In marking the choice of Oil City as one of the Freedom Train stops, Oil City organizations sponsored several events billed as a Week of Rededication in leading up to its arrival. nearly 8,500 residents had toured the Freedom Train. Newspaper accounts show the first person to enter the exhibition was Oil City Mayor Bill Morck, accompanied by train committee chairman Leo Brewster who was described as the lead advocate for getting the train to Oil City.īy closing time at 10 p.m. A first aid station was provided by the Gray Ladies group. Serving as volunteers were Boy Scouts, National Guardsmen and Legionnaires. at the city’s freight train depot, a site that would later be the location for a Holiday Inn motel. Traveling from Erie, three Freedom Train exhibition cars opened to the public at 9 a.m. The items included the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, German and Japanese surrender documents, Magna Carta, Iwo Jima flag and much more. The contents featured more than 100 documents, “treasures that were the earliest inspirations for the American experience,” noted the Freedom Train promotion. A contingent of uniformed Marines served as honor guards and guides on board the train. Some 52 different railway companies were tapped, 326 cities visited and 3.5 million people as viewers of the documents. The multi-car train, painted a bright white with red and blue trim, covered more than 37,000 miles in visits to all 48 states from September 1947 to January 1949. The city’s manufacturing plants were booming. A strike had been settled at Manion Steel Barrel with 125 men returning to work. The annual YMCA membership drive added 82 new members, taking the total to a record 625 members.
said it intended to hire 75 men for the new mill. The newly organized Oil City Tank and Boiler Co. announced it would build a new $550,000 building on Seneca Street. There was good business news in the city.
George Fritz, president of the Retail Merchants Bureau, said, “I look for this to be the greatest holiday season in retail selling history.” That was based on employment picking up, he said. It was the state of the economy that prompted the city merchants to arrange such an elaborate opening for the Christmas season. “It was one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Oil City and the festive spirit typifies the improvement of conditions throughout the area.” The parade went off without a hitch and traffic congestion, reported the newspaper the next day, was negligible and “well-handled by our police.” “Following the parade, crowds thronged the stores of the city,” reported the newspaper. The downtown holiday lights – multi-colored lights strung across the city streets and illuminated silver stars at the intersections – were turned on just prior to the parade.
It would conclude with Santa Claus, who would toss out candy and popcorn balls to children along the way, riding on his own float.Īll merchants on the North and South Sides were encouraged to display the American flag. The parade was led by Bradford, the chairman, who was escorted by local men serving in the armed forces. and travel down Seneca Street, cross the bridge to the South Side and then cross back over and end up back at the Keystone lot.īands that marched with the balloon figures, which required 150 local and costumed boys to handle during the parade, were the Oil City High School Drum and Bugle Corps, Oiler Marching Band, VFW Drum and Bugle Corps, Knox Glass Associates Band, Polk State School Band and the American Legion Band.
The procession would begin there at 10 a.m. Bradford, general chairman for the parade, said it would take more than five hours to inflate the figures and pre-parade duties would take place at the Keystone lot off North Seneca Street. Their value ranged from $400 to $3,000 each. Kangaroo, Drizzle Puss the Bug, Felix the Cat, Donald Duck and a 14-foot-high musical pig. Also in the lineup were Elmer Elephant, Fuzzy Rabbit, Clarabelle the Clown, Mrs.
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In a multi-day series of news stories detailing the plans for the parade, the newspaper listed some of the balloon entries, most of which were 60-feet-long and 15-feet high: an orange and green Dracula Dragon that was 80 feet long 15-foot-high Heap Big Squaw the largest balloon animal ever created, the prehistoric monster Grubbie Dub Dub. More than 100 local retailers, banks, factories and other businesses would foot the bill. Stories about preparations for the parade, funded by an investment of $35,000 by the Retail Merchants Bureau of the Oil City Chamber of Commerce, filled the pages of the local newspapers.
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