Ring in the Fourth of July with a 232-year-old tradition

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[While Americans ring in the Fourth of July this year, a 232-year-old celebration to mark another type of ringing will occur in an Illinois community west of the Mississippi River.

The 41st Annual Independence Day Celebration is planned for 12:30 p.m. Sunday, July 4 at the Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site on Kaskaskia Island. The "Liberty Bell of the West" was rung on that date in 1778 after George Rogers Clark and his troops occupied Kaskaskia without firing a shot during the Revolutionary War. King Louis XV of France gave the bell to the church of Kaskaskia in 1741, and the bell is eleven years older than the more well-known Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The Kaskaskia Bell was recently featured on the History Channel in the "How the States Got their Shapes" program.

Herman Albers, 2009 Recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Journalism Education Association, is the principal speaker this year. Don Welge, President of Gilster Mary-Lee Corp. of Chester, Illinois, will give opening remarks at the hour-long patriotic ceremony, which is free and open to the public. Randolph County Circuit Clerk Barb Brown will be master of ceremonies and make special introductions. Reverend Dave Corrigan, S. J. will give the Invocation and Benediction. Other remarks will be made by military veteran Danny James; Emily Lyons, Liberty Bell of the West Chapter, NSDAR and Curator, Randolph County Archives & Museum representing Kaskaskia Island residents; Kenneth Ragland, Commander of the Chester V.F.W. Post 3553; Roland Wagner, Commander of the Chester American Legion Post 487; Mayor Joe Eggemeyer of Chester; Mayor Deborah Gahan of Perryville, Missouri; and Andrew Cooperman of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

The Chester Municipal Band directed by Steve Colonel will perform patriotic music, and Taylor Crum will sing patriotic selections. Taps will be played by Brian Roth in memory of departed members of the Armed Services. Since the Liberty Bell of the West cannot be rung, the 1874 church bells next door will be rung by John Paul Schmerbauch and heirs, Jessica, Jackie, Samantha, Ally, and Jonathan, to signify that freedom is still alive for the American people. Area Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as French Marines from nearby Fort de Chartres State Historic Site commanded by Bill McKnight, will also participate in the ceremony. Visitors should bring lawn chairs of possible, although some chairs will be provided under tents.

The Chester V.F.W. and American Legion Posts, the City of Chester, the Kaskaskia Church Foundation, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency are sponsoring the Independence Day Celebration.

The 1675 Historic Immaculate Conception Church located near the Kaskaskia Bell will be open during the event. Refreshments including a plate lunch will be available before and after the program.

Kaskaskia Bell State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), is located on a 14,000-acre island a half mile above the Chester, Illinois bridge. It was once physically connected to the State of Illinois as a peninsula, but an ice dam and spring flooding on April 18, 1881 caused the Mississippi River to change course, thereby separating the village that was Illinois' first state capital from the rest of the state.

A small brick building on Kaskaskia Island today houses the 650-pound bell that was cast in France as a gift to the French who first settled Illinois. Exactly two years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the "Liberty Bell of the West" rang out to celebrate the capture of Kaskaskia, the westernmost military action of the Revolutionary War, by Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark. Twenty-five years later in 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (brother of George Rogers Clark) visited here and added men and supplies for their Expedition of Discovery.

To reach the Kaskaskia Bell, take the river bridge from Chester, Illinois across the Mississippi River. Take Missouri Highway 51 west to Highway H, then north (right) to St. Mary, Missouri, and turn east onto the new bridge at the Kaskaskia Bell marker and follow the signs.