In 1895, the Kansas City Journal celebrated the Fourth of July with a special issue edited exclusively by women. The issue was a novelty in a male-dominated world of journalism, and received mixed reviews for its coverage and analysis of events from temperance to suffrage to the role of the “new woman.”
Ever since the early days of Midtown, its residents have been gathering for Fourth of July parades, concerts and celebrations.
Congress made the day a national holiday in 1870, but Americans started celebrating the first year the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.
To honor the history of the day in Kansas City, we’re taking a look at what was going on during Independence Day in Midtown in three key years: 1895, 1908, and 1953.
1895: Special trains to the country, complaints about guns, and a newspaper written by women
“The Fourth was observed more generally yesterday in this city than on any previous year,” the Kansas City Times declared that year. “All of the offices, both city and county, were closed, besides all of the business houses except those who handled fireworks. It was a holiday for everybody.”
In 1898, local amusement parks such as Troost and Fairmount Parks offered patriotic music and fireworks. Note the top ad for Washington Park downtown, where a reward was being offered to the person who found a goose thrown from a balloon.
Many of those folks headed out to the country to enjoy a day away from the increasingly dirty and congested city. For example, a special train carried people to Bonner Springs in Kansas, an area being marketed for its mineral springs and parklike setting. There, an “old fashioned” Fourth of July was celebrated, the Declaration of Independence was read, with a grand ball held in the evening.
Complaints about how Kansas Citians celebrated started as early as Independence Day itself. In 1895, J.B. Kester of St. Louis told the Kansas City Times he thought the firing of blank cartridge pistols on the Fourth of July should be outlawed, citing the death of a boy in a Kansas town a few years earlier.
Also that year, the Kansas City Journal took the bold step of inviting women to produce its entire issue on July 4. A few days later, the paper reported on the varied reaction to the experiment.
“The Kansas City Journal would do well to let the women run it all the time,” the Ottawa Republican wrote. The Eldorado Times praised the issue for putting the “new woman” plainly on view, with essays about women’s suffrage, and women’s role in municipal government and charitable work”
But the Lawrence Journal disagreed. “The women’s edition of the Kansas City Journal was pretty, as expected, full of elaborate essays, likewise expected, and wholly devoid of news. It never seems to occur to women who get our issues of the daily newspaper that anything should be put in save their own bottled up essays. As a literary effort, the paper was a success. As a newspaper, it was a dead failure.”
1908: Celebrations at Electric Park, Swope Park and concern about “rowdyism”
In 1908, a huge celebration of the Fourth of July took place at Electric Park, which was where the Village Green Apartments now stand at Brush Creek Boulevard and The Paseo. It boasted of the largest fireworks display ever in Kansas City. However, “fire-carrying toy balloons” released in the park started fires across Kansas City, according to the Kansas City Star.
That same year, a picnic in Swope Park was another popular event, with families jamming into special street cars. The festivities there included a few fireworks but centered on games, outdoor eating, and a patriotic band concert.
The Kansas City Star looked back at the Fourth of July of 1908 in its 1958 holiday issue. It compared the rowdy activities at 1908 Electric Park to the calmer festivities at Swope Park.
But the holiday also raised concerns again about the way some people chose to celebrate. The police chief issued new orders to reduce “rowdyism,” a cause the Star applauded.
“And if his views on rowdyism are properly construed, he may be relied upon to enforce the law against the use of explosives before and after the day celebrated. Also, let it be hoped, the chief and his officers will not be insensitive to the particularly wicked practice of putting powerful explosives on the street car rails, to shock and terrify unwary passengers, even though this particular form of celebration is not covered by the law of 1904.”
1950s: Kansas City families head to the drive in and the swimming pool
The holiday became a paid federal holiday in 1941, and by the next decade, celebration had shifted to parks, lakes, and swimming pools.
In the 1950s, families and carloads of teenagers headed to drive in movies on the Fourth of July.
“No major patriotic observances have been scheduled but droves of family groups are expected to stage their own Independence Day celebrations,” the Kansas City Times said on July 2, 1953.
The newspaper also noted that week that the partying had been toned down. In 1927, for instance, 4,290 people across the country died while celebrating the holiday.
“Since the 1930s, the toll had gone down because of ordinances regulating the sale and setting off of dangerous explosives. In 1955, caps, sparklers, lights and “the snake that crawls out of its tiny capsule” were allowed, but “the big booming fireworks still may be purchased on the highways north, south and east of the city” are not legal here,” the newspaper said.
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