The Paw Paw River Journal
Published July 2, 1986
FOURTH OF JULY!
Hartford’s first Fourth of July celebration came in the late 1840s. For the only account of that day we are indebted to Eli Ruggles. Fortunate, indeed, are we that this man kept a record of some early Hartford doings. In a previous column, I have already reported his account of how religion came to Hartford in the form of a small preacher.
It must have been the late 1840s, and various citizens were thinking of celebrating Independence Day with some appropriate festivities. They selected a site on Thomas Conklin’s farm south of Hartford. At this place and in this family was born the first male child in Hartford Township.
