ORLEANS — Kicking off what is known as “200 Days of Celebration,” Orleans residents turned out on Congress Square Wednesday afternoon for a birthday party marking the town’s bicentennial.
“Our little town is 200 years old today. What a tremendous turnout for our kickoff event,” said Robert Henderson, the clerk-treasurer for Orleans and a member of the bicentennial celebration’s planning committee.
He said the committee had been meeting for nearly two years to plan events that would be part of the celebration, and much of the emphasis had been on how to get the celebration started.
“We knew we didn’t want to let this day pass without having some kind of way to commemorate this day. ... This is a very historic day in our town’s history,” Henderson said.
The kickoff included a flag-raising, the serving of birthday cake, a balloon launch, the planting of a tulip tree, the Orleans High School band performing the national anthem and the band and high school choir joining to perform “On the Banks of the Wabash.” Among those participating were Orleans Elementary School fourth-grade students who study Indiana history. “They’re our special guests,” Henderson said of the students.
As honorary chairman of the bicentennial planning committee, Orange Superior Court Judge Mike Cloud, who is from Orleans, welcomed the crowd. He shared the names of all who are part of the committee and outlined some of the major events that are planned throughout the next 200 days, including an Orleans homecoming event in July and the opening of a time capsule that was sealed during the celebration of the town’s 150th anniversary in 1965.
Cloud said that, as he had contemplated the celebration, he had been amazed at how the community has continued to thrive when many small towns fade away.
“Orleans is truly a special community filled with special people,” he said.
He then shared some of his memories of the town, focusing on a downtown fire in the 1980s and the memorable blizzard of 1978.
Ninth District Congressman Todd Young also addressed the crowd, acknowledging that the fog that had enveloped the town until midday had dissipated just in time for the party to begin. “The heavens have opened up on the dogwood capital,” Young said in beginning his remarks.
“I think Orleans exemplifies that it was small-town America that really built this country from the bottom up,” Young said. “You have maintained that vibrant community spirit, and so many small towns are falling by the wayside across the country. You take a lot of pride.”
He also said, “It’s people like you around the country that have made this country great.”
In pointing to that historic day 200 years ago, Young said, “I am reminded of the history as I travel through here. I wonder what exactly things might have been like roughly 200 years ago when this town was established.”
He also called attention to the young people, including those in attendance, who call Orleans home. “I’m confident that this next generation is going to maintain the spirit of this town, take it to the next level even, build on the leadership and the community spirit that all of you maintain,” he said.
In opening the celebration, Henderson said, “We’re going to welcome home a very special friend that has been gone for about a year.” The reference was to the town’s 1926 fire truck, which has been in Lawrence County being refurbished by Cale Kern. The truck was driven onto the square’s east side as one of the closing activities in Wednesday’s celebration. Kern was present and said, “There was a lot of work to redoing it, but all the parts were there. It was really a fine truck to start with.”
The truck has been named as one of Orleans’ Bicentennial Legacy Projects and endorsed by the Indiana State Bicentennial Commission. The truck was purchased brand new in 1928 by the town of Orleans for the amount of $6,500 from Peter Pirsch & Sons of Wisconsin and is still fully operational. It was in continual service up into the mid-1970s.