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HAVERHILL — Joining in with other neighboring communities, Haverhill will celebrate the Fourth of July holiday with events of its own.

The community will host a fireworks show and fundraiser for the Haverhill Fire Department. Activities start at 3 p.m. on Sunday. At the Haverhill Memorial Park and Shelter House, enjoy a freewill offering dinner of hot dogs, baked beans, chips and homemade desserts.

“I’d like to stress the importance that our firemen are volunteers, they do not get paid for what they do. They provide services to our city, Timber Creek and Jefferson townships as well as mutual aid to other cities when needed,” said Haverhill Mayor Maddie Welton.

A community bags tournament starts at 4 p.m. at the park (sign up at 3 p.m.). Cost is $10 per team with prizes for first and second place.

There will also be a bounce house and face painting in the park, plus touch a fire truck, in the parking lot. A 50/50 raffle will be offered. Cost is $5 each or three for $10. The winner gets half the money.

Kids Pedal Tractor Pull starts at 3:30 p.m. (sign up starting at 3 p.m.). It will be on the street west of the shelter house building.

Bags winners and raffle winners will be announced around 8:30 p.m. before the fireworks. Food, drink and coloring corner will be in the shelter house. Fourteen-year-old singer Lily Smith from State Center will perform the National Anthem prior to the fireworks show. Fireworks will be set off behind the fire station and viewable from the park.

Free will donations will be accepted for the activities. All money raised will go to the fire department toward purchasing a new pumper truck.

The Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop, which is open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day (Saturdays and Sundays), noon to 4 p.m., will stay open until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“This celebration is in conjunction with our nation’s 250th anniversary. We are a nation founded by volunteers, to include citizen soldiers and of course volunteer firefighters,” Welton said.

Several of the country’s Founding Fathers were volunteer firefighters, including Benjamin Franklin. She noted that George Washington donated a hand-pumped engine in 1774 to help establish Friendship Fire Company as Alexandria, Virginia’s first volunteer brigade.

The blacksmith shop is owned by the State Historical Society of Iowa, with the Marshalltown-based Historical Society of Marshall County moderating it. HSMC Board Treasurer Mary Pfantz noted Edel and his wife moved to Haverhill in 1883 where he bought three lots, one lot already having a building on it, which became his blacksmith shop and living quarters.

“They lived in the half story living quarters above the blacksmith shop until they built their home in 1890.They raised eight children in Haverhill,” Pfantz said. “As Edel set up his workspace, he probably had no idea that his shop would outlast him. After he died in 1940, the blacksmith shop was seldom used and essentially left unchanged until the 1980s when the Edel family undertook steps to protect and preserve it. In 1983, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1986 the family donated it to the State Historical Society of Iowa.”

History buffs will appreciate that the blacksmith shop is a snapshot in time.

“To walk through Edel’s shop today is to enter the atmosphere of a blacksmith shop more than a century ago…when the nation was largely powered by and transportation provided by horses,” she noted. “A portion of the shop was used for wagon repair and general woodworking, with a wide variety of hand tools and a band saw that was built into the rafters and floor. Edel spent a large amount of his time working as a farrier (a person who shoes horses). The blacksmith shop also includes a leather bellows and a coal-fired forge for his iron work along with all his original equipment and tools.”