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July 4, 1876 – The United States was celebrating its first centennial eleven years following the end of the Civil War.  In Philadelphia, soldiers from the North and South, “the Blue and the Gray”, marched together.  There were lively and soul-stirring festivities held throughout the country, speeches galore, fireworks – or “Gunpowder and Glory” as The Times of Philadelphia reported.

As cannons were fired and firecrackers lit, explosions and costly fires marred the festivities for some.  In Philadelphia one headline read “A Salute That Cost One Hundred Thousand Dollars”.  Around one o’clock on the afternoon of the Fourth, some boys fired off a cannon salute which ignited a pile of chips behind a flour mill.  Within fifteen minutes the entire block was engulfed in flames.

“A Dynamite Horror” occurred around the same time elsewhere in Philadelphia.  A druggist, Dr. H.H. Bucher, was apparently experimenting with explosives in an attempt to create his own pyrotechnics.

This article is no longer available for free at this site. It was re-written and enhanced, complete with footnotes and sources and has been published in the July 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine.  This issue also includes other like “Declaring Independence:  May 20, 1775 or July 4, 1776?”, “Radical Presbyterianism: Seeds of Revolution?”, “Drawing the Line: Quakers in Conscientious Crisis”, and more.  Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.

I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine.  Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options).  Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂  No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.

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