The Pekin Daily Times coverage of the third and final day of the 1924 Centennial Celebration included a pair of front page stories in the 5 July 1924 edition of the newspaper that told of the grand Centennial Parade that had been held the previous day. The Daily Times in its 2 July 1924 edition had earlier published the list of the bands and floats that would wend their way along Pekin’s streets from downtown to Mineral Springs Park. Following are photographs from the parade, followed by a transcription of the July 5 stories about the parade:
One Hundred Years Of Progress Is Shown In Long Historical Parade
Gorgeous, magnificent, splendid.
Such were the expressions yesterday which greeted the Centennial historical parade, one of the features of the last day of the celebration, as it moved over the line of march thronged thousands of people.
It was a living book of one hundred years of progress, a history whose ages unfolded before the spectators as each float came into view. Never before had Pekin’s history been so vividly presented in tableaux than in this procession which moved before its audience with marked precision.
Each float had a significance and was notable of the period which it represented. Beginning with the Indians and traveling on down the line until the modern day presentation was reached, the parade came up to the expectations of the people.
The procession formed on East Washington at Sixth, with floats resting on South Sixth and South Fifth and Bacon and South Fourth. It moved west on Washington to Fourth, north on Fourth to Sabella, west to Second, north to Court and east on Court to Mineral Springs park.
Floats included First American Indian, A. D. club; LaSalle, the Explorer, K. of P.; Prairie Schooners, Team Owners, union; First Log House, Carpenters and Painters union; First Steamboat, B. P. O. E.; Pekin in Infancy, Kiwanis club; Black Hawk War, Improved Order of Red Men; Mexican War, Modern Woodmen; Circuit Riders, Bar association; First Locomotive, C. P. & St. L. railroad men; Lincoln and Douglas, Federal employees; Costume Float 1860, Woman’s club; Village Smithy, Pekin Wagon company; Civil War Period, G. A. R. and W. R. C.; Costume float, Royal Neighbors; Costume Float, Evangelical Men’s club; Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, Hummer Saddlery company; World War, American Legion; Gold Star Mothers, Legion auxiliary; Old Relics float, Relic committee; Modern Health Crusade, Tazewell Tuberculosis association; One Thousand Years ago, players club; Modern Home, Home bureau; Miss Pekin of Today, Rotary club; Fire Department, Ancient and Modern.
The fraternal section of the parade was one of the best arrays of its kind ever witnessed in this city. It was composed of Woodmen, Dokies, Grotto members, Knights of Pythias, bands drum corps, etc.
There were three bands in the parade, including the Rock Island 76-piece Grotto band, besides drum corps.
IRIN GROTTO PARADE FEATURE YESTERDAY
One of the outstanding features of the fraternal society section of the Centennial parade yesterday – not because every phase of that big attraction was not good, because they were, every one of the them, but because of its prominence as a great and growing power, exclusive to Pekin for this era – was that division made up of members of Irin Grotto, one of the great serious play branches of Masonry.
Headed by a gaily attired band, supported by Grotto organizations from distant parts of the state, and led by Monarch John Goar who has stood out prominently as the leading factor in promoting the organization, Irin Grotto, in which all things Grotto-ward center in this part of Illinois did itself proud. Canton, Peoria, Mason City, and scores of other cities and towns, interested in the work of the Grotto, center their interest in Pekin. No other Grotto charter exists in this region. “If he wore a fez, he belonged to the Grotto – and he was a Pekin booster.”
Note: Despite the boast, “If he wore a fez, he belonged to the Grotto,” in fact, as shown above, Pekin’s members of the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, a Knights of Pythias group, also wore their fezzes during the parade.
Next week we will continue our series on the 1924 Pekin Centennial Celebration with the Pekin Daily Times report on the Fourth of July fireworks that were presented at the end of the celebration, as well as the plaudits that the Daily Times published expressing appreciation of the three-day event.
