First Flag & Fourth of July Cannon

In 1856 it was decided the village needed a proper flag and flag pole. So ladies of the town got together at the home of Frank & Harriet Kent. At the time the Kents lived in a cabin or rough shack near the corner of Madison and Front streets. Here the women sewed together a flag out of their own cloth with the 31 stars of the time. In the mean time, the men raised up a pole near the newly built store of Case & Turner at 202 Greenwood. Everyone gathered for the raising and the flag was soon flying!

In 1861, with rumblings of a Southern Rebellion being heard across the country, locals decided it would be dandy to have our very own cannon. Millwrights Kent & Hixon took a bar of iron 2 feet long and 3 inches wide, part of a mill wheel, and gave it to Reuben Wood. Wood had a machine shop and he bore a hole about 10 inches deep for a barrel. The gun was then placed on a wooded frame and cart.

Velorus Kent describes “We had a big celebration on the Fourth of July that year and Sylvester Krupp and Don Lazell took charge of the cannon…they fired that gun so much they were both deafened and so used up they had to lay around for several days to recuperate.”

About 1875 Velorus Kent himself got into the action. Along with his cousin Albert Kent, and Armon Hixon, Charles Reed and others. At about 2am on the Fourth of July morning, they congregated in between Peter Kent’s and Frank Kent’s homes. The brothers lived across from each other at the corner of Harrison and Jefferson. The Kent boys with the cannon and the rest with shot guns. Then the celebration would begin!

The cannon would be shot off several times, each time followed by a volley from the shot guns. Then the whole outfit moved down to the corner of Taylor and Jefferson and repeated the gun salute. Then it was over the bridge to the corner of Front and Bridge to let off another round. From there it was back to the corner of Harrison and Jefferson to start the circle again. And they kept this up until 8am in the morning! In the afternoon the whole performance was repeated from 5pm until 9pm.

Fifty years later Velorus Kent remembered: “The merchants always furnished all the gun powder we wanted to use. The wonder today is to me why everyone in town didn’t go insane. Talk about fun. O boy! I don’t believe the present generation knows anything of it.”