Historical July, part 1


Where but in good old America would a bunch of people go out and celebrate the anniversary of their Independence Day by setting off fireworks, an item that is believed to have been invented by the Chinese and named after the Greek word for pyrotechnics? Then, when all the sparklers have just about twinkled their last, these same rebel rousers sing "America", a patriotic song that was composed by Doctor Samuel Francis Smith. He introduced this composure on July 4, 1831 after taking a full thirty minutes to jot it down. For a tune to put his words to he selected one from a German songbook. He had no idea, at the time, that this tune was the same melody applied to the British national anthem, "God Save the King." When the fireworks and singing are over the folks get down to some good old fashion eating. The menu usually includes an American dish called hot dogs that were originally called frankfurters. But I guess this is all as it should be since folks came to the United States from all over the world and became Americans.

It's general knowledge that the American Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776. Now you might think that a bunch of rag-tag patriots in the New World signing a scrap of paper saying that they were a free nation would be big news back Merry Old England. But no, across the ocean the incident was virtually ignored. The best that the British press could give it was a mere 6-line mention in the London Morning Post, below a theatrical notice. But at least to the credit of the signatories a $2,500 reward was offered by England to learn their names, and the Crown declared the act of signing to be high treason, punishable by death. For that reason, all names were kept secret for almost a year.

As time passed, Americans Independence wasn't the only noted event that took place in July. On the 4th of that month in 1778 John Butler, leading 400 Tories, and Iroquois chieftain Joseph Brant, with 500 of his warriors, swept into Wyoming Valley, PA. They massacred some 360 settlers, taking over 200 scalps. And the Indian Wars on the Great Plains were still nearly one hundred years in the future.

The medical profession got in on the July events on 8th day of the month in 1800 when the 1st cowpox vaccination in the U.S., to prevent smallpox, was performed by Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse upon his own son. And though smallpox would eventually have a devastating effect on the natives of the Great Plains the 4th still wasn't much celebrated on the plains, if at all.

The copyright of the article Historical July, part 1 in The Great Plains is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Historical July, part 1 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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