 Events
planned for the weekend include "Cutest
Lil Farmer," "Little Miss Mount Pulaski"
and "Junior Miss Mount Pulaski" on
Thursday evening; "Egg Roulette" and a
"Lantern Parade" on Friday evening; and
a day chock-full of special events
Saturday, including a farmers market,
antique tractor display, car and bike
show, the dedication of the new
bandstand on the courthouse square, and
a parade.In addition to all this,
live entertainment will be going on in
various locations throughout the
three-day event, amusement rides for the
young and young at heart, as well as a
beer tent for livening refreshment.
Phil Bertoni, who is an active member
of the Mount Pulaski Township Historical
Society, said at the August meeting of
the society that it is hard to say for
sure how many fall events the village
has hosted, but he believes at least
117.
The ancestor to the fall festival was
the "Old Settlers of Logan and Adjoining
Counties Re-Union," which was first held
on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1873, according to
a copy of a flier printed in the
society's quarterly newspaper. However,
as the flier stated, the event was for
all of Logan and adjoining counties, and
the host town changed from year to year
for a while.
In a history of the association flier
that was among several items donated to
the museum by the First National Bank,
Bertoni has found that while the annual
event was held in Lincoln a few times
and in Atlanta at least once, the
majority of the time the honor went to
Mount Pulaski.
The Old Settlers Association each
year let out for bid to the various
towns the privilege of hosting their
annual get-together. Mount Pulaski most
often offered to provide the most money
and the best of entertainment for the
group and therefore won the majority of
the dates.
In the flier there is a recap of the
decision made on where to have the 22nd
annual event:
"The township vice-presidents of the
Logan County Old Settlers Association
met in Lincoln last Saturday afternoon
to fix upon a time and place for holding
the 22nd annual reunion of said
association. There were but two bidders
for the meeting – Lincoln and Mt.
Pulaski. Lincoln offered $125 to defray
all expenses of the meeting, while Mt.
Pulaski guaranteed to spend $400 in
providing suitable entertainment if the
honor came their way. Of course the
matter was immediately settled in favor
of our town, not altogether on account
of the money offered, but because of the
splendid reputation Mt. Pulaski has
built up for successfully handling
public gatherings and especially those
of the old settlers."
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This flier also recounts briefly the
largest gathering for the event as being
the one on Sept. 13, 1882:
"The tenth was the biggest reunion ever
held by this association, occurring in
Mt. Pulaski Sept. 13, 1882 with 15,000
people present, including 1300
registered old settlers. A barbecue was
the great feature, seven beeves, twelve
hogs and thirteen sheep being cooked to
a turn in a huge steam chest. 500
gallons of excellent coffee was also
made and supplied to the great throng.
More than 3000 feet of table room was
provided, carefully set with nice
tableware and everything necessary for a
first-class dinner. Oratory was
furnished by Cpl. Latham, Judge Matheney,
Rolla Diller, Judge Lacey, Gen. Oglesby,
Col. Hough, Major John T. Stuart, Rev C.
J. White and others. Mrs Hilliard of
Lake Fork, aged 101 years was the oldest
person present."
Bertoni also noted that one of the
biggest events at the celebration was
the horse show.
The streets of the village were dirt
until approximately 1937. Many of the
old settlers brought their horses to the
celebration and a large competition was
set up on the courthouse square.
As is the case with many reunions,
when the matriarchs and patriarchs of
the Old Settlers Association passed on,
the reunion itself began to dwindle.
However, the people of Mount Pulaski
wanted their annual fall celebration to
continue. For a period of time, it was
renamed to Frontier Days, and Mount
Pulaski resident and historical society
member Betty Hickey said that right
before World War II the festival was
known as the Fall Fiesta. She recalled
that in those days "we had big bands and
big dances."
Waneta Stephens also recalled for the
group the year that live wild turkeys
were thrown out of the upstairs windows
for folks to catch for their upcoming
holiday feasts.
[By
NILA SMITH]
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