Meet the Phanatic!
Veterans Tribute
Concert & Picnic
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Food, Music, Cars, Kid Activities, + Vet Tribute
History of Our Parade
Provided by 21st Ward 4th of July Association & Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society
Samuel Lawson
Parade Founder
Our Parade
In 1831, Samuel Lawson, a Sunday School teacher in Manayunk (a neighborhood in Roxborough Township, Philadelphia County, at that time), 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.
The "safe and sane 4th of July celebrations" that started in Roxborough Township would influence Independence Day events throughout the city of Philadelphia for generations.
Philadelphia Inquirer - July 5, 1916
Philadelphia Inquirer - July 5, 1916
Samuel Lawson, a wool sorter by trade, was born near Rawdon Hall in 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.
Whit Friday?
Whit Friday is the first Friday after Pentecost, traditionally observed with church processions and brass band contests, originating from the Christian celebration of Whitsun or White Sunday.
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.
1840 Lithograph of Manayunk
by John T. Bowen (1801-1856)
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.
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 1954
Samuel Lawson, Sr., 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., who wanted to ensure the parade tradition that his father started would endure for generations to come, specified in his will that a trust be established. Upon Samuel Lawson Jr.'s death in 1922, he provided $2000 each to two churches -- the Fourth Reformed Church and the First Baptist Church in Manayunk. The interest of which was stipulated was to be used to help defray the expense of the Fourth of July picnics.
Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, October 9th, 1922
Samuel Lawson, Jr. creates trust to ensure the celebration continued.
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.
Each year this tablet is presented at the annual Hymn Sing to the lead church for the parade to carry at the front of the parade. This lead church will then retains the tablet for one year and display for all to see. At the end of one year, they will in turn present the tablet to the new lead church.
Salvation Army Carrying bronze tablet
at head of Parade in 2025.
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.
This parade has marched every year since 1831 except in 2020 (due to Covid-19) and one other year (due to a torrential rain).
We hope you will attend this year's parade and wish you a Happy & Safe 4th of July.
Researched and compiled by Nicholas Myers, RMWHS, with special credits to:
Richard Bate, Sr., Jane Gottfried, Trudy Smith, June 1991, revised 2026 February.
Images, news clippings, and additional edits by Georgie Gould, RMWHS - revised 2026 June.