Christmas Gifts in Fort Wayne and Coffeyville, 1860s-1890s
This illustration is from an 1890 story, "Peter's Christmas." Here, Mrs. Brown, the kindly matron of a Newsboys Home, has prepared a Christmas tree for the boys to enjoy. Homeless newsboys could stay at newsboy homes for a fee that was typically six cents a night, with a nickel supper and a six-cent breakfast. Lunch was on their own. The boys were out all day selling newspapers.
“We sometimes think …that Young America of today is altogether too knowing to believe in a little man in a sleigh drawn by eight reindeers, running over the tops of the houses and coming down the chimney…to fill their stockings. Then too, the presents now a days are all so big and elaborate that they cannot be put in stockings…
How different from the little wooden horses, tin trumpets, pop guns and candies of long ago. Modern civilization is sweeping away all of the romance of life, even from children….Would that we had some Hans [Christian] Anderson in this country, to weave again the romance of the day and make us believe in good fairies and Kris Kringle; in something beside this hard, cold materialism, which is creeping into the bones of our very children.”
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 24 Dec 1868, p. 4.
Ah, the hard, cold materialism of Christmas, 1868. Laments about Christmas materialism have been with us for a long time. What is interesting, in that very religious time, is that the editor wasn’t reminding readers to remember the “reason for the season.” He wished for the childhood magic of a Christmas that hadn’t been around all that long – Santa and reindeer and Christmas fairies. It seems, too, he yearned for the simple Christmas of his youth, one with just a few small presents, or hoped that the children of 1868 would be content with such.(1) This sentiment of wishing for childhood innocence was apparently common as the nation was just beginning to heal from the terrible Civil War.
An editor/newspaper publisher like Fort Wayne’s Isaac Jenkinson had to be practical, however. After all, ads pay the bills. On the same page of the editor’s rumination there was a large advertisement:
“Santa Claus! In all his glory! Has made his headquarters this week the Palace of Fashion! The finest display of holiday presents ever attempted in this city!”
There were hats and caps, gentlemen’s furs, patented ear muffs!! (The double exclamation points were in the ad.) Gentlemen’s jewelry, boys’ and mens’ underwear, mittens, gloves, suits and overcoats – all perfect for Christmas. And it wasn’t the only ad that referenced Christmas presents. Fort Wayne was a middle-class, mid-sized industrial city and a regional shopping center. The Palace of Fashion, owned and operated by the Nirdlinger brothers, had a competitor in the Foster Brothers, which ran a huge front-page ad declaring war on high prices. Then there was Root & Company with their gloves and hosiery, or the “merchant tailor” Joseph M. Clarke, who promised the most stylish clothing in town -- just come see, and you’d leave convinced.
My direct ancestors on one side of my father’s tree lived in Fort Wayne from 1814 to 1900. Others lived in Coffeyville, Kansas from 1870 to 1925. Homemade Christmas presents were very common, but especially in Fort Wayne by the 1860s, my great-great-great grandfather Myron Fitch Barbour had discretionary income. What kind of items might have tempted the family as Christmas gifts? Were they bombarded with ads and a swirl of activities? What did advertisers in the local newspapers suggest?
Fort Wayne 1860s
Unlike our modern custom, Christmas celebrations began on Christmas Eve, often at the church “Christmas tree entertainment.” School didn’t get out till right before Christmas - often on the 24th, and holiday ads didn’t appear until December. In 1864 Editor Jenkinson reminded readers on Christmas Eve that the Christmas season “begins this evening.” Therefore, it wasn’t considered too late when he suggested on Christmas Day in 1869, “If you wish to see a fine sight take a walk to the Palace of Fashion and take a look at their beautiful show windows.”
That year Jenkinson also said, “In the United States the day is less generally celebrated than in England, and the people seem to have outgrown the puerile expressions of gaiety from having their noses constantly pressed against the great grindstone of labor which turns incessantly from dawn to dusk, or it may be that these times of progress and invention, of cynical disbelief and indifference, we are ashamed to indulge in the time honored gaities of the season, and from this cause we witness the decline of a score or more of time honored customs. Alas! The merriment of our youth, even the harmless and simple part of it is passing away and soon will have vanished just as the maypoles of England have been cut down and disposed of. They have been utilized and sold for a penny a bundle ages ago…”
The Twelve Days of Christmas were an English tradition with the holiday celebrated from Christmas Eve to January 6th. The editor said that in America, Christmas was strictly a one-day celebration, privately held in the family home. New Year’s gifts were a tradition and there were ads for these gifts, too. There were also stores open on December 25th and plenty of diversions outside the home.
The concern about the cynicism of the age and a loss of childlike wonder and joy was expressed in other pieces, such as an essay by a “lady contributor” that appeared in an 1866 edition of the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette. It was a syndicated piece from Cincinnati. She lamented that adults allowed their “miraculous spectacles…to grow rusty by the many tears we have shed,” which was probably a reference to the war. However, she quickly pivoted.
“Certainly never before were the shop windows so ablaze with glory as now,” she wrote, “and the seeker after innocent pastimes will not do ill to take a peep at them.” She said Germany, a major importer of toys, managed to produce, “a greater variety of juvenile wonders that has blessed the eyes of boys and girls for many a year, and the result will be a great depletion of papa’s and mamma’s purses, and a grand eruption into the parlor and sitting room of trumpets and warriors, of beasts of the field and the riches of Allemanni [Germany].”
In 1860 an ad in Dawson’s Fort Wayne Daily Times called out, "Ho! Boys and Gals!” They were invited to come take a look at 500 sacks of dried apples, peaches and chestnuts at the city treasurer’s office. Were they being given away? Meyers & Brother, druggist, assured the reader that year that nothing could be more appropriate for gift-giving than a new coal oil lamp. Brushes, combs, perfume and cologne from the drugstore also made great Christmas and New Year’s gifts.
In 1867 James M. Kane & Brother’s store on Calhoun Street offered dressed dolls, walking dolls, crying dolls, paper dolls, boys’ sleds, building blocks, toy soldiers, trains and steamboats, arks with animal sets, toy guns and sand toys.
Clothing, jewelry and perfume were often suggested items for gift-giving. Balmoral skirts and hoop skirts were the fashion. A shawl was always appreciated. For something different, Mr. N. Gayette advertised his large selection of sea shells, which would make a perfect addition to the parlor. Books were another common suggestion. But what was more appropriate for the wife, sister, mother or daughter than a sewing machine?
Grocery stores also advertised holiday treats like mincemeat, chestnuts and candy, and special shipments of cranberries, oranges and lemons. In 1867 the Fruit House even stayed open until 10:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, for the convenience of patrons. Oranges and lemons were 50 to 75 cents a dozen.
The theaters were also open on Christmas night, and they weren’t showing any holiday performances. In 1867 Miss Leo Hudson was appearing at Colerick’s Hall with her horse Black Bess. She was described as an equestrienne actress. A handbill pictured her in a provocative outfit best described as toga shorts, with Miss Hudson dramatically tied across the back of her horse.(2) But Hamilton Hall also featured a competing performance that night with Mrs. Lander and her Troupe performing “Elizabeth Queen of England.”
In 1869 Commodore Foote and his sister, the Fairy Queen, were performing on Christmas night. They were actually Charles and Eliza Nestel, Fort Wayne natives and little people who toured the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. They performed musical numbers, dances and recitations, and met privately with Abraham Lincoln at the White House, and Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.
That year the skating rink was open on Christmas day – go to Alfred Hattersly’s on Main Street for a fine new pair of skates. Skates could be cleaned and sharpened at the rink with lightning speed, since machinery with steam power was erected “for just that purpose” behind the rink.
Coffeyville 1870s-1890s
The Coffeyville Weekly Journal started in 1875. In 1876 editor William Peffer made his first mention of local holiday events. “Christmas was very generally observed here. There were a great many social dinners, and quite a number of families had Christmas trees,” he wrote. In a separate item, he said, “Several brethren got a little too much Christmas aboard last Monday and the Marshal was compelled to let them use the city house to unload. A few hours in the calaboose relieved them and they went home in the evening on their ear.”
Coffeyville, of course, was a very different place than Fort Wayne. It was only established in 1869 with a single trading post. It was more like the raw, backwoods Fort Wayne of sixty years earlier. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s fictional Little House on the Prairie, has a Christmas chapter describing gifts that may have been a common experience. The novel is based on her family, who were living as squatters in Fawn Creek Township, Montgomery County, Kansas in 1869. That Christmas, in the story, Laura and Mary are touchingly thrilled to receive a tin cup, a shiny penny, a stick of candy and a cookie-sized heart-shaped cake with white sugar sprinkled on top. The items were bought in the county seat, Independence.
But just a few years later, there was more than a single trading post in Coffeyville. There, ads specifically mentioning Christmas were subtle and few in the 1870s. Slossons, a general mercantile store, had an ad in 1876 with a small headline, “Ho! For the holidays!” and Uphams, another general store, said, “Best place to pick out Christmas presents.”
By the 1880s, though, there were plenty of suggestions. For your “solid girl,” scrapbooks and plush albums were recommended. The same items that were such popular gifts for weddings – pickle castors and anything silver (silverware, sugar bowls, cream and syrup pitchers, sugar shells, cake baskets, napkin rings, vases and more) were desirable. A.L. Ingraham’s stocked “X-mas candies, toy candies, tree ornaments, etc.” The newspaper at various times suggested there were plenty of “nix nax” and “jimcracks” in the local stores for the holiday shopper.
This ad ran in the Coffeyville Weekly Journal December 12, 1885.
Christmas, to judge by the ads in the 1890s, became a much more important part of a merchant’s bottom line. For the men on your list, mustache cups, mufflers and handkerchiefs were obvious choices. For the ladies, in addition to the usual perfume and cut-glass items, a silk umbrella would be nice. The wife of a well-to-do farmer or tradesman might anticipate a sewing machine or an elegant rocker from Lang & Lape's. But then, according to its company ad, there was “The most Popular Christmas Present in the World.” What could this be? Imagine the delighted expression on your wife or mother’s face when she finds a Bissel carpet sweeper under the Christmas tree! That much happiness could be had for only three dollars!
But Christmas, the commercial, materialistic Christmas, the Santa Claus-and-reindeer-and magic-fairy Christmas, has always focused on children. The copy for an 1897 ad for the Big Racket Store- “Who Undersells Everybody!” said, “A child’s dream and waking thoughts are now of Santa Claus.” The store offered girls doll buggies, cradles, tea sets, and stoves. You could even get your daughter a toy carpet sweeper just like Mama’s! For the boys there were toy drums, tool chests, horses, soldiers, wood and iron wagons, sleds, hobby horses, iron trains, magic lanterns and fire engines. Wells Brothers had Turkish Fez caps available for the kids; think how adorable they’d look in a fez.
The News-Broadax had a gift suggestion too. Why not get a subscription to the paper for your friends back East?
The Coffeyville newspapers ran syndicated Christmas short stories and poems every year from the 1880s on. In an 1890 story, “Peter’s Christmas,” a little six-year old’s gifts were listed, and sound typical of the accounts of pioneer children: homemade red mittens, a jumping jack, a toy cap pistol, a toy watch and chain, a squeaking bird, and apples, peanuts and popcorn balls.(3)
In spite of all the ads and enticements, most Coffeyville-area families probably only received a few store bought items, and the homemade was valued. They could get ideas from publications such as Ladies Home Journal, which offered the book “Pretty Things For Christmas,” a compendium of homemade gift ideas and how-tos (Free with a year’s subscription to the magazine, which was one dollar).
Regardless of whether the presents were homemade, or store bought "nix nax and jimcracks," most likely, the result was what Editor Peffer often wrote: "Christmas was enjoyed by our people very much."
Notes:
The Daily Gazette was started in 1863 by David W. Jones and Isaac Jenkinson with the goal of improving the fortunes of the Republican Party. Jenkinson wrote almost all of the editorials. The newspaper operated in a majority Democratic county.
Miss Leo Hudson died in June 1873 as a result of a stage accident in May. As was part of her performance, she was tied to the back of her horse, Black Bess. Bess had to make a turn while ascending some sort of scaffolding, but slipped and fell, injuring its spine. Leo fell about 14 feet. The horse had to be put to sleep. Leo, whose real name was Julia Lee Hodgen, 30, suffered internal injuries but lingered for about two weeks.
The story was by popular author Annie Isabel Willis. Peter was not a pioneer child; he was a favorite trope of the Victorian writer: an unfortunate orphan. In his case, he is supported solely by his nine-year old brother, newsboy Patsey McCall. The two live in the Newsboys Home of a major city where Peter spends his days with the kindly matron while Patsey is out selling newspapers all day and a second shift into the night. Sometimes, Patsey gets back to the Home after its 11 p.m. curfew. Then, he has to spend the night on the streets as no exceptions are made to let him in. Patsey plans a special Christmas for his little brother, and the matron knitted the pair of red mittens. Peter has a wonderful day, then is run over and killed by a speeding coach and horses, ensuring a happy eternity in heaven.
Source:
“Christmas Is Coming, By a Lady Contributor,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 24 Dec 1866, p. 2.
“Christmas,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 24 Dec 1868, p. 4.
“A Merry Christmas,” Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 25 Dec 1869, p. 4.
“Leo Hudson. Her Death at the St. Clair Hotel,” The Daily Journal of Commerce (Kansas City, Missouri), 5 June 1873, p. 1.
The Big Racket Advertisement: The Daily Independent (Coffeyville, Kansas), 22 Dec 1897, p. 4
Willis, Annie Isabel. “Peter’s Christmas. A Holiday Story of Life Among the Bootblacks,” Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 19 Dec 1890, p. 3.
Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023
Comments
Post a Comment