Oldest Fourth of July Parade in Philly

A Tribute to Samuel Lawson, Founder of the Independence Day Parade of Churches and Sunday Schools in Roxborough, Manayunk, Wissahickon, and Andorra

One hundred eighty-five years ago, Samuel Lawson, a Sunday School teacher in Manayunk, a section of the old Roxborough Township in the City of Philadelphia, thought his students at the Fourth Reformed Church should have a healthy and happy celebration in the outdoors. He organized a Sunday School picnic on the Fourth of July with a procession by the Sunday School children marching through the streets of town. This was the beginning of one of the most wholesome, safe and sane Fourth of July programs this community had ever known on Independence Day.

Samuel Lawson, a wool sorter by trade, was born in Rawdon Hall, Yorkshire, England on December 23, 1799. He came to this country in 1828, settling in the then thriving town of Manayunk along the banks of the Schuylkill River. The custom in his native town among the Sunday Schools was to have picnics on Whit Friday or Whit Monday. He suggested his Sunday School here in America follow this example on the Fourth of July.

The first picnic was held on a hill overlooking St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in the summer of 1831. The success of this picnic was repeated by other Sunday Schools every year thereafter. The other churches throughout the community were beginning to march through the streets on the morning of the Fourth of July and having picnics in the afternoon in the surrounding woods. As time passed, the Sunday Schools increased in size and number. With the participation by other denominations, more and more elaborate preparations were being made. Committees were being formed in advance to prepare for the parades and picnics. The parades were beginning to become great spectacles of color, music and religious sentiments. Today, it is becoming an "old home day" as former residents of the town are returning to their old neighborhood to meet and talk with former friends and family members, reliving some of the happy memories of years gone by.

Samuel Lawson died August 12, 1887, at the age of 88 and is buried in the family plot in West Laurel Hill Cemetery. His son, Samuel Lawson, Jr., left in his father's memory a legacy of $2000 each to two churches, the Fourth Reformed Church and the First Baptist Church in Manayunk. The interest of which was stipulated to help defray the expense of the Fourth of July picnics.

In 1931, during the one hundredth anniversary of this event, a bronze tablet was placed by the twenty-four Sunday Schools of the 21st Ward on the lawn of the Fourth Reformed Church. The tablet was missing following the church's disbandment in 1969. Through the efforts of the 21st Ward Fourth of July Association Committee, and its past President, Richard Bate, Sr., and the financial support of the Tri-Cen '90 Committee, a new tablet was made in memory of Samuel Lawson, the founder of the July 4th Church Parades and Picnics.

In 1990, on the 300th Anniversary of the old Roxborough Township, The Review newspaper published an article written by local historian, Nick Myers that stated in part, "The real show of community spirit was evident in the annual July Fourth Churches on Parade celebrations, when expectant mothers, babies in arms and carriages, little tots, young boys and girls, teenagers, young couples, middle aged men and women and senior citizens in their 80's and 90's all marched past the reviewing stand on Lyceum Avenue." This show of community spirit by the citizens and churches of this area was the greatest way of honoring the memory of Samuel Lawson.

July 4, 2016 is the one hundred eighty-fifth anniversary of this event. We are privileged to honor this leader with the memorial tablet that is carried by the lead church at the front of the parade. The lead church then retains the tablet for one year and displays it for all to see.

Researched and compiled by Nicholas Myers, RMWHS.

Researched and compiled by Nicholas Myers, Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society with special credits to: Richard Bate, Sr., Jane Gottfried, Trudy Smith, June 1991, revised 2016 January

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