Draft:Jean Laugeay

Jean Baptiste Laugeay (jhon law-jháy) the man who began the tradition of Fireworks on the first Fourth of July 1777.

Early life

Jean Baptiste Laugeay was born in the Bordeaux area of France on September 28, 1736, in Orignolles, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France. He was baptized at the Saint Martin d Ary Church in the Cognac region. He was baptized in the Catholic Church, but most likely became a Huguenot. He learned about wine in his early years.

As a young man, Jean serves in the French Army where he learns the "Art of Artificial Fire Works". In 1761 he married Ann Boutin (aka Jeanne and Jane), a widow of Jean Boutin. The family migrated to the New World prior around 1771 most likely to seek opportunity. As John Laugeay; he advertised in local papers to grow vines for gentlemen in the surrounding area of Philadelphia.

Career

In Colonial America during 1773, Jean is featured in an advertisement as the firework inventor displaying a "grand and magnificent firework superior to anything of the kind ever shown here". During August of 1776 Jean wrote one of three known letters to the Continental Congress offering his services in "Art of Artificial Fire Works" to support the war effort.

On the Fourth of July in 1777, Philadelphia commemorates the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. According to the Philadelphia Evening Post, it is celebrated with the ringing of bells and "a grand exhibition of Fireworks... on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated."

On July I, 1779, Jean proposed to celebrate Independence Day via a second letter to the Continental Congress "before whom I have had the Honor of exhibiting Fire Works on the like Occasion." The fireworks display takes place on July 4, 1779 after dinner at the well-known City Tavern. After Jean's 1779 Independence Day fireworks display, a third letter seeks reimbursement for costs of the "Anniversary of the Freedom and Independence of the United States" celebration.

Jean's presence is found throughout the city of Philadelphia. Within close proximity of the Independence Hall are residences of Jean and of several locations of his Firework displays. Locally are the burials sites of his wife, Jane, at St. Peters Episcopal Church and a family burial section for his son, Anthony Lougeay, as well as Anthony's two wives, at Old St Paul's Episcopal Church. His warehouse was at a nearby dock area on South Street. In Philadelphia there are a dozen advertisements published over the next fifteen years as Jean continues his displays for a wide variety of celebrations.

Revolutionary War

During the winter of 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia in relative comfort. Just twenty miles away the Continental troops were camped in frigid weather at Valley Forge where Jean serves under Captain Benjamin Bartholomew's Pennsylvania 5th Regiment of the Continental Army from April through June 1778. He is on the revolutionary muster rolls as late as September 1780, and he participates in the Battle of Monmouth among others.

Death

The Philadelphia Gazette prints that Jean Laugeay of Baltimore 'departed this life on the 14th July last, after a few days illness'. Yellow fever was particularly virulent in Baltimore in 1794. It is probable Jean died at age 57 with yellow fever as the cause.

Legacy

Throughout the 1770s and into the 1790s, Jean Laugeay showed his mastery to execute pyrotechnic skills as he lived and worked in Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress and the center of the American colonies. In addition to being the person who displayed the first Fourth of July fireworks in Philadelphia, Jean, found people of like-minded values, as displayed in his letters to the Continental Congress, and he served staunchly in the Revolutionary Army. Notably, Jean Baptiste Laugeay's firework displays paved the way for how we celebrate American independence to this day.