 In 1830 Mobile's Cowbellion de Rakin Society was the first formally organized and masked mystic society in the United States to celebrate with a parade.The Cowbellions got their start when Michael Krafft, a cotton factor from Pennsylvania, began a parade with rakes, hoes, and cowbells.The "Cowbellians" introduced horse-drawn floats to the parades in 1840 with a parade entitled "Heathen Gods and Goddesses".