Hundreds gathered Saturday at Clinton Lake to celebrate the historic 150th anniversary of the Bloomington community with a re-enactment that included a tribute to Kansas’ first black military regiment.

Jessica and Elizabeth Donaldson survey their options Saturday at the Bloomington sesquicentennial ice cream social.

“There are a lot of descendants in the program,” said Elmer Lindell, who portrayed his relative of the early town, Joseph Gardner. “It’s great.”

Clinton Lake now covers Bloomington, which was founded in 1855, and its remains lie just to the east of Clinton. The museum that is operated by the Clinton Lake Historical Society near the edge of the lake attempts to preserve the histories of those communities.

An ice cream social before the re-enactment Saturday allowed ancestors and those in attendance, white and black, to mingle in Bloomington’s early days.

“Bloomington has the history of the entire state of Kansas wrapped up in this tight little community,” said Herschel Stroud, who, with his wife, Jackie, portrayed Dr. and Mrs. Macy.

The couple lived in the community, and Dr. Macy was involved with the state’s first black regiment, Stroud said.

The re-enactment also covered territorial issues, the free-state and pro-slavery settlers, Fort Saunders, the area’s involvement in the Underground Railroad, post-Civil War and recent history.

Tommy Johnson, who played the trumpet to begin the program, was a descendant of black settlers of the community, said Martha J. Parker, the curator for the museum for the past 25 years.

Christine Reinhard of Lawrence talks with Overbrook residents Jean Gilmore and Loretta Warren. Reinhard was dressed up for Saturday's festivities as Clarina Nichols, a women's rights and anti-slavery activist in the Bloomington area in the 1850s.

“Sometimes we don’t really know what we had until we’ve lost it,” Parker said of Bloomington. “That’s how history can be a service.”

Other re-enactors were Tim Rues of Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Jimmy Johnson and Christine Reinhard.

Reinhard, a Lawrence resident and history buff, said she enjoyed the way freedom fit into the community’s legacy, particularly with the early abolitionists.

“Its always important to think about history and being reminded of history,” she said.

• 6News video: Bloomington celebrates 150th birthday (07-17-05)

Lindell, who remembered the town somewhat, said he was proud of his ancestors and the legacy their community had left to Kansas history.