by Geoff Fox
On Wednesday, October 29, one of the longest-running Halloween Parades in the country will once again head up Main Street in Hancock as the 78th annual Hancock Rotary Halloween Parade kicks off at 7 p.m.
The bands, floats, and families bring Halloween alive with various decorations, costumes, and music.
But where did it all start? What is in store for this year?
To find out, The Hancock News went to the former and current organizers of the parade – Dan Murphy and Autumn Williamson.
Murphy was in charge of the parade from 1979 until stepping aside in 2023 when Williamson took over.
Murphy said he wasn’t in Hancock at the beginning, but had heard great stories from the guys who went before him.
According to Murphy, Joe Cox told a story about the first parade where one of the high-profile people in Hancock thought it would be a good idea to have something organized to keep the kids from being “too ornery” around Halloween.
“So, apparently, like kids will do, Halloween must have been an invitation in Hancock to do go do some things,” Murphy said.
A little event was organized in a small parade that would end up at the elementary school, which is now Town Hall, with some games and activities such as bobbing for apples.
The first parade, Murphy said, was from the center of Main Street to Virginia Avenue where Sheetz is, and then up High Street to the school.
The first band to perform in the parade was Patriotic Sons of America from Unger Store, W.Va., under the direction of Perry Unger.
“That’s Joe Cox’s mental remembrance,” Murphy said. “I mean that’s how good he was, telling me about the 40s and he was telling me this probably in the 80s when I was trying to get more of a history.”
The parade was a success they decided to have another with the band returning, along with the reorganized Hancock Community Band, of which Cox was a member.
Murphy said the Community Band hadn’t played in 15 years, so they had to round up all the members who could still play. Though laughter, Murphy added the members had gotten older and couldn’t march, so they rode in a car or truck.
By 1950, Hedgesville High School’s band, under Harvey Gardner, came to the parade. Gardener would later transfer to E. Russell Hicks Middle School, which has been in the parade ever since.
It would be under Herb Young’s directorship that Hancock High School would join the parade, Murphy said.
Over the years Southern Fulton, Berkeley Springs, and Clear Spring would join in as well.
There were also years that would see schools from the Hagerstown area come up to Hancock’s Halloween Parade as it was before the Mummers’ Parade and they used this smaller parade as a warm-up for that parade.
As the parade got bigger, the parade got expanded to its current length along Main Street, but Murphy said it was pretty early on when organizers realized it couldn’t be the two blocks.
Until a few years ago, there were two parades – Lions Club’s Canal Apple Days in September and Rotary’s Halloween Parade in October.
The Canal Apple Days parade was a daytime parade and ran from Park N Dine to Widmeyer Park, where the festival was located.
Because the Halloween Parade was at night, organizers put the start at Widmeyer Park because it offered more light and it was easier to keep bands safe off the street. Plus, the buses would be parked at Park N Dine and they could just get on the bus and head onto Interstate 70 to head home.
In 78 years, the parade has only been canceled three times and each was for a different reason.
In 1978, there was work being done on the U.S. 522 bridge and everything was “too torn up” to have the parade, Murphy said. It would have been tough to get people under the bridge and Berkeley Springs folks couldn’t get to the parade.
The other times were due to weather in 2019, when both the regular date and rain date were washed out, and 2020 during the COVID pandemic.
The pandemic cancelation has cut the parade size in the four parades since.
The number of bands coming to the parade has decreased because of how students were learning since the pandemic as schools were trying to get back into how they were teaching and bands practicing their instruments.
“We haven’t gotten back from that,” Murphy said. “Even last year’s parade, we did not have the number of bands we used to get.”
In the past, there would be nine or 10 bands, which he thinks makes a parade better as it makes it bigger and having to have more entries between them.
Murphy said the floats have always been strong, but there are times when some groups have stopped having floats.
Murphy added there were times where families entered every year and you’d be looking forward to what they’d be wearing in the parade.
There have been a few changes to the parade made out of safety concerns for people in the parade and also those along the street.
Murphy said there was a close call due to an incident with a horse a number of years ago that led to horses not being allowed in the parade.
Horses were at the end of the parade, for obvious reasons, where a person was too rambunctious and got too close to the crowd that led to a scary incident.
Murphy said with the vendors having balloons and noise making poppers, a person could be walking along with a balloon and it accidently scares the horse.
During the early days of Murphy’s tenure in charge of the parade, a lady had a heart attack on the sidewalk and passed away.
“That made us reinforce the idea that in the parade the firemen and rescue people can’t ring their sirens,” Murphy said.
He added it’s a long stretched out parade on a single road with no easy way for first responders to get to an emergency.
“Our rule is, if you hear a siren, it’s legitimate. Get your unit off the street,” he said.
Murphy said there has always been a good response from local fire and rescue units.
Another rule change was made for candy being thrown during the parade, which has been brought up to organizers and town officials.
When people throw candy from a float or car, not all the candy reaches the sidewalk and little kids run out to get what doesn’t make it.
Murphy said a politician could throw the candy and a kid run out in front of a fire engine who wouldn’t see the kid.
“We’ve seen that come close,” he said.
Murphy said organizers have also made the parade a forward moving parade, which means there’s no units stopping to perform for the judges.
He said this causes gaps in the parade and would leave people waiting until the performance was complete to see the next float or unit.
One thing that Murphy pointed out was there used to be Rotary members walking along the parade route to remind those units not to stop.
Murphy added that the parking spots in front of the old Murphy’s store, and later town visitor center, was chosen was due to Main Street leveling off and having more light.
This year & moving forward
Autumn Williamson took over for Murphy in 2023 by helping him. She fully took over the parade last year.
Williamson said she has been reaching out via email and utilizing social media more in her prepping for the parade, as well as looking on YouTube for videos of the Mummers Parade in Hagerstown and other events to grab people.
Last year there were around 50 applicants in the parade. Williamson said over 130 people have been contacted about this year’s parade.
She also noted there won’t be candy at this year’s parade as a safety issue and pointed out the Mummers Parade also doesn’t throw candy.
Williamson said she decided to take over the parade after Murphy handed it to her, asking to help with the parade. He then eased her into the role.
Murphy told Williamson she was one of the younger people and that he was getting older and wanted to go out and loosen the reigns.
“It’s a fun thing to do and it’s one of our biggest events for Rotary,” she said.
She said Murphy told her not to be disappointed if people said no and not to be discouraged if things come back as there have been emails and “snail mail” bounce back with wrong addresses or incorrect email.
Williamson said she started looking at things and getting ready in August as schools need the information early to work transportation into the budget.
As for this year’s parade, Williamson said they’re planning on having more school bands than the last few years, a new float for Washington County government, and the folks with the Wagon Train.
The Wagon Train is having a float in the Mummers Parade so Williamson said she reached out to them and they’ll be speaking with their higher ups about being in the Halloween parade as well.
Williamson said she’s looking forward to more community interaction with scouts, school bands, and other things such as the truck last year with the LED light board, and getting more entrants.
“I figure if we can get more people in, new people in, and keep it exciting because Hancock is a small town and we’re trying to reach out and bring people in to show people Hancock is more than a small town, there’s more to offer,” Williamson said.
Rotary will be honoring former Hancock Police Chief Rich Miller on their float, thanking him for his service. Miller and his family will be on the float, along with a thank you banner.
When doing a Google search of longest running Halloween parades, Hancock’s doesn’t even get a mention with Forbes even having a number of parades much younger listed as longest running.
She said there are some issues to work through with bringing Hancock to forefront of people’s minds when it comes to the parade. But there is plenty of history that shows the town knows how to put on a Halloween parade.
