Valley Girl Views: Old Home Week, Watsontown 1915

Old Home Week celebrations were popular from 1899 into the early 20th century. They were a Town wide reunion, a large scale celebration to encourage those who had moved away to come back and visit their hometowns, the towns of their ancestors.

Watsontown held their Old Home Week in August of 1915. It was a week long celebration, from August 22nd to August 28th.

The Lewisburg Journal, May 1915

Old Home Week Pin

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Decorations

For special town celebrations such as Old Home Week, it was common to hire a professional decorator, who would bring loads of buntings and banners by train. The contract for decorating Watsontown for old Home Week in 1915 was awarded to Mr. George Henritzy of Hazelton.

The Watsontown Borough Building, Decorated For Old Home Week

Read more about the old borough building, and clock, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-watsontown-borough-building-towns.html

Lewisburg Journal, August 1915

Watsontown Boot & Shoe, Decorated For Old Home Week

Commemorative Coins From Watsontown Boot & Shoe

The Mansion House, 1915

Hesters Meats

205 & 207 Main Street, Watsontown

A Watsontown Home, 1915

In addition to the professional decorations, local homeowners would often decorate their homes as well.

The Lewisburg Journal, August 1915

The carnival mentioned in the above article was the Johnny J. Jones Exposition - a large scale traveling event with 5 acts and 50 attractions.

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Johnny Jones, born in Arnot Pa, was the founder of a traveling carnival that by 1910 was playing at over 30 venues from Calgary, Canada to Daytona, Florida with 14 train cars.

By 1915, Johnny Jones managed one of the largest traveling amusements companies in America. He always had a show in DuBois, his hometown, each year.

I haven't yet located photos of the exposition in Watsontown, but here is a look at one of his carnivals just a few years later, in 1919

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Parades

Parades were held nearly every night
Monday - A Dress Parade of the 3rd Regiment Sons Of Veterans
Tuesday - Family Reunions, no parades scheduled
Wednesday - Civic Parade with D.F. Wagner as Chief Marshal
Thursday - School Children and Odd Fellows Orphans Parade
Friday - Farmers Parade
Saturday Fireman's Parade

ED Deitrich, Dr Eolwood Snyder, Faust Snyder, Carrolll Deitrick

Dewart Creamery Truck

Watsontown Boot & Shoes

Blair's Quick Lunch Cart

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Program & Schedule Of Events

The Advertisements from the original program, showing the many businesses of Watsontown at the time, are all included at the very bottom of this post.

For the 1915 Celebration, Frederick Knight [Who, by the way, to served in Co. G in the civil war with my ggg grandfather J.A. Lumbard] wrote a history of the town of Watsontown, the Brick City.

In 1976, the Watsontown National Bank reprinted this 1915 historical booklet. You can read it here: https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/11/watsontown-historically-by-major-fred-h.html

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The Queen of Old Home Week

Lewisburg Journal, August 1915

Miss Margaret Vincent was crowned the Old Home Week Queen in 1915. The photo above is from 1967, when she returned for the Sesquicentennial Parade in Watsontown