Settlers Just Want to Have Fun!

Isolation on the frontier was a problem.  Complete strangers would walk miles just to talk to someone.  They would stay the day, bringing a dish for a shared meal.  Good visits found them quilting or planting together.  Not-so-good visits were spent sitting with a sick neighbor.  When more settlers came to the area, groups formed like amateur theater groups and literary societies for readings and debates.  Women started sewing circles and temperance societies.  Men formed fraternal lodges, church clubs, hunting clubs - anything to brings folks together. 

Baseball was popular with all the pioneers.  No gloves or masks were used.  Balls were made of yarn from old socks and wrapped in worn boot leather.  The settlers also played croquet, lawn bowling, marbles, and billiards. Board games included checkers, dominoes, and card games like euchre, seven up, and keno.  Adults and children alike enjoyed drop-the-handkerchief, and Old Mother Wobble Gobble which was our charades. 

Children would see-saw, ice skate, sleigh ride, have sorghum taffy pulls, compete in spelling and ciphering contests, give recitations and musical concerts.  Toys were hand made by whittling, like a boy's hobby horse, or a girl's corn husk doll.  Popcorn was strung to make "furs" for dress up. 

Church was a social event as well as a religious one.  A boy attended Sunday school to meet a girl.  After more than a few dates, a girl was "obligated" to the boy.  Sunday picnics followed church and women brought homemade pies, cakes, preserves to share.

Holiday were festive occasions - especially July 4th when a farmer would bring his whole family into town along with their skillet.  The town would catch hundreds of catfish, collect firewood, supply corn crushers, set up tables and canopies and dance platforms.  Band concerts, parades, and rifle competitions were held.  For the youth, sack races, greased pig contests and greased pole climbing was common.  After a big fish fry with corn dodgers (fried cornbread), the dancing began to the tune of fiddles, lasting until noon on July 5th.  Who said pioneers didn't have fun??

Next time...The Hard Times
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 11, 1793, The death toll from a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia hits 100 on this day in 1793. By the time it ended, 5,000 people were dead. Yellow fever, or American plague as it was known at the time, is a viral disease carried by mosquitoes that begins with fever and muscle pain. Next, victims often become jaundiced (hence, the term “yellow” fever), as their liver and kidneys cease to function normally.