Jeremiah Ralston came to the Lebanon area from Tennessee in 1847 and bought a log cabin. This site became the corner stone to the future settlement of Lebanon.

Once the settlement was established it needed a name so Ralston named it Lebanon after his home town Lebanon, Tennessee. The city was incorporated in 1878.

Col. C.B. Montague who had been an officer in the British Army and later with the U.S.Army served as the first mayor of Lebanon

In 1909 two merchants, Joel C. Mayer and A.M. Reeves got together and decided they wanted to thank the community their patronage and to promote the strawberry industry. They came up with the first Strawberry festival. A queen was selected and the community held a flower and strawberry show and for the children there was a parade.

The Strawberry Festival has become a continous annual event since then. It is usually held in the latter part of May or the First part of June. The event now includes parades, carnival, craft booths, and such entertainment in the past has been fiddling contests, rock & mineral show, horseshoe pitching contest, live music and sidewalk sales.

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Strawberry Shortcake Recipe A comparison between the 1931 and the 1995 recipe
1931	1995
32 lbs flour 2 lbs baking powder 28 lbs. sugar 5 gal. milk 12 lbs shortening 8 oz of vanilla 12 oz. salt 10 dozen eggs The cake was then topped with Strawberries and Whipped cream.	350 lbs flour 27 lbs baking powder 325 lbs sugar 225 lbs of milk 125 lbs of shortening 4 quarts flavoring 3 lbs of salt 196 lbs of eggs. Also included now is 300 gallons of soft ice cream and 3,000 lbs of strawberries. The recipe serves 16 to 17 thousand people after the grand parade during the festival

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