Our look at past celebrations continues with Independence Day in 1910. No
float that year was as well represented as that of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union. Each of the children on the float wore a banner with the name
of a state on it. The Temperance Union was founded December 22, 1873, in
Fredonia, N.Y., out of concern for the damaging effects of alcohol. The
organization is the oldest non-sectarian women's group in the world, and is
still in existence today. In front of the wagon is Martha Wood, current Issaquah
resident Walt Seil's grandmother. Two more faces, the girls kneeling in the back
row, centered between the two girls standing in white, are recognizable. The one
on the left is Josephine Wood, Seil's mother, and the one on the right is Mabel
Miles.
