Sherry Monahan - Tinsel, Tumbleweeds, and Star-Spangled Celebrations: Holidays on the Frontier from New Years to Christmas

Sherry Monahan is the past president of Western Writers of America (20142016) and holds memberships in the James Beard Foundation, the Authors Guild, National Womens History Museum, and the Wild West History Association. Sherry is also a member of the National Genealogical Society and the Association of Professional Genealogists. She has her own column (Frontier Fare) in True West magazine, where she is also a contributing editor. Her other books include The Golden Elixir of the West, The Cowboys Cookbook, Mrs. Earp, and Frontier Fare. Sherrys The Cowboys Cookbook won a Gold Will Rogers Medallion Award in 2016. Shes also written for Cowboys and Indians magazine and has appeared on TV in various documentaries.

Sherry is one of the original members of the Most Intrepid Western Author Posse and was sworn in as honorary Dodge City marshal during one of their rides.

A TWODOT BOOK

An imprint of Globe Pequot

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Copyright 2017 Sherry Monahan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

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ISBN 978-1-4930-1802-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-1803-1 (e-book)

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WED HAD A RIGHT GOOD CHRISTMAS DINNER. WE STILL HAD some nuts left over and some of the peppermint candy Virge liked, wrote Virgil Earps wife Allie. She recalled that fond memory while living in Tombstone, Arizona, in the early 1880s. Its hard to imagine Virgil Earp, Annie Oakley, or Jesse James sitting down to a plate of peppermint candy during the Christmas season. Its not exactly the image we conjure when we think of the Wild West or the rough-and-tumble days of the frontier, but its true. Virgil Earp and his famous brothers, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and miners, cowboys, dance hall girls, businessmen, and regular citizens celebrated our national holidays on the frontier. From the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, as pioneers, adventurers, settlers, and fortune seekers settled the West from Kansas to California, people forging their new lives still enjoyed sending a sweet or funny cupid on Valentines Day, coloring Easter eggs, having picnics and eating ice cream on July Fourth, eating turkey and playing football on Thanksgiving, decorating and wrapping gifts for Christmas, and having elegant parties on New Years.

Even though the West was still not fully settled and many lived in remote locations, the Victorian trends of the East prevailed in cities. And even in smaller settlements and tiny homesteads, holidays could be celebrated and decorated with the latest Victorian trendseven if they were accomplished on a small-scale or with homemade versions.

Decorations, food, and gifts may have been modified by pioneers based on the trends back East, but distance and resources did not stop them from celebrating or keeping up family traditions. Pioneer women embraced their surroundings and adapted to them. They wanted their holidays to mimic what they had back home.

This book looks at the traditions and fun ways the pioneers celebrated all the popular holidays that we still celebrate today. Included are some firsthand accounts, some recipes, decorating tips, gift ideas, and more. Please note that all the recipes are from historic Western newspapers or cookbooks. However, it wasnt always possible to find a recipe from, for example, a Nebraska, Wyoming, or Colorado newspaper or cookbook to match a Nebraska, Wyoming, or Colorado story, so then one from another state was used instead.

HAPPY PIONEER HOLIDAYS!

GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER AND HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH Bacon Custer, donned their finest and sat in their parlor in Leavenworth, Kansas, waiting for callers on January 1, 1868. Rebecca Richmond, Mrs. Custers favorite cousin, was with them, and she wrote, General Custer and his wife, Anna Darrah, Charles Kendall, Mary and I were stationed in the front parlor at one oclock today to receive the callers and pass others along to the refreshment table in the back room. We were honored by about forty calls.... Messrs Weir, Bell, Hale, Jackson and Cooke spent the evening with us and we had some music. Major Bell brought Silence! a very pretty serenade, and he with some of the other gentlemen sang it beautifully.

The ringing out of the old year and the ringing in of the new was a time for celebration on the frontier, just as it is today. New Years Eve might be celebrated with balls and parties; New Years Day offered a special chance for friends and neighbors to informally call on each other and offer gifts and cards. And so from the plains of Kansas to the big cities across the West, pioneers visited one anothers homes to celebrate on New Years Day.

Gentlemen, both married and single, were generally the callers, while ladies opened their homes to friends, families, and neighbors dressed in their holiday best. The gents wore their finest trousers, white shirts, colored vests, and formal jackets. The ladies curled their up-dos, wrapped themselves tightly in corsets, and layered their unmentionables under their silk and brocaded dresses. Gifts were often exchanged on New Years Eve and Day, but the gifts given to start the New Year were often practical rather than whimsical. Most visits included some form of music, and many people danced. Tables were laden with holiday delicacies and treats as well. Pioneers enjoyed each others company and sometimes outdoor activities where the weather permitted.

In 1886 a Dallas newspaper reported that everyone across the West was following The Time-Honored Custom of Making Calls Extensively Observed and Elegant Evening Receptions Held Throughout the City. Bonbon making and taffy-pull parties were popular to entertain the young folks, while dancing, singing, games, and music were enjoyed by the adults. Balls and parties were also popular across the frontier and were held by fraternal organizations, social clubs, businesses, and private residents.

In many places a New Years Eve party was called a Watch Party as revelers watched Father Time deliver the New Year.