermons were usually
prefaced with this: "My Prens:"
On one occasion he introduced the
subject of his discourse in this man
ner: "My Prens, [ will now preach
from the same text that | preached
the funeral sermon of the young gal
down on the mash: proud had a
| fall.'".
There was no connection or coher-
ence of ideas in his discourses. Here
is a statement that he made often, L
think, in nearly every sermon: "My
Prens: It will be great many years
before we have another Fourth of
July" On one occasion he remarked,
"My Prens: not many of you have
travelled as your speaker here today
has travelled. [ have sailed over
mountains and seas and when l was a
little boy, not more than six months
old, [ was in Noah's Ark" There
| was usually so much noise and con-
fusion by the youngsters that it was
difficult to hear the "Elder," but it
made little, if any, difference with
him. He forged ahead just the same.
Amid the firing of crackers, blowing
of horns and the whooping and howl
ing of his audience, some yelling, $50
it Elder" some telling him to "Give it
to 'em," others, "Touch 'em up on
temperance" he kept right on until
his physical powers seemed well-nigh
exhausted. Then the kids would
make pretense of taking up colIec-
ton and contributions would be drop
ped into his hat consisting of a few
pennies, buttons, shingle nails and an
occasional chew Of tobacco. On one
occasion Squire Charles Armstrong
happened to be passing and stopped to
listen to the "Elder's" peroration
when he was greeted by the "Elder"
with "Brother Armstrong will pass
the hat" "Brother" Armstrong
passed the hat and made quite good
collection. [ think it was about 40
cents. / think the "Elder" left Sauk
county during the civil war. Some
years after the war, L think it was In
1874, while in Harvard, Illinois, [ saw
quite crowd on the street corner, and
thinking the sound of the speakers
voice familiar, L approached, and
there I saw our old friend Hank. he