Unwrapping Christmas in the Old West: Pioneer Traditions, Dodge City Divides, and the Heartening Tale of the Kincaid Family's Festive Feast

Join us on a captivating journey back in time as we unravel the heartwarming traditions of Christmas in the Old West. We've enlisted the help of historian Lucian Ruhl to paint a vivid picture of Christmas celebrations among pioneers, cowboys, and settlers. Sit back and immerse yourself in fascinating stories like Ruhl's family's harrowing journey from Virginia to Kentucky in the late 1790s. Discover how the spirit of Christmas brought joy, hope, and unity to the people fighting against challenging circumstances.

As the episode progresses, we navigate you through the tale of a business meeting on Christmas Eve in Dodge City that surprisingly leads to a town divide. We also shed light on the Kincaid family's humble and hopeful Christmas Eve celebration in the Oregon Territory. These stories reveal the resilience and spirit that existed amidst the hardships of pioneer life. To wrap up this festive journey, we're giving you a nostalgic glimpse into the preparation and feast of a pioneer Christmas. Get ready to be imbued with a remarkable sense of admiration for our forebears!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

Many of the Christmas traditions that have stood the test of time came from the early pioneers of the Old West. Christmas in the Old West was just as exciting then as it is today, and by the mid-1800s the American Christmas tradition included many of the same customs and festivities as we celebrate today. These festivities included tree decorating, gift giving, santa Claus, greeting cards, stockings by the fire, church activities and family-oriented days of feasting and fun. By the end of the Civil War, people were looking for cohesion in a difficult time. Celebrating Christmas helped the nation understand the confusion by offering comforting, celebratory traditions. It wasn't until 1870, when Christmas became a national holiday, that pioneers began getting in the spirit of things, and those frontiersmen on the plains who homesteaded far away from the more civilized life usually celebrated Christmas as a humble affair. Christmas was difficult for pioneers, cowboys, explorers and early settlers. Those living on the outskirts of civilization often suffered from terrible blizzards and savage December winds. Despite the many challenges and difficulties those living on the prairies faced, christmas provided a much needed opportunity for people to come together and celebrate the season. Lucian Ruhl, a historian in the late 1800s, recalled in his story entitled Trig about his family's arrival in Oldham County. My father and mother left Virginia for Kentucky in the year 1798, going to the Monogahala River about the present side of Pittsburgh, where they embarked in a flatboat with other pioneers and floated down the Ohio to a landing called Harmony, just below Fern Grove, indiana. It was Christmas time, a wet, snowy day with a bitter wind blowing, and to make matters worse, as we neared the Kentucky shore the Indians fired at us from the opposite side of the river, so that it was quite a while before we dared to disembark.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Sometimes the old pioneers would conduct a business meeting, like in Dodge City, on the eve of Christmas. When Dodge City learned that it would soon become the primary serving point as a waystation for herds, city organizers rallied to form future business ventures. To keep the cattle drives from circling the western end of the town, a plan was needed to lure cowboys into local establishments before moving on to Ogallala. As the cattle shipping season of 1876 approached, dodge City townsmen braced for a new economic opportunity. They formed a special council on Christmas Eve of 1875. This particular council of businessmen met to appoint temporary officials. These selected men were to hold office until a municipal election was planned for the following April. The special council immediately parted in differences, and on Christmas Eve of 1875, dodge City became a divided town. The division came when one of the members of the individual committees proposed the idea of ordinances.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Even though in one instance a town became divided, most pioneers of the West found Christmas as a time of joy, hope and togetherness, which remains an integral part of Western tradition today. For many pioneers living in the Wild West often meant a meager, almost skeletal existence when it came to food and clothing, let alone Christmas. Lenore Gale writes about how the Kincaid family celebrated Christmas Eve in 1853 as homesteaders in the Oregon Territory. On that Christmas evening, so long ago, the Kincaid family had been in Lane County in the territory of Oregon for only 75 days. But they had a snug, warm little cabin, a beautiful hill claim with timber and clear, sparkling water. They had some stock and planned to get more. They had a team of good horses, a friendly little dog, the children were in splendid health. A small school had just been started within walking distance over the hills. The road to the future looked promising and they all determined that if hard work and grit would lead to success, they would reach it that far away. Christmas night ended with grandfather playing old carols on his violin, the happy children joining and singing the words. When the little folks were tucked in bed, grandfather and grandmother looked at each other with firm chins but there were tears in their eyes.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Christmas celebrations for the pioneers would usually begin with the women baking for the holiday feast weeks in advance. If their year were good, there would be plum pudding, preserved fruits and vegetables, fresh game and fresh ham. William Lehigh remembered his first Christmas gathering in Routt County in 1877 on the Snake River at the home of Alfred Macarger. There was four or five feet of snow and we started on snowshoes on the night of December 23rd, making the distance during the night and arriving early for Christmas Eve when the celebration was to occur. There were about 30 people at Macarger's for Christmas and there was a fine time with a big dinner and a dance, but I never went in for dancing much. Two of the Macarger girls were there and I can truthfully say they were the most beautiful girls in Routt County so far as I knew. At that time I hadn't seen any other women in the county. The Christmas celebration at Macarger's broke up when the liquid refreshments gave out, which was sometime Christmas day, and a large portion of the crowd went to Dixon for a good time. All of us had plenty of gold dust and it was surely a good time we had.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Though perhaps modest, these hardy pioneers made every attempt to decorate their homes for the holidays with whatever natural materials looked attractive at the bleakest time of year, such as evergreens, pine cones, holly, nuts and berries. Decorations were largely homemade, supplemented with colorful ribbon and yarn, that is, if there was enough wood on hand to sacrifice a tree for decoration or even a room to display it during Christmas. Historians cite other decorations of dried fruit or popcorn on a string, wrapped candies, cookies, nuts or even tin and glass bottles. Some might even have a Christmas tree gaily decorated with bits of ribbon, yarn, berries, popcorn or paper strings and other homemade decorations. These homemade decorations were often figures or dolls made of straw or yarn. Cookie dough ornaments and gingerbread men were also popular.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Mary Crawford King left a written record of her first Christmas gathering in Steamboat Springs in 1877. Those who attended were Mr and Mrs James H Crawford, their children and Mr and Mrs S D N Bennett. On this occasion there was a small tree strung with ropes of popcorn and paper cornucropias which Mrs Bennett had made and decorated with pictures and pink ribbons. The cornucropias were filled with Mrs Crawford's homemade candies and raisins. The Bennett's arrived at the Crawford house in the morning to enjoy the tree and stayed for dinner. The two families ate trout, venison roasts, minced pie and cottage cheese. They ate in the one room of the cabin that was completed at this time.

Speaker 1: 9:26

At the very least, almost every home would make the holiday a time of feasting, bringing out preserved fruits and vegetables, fresh game if possible and, for those who could afford it, maybe even be for ham. Many women began to bake for the holidays weeks ahead of time, leaving the plum pudding to age in the pot until Christmas dinner. Many homemade gifts, including corn husk, dolls, sachets, carved wooden toys, pillows, foot stools and embroidered hankies, might have had the family members working on them for months before Christmas. Others knitted scarves, hats, mitts and socks. If the family had had a good year, the children might find candies, small gifts, cookies and fruits in their stockings. Most families would usually sing carols around the Christmas tree or fireplace on Christmas Eve. Most would attend church on Christmas Day, return home for the traditional Christmas meal and visit with friends and neighbors.

Speaker 1: 10:29

As a part of this Christmas tradition, wild West Podcast proudly presents the reading of the Christmas Tree by Robert Williams Service. In the dark and damp of the alley, cold lay the Christmas tree that hadn't been sold by a shopman, dourly thrown outside with a ruck and rubble of Christmas tide Drawn deep in the muck and mire, unworthy even to feed a fire. So I stopped and salvaged that tarnished tree, and thus is the story it told to me. My mother was queen of the forest glade and proudly I prospered in her shade. For she said to me, when I am dead, you will be monarch in my stead and reign as I for a hundred years, a tower of triumph amid your peers. When I crash in storm, I will yield you space, son, you will worthily take my place.

Speaker 1: 11:39

So I grew in grace like a happy child in the heart of the forest, free and wild, and the moss and ferns were all about, and the craint of mice crept in and out and a wood dove swung on my highest twig and a chipmunk chatted so big and so big and a shy fawn nimble to a tender shoot and a rabbit nibbled under my root. Oh, I was happy, and rain and shine as I thought of the destiny that was mine. Then a man with an axe came cruising by and I knew that my fate was to fall and die With a hundred others. He packed me tight and we drove to a magic city of light, to an avenue lined with Christmas trees and I thought maybe I'll be one of these, tinseled with silver and tricked with gold. A lovely sight for a child to behold. A glitter with lights of every hue ruby and emerald, orange and blue, and kiddies dancing with shrieks of glee. One might fare worse than a Christmas tree.

Speaker 1: 12:48

So they stood me up with a hundred more, in the blaze of a big department store. But I thought of the forest, dark and still, and the dew and the snow and the heat and the chill and the soft Chinook and the summer breeze and the dappled deer and the birds and the bees. I was so homesick I wanted to cry, but, patient, I waited for someone to buy and some said too big and some too small, and some passed on, saying nothing at all. Then a little boy cried Ma, buy that one. But she shook her head too dear my son.

Speaker 1: 13:30

So the evening came when they closed the store and I was left on the littered floor. A tree, unwanted, despised, unsold, thrown out at last in the alley cold. Then I said Don't sorrow, at least you'll be a bright and beautiful New Year's tree, all shimmer and glimmer and glow and gleam, a radiant sight like a fairy dream. For there is a little child I know who lives in poverty, want and woe, who lies a bed from morn to night and never has known an hour's delight. So I stood the tree at the foot of her bed. Santa's a little late, I said. Old chap, snowbound on the way, but he's here at last, so let's be gay.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Then she woke from sleep and saw you there and her eyes were love and her lips were prayer and her thin little arms were stretched to you with a yearning joy that they never knew. She woke from the darkest dark to see, like a heavenly vision, that Christmas tree. Her mother despaired and feared the end, but from that day she began to mend, to play, to sing, to laugh with glee. Bless you, o little Christmas tree. You died, but your life was not in vain. You helped a child to forget her pain and let hope live in our heart again. References for this podcast include websites from a pioneer Christmas Legends of America, what Christmas was really like in the wild west, grungecom and the Christmas tree by Robert Williams service. Mike and I would like to close this year's series of podcasts with a special thank you as we close for the holidays.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire of hospitality while generating the flame of charity from the heart. It is doing a little something extra for someone. And to all of our listeners, remember that Christmas is the day that holds all time together.

Speaker 1: 16:08

For Christmas is a traditional time, traditions that recall the precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all, maybe. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.