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History
"Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers" written about South Tillamook County, Oregon
The page below was written by Mrs. Hardy Rock (Alexandria LEY Rock) and published in 1949. NVMS students have retyped her history so that many may read it. Although some punctuation errors have been corrected the text remains as written by Mrs. Rock.
Note that Alexandria LEY Rock's "Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers" has been republished in book form as of January 2007 and is now being offered for sale by the Tillamook County Historical Society!
(This page was
typed by Dean Bones on June 21, 2002.)
The Pioneers had
to depend wholly upon themselves for entertainment and amusements. Most popular
were the dances which lasted all night because roads were bad and the only means
of transportation were teams and wagons or horseback. At first, dances were
held in private homes.
The "Stoggie"
shoe worn by earliest pioneers were too heavy. So it was not unusual to dance
in stocking feet. Women did not wear silk hose then. Whole families attended;
the small children were put to bed piled closely together on one bed. The "Fiddle"
was the only musical instrument. They called them "fiddles" then,
not violins.
Peter Petite,
who lived near old Grand Ronde Was the best fiddler obtainable, and he could
keep feet tapping lively all night. Square dances were most enjoyable; dancers
worked hard on these; the "fiddler" increased time until toward the
end it would be a race by the dancers to keep up with him. Men and woman often
sang lustily amid screams of delight. Many men could "call" and a
few women were experts at it.
Surprise dances were popular and hastily arranged; word passed from house to house by neighbors or by someone on horseback. Without any announcement to the unsuspecting host, they would gather in bringing one or two fiddles along. Eats and coffee must be served midnight. One winter evening, Oscar Faulconer, son of pioneer, Marcellus Faulconer, and his wife (Ida Bower Faulconer), welcomed such a crowd in their small cabin home, finding them totally unprepared with food. Ida put on to boil, a large black old fashioned kettle of winter beans which, with a huge pot of black coffee, were laughingly and eagerly enjoyed by all. Daylight approaching, the old fiddle rang out that familiar tune, "We Won't go Home Until Morning," all joining in the singing amid preparations for a hasty exit.
These dances were purely for enjoyment. The men often pooled a payment for the fiddler unless menfolk volunteered to take turns with the music.
Spite dances occurred at times. One party would announce a dance, make extensive preparations with fried chicken, sandwiches, pies, cakes, pickles, salads, and coffee, only to realize about 8 or 9 o'clock that he was boycotted. This means someone more popular had arranged a spite-dance at some distant home or place. On one such occasion, the boycotted party locked up the schoolhouse and attended the spite-dance; seemingly enjoying the joke although all the prepared food had to be given away the following day.
Charivaris were accorded newly married couples. These were the old style kind made by cow bells, cow horns, tin pans, whistles, guns and even blasts of dynamite. The din would bring the young couple to the door to welcome the crowd and serve refreshments. A charivari was given to Will Christensen and his wife, Stella Commons Christensen, on their 25th wedding anniversary because they had none on their wedding night. The mothers of both bride and groom were "expecting" which prevented a charivari 25 years before.
Continue to page 8 of "Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers!"