Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1904 — FIRED EVERY JULY 4. [ARTICLE]

FIRED EVERY JULY 4.

Maine Family Has a Musket with a Unique Record. In the old home of ex-Gov. Albion Keith Parris at Paris Hill, Me., are many curios picked up by members of this representative family in all quarters of the globe. But the most highly prized relic is a flintlock musket that did service through the Revolution and is to-day in a good state of preservation. It has been in the possession of the Parris family for over 125 years and has been fired on every Independence day. It was first notably discharged when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Every Fourth of July since that memorable day some member of the family has observed this patriotic custom and saluted the anniversary of the country’s birth by loading the antique arm and firing it Just at dawn. On one occasion a few years ago all of the male members of the family happened to bo away from home on the Fourth. A son in Philadelphia, however, remembered the custom,and wired home, “Do not forget to fire gun.” It was not forgotten. Ex-Gov. Parris received the musket from his father Samuel Parris, who was an officer during the Revolution. The musket was used on the British at Bunker Hill and carried all through that unequal struggle. Last year it was tied to a fence and discharged by means of a redhot poker.