July 6, 2026
Let's turn back time to 125 years in the past. A time before social media. A time when news wasn't instantly available through a smart phone. The following were the front page news from the Marceline and Brookfield Newspapers.
June 5, 1901
The Marceline Journal-Mirror:
A Glorious Day!
A Scorcher From A Weather Standpoint and Otherwise.
July 4, 1901 will be remembered and pointed to as a hot one - an exceptionally hot one, but the heat in no quarter interfered with the arrangements for fittingly celebrating the 125th anniversary of American independence and there were picnics galore.
Marceline prepared to entertain the people after the most approved fashion, and brought here the Modern Woodmen Band, of Brookfield, Mo., a very good musical organization. The west park was pressed into service as a celebration ground, because it furnishes about all the shade there is in the city limits, of a public nature, and a canvas was spread, covering a space 48x96 feet, which added to the natural shade and furnished a place for the people to sit and hear in some degree of comfort the music and the speaker.
The ceremonies at the grounds began in the constitutional way with music by the band, after which came the invocation by Rev. E. C. Morgan. Music followed this. Then Mayor Walter Cash was introduced by H. J. West and delivered the welcoming address. On account of the unavoidable absence of Miss Anna McLaughlin, who was to have read the declaration of independence, that portion of the program was also committed to Mr. Morgan, the band rendered some concert selections which brought the program to the noon adjournment.
Afternoon Chairman Clarence Kenkrick introduced the orator of the occasion giving him place in the state's history with such noted Missourians as Col. Thos. H. Benton, Senator "Jim" Green, Col. Switzler, and others prominent in western song and story, Col. Jno. T. Crisp, of Independence, Mo., the old-time gentleman and orator and he entertained the audience for an hour with his powerful climaxes. He cut with sword as keen as a razor and talked patriotism from the standpoint of practical citizenship. During his address an incident occurred which showed the power and self-reliance of the old campaigner. A man in the audience attempted to interrupt him. The Colonel listened respectfully to him for a few seconds, then finding that the fellow was merely attempting to interrupt him without purpose, the Colonel straightened himself up, glared at the intruder, and in tones like the roar of a storm ordered the fellow from the grounds, and the intruder slunk from the pavilion evidently glad to escape with a whole skin. It was a Fourth of July oration worth coming miles to hear, and the people will long remember the courageous Crisp, who can handle "smart-alex" from the rostrum without calling the police.
As the speaking was announced the ball game between Laplata nine and the home team was called. The game was well attended, consumed all the afternoon and resulted in a victory for the home team. At the grounds the pavilion was packed and the shade trees taxed to their utmost capacity, by the people who remained on the ground and the purveyor of the villainous rubber returning ball and the lemonade men reaped a harvest.
The baby show came on immediately following the speaker, and all entries were pretty, but Baby Gineva Brailey carried off the honors. Misses Bessie Atwell, Blanche Fowler and Gertrude Shook were declared the prettiest young ladies and received the prizes. Attorney W. B. Clark carried off the prize to which the ugliest man was entitled to wit: A slab of bacon, while Mr. and Mrs. Parks captured the prize as the oldest married couple on the grounds, and youthful Mr. and Mrs. Albert Richardson the award for the youngest couple. Editor Jim Robinson, of the Keytesville Signal, came from a greater distance than any other person on the ground and he and Mrs. Robinson received a handsome picture to encourage them to come again. Jim Thompson, of Chicago, the youthful grandson of Col. J. W. McFall, climbed the glistening peeled pole, made more slippery by liberal applications of soft soap and took from its summit a dollar in cash and one of Fred Loeb's best shirts.
In the evening the band gave an open-air concert on the street and at dark Secretary E. W. Tayler began the fireworks display, and it was a good one. The sky was streaked with rockets and candles and bombs were exploding everywhere while "chasers" described crazy courses on the ground and fiery wheels sputtered and sizzled on the fireworks stand. It was a magnificent display, well handled, and Mr. Tayler and his assistant, A. J. Haney deserves credit.
It was a highly successful celebration, and much enjoyed apparently by visitors as well as home folks, but it again reminds us of the crying need of Marceline for more public shade. Independence Day, 1901, was appropriately observed in Marceline, and there was not even an argument, say nothing of a fight, during the entire day.
June 6, 1901
Brookfield Gazette:
Hottest Fourth On Record
The Temperature Reached 107 in The Afternoon
After two weeks of the hottest June weather on record when the mercury in the tubes passed the 100 mark daily Old Sol got down to business Thursday and made the century mark look like cool weather. There wasn't a cloud in the heavens to retard his efforts and at 1 o'clock one of the best thermometers in the city recorded the heat at 107. This broke all Fourth of July records and it is to be hoped that it will stand for many years to come with at least twenty degrees to go on.
An infant son of Dan Doran was taken ill shortly after noon and died in the evening probably due to the heat.
Engineer Fred Fiehart was overcome by heat, while running the switch engine, at 2 o'clock. He fell from the cab to the ground and was carried to the freight house. Dr. Oven was called and succeeded in reviving the victim of the heat. He was unable to be removed to his home until evening. He appeared somewhat improved yesterday, but taken very sit
A brisk northwest wind yesterday run the temperature down to 93 at 1 o'clock, a drop of fourteen degrees from the previous day./p>
