This Day in Bovina for July

This month's compilation of the July 2022 entries on the Town of Bovina Historian Facebook page has a different approach. To celebrate Bovina's Bicentennial, I'm sharing images from past celebrations starting in the 1920s (but ending with a celebration almost 200 years ago). 
 
A feature of the annual Old Home Days held in Bovina in the 1920s included some form of a softball game. This is the Bovina Center ladies softball team. The women are Blanche Armstrong, Beulah Decker, Helen Gladstone, Ruth Coulter, Mary Robinson, Wilhelmina Archibald, Isabel Russell, Beatrice Hoy and Frances Bell. One feature of Bovina's Bicentennial celebration on July 30, 2022, will include a vintage baseball game with the Bovina Dairymen.

 
The August 1926 Old Home Day parade featured Alex and Louise Hilson on this flower decked cart and pony. 

 
Another feature of Bovina town picnics in the 1920s was some form of a band. This picture is from the Cecil Russell family. The picnic was on the flat at the end of Maple Street. 

 
Old Home Day in the 1920s usually included a parade. The image is blurry but you can see the parade is on the main street in Bovina. 

 
As well as parades and music, town picnics in the 1920s often included a speaker. I'm not sure about the date of this image, though it comes from the 1920s.
Attorney Ernest Bergeman, a New York City lawyer who summered in Bovina, talked about the very recently passed woman suffrage amendment at the 1920 picnic.  Woman in NY already had the vote, but he noted that even though they had this privilege, many failed to vote in the elections of the previous fall.  He said that it is up to every woman to vote at election time as it is up to the men.  

 
On August 26, 1926, as later reported in the Delaware Republican under the headline "Bovina a Big Town," Bovina's annual Old Home Day took place. The article noted that “At least once each year everyone in this vicinity preens himself or herself, and claims some sort of connection with Bovina. That is the date of the annual town picnic. If everyone who at that time claims the town as a birthplace is right, either there has been a most awful migration from the home nest, or else someone is stretching the truth." Bovina's Old Home Day started with a parade, led by "little Jack Hilson riding his flower-decked Shetland…".  

 
After a 28-year hiatus, Bovina revived the tradition of a town picnic on August 18, 1956. The paraded included this float from the Bovina United Presbyterian Church. The replica of the church was built by Frank McPherson, with the ladies of the church painting the windows. It stood in her garden for years and was featured in several town parades. It is being prepared to appear in the Bovina Bicentennial parade this coming July 30. The kids on the float are Dianne Rabeler Abele, Marcia McPherson Lichtman, "Mac" McPherson & Judy Rabeler Chambers .

 
Bovina's Old Home Day parade in August 1956 included the Bovina Firemen's Ladies Auxiliary. 

 
This interesting character in the August 1956 Bovina Old Home Day parade was my cousin Bobby Boggs. 

 
The 1956 Bovina Town Picnic was advertised in the local newspapers. For the Bovina Bicentennial Celebration, we'll be using the same flat, thanks to the McIntosh family.

 
On September 5, 1964, Bovina held the very last event known as Old Home Day. This slide, taken by my Uncle George LaFever, shows the Bovina Fire Department in formation.

 
In the 1964 Old Home Day, the Bovina Happy Hearts 4-H float, which had won a prize at the Walton Fair the previous month, featured the Fisher Quints - the first ever U.S. born quintuplets. My sisters were both on the float - Susan as one of the nurses and Diane as one of the babies.

 
Following in his father's footsteps (see the July 6 entry), John Hilson rode his horse in the parade at the 1964 Bovina Old Home Day. 

 
Another view of the Old Home Day parade from September 1964, taken by George LaFever. 

 

In 1970, for the first time in its history, Bovina celebrated a milestone birthday with its Sesquicentennial celebration on August 29, 1970. Here's the ad from the Delaware Republican Express for the celebration. 

 
One of the best remembered floats at the 1970 Sesquicentennial celebration was the Burns family float, with Jack and June Burns recreating the Grant Wood painting "American Gothic." The float won first prize. 

 
The 1970 Bovina Sesquicentennial celebration included several activities on McIntosh's flat. Here's Marjorie Russell talking with her mother Isabell. In the background are sisters Elizabeth and Janet McKenzie. Photograph from the Monroe family. 

 
Another memorable float from the 1970 Sesquicentennial featured Mary Pelletier and her mother Jan. This photograph was taken by Charles Winter. 

 
Antique machinery was a feature of Bovina's 1970 Sesquicentennial celebration. Clark Lay's Indian motorcycle, made in 1914, had belonged to his uncle, Clark Miller, who was killed in the First World War. And John Mueller displayed one of his gas engines. Both images by George LaFever. Clark Lay’s Indian Motorcycle will be making an appearance in the upcoming Bovina Bicentennial Celebration on July 30.

 

Laura LaFever took this photograph of Florence Thomas with Congressmen Hamilton Fish at the 1970 Sesquicentennial celebration. Florence drove the congressman in one of Clayt Thomas's antique cars. 

 
Charlotte Vanderhurst shared this image from the 1970 Bovina Sesquicentennial Celebration showing McIntosh's flat. This is where the upcoming Bicentennial celebration will take place. 

 
Like many communities in the United States, Bovina held its own celebration of the nation's Bicentennial in 1976. These two images by Hugh Lee show Cecil and Isabell Russell on John Mueller's antique truck and some of the McIntosh/Brannen family all dressed up for the celebration.  

 
This model of the Bovina UP Church, which stood near Stella McPherson's garden, showed up in another parade in Bovina during the celebration of the nation's Bicentennial in 1976. Photo by the late Dot Ryder. 

 
The second time Bovina celebrated a milestone birthday came in 1995 with the Town's 175th. Here's the poster advertising the celebration. 

 
 
The Bovina Fire Department participated in the 1995 celebration of Bovina's 175th birthday, as they will for the Bicentennial. 

 
The Monroe family had a float in the 175th Bovina Birthday celebration in 1995 (and hope to do so again this year). 

 
My dear ole Pa drove his red Chevrolet convertible in the parade, taking along Howard LaFever and Alan Davidson. (Sorry, I don't recognize the woman with them - if anyone knows, please share) 

 
The Bovina UP Church school had this float for the 175th Birthday celebration in 1995. 

 
The last parade held in Bovina (until tomorrow!) was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Bovina Fire Department in 2009. Making at least its third appearance in a Bovina parade was this model of the Bovina UP Church. And it will appear again in tomorrow's Bicentennial parade. 

 
Today's the day. After a two-year delay, we are finally celebrating the Town of Bovina's 200th Birthday. The logo was created by Samantha Misa.

 
We conclude this month of reviews of celebrations in Bovina by going back almost 200 years to 1826, when the nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Go to the Bovina NY History blog at https://bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/celebration-at-bovina-1826.html to read an article from the Delaware Gazette describing that celebration.