website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Homecoming Day
Repasts,
Receptions and Reminiscences
Begun in
1902
Homecoming idea originated in the middle west in Watertown Watertown Gazette, 06 24 1910
1902
In
1902 Watertown initiated a series of
annual Homecoming Days. These days
of reunion and celebration, held in early August or September, were anticipated
each summer.
The
author of this online eBook likes to think that the success of the Homecoming
event was a prelude to that of Watertown’s
current Riverfest event, also highly anticipated, extremely successful, and
held in early August.
1903
THE FIRST ANNUAL HOME-COMING
CELEBRATION in Watertown on last Sunday was a grand success. It was under the auspices of the
Milwaukee-Watertown club, assisted by a local committee. All day Saturday and on the Sunday morning
trains large crowds of people arrived in the city from all direction. Marshal H. Wertheimer, the local arrangement
committee, a delegation of the reception committee and the Sinnissippi
band met the 8:50 train from the south on the C. & N. W. Ry., which brought
in about 100 visitors from Janesville and intermediate places and escorted them
uptown. Arriving in Main Street the
procession was joined by the balance of the reception committee and the German
old soldiers and marched to the St. Paul Depot and met the 800 excursionists
from that city, which included a number from Chicago, Fond du Lac and other
places, the Milwaukee-Watertown club bringing them with Bach’s band . . . From
sunrise to midnight the city, which had been clothed in gala attire, was given
over to celebrating the return for one day of those who claim Watertown as
birthplace, but whose lots have been cast in other places. Among the reunion were: Conductor O. L. Forkenbridge, of this city, who had charge of the excursion
train from Milwaukee, and Erny Cheney, of Milwaukee,
an old Watertown boy, officiated at the throttle in the engine cab. He made the run to and from this city in a
manner to please the man who says modem fast time on railways is not fast
enough to suit him. Erny
spun along as though he was making a trip to the moon.
1904 Chapter on 1904 Homecoming
1905
Watertown Daily Times 07 27 1905
The third
annual home coming and excursion of the Watertown club of Milwaukee to
Watertown will be held on Sunday, Aug. 6. The train will leave over the
Milwaukee road at eight o'clock and arrive at Watertown at 9:20, where the
excursionists will be met by a large reception committee of the citizens of
Watertown.
Ward's
military band will play concert music at Tivoli Island at Watertown in the
afternoon . . . It was decided to invite
Mayor Dunne of Chicago, Mayor Rose of Milwaukee, and Governor La Follette to
deliver addresses to the people at the picnic grounds in the afternoon. There
will be a parade of all civic societies of Watertown in the afternoon.
1905
Watertown Gazette article
of 08 11 1905
1905
08 12 Sunday, August 6, was certainly a gala
day in this city it being the observance of the Third Home Coming Day which has
become quite a social feature in the experience of the inhabitants of
Watertown, and great credit is due the mayor and members of the home club, in making
it the grand success it was under the circumstances - and there would have been
a much larger attendance had the railroads made special rates for the occasion,
which they were precluded from doing on account of the existing laws in the
state. As it was, there were at least
700 former residents of Watertown who came to meet relatives and friends and
visit the scenes of other days. The
delegation from Milwaukee numbered about 500 . . .
1906
07 27 Mayor Mulberger
and Ex-Mayor Wertheimer were in Milwaukee yesterday in the interests of the
homecoming celebration August 5. While
there they had a conference with Ernst E. Kehr the
president of the association who informed them that the members will be
notified so that there might be a large delegation here on that occasion. There will be a joint meeting of all the
committee appointed at a previous meeting to make arrangements for home-coming
at the office of Ex-Mayor Wertheimer Thursday evening at 8 o'clock to perfect
the arrangements for the event. WL
1907
07 19 (At last Monday's Council meeting)
Alderman Ryan presented an ordinance amending an ordinance governing hack and
bus men. It was adopted and now provides
that any person can operate buses to picnics, fairs, etc. without obtaining a
license and not interfering with the provisions for buses running to
trains. The ordinance was amended so
hastily in order that visitors here for the homecoming might have necessary
accommodations to the picnic grounds and a certain few not have a monopoly in
the conveyance of the visitors to the picnic grounds.
1907 Chapter on 1907 Homecoming
1908 Chapter on 1908 Homecoming
1909 The
grandest of the Homecoming fetes was that of July 31 and August 1, 1909. Bands went to the stations to meet the trains
and welcome former residents. Another floral parade in which carriages and
surreys still predominated, and a program, in which Mayor Arthur Mulberger and Judge George Grimm were featured speakers,
was followed by amusements of many kinds - band concerts, repasts, receptions
and reminiscences. [ Watertown Remembered
]
Click to enlarge
1909 assumed
1909
09 03 Herman
Wertheimer recognition WG
1910
Chapter on 1910 Homecoming,
eighth annual
c.1910
AWAITING THE ARRIVAL OF HOME COMERS
1911
Chapter on 1911 Homecoming,
ninth annual
1912
FORMER RESIDENTS FLOCK TO MAIN STREET
1913
Homecomers,
1913
c.1913
FICTITIOUS “SKYSCRAPER”
1912 image altered
1988
02 01 RIVER
DAYS BECOMES RIVERFEST
An
expanded River Days, tailored after last year’s highly successful sesquicentennial
celebration, is being planned this summer.
The celebration, to be known as “Watertown’s RiverFest,” will be held
Aug. 4-7 at Riverside Park. Planning the
event has been under way for about one month and a number of contracts for
national musical entertainment, carnival and other related activities have been
discussed with entertainment agents.
Officials are hopeful that some of the top acts will be under contract
in the coming weeks. Names of the groups
and their concert dates and times will be announced when details are
finalized. This year’s festival was made
possible through the Watertown Common Council’s strong support. The council earlier this year agreed to contribute
$10,000 in financial support and also authorized the use of the $33,000
remaining from last year’s celebration.
The committee is planning a large raffle which should generate
additional revenues which will be needed to make the festival financially sound
on a more long-term basis. WDT
1990
08 04 RIVERFEST
BECOMES AN INSTITUTION
So you
want THE recipe for a good party? It
starts with the people. Then you give
those fine people some fine food, some fine drink and some fine entertainment
in a beautiful setting, and let the whole works simmer for four days. In only four years, Watertown RiverFest has
become an institution — something the entire community can hang its collective
hat upon. Crowds over the total festival
were roughly estimated at 40,000. This
year’s celebration was even attended briefly by Gov. Tommy Thompson, who made a
whistle stop at Riverside Park on his way to the Wisconsin State Fair.
2022
11 10 THE FUTURE OF RIVERFEST
The
City of Watertown’s Finance Committee met Monday evening to discuss the current
and future state of Riverfest. The festival, which began thirty-five years ago
as a celebration of the City’s founding, has been profitable over that period
but dramatic increases in expenses coupled with stagnant revenues in 2022,
resulted in a $45,000 loss this year. Despite the 2021 festival profiting
around $29,000, the net loss over the past five years is around $30,000.
Mayor
Emily McFarland, through consultation with Riverfest Chairman, Tom Schultz,
provided both a financial update and an organizational update to the City’s
Finance Committee on Monday evening. Mayor McFarland began her presentation by
providing the committee with an update on key staff retirements from the
volunteer team that has produced Riverfest for the last 35 years.
“We
have been incredibly fortunate to have a group of residents, who out of the
goodness of their hearts, have committed countless hours of volunteerism to
bring this festival to life year over year,” Mayor
Emily McFarland said.
McFarland
stated she met with Schultz and learned there are around 12 key categories to
the festival committee, things like the auto show, the raffle, arts and crafts show, the beverage committee, the restaurant
organizer, the beverage organizer, the financial team, and the event planner,
etc. Of these 12 key categories only four are returning for a potential 2023
festival. “The loss of these volunteers is substantial, and it gives the
Finance Committee and me concern as to whether the
festival could run the way it has in the past,” McFarland said. “These
volunteers have been amazing, they deserve every moment of retirement from the
festival; their shoes are just very, very hard to fill.”
In
addition to only four returners from the larger committee, there is a small
“core group” that are all stepping away from their roles. Chairman Tom Schultz
is retiring from running the festival. “Tom and his knowledge are
irreplaceable,” McFarland said. In addition to Schultz, longtime entertainment
coordinator John Ertl has retired. “John was in the
industry for decades and that tenure, combined with his relationships built
during it, afforded the festival generously discounted rates on entertainment,”
McFarland said. “With John gone, we have to assume and plan that the caliber of
musical acts we have had will be more costly.” Long time raffle coordinator
John Wanke, Financial Coordinators Steve Zillmer, Ron Bartels and Larry Gaugert
have all stepped away, in addition to other long time
volunteers.
In
addition to key staff retirements, Mayor McFarland shared that volunteers are
getting harder and harder to come by, even paid workers, such as temporary Park
and Recreation staff, are nearly impossible to recruit. “This is a classic
example of what we’re seeing in the market; less workforce to work in these
volunteer and paid roles.”
Staffing
was not the only thing that the Finance Committee was briefed on, McFarland
also provided an update on the financial status of the festival. “The budget
cannot be sustained, McFarland said, “if we ran the festival the way it is
usually run, we are projected to be nearly $70,000 in the red in 2023; that can
be offset by using all of the available fund balance, essentially draining the
Riverfest savings account, but we would still be nearly $33,000 short.”
McFarland was quick to state this isn’t the fault of any of the organizers, in
fact, she stated how much the organizers have attempted to be nimble for
fluctuations in pricing, while trying to maintain the core components of the
festival.
“Tom
(Schultz) provided a simple example that the festival buys around 80,000
plastic cups and those cups were once 14-ounce cups and three cents apiece, now
those cups are only made in 16-ounce versions which makes the cost increase to
nearly ten cents apiece,” McFarland said. “Larger cups leads
to an increased cost to the beverage that goes into it, coupled with the price
of the half barrel rising, and pretty quickly beverages alone are costing more
and people are buying less.” McFarland went on to point to declining sales and
increasing cost in soda and ice as well.
The
Finance Committee briefly discussed ideas for revamping the festival, including
reducing the days, but it appeared that each potential change had a ripple
effect on expenses or availability. For example, a reduction in the number of
days was proposed, however, it is likely that the carnival would not come for a
three-day festival. The committee discussed increasing sponsorships, however;
those come with increased expenses in fencing, tables, and chairs. An entrance
fee was briefly discussed but was quickly countered with increased expenses for
renting and setting up fencing to create access points in an otherwise very
open park space.
By the
end of the meeting, the Mayor stated that while she was not asking for action
to be taken that night, considering the budget is getting approved at the end
of the month and contract negotiations for the festival begin in December, she
and the organizers felt that an update to the committee was warranted.
“We
hope that we can figure out a way to make the festival happen; we all have
these impactful memories of growing up at the park, and at the same time, we
are charged with ensuring the best financial situation for the city that we
can, and putting the city in jeopardy of paying for the current level of overages
or, should a bad weather day happen, worse overages than we can predict, is
concerning,” McFarland said.
The
Finance Committee will take up this matter again at a future meeting.
2023
02 01 NEW LOGO CHOSEN FOR FEST
Cross-References:
Military
Band, invitation, Homecoming Day (year uncertain) No 2
No 3 (2 and 3 are enlargements)
Tivoli
Island, site of Homecoming celebrations
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin