— Submitted photo. The headstone of Percival Knowles.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, one of the biggest holidays of our country. It certainly does more than mark the middle of summer, reminding us that “Back to School” sales will begin shortly.

Known for outdoor gatherings, parades and fireworks, not so much of the holiday includes reflection on the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. In three years, this nation will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the origin of this holiday (semiquincentennial for those of us who enjoy words).

As I prepared to write this week’s article, I wanted to include the idea behind the Fourth while also introducing another of my “neighbors.”

Undoubtedly, there are innumerable Americans who celebrate “America’s Birthday” each year. So, how to bring out one or two individuals who, perhaps, considered this day above others as a special one?

To the archives of our wonderful local newspapers, I went… again.

In the July 8, 1913 edition of the Daily Freeman Tribune is an interview with Percival Knowles, a former Lieutenant in the Sixth Maine Volunteer Infantry, on a recent trip to Pennsylvania. He traveled to a small town, Gettysburg, for the 50th anniversary of a battle fought there during the Civil War.

He was not alone from Webster City. Also on the trip were George Washington “G.W.” Flowers (67th New York Infantry) and Benjamin McCoy (3rd West Virginia Infantry).

To be sure, there were many other Iowans that attended the reunion, including at least one other Hamilton County resident, J.M. Johnson of Ellsworth.

Why would these men travel so far for a few days of reuniting with old comrades and reliving the events of three days in Gettysburg? Why would any of us go to a 50th high school reunion?

This is not a rhetorical question; my own is in St. Louis Park, Minnesota this August (not yet sure if I’m going). Having served four years in the Navy, I do understand the difference between high school and, in my case, the evacuation of Saigon back in 1975.

The battle of Gettysburg was a three-day fight from July 1 to July 3 back in 1863. The morning of July 4 found the Confederates beginning a retreat from their “high water mark,” the closest they got to victory in the war.

It would be a slow, violent 20 more months before the United States became one country again. That same July 4 saw the surrender of the Confederate bastion at Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River.

President Lincoln, on hearing of Union General Grant’s victory there, remarked, “The Father of Waters again flows unvexed to the sea…”

Some months later, in November of 1863, Lincoln gave his famous speech at the dedication of the cemetery and battlefield of Gettysburg. In it he referred to “a new birth of freedom”, forever linking July 4, 1863 with that of “four score and seven years ago”… the Fourth of July in 1776 we celebrate as “Independence Day.”

You might consider reading the Gettysburg Address… its 272 words is half the length of this article you just finished.

Every day is an opportunity for learning in “Our Neighborhood.”