A Christmas Story... 1778

Dec 10,2007

Well gang, it's that time again. I almost missed bumping it up. It's like the running of Rudolph The Red nosed Reindeer on TV. No Christmas season will be complete at DG without the return of this thread.




As many of you know,my family has traced their roots back many generations,and I would like to share this story with you as a holiday present to the whole Garden.

My Great,Great,Great,Great,Great Grandfather packed up his young family and left Western PA with Gen.George Rogers Clark.They came down the Ohio River and founded what is now Louisville,KY

This is the story of their first Christmas in the frontier of the Kentucky Territory.There were 20 families who were there that Christmas,and this story was written down 105 years later in 1883. Simple things were important ,as that was all they had.

This story is long,but a wonderful look back to another time.
I hope you enjoy it.



A KENTUCKY CHRISTMAS
1778
From the Origin Of The City Of Louisville
by
Col.Reuben T. Durrett


One hundred and five years ago, Christmas was for the first time celebrated at The Falls Of The Ohio.When Gen Clark,in the spring of 1778 set out upon his expedition against the British garrisons in the Illinois Territory,some twenty families assembling at Redstone,for the purpose of emigrating to Kentucky,accompanied the soldiers from that place to the Falls.These families were landed on Corn Island,May 27,1778,and became the founders of the city of Louisville.Cabins were erected for their habitation on the island,and dwelt there until the news came of the conquest of the Illinois country,and orders were received from the victorious commander to prepare for moving to the mainshore.

To secure the settlers against the attacks of hostile Indians on the main land,a fort was ordered to be erected on the high bank where Twelth Street now enters the river.The building of this fort was committed to the charge of Richard Chenoweth:and although the structure he erected had little claim to the name of fort,consisting,as it did,of rows of log cabins joined together around an inner court,yet it served the purposes for which it was intended,until a better one could be constructed.The settlers who had been cooped up on Corn Island ever since their arrival were glad of the opportunity of enlarging their range:and although the fort was not finished at the close of 1778,it was in habitable condition,and some of the families spent their first Christmas in their new quarters.Accepting the change of getting from the island to the mainland,and pleased with the thought of the approaching holiday,which all had been wont to celebrate in the old homes from which they came, they decided to give their new quarters what they called,a house warming on Christmas Day.And as Chenoweth had been the builder of the new fort,it was concluded to honor him with the conduct of the housewarming,or giving of the Christmas dinner and dance.

According to the custom of the times,two things..a feast and a dance..were necessary to the proposed celebration of Christmas.It was easy enough to have the feast.Game was abundant in the woods,and expert marksmen were present to kill all the deer and bears, and turkeys,and rabbits,and oppossums that could be needed.The difficulty was the music for the dance.There was a Negro named Cato at the fort who had a fiddle that had furnished music for the settlement during the summer and fall.But his crazy old instrument was now reduced to one string,and Cato was not Old Bull enough to saw music from it.He had tried to make strings of the hair of the horse's tail and of the sinews of the deer,but the former only gave a horrid screech when the bow scraped them,and the latter uttered no sound except a kind of hoarse moan like the melancholy hoots of a night owl.Every young heart,and,old one too in the settlement was was sad at this condition of Cato's fiddle.but there appeared to be no help for it,and all had sorrowfully resolved to make the most of the feast without the dance.

On Christmas Eve,when the hunters had returned from the woods and the men were preparing the game and the women picking the fowls for the morrow's feast,a small boat was rowed between the island and the mainland,and made fast to a tree just opposite the new fort.The boat was occupied by some traders on their way from Fort Pitt to Kaskaskia,and among them was a Frenchman,who,hearing of the help his king had determined to give the Americans in their struggle for independance,had left France for the purpose of making his fortune in the new world with his violin.The boat was in leaky conditon,and had been compelled to come ashore for repairs.Although anxiety to see the strangers had brought all men,women and children of the settlement to the boat,none of those who wanted so much to dance had thought of inquiring whether there was a fiddle or even fiddle strings aboard.

Not so with Cato.So soon as he got the opportunity he made dilligent search,and learned that a French musician was on board,and not only had his fiddle with him,but also had an extra supply of strings.It was not long before Cato had bargained with the Frenchman for the three strings he needed,and had given as many raccoon skins therfor,with an extra skin,on condition that nothing was to be said about it.Cato's scheme was to get his fiddle in order without anyone at the fort knowing it,so that when the dinner was over and all were dying for a dance,he could surprise them all with the much desired music.He,therfore,put new strings on his fiddle,laid the instrument away,and waited for the time when his unexpected music was to make all the boys and girls think him the greatest man in the world.

Friday,the 25th of December,1778,came with a bright sun and a genial winter's air.Early that morning the pots were boiling and the ovens were baking dishes that were to make the dinner.At the north-east corner of the fort,adjoining the cabin of Chenoweth,and connected therwith by a door,was a large apartment,double the size the rooms of the cabins,intended for a storehouse.Here forks were driven in the unboarded floor,and poles stretched through them:over which boards were laid for the dinner table.By twelve o'clock the table was ready for the guests.There was no cloth upon it,and most of the furniture was made of wood.The meats were served in wooden trays,hominy in wooden bowls,and the bread upon wooden plates.An occasional pewter spoon and horn-handled knife and tin cup enlivened the scene,but there were not enough of them for all the guests.

If every article of food on the table had formed a seperate course as in modern times,it might have been pronounced a swell repast.There were venison,and bear,and rabbit,and turkey,and buffalo meat,prepared in different ways.There was corn bread in pone,in hoecake,and in battercake form:there was hominy boiled and fried:there were milk,and butter,and home made cheese.But the great dish of the occasion was an oppossum baked whole.It hung by it's tail on a stick of wood in the center of the table,and everyone present had a piece of it.

The occupants of the boat that had landed the day before had been invited to the feast.When the dinner was about over,and the boys and girls and old folks,too,had begun to sigh for want of the dance,the Frenchman was telling Miss Ann Tuell an anecdote in which something was said about an accident to his fiddle.At the mention of fiddle Miss Tuell gave a joyous shout,which brought everybody around her.Quick as lightning the Frenchman was pressed with questions if he had a fiddle.When he answered in the afirmitave,the fort rang with shouts of gladness.Monsieur was besought to get his fiddle and help to a dance.He tried to avoid it,but refusals were vain.The girls hugged and kissed him and patted his face until he yeilded.

When Monsieur was gone to the boat for his fiddle,the table was cleared from the large room,and all things were put in order for the dance.Those who did not intend to participate in the dance,or,rather ,had to attend to small children too young to engage in it,were seated on stools around the walls,and the space between them,which was a smooth dirt floor,left clear for the dancers.Cato was now the sad on in the fort.He began to think the Frenchman would carry off the honors of the day,and that his new fiddle strings,bought at the cost of four raccoon skins,would not afford the joy or bring him the pay he expected.There was no help for him,and he silently and sadly waited to see what might turn up.

The Frenchman was familiar with the fashionable music and dances of his native land,but utterly ignorant of what was suited to the frontier settlements of this country.He was willing,however to do his best for the enjoyment of the occasion,and the girls were delighted at the opportunity of learning something new and fashionable:
"A bran new dance
Jus come from France"

as some rhymingly expressed it.When he returned from the boat with his fiddle he found the room ready,and the dancers on the floor impatient to begin.The names of the dances he tried to introduce have not come down to us,but the description which has been preserved in tradition indicates that they were the following:

First he tried what was known in those days as the Branle.He arranged the dancers in a circle around the room with hands joined,and showed them how to leap in circles and keep one another in constant motion.After giving,as he thought,sufficient instructions to insure success,he took his place at one side of the room,and began to play and direct the dance.But the dancers would not or could not follow his promptings.They got out of time and out of figure too.The Frenchman was disgusted,and resolved to try another figure.

He advanced to the center,and after discanting upon the grace and beauty of the Minuet,arranged the parties for that dance.He showed them how to make a long and graceful bow,how to balance,and,how to glide forward.Then taking his position at the side of the room again,he began to play the Minuet and direct the figure.But the dancers again would not or could not obey orders.Instead of gliding,they would hop across the floor;and when it came to bow,instead of drawing it out to a graceful length as indicated by the strain of music,they bobbed their heads up and down in quick succession,like geese dodging a shower of stones.Monsieur was again disgusted,but summoned up enough of the courage of despair to make another effort.

He next introduced the Pavane,and explained the principal merit of this dance consisted in strutting like peacocks.He instanced Margaret of Valeis and other distinguished French ladies who had made great fame in this dance.When he had arranged them on the floor and showed them how to strut,he took his place and began the music.A scene soon followed that surpassed the two previous ones in ridiculousness.As the boys strutted by the girls laughed at them,and as the girls caught their skirts with their hands on each side and strutted by the boys.,the boys would imitate the peculiar cry of the peacock until the whole scene was confusion confounded.Monsieur was disgusted beyond endurance.Although he spoke very fair English when at himself,he now lost the entire use of that tongue,and in his rage and despair rattled away in French,like an empty wagon over rough pavement.He planted his back against the wall after the first ebullition of passion had subsided,and there stood,with his fiddle under his arm and his bow in his hand,a grim pale statue of despair.

Just at this juncture a charcoal face,with ivory teeth grinning from ear to ear,was seen entering the room.It was Cato,the Negro fiddler,whose music had given more pleasure at the falls than all other things combined.In truth,it may be doubted if the families could have been kept together on Corn Island during the summer and fall of 1778,if Cato's fiddle had not been there to cheer them with stirring tunes. Cato walked up to the Frenchman,and,with the politeness of the Frenchman himself,asked if he might play while his honor rested.The Frenchman gladly accepted the proposition of Cato and told him to play on.

Cato began an old Virginia reel,and quick as a thought the males were ranged along one side of the room and the females the other,each having selected a partner in the twinkling of an eye.Down through the intervening space dashed the head couple,cutting all sorts of capers,intersperced with jigs,hoe downs,and pigeon wings,until,weary of their violent efforts,they took their stand at the foot of the circle.The next couple did likewise,the difference being only a little more or a little less so,until the foot became the head again,and so on.No prompting was necessary.All understood what was to be done,and did it.Everything was absolute enjoyment ,except how long a human being in Cato's position might hold out to make such music.Cato did hold out till midnight,when all were weary enough to go to bed and rest.

The Frenchman slowly awoke to an appreciation of his situation,and while the dance was in full blast made his way to the boat.The boat had been reluctantly been delayed for the frolic,and now that the Monsieur was on board again,it was soon pushed from shore,making it's way over the rapids toward it's destination,bearing away with it the secret as to how Cato obtained his fiddle strings.

There was no newspaper printed at the falls at that early date,but if there had been,it's next issue would have doubtless contained the names of the persons at the dance,and given a description of the costumes,for,although the occasion presented nothing that would rank with the displays of modern fashion,everything there was the best that the times and locality could afford.The gentlemen appeared in buckskin hunting shirts,breeches,and moccasins,and the ladies in linsey gowns,with hands ungloved and feet covered with coarse brogans.Every man,woman,and child in the settlement was present,and the following ancestors of descendants yet dwelling among us may be mentioned as having joined in this first celebration of a Christmas holiday in Louisville,Kentucky.



This message was edited Dec 10, 2007 2:05 PM

Whoooo...! Great story! Read and hung onto every word and feeling! Loved it! Can see it in my mind!
Thanks Mel!

What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Thanks ya'll...I just knew Shoe would like it.It's a great tale...and it's a true story. I'm not sure how much the storyteller actually knew...and most likely,there was some 'ruffles' added.But we had pretty much the whole story before we found this account of it written down.

What a great story. I really enjoyed it.

We've talked about this story earlier in the year Jim and I knew that you would like to read it.My ancestor's name was William Faith.The son of an Irish immigrant originally from Antrim,Ireland. If you look up the old land grants in KY,there is a parcel called Faith's Premption just east of Louisville,along the Ohio River.This was granted to him for assisting Gen Clark's soldiers. Besides that...it's a nice Christmas story.

Oh, Mel, what a wonderful story! I could see it all, especially that disgusted Frenchman trying to arrange all the people for the grand dances he was used to playing! Thanks so much for posting this.

Well, carry me back to old Virginny! Nice story, well told. I know I don't really really want to be in that time and place, but often when I read things like this, I am for a brief instant tempted to think I would like to go there.

What a neat story Melody...Thank you so much!

That would make a marvelous childrens book. I can see the illustrations in my mind, richly-colored watercolors with lots of expression on the faces. It would be such a great book!

Mel, how about it? Just think how it would tie in with your Heirloom Store (opening soon!). A simple printed version to pass out for advertising, with a complete book available for purchase.

I'm in agreement totally and planned for an illustrated copy of this to go out with my Christmas cards this year...then came the car wreck. Maybe next year....

I'm wanting to make this into a play suitable for Jr.High students most of all though.I think it would make a nice holiday skit. That is the direction I'm headed in with it and hopefully my niece will get a chance to be in it if I can get my butt in gear and get it done.

This message was edited May 22, 2005 8:30 AM

Bumping this up again for a seasonal treat...enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

What a great story from the city of my birth; I pronounce it "Lou-a-vull."

TC...

Melody, makes a great Christmas story. I hadn't read it last year. Thanks for posting again. Donna

Good to get to re-read this again, Mel!

Pretty cool! Enjoyed it this time around just as much as the first time.

(Now if ONLY I could learn to play the fiddle!)

Bringing this up again for the newbies....Merry Christmas!

What a great story! You can almost imagine being there, can't you? I think a lot of us forget that Christmas Celebrations have been happening for many centuries, but to have this piece of history in such detail is certainly a treat. I do think, had I been present that day, I may have passed on the "oppossum baked whole, that hung by it's tail on a stick of wood in the center of the table"! LOL. Thanks so much for sharing, melody.

Hey I missed this the last two years. Thanks for bumping it Mel. Great story.

Hey, don't know how I missed it in 2002 and again in 2003, but it's a great story, Mel. Thanks for sharing it!

Thanks y'all...glad you are enjoying it....it's sort of like how they run Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer on TV every year......It's getting to be a tradition that I bump this every December for the Holidays.

Merry Christmas gang!

Here's the annual 'bump' for the newbies, and for all of us old folks who want to re-read it again.

Great story Mel, and living near Louisville I can picture it all :)

thank you for shareing your story
patty

Thanks for the bump - I always love reading this one!

Yes, I loved reading it again too! Thanks.

Yay! It's back!

Love it! Thanks for the bump! Thanks for the original post/story/happening!

It's a tradition now!

Merry Christmas Folks!

Glad folks are enjoying it... It just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

Here we go again...the 'annual bump'...it's a touch early this year, but I told Sharran about it this afternoon while we were decorating trees up at the Gallery, it's only about a week early...Hope all enjoy it!!

Yay! Always love reading this one!

Thanks, Mel!

Shoe.

It's as much a holiday tradition now as putting up our tree and driving around to look at lights.

Bumping up for the season....Enjoy! Newbies and old members all!

Yay!

Did enjoy reading the story...how wonderful and thank you for sharing!!!

Some things are simply "DG Tradition" here, eh!? This is one of them!

Hope you had a fun day, Melody!

Shoe

That was absolutely fascinating reading. Thanks for sharing.

I haven't bumped this up in a couple of years...thought it was time for a dust-off...

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed this... A glimpse of yesterday is a wonderful thing....

What a great read, again! Thanks, Mel!

Can you imagine all the tidbits of history that may be written down somewhere, in family papers, letters, Bibles, etc. And in another 100 years or so (or 200, as in this story), people will be looking back on how we are now living and find it interesting reading, too. A way of life gone by, eh?

Shoe