July 4 celebration began 20 years after city’s founding

In 1836, bells rang in the streets of Bloomington as July 4 was celebrated at its earliest recorded date.\n“This memorable day,” as the Bloomington Post lauded it, began with a 13-gun salute at 11 a.m. that signaled the start of a procession through town to a hotel where the Declaration of Independence would be read over dinner, among other patriotic honors such as speeches and a band.\nThis early recorded date of an Independence Day celebration in Bloomington: July 4, 1836. Bloomington was founded nearly twenty years before on Jan. 4, 1818.\n“We are glad to see the spirit of Independence awaking from the deep slumber into which our citizens have suffered it to fall,” the July 1, 1836 edition read. The next available issue on July 8, 1836, credited the women involved in the celebration.\n“We must stop to pay a highly, just and merited tribute of respect to the ladies (of Bloomington) ... who marched in the most perfect order – in numbers the most unparalleled in the county.”\nThe writers also listed the “Order of Procession” once the march to the hotel where dinner was served had ended.\nEuterpean Band started off, followed by the Ladies, Orator and Reader, Chaplain, Committee of Arrangements, Rev. Clergy, Faculty of the College (it would not be called “IU” until 1838), Athenian Society, Students and Citizens, and the Cavalry.\n“It should be a day of rejoicing, not of intemperance and frolicking,” the paper read, changing its tone from stern to hopeful. “All party feelings should be laid aside and peace and harmony prevail throughout.” \nMarshals kept order throughout. “Mr. Sleeper,” commander of the artillery, gave a salute “at daybreak” to a flag hung between 50 and 60 feet in the air “on the public square.” This flag had also been prepared by “the ladies.” Chairman of the Committee John Bowlanda and W.A. Gorman arranged each event.\nThe “patriotic flame within (their) bosoms” is still flickering 171 years later, as Bloomington celebrates this July 4 in 2007.