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Of special interest to: Folks interested in how people celebrated Christmas
Re: A few tidbits from Dave Walter
Among his many other projects, the long-time, and much missed, MHS historian Dave Walter compiled Christmastime in Montana, a collection of stories of Christmases past, mostly from the newspapers.* For your reading pleasure, I've copied a few excerpts below. Happy holidays to all!
William Thompson's First Montana Christmas, 1863
My first Christmas in Montana was spent at Virginia City in 1863...A friend had sent us a piece of cinnamon-bear meat, and this my partner put into the oven and roasted. We had lots of flour, because we brought a supply with us; but vegetables were not to be had. I knew where there were some frozen onions behind a store...I put them in a big iron pot and boiled them until we thought they must certainly be cooked.
The dinner was served. It consisted of bear meat, onions, salt-rising bread, cake, coffee, and sugar. Tom Clanton had been over at a saloon trying to win a gallon of whiskey for the feast, and his partner, Nunley, spent the forenoon rustling for the cake. He was acquanted with a family who gave him the privilege of their cookstove in which to bake a cake.
We sat down to the Christmas spread. Joe cut the bear and I dished up the onions; Nunley cut the cake and Clanton poured the booze. I scraped the onions on my plate to one side and settled down to enjoy the bear meat, which smelled so good while it was being cooked. Golly, but it was rank, tough, and stringy. I couldn't go it; I never could go whiskey; Nunley's cake was simply unapproachable. I filled up on coffee and bread.
--Published in the Anaconda Standard, December 17, 1899
Christmas in Bozeman, 1867
On the eventful Christmas Eve, all the Masons and all those who love the Masons met at the large and spacious Hall, 26 by 60, newly built in this place, for the purpose of having a grand entertainment in the way of dancing. Our company was honored by many friends from the West Gallatin, by our excellent Captain's lady from Fort Ellis, and by the fort's many gentlemanly officers--besides many of our fair and brilliant faces who inhabit the homely dwellings of stirring, enterprising Bozeman.
Who in the East shall henceforth say there is no society, no civilization here? To us, no rooms were ever decorated more gorgeously. Chandeliers never shone more brilliantly; hearts never beat more joyfully; music never thrilled more sweetly; refreshments never refreshed more refreshingly...
--Published in the Virginia City Montana Post, January 4, 1868
Christmas in Helena, 1868
The celebration of Christmas commenced here on Christmas Eve. ... The liquor, billiard, gambling, and concert saloons and hurdy-gurdy houses were filled, and they remained so for two days. At some point, nearly every saloon had its own peculiar row. Any looker-on, bearing in mind the danger from stray shots, would make up his mind ... that they "had a little hell of their own, and devlis enough to tend to it."
Main Street was the broad aisle through with the devotees of pleasure marched to do their idol homage. As they did so, their barbaric yells resounded throughout the town....
On Christmas night the orgies reached their height, but we can give no detailed description of them, for most of the participants had become so drunk as to cease to be amusing."
--Published in the Helena Weekly Herald, January 2, 1868
*Finding stories about Christmas (or any other holiday) is much easier now than when Dave wrote this book because of MHS's newspaper digitization project.
Teaching Montana History is written by Martha Kohl, Outreach and Interpretation Historian at the Montana Historical Society.
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