Ironton Ohio History of Parades

History of Ironton, Ohio Parades by Charles Collett
September 26, 1966

• Ironton has always been a town that loved a parade.
• The apple show parade at Jackson last week reminded us of that fact. This city started the apple show parades in 1914.
• Newspaper files of the past hundred years tell the parade story, and Ironton’s love of a parade was only disputed once, according to this writer’s knowledge. That challenge was quickly withdrawn during the city centennial celebration in 1949, when Jim Mace, a company representative, came to town to produce the pageant and told Matt Cloran that the committee was crazy to think six parades in a single week could be a success. At the end of the week, his only comment was, “This is the darndest parade town I have ever visited, and I’ve been in many towns.”
• Perhaps the fact that Ironton has always been a mill town had something to do with the parade spirit. The iron workers always enjoyed getting out of the hot mills and walking on the streets, especially those from the nail mills who carried nails the size of a walking cane, usually three feet long.
• The first parade of which the weekly newspaper took cognizance was in 1859. Taking part in the Fourth of July parade that year were the clergy, the mayor, city officials, a 9-piece marching band, and 150 volunteer firemen in boots carrying their ax. I think the city firemen have never missed an opportunity to participate in a parade since, especially on Memorial Day.
• The first Decoration Day parade was held in 1868. Several lodges joined the war veterans and two brass bands. Thirty-six little girls dressed in red, white, and blue, representing the 36 states united, rode in carriages carrying flowers. The next year the city schools joined in the parade, and it has been thus the past 98 years, each larger than the year before, with the firemen included.
• The first parade with floats was during the political campaign for President Grant on October 1, 1868. That was the greatest float parade in city history, with vehicles drawn by a yoke of oxen. A part of the story reprinted from the weekly newspaper of 98 years ago follows: “The Olive Foundry and Machine Shop workers marched behind a float on which a lathe and other machinery were operated by belts attached to the wagon wheels as several yokes of ox pulled the vehicle. The Ebert brewery had a large flat wagon that required six horses to drag. On the wagon was a huge cask of beer with old King Cole and his court of jolly good fellows enjoying a glass of the best beer in the state. W. D. Kelly had a miniature county fair display on a wagon 50 feet long, followed by beautiful girls in flowing robes driving Roman chariots.”
• The first prize float was the Hecla Furnace glee club with 40 yokes of oxen, drawing a double wagon 50 feet long. It could hardly turn the street corner without the assistance of 8 drivers helping. The item stated that four steamboats and the Iron Railroad brought 12,000 visitors to town to see the two-mile-long parade.