February Gleanings: Murphy Clubs, the Delaware, Skating Rinks and Bustles
If you read “January Gleanings,” you might recall that these “seen-around-town” sort of items were a regular column in the Coffeyville newspapers, and many newspapers, in the 1870s and 1880s. I am compiling samples for each month.
9 Feb 1878
The groundhog did not see his shadow.
Japonica in bloom.
Mr. Griffith, the sheep man, shipped some 500 sheep to Kansas City this week.
Mr. Ebersole has procured some temperance song books for the use of the Murphy club of this place.
Parents will please study the school report card published this week. Some boys, who are supposed to be at school, are not always where they are supposed to be, and without this report the absence might not be known.
The Murphy Association didn’t need to be explained in 1878. It was a temperance group started by Francis Murphy, an Irish immigrant and reformed alcoholic who founded the organization in 1870 while jailed for violating prohibition laws. He encouraged people to sign pledges not to drink and believed “moral suasion” rather than laws were the solution to America’s drinking problem. The movement took off exponentially after Murphy gave a series of lectures in Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1876. The Murphy Movement was also called the Blue Ribbon Movement because those who signed the pledge were given a blue ribbon to wear. Murphy lectured in places as far as Hawaii and Australia, and continued his work until his death in 1907.
Murphy was unusual in that he refused to shame drinkers or blame saloons or alcohol producers. His meeting style was casual and inclusive. A historian said Murphy managed to connect with the working poor “who did not respond to the typical damning clergy lectures on temperance.”
A common phrase during the temperance movement's heyday was, "Have you taken the pledge?"
23 Feb 1878
Spring at hand.
Prairie chickens crowing.
Saturday and Sunday last the young folks were out riding.
Our Delaware brethren were in town Saturday trading.
The first three days of this week were delightful, and roads were drying nicely, so that dust was appearing many places, but the rain again coming, we have mud.
The Parker boys came over Saturday and joined our boys in baseball. They play on the grounds just west of the public square.
Mr. D.W. Dunnet delivered a lecture before the Murphy Association last Friday evening.
W.C. Masten…has pea, radish, and quite a number of other seeds planted.
The Murphys at this place are talking of establishing a library and reading room. It would be invaluable to the young people…
The Delaware brethren referenced were members of the Delaware tribe, who had been continually forced to give up their land, from their original homelands in what are now eastern states such as New Jersey and Delaware, to Ohio, to Indiana, to Northeast Kansas, and finally to “Indian Territory,” on Cherokee land. A comment was also made about their drinking, which I left off. It is painful to read about the tragedies that were inflicted on Native Americans and the racism and complete lack of sensitivity or understanding of the repeated trauma these people were put through.
16 Feb 1884
A heavy snow this week.
A carload of mules was shipped in Thursday night.
The heavy sleet this week broke down the telegraph wires from Coffeyville north.
Wm. Davis has moved his wagon shop from the rear of Jordan’s blacksmith shop to the other side of the street.
We have heard of quite a number of cattle dying from the effects of the cold.
20 Feb 1886
The farmers are plowing.
We sigh for an early spring.
Quinine is in demand in all malarious districts.
The skating rink, the bang and the bustle will soon be numbered with the things of the dark ages.
The year 1886 will be freighted with bounteous crops, boundless prosperity and happiness for our people.
The county high school bill has become law. Montgomery County will most likely avail herself of the opportunity to secure an institution of learning of this class in her midst. Coffeyville ought to take steps to have the school located at this point.
I’m not sure what the reference is to the “bang” in the line about the skating rink, the bang and the bustle. The 1870s and ‘80s were called the “bustle decades” in fashion. Bustles were tied around a woman’s waist, resting on her backside underneath skirts, which projected the skirt outward. The Coffeyville editor would soon get his wish as to the demise of the bustle. In 1887, two reporters on a slow news day made up a story that First Lady Frances Cleveland decided to stop wearing the bustle. The 23-year old first lady was a subject of fascination and fashion influence; the bustle rapidly fell out of style.
There was a huge, nationwide roller skating craze, and roller rinks were built all over the U.S. – including Coffeyville.
The county high school bill applied only to counties with a population of at least 6,000. County commissioners could call for, or one-third of the county’s voters could request, a special election to decide whether or not to establish a high school. Three courses of instruction had to be offered once the school was established, each lasting three years: a general course, a normal course for those intending to teach, and a collegiate course for those planning to go to college. No one could enter the high school without passing an exam proving they could do the work. Those who graduated from the normal course automatically received a teaching certificate and did not have to take an exam for admission to the normal college. Those on the collegiate course could also enter the other two Kansas public colleges without an exam.
Montgomery County established a county high school in 1897, and unlike the wishes of the editor, it was located in Independence. A grand building was constructed. Students who did not live in Independence, like one of my great-grandfather’s cousins, had to pay room and board to attend high school.
However, Coffeyville didn’t let any grass grow under her feet. The city established a high school in rented rooms in the fall of 1886. It wasn’t as grand, but it was a high school.
Sources:
Phillips, Sarah. “Will You Sign the Pledge? Francis Murphy and Pittsburgh’s Great Temperance Movement,” Heinz History Center, https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history-francis-murphy-pittsburgh-great-temperance-movement/
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