This post is less research than a summary of someone else's work and a plan for possible future research.
While digging idly around the internet in preparation for a private trip to the Northwest, I came across a fascinating article by award-winning fiddler Vivian Williams on pioneer fiddlers in the northwestern United States. The article covers primarily nineteenth-century fiddlers, with a few from the twentieth century whose music continued in the pioneer musical tradition. Ms. Williams' article may be found here, along with a biography of her and her husband and musical partner Phil and a great deal of other information about their work with historical music and dance in the northwest.
While I greatly enjoy fiddle music, my major interest in music research lies in where it intersects with dance history. Happily, many of these pioneer fiddlers played for dancing, and many of the dance tunes they played are listed by Ms. Williams, giving an interesting snapshot of some of the dancing of the nineteenth and early twentieth century northwestern frontier. I don't have a special interest in frontier dance, but there are quite a few areas of dance history that I once claimed to have no interest in (cotillions, sigh) but now find myself spending a lot of time researching. So I've gone through the article, pulled out and summarized the dance-related bits, and added some background detail.
While I cover the dance information thoroughly below, I would highly recommend reading the entire article as well. There's a lot of background on the various fiddlers and plenty of amusing anecdotes. She also includes citations and links to many of the articles from which she pulled her information, of which there is enough in the article alone to construct an entire evening of dancing as done in this corner of North America in the mid- to late nineteenth century! It would probably be very fruitful to go through the numerous sources listed in the article looking for dance mentions not linked to fiddling. Someday when I have plenty of free time...
A summary of the useful information about dance
1. Fiddler/caller/publisher Elias Howe's music books made it to the northwest. A copy of his 1851 School for the Violin was used by fiddlers there during the nineteenth century. I have looked at a copy of this book, and it is pretty much all dance music, including waltzes, contra dances, and cotillions (meaning quadrilles in this context).
2. Contra dances and contra dance tunes match New England sources. Well-known tunes include "Arkansas Traveler", "Fisher's Hornpipe", "Pop Goes the Weasel", "Devil's Dream", "Money Musk", "The Girl I Left Behind Me", "Old Zip Coon", and more. Dances mentioned include French Four, the Fireman's Dance, the Virginia Reel, the Opera Reel, Portland Fancy, and Tempest. Dances and tunes are listed separately once.
3. Couple dances included the waltz, galop, polka, schottische, Varsouvienne, and mazurka.
4. Squares, reels, and quadrilles are mentioned, and, once, a cotillion which may have been an entire evening's dancing. (There's insufficient context to know for sure.) One reference to a gallopade quadrille in a list of dances taught at a school.
5. Ms. Williams focuses on fiddlers, but other instruments mentioned include piano, cello, bass viol, accordion, banjo, guitar, organ, harmonica, cornet, clarinet, flute, and flageolet. Dance bands included solo fiddlers, a musician who simultaneously fiddled and played harmonica, and groups of two to seven musicians. Often they were family groups -- fathers and their sons, brothers, occasionally sisters or daughters.
6. Despite the generally lily-white racial mix of the northwest, at least two of the fiddlers mentioned were black, one born a slave who bought his freedom with his income from fiddling.
7. Some of the musicians also called the dances and "bossed the floor", including one mentioned as doing singing calls. One jigged drunkenly while he danced, with unfortunate results. Another gave dance lessons.
8. Ball information. Dance happened in private homes, barns (assumed from "barn dances"), saloons, and brothels. Balls could follow the familiar format of supper served at midnight and then dancing until dawn. There was often a shortage of women at dances, as was not unusual on the frontier. In one area, balls were announced well in advance (thirty days) so that people could travel in from far-flung settlements.
9. There are two major surviving music manuscripts containing dance music from the Northwest, both of which have been republished by Ms. Williams' company.
10. By the 1850s, people were opening dancing schools and teaching both set and couple dances.
The fiddlers
Following the order listed in the article, here are the fiddle players who are specifically mentioned as playing dance music and a few other names mentioned in connection with dances, with notes on what they played if available. Once again, I refer you to Ms. Williams' article for lots of information about the lives and families of the musicians mentioned, including some photos!
1. Unidentified fiddler in Dungeness, Washington, early nineteenth century. Owned a copy of Howe's School for the Violin (1851).
2. William King (1822 or 1826 - ????). Bought the Howe manual after the above fiddler was murdered.
3. Josiah Merritt (1809 - 1882). Fiddled for barn dances, 1860-1880.
4. Jake Lake (1836 - ???). "He had only a few tunes at his command and we danced them all before morning. Among them were "The Arkansas Traveler," "King's Head," "Fisher's Hornpipe," "Unfortunate Dog," "Gal on a Log" and the "Devil's Dream"...We danced all the dances which were on the calendar, among them the Virginia Reel, Opera Reel, Threading the Needle, French Fours, Weaving the Wheat, Family Dance and one or two more which I have forgotten."
The Virginia Reel, Opera Reel, and French Four are familiar dances included in manuals by Howe, among others. The tunes "Arkansas Traveler", "Fisher's Hornpipe", and "Devil's Dream" are likewise old favorites in New England contra dance, and the others might well be familiar to someone who is more of a music historian than I. Threading the Needle and Weaving the Wheat both suggest dance figures, perhaps heys or strip-the-willow-type figures. Family Dance could be anything!
It's interesting to note that the author of the above remarks, writing in 1901, seems to have considered the tunes and the dance figures to be separate things, each with their own name. He also noted that at the event (a wedding) there were only five women present, but he didn't say whether the men waited their turn or danced the ladies' roles themselves, as was often done in such circumstances.
5. Hans Martin Hanson (1821 - 1900). Played "Pop Goes the Weasel", which of course was a popular dance in the mid-nineteenth century.
6. Ezra Meeker (1830 - 1928). He discusses playing "Devil's Dream", a dance tune, in his memoirs, but there's no indication in Ms. Williams' article that he actually played for dancing.
7. Adam Benston (1846 - 1941). Fiddled for dances. Taught his five children music and made them into a five-piece orchestra.
Musical families were not unusual; fathers would often pass their skills to their children and there are a number of known father-son and sibling sets of professional musicians and composers.
8. John L. Perkins (1828 - ????). A government Indian agent. In 1858, he is recorded as playing for a ball that included Native women and half-breeds.
9. (Thomas A.?) Dean (c1820 - ????). One man remembers: "The first dance given on the townsite of Spanaway was given by mother and father about 1872. Mr. Dean, of flying fame, was the fiddler. In those days no invitations were sent out but notice was given thirty days in advance so that word would have time to reach to scattered pioneers...The fiddler got drunk (which was customary with him) and he finally insisted that somebody jig to his jig time. No one volunteering to jig, he finally got out on the floor jigging and fiddling at the same time."
Refer to Ms. Williams' article for the story of how that worked out!
10. Pickering and/or John McFarland. "In 1859 the town [Steilacoom] had two dancing schools and a singing school. John McFarland was one of the dancing teachers, he having come to the community the year before with one Pickering...They came to Steilacoom to give an entertainment and McFarland returned later on to open a dancing school."
11. Sanburn & Huson. Not listed as fiddlers, but in reference to the previous, "...Some months later Sanburn & Huson opened a second school in Eagen's hall advertising to teach the waltz, schottish, polka, gallopade quadrille, 'and a variety of contra dances among which are Fireman's Dance, Portland Fancy, Tempest, Dash Away Boys.'"
The Fireman's Dance, Portland Fancy, and Tempest are all reasonably well-known in historical dance circles today (I saw the Fireman's Dance performed in Novosibirsk back in July!) and the latter two may still be known in some traditional contra dance circles as well.
12. Three Cornell brothers from among Joseph (1821 - ????), John (1827 - 1894), Hugh (1832 - ???), and/or Marion (1838 - 1912). Known as dance fiddlers.
13. Joseph Talbot Bush (1833 - 1904). Interestingly, in the very white Northwest, Bush was black. In 1870 he was living in Seattle and, with a cousin, John Mills, playing in the dance orchestra in the "Illahee" brothel.
14. Arthur D. Streeter (1860 - 1942). "I organized a neighborhood orchestra the year of 1912 in the neighborhood in and about Orchards. We played for most of the community dances for miles about. I had learned to play the fiddle when I was a small boy. In my orchestra was a first fiddle, a second fiddle, a cello, cornet, clarionet, flute and a flageolet. We met about from place to place to play for practice and also had regular meeting night at the town hall. The orchestra got to be mighty popular. We played such popular pieces as 'Devil's Dream,' 'The Girl I left Behind me,' 'Pop-goes-the-weasel,' 'Last Rose of Summer,' 'Money Musk' and many more of the popular airs. I made a lot of small booklets so that each member could have one of his own. I drew the whole out by hand using a pen and ink. We knew exactly what we were to play and played it. We traveled about the country with a team and hack. We not only furnished the music but did the calling, and bossed the floor. We played for dances in Clark County and would be sent for, to play for dances over in Oregon. We were mighty popular musicians and I was out-standing as their leader. There was a rival put in existence in the neighborhood over to the east of us. We were asked to play for a dance right in their neighborhood. One night our boys were playing away and the dancers were hoeing-it-down in a right smart quadrille, when the rival orchestra leader came into the room. He was mad to think our boys had been asked to play over there...[a fight between the musicians]...That Orchestra never was any good -- two fiddles and a cello were all the instruments they had. They didn't know half the time what they were playing..."
More familiar tunes! I don't know "Last Rose of Summer", but I've already noted that "Pop Goes the Weasel" had a dance associated with it and the other three are all classic contra dance tunes. I use "Money Musk" on a regular basis myself! And of course there was a quadrille, which might have been choreographed or called by the musicians -- I note that they "did the calling and bossed the floor". Also interesting is the mix of musical instruments in Streeter's orchestra and the smaller rival one.
15. Charles Carpenter (1838 - ????) and Alice Nelson. A married couple? He fiddled and she played the "organ keyboard". Music included polka, waltz, schottische and quadrilles.
16. Iceberg Bill (???? - ????). "'Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne opened hotel in Methow by extending a cordial invitation to all to attend the 1st dance on Squaw Creek. There were a dozen or more ladies as fine looking and nicely dressed as you would meet in a New England city waiting for the word "Honor Your partner," which they did to the queen's taste...The music was furnished by Iceberg Bill from Manitoba, who played the harmonica with his mouth, the violin with his right and the bow with his left hand and come down on the new board floor with his two left feet in accordance with the music. Gilmour's famous band of New York would not be in it. They whirled until midnight when refreshments were served..."
A one-man band!
The "Gilmour's" reference is probably to the band started by Patrick Gilmore during the Civil War.
17. Perry Sims (1863 - 1942). "Dances were the most fun of all. I would yank my horse out of the mud by day and if at home at night, would play the fiddle for dances, and what was more, the people danced to what was played. Recently I played a quadrille and darned if the young folks did not dance a round dance to the music. I never saw the like of this before. The Devil's Dream, Arkansas Traveler, Old Zip Coon, Tassels on My Boots, these were some of the old time favorites."
More familiar tunes, including "Old Zip Coon". A "round dance" refers to a couple dance. Many quadrille tunes are workable as polkas.
18. Daniel Green McKenzie (1832 - 1910). Fiddler for dances. Ms. Williams also describes an incident she thinks he was present for, during which a stairway full of musicians collapsed and the ceiling fell on some quadrille dancers during a house party.
19. James D. Saul or Sauls (???? - c1848). Another black fiddler. "On account of his musical ability, he became a favorite at the dances. He played the violin in true plantation manner, a vigorous wielding of the bow, loud beating on the floor with his heel, accompanied with an animated action of the body, that is, when he played, he played all over."
20. Joel Wilson Munson (1818 - 1899). "Mr. Munson was a violinist of considerable skill and understood music to some extent. He was the first musician here that could play and prompt the dancing at the same time. Under his ministrations the round dances came largely in vogue. He also introduced new figures in both the reels and cotillions and would take pains in teaching them at the balls..."
[Prof. Hopkinson played cornet; John Taylor played bass viol] "For a series of years, these three became the autocrats of the votaries of terpsichore. Anything in the way of balls was considered not what it should be unless these three performed at the orchestra..."
Another fiddler/caller as well as a teacher. Munson also took up violin-making.
21. Louis Alexander Southworth (1830 - 1917). Born a slave in Tennessee, he earned money via his fiddle-playing to purchase his freedom in Oregon in 1859. "Oh, boy, could he play the fiddle! He would sing, 'Old N----r Lou . . ' and he would get out there and dance with it." Southworth in 1915 recalled playing "Home Sweet Home". "Dixie Land", "Arkansas Traveler" and "Swanee River" for homesick pioneers.
22. William Allen (c1814 - ????). A doctor who found he could do better as a musician and dancing master. From a letter of May, 1851: "Some persons who had heard me playing on the plains informed the proprietor that Dr. Allen was the best violin player in the territory, so they came to employ me to play. I told them I would play for $50. A gentleman from New York assisted me, playing second, for which he got $50. Toward close of the ball, I concluded to shake my leg once, after which the younger ones insisted that I should give them a few lessons in dancing. Thirteen lessons in six weeks for which I charged $200. The last night I gave a small cotillion which I played alone $50; and two balls at a little town called Milwaukie, at which I made $50 each; two small parties at which I charged $25 each."
A cotillion in this context might well be an evening of "Germans", or dance party games.
23. Thomas Martin Haynes (1870 - 1926). A dance fiddler who presumably played tunes from the Haynes Family manuscript, which include waltzes, galops, polkas, schottisches, mazurkas, and Varsouviennes.
24. The DeLashmutt brothers: Russell (1865 - 1938), Charles (1871 - ????), and one more. Charles recalled: "There were three of us boys of near the same age that played for the dances when I was young. One brother played the first violin, another the second and I played the piano. They danced mostly square dances in those days, though a good many round dances were popular too. Probably the mazurka was liked the best. We played for dances all over the country. Whole families in wagons and hacks and big crowds sometimes in hayracks would come, and they would dance all night."
I'm quite curious to know what form the mazurka took -- the context suggests that it was a couple dance. Promenading? Closed position and turning?
25. Jack Woolsey (1847 - ????). "Nellie and Ed McCoy, piano and cornet, respectively, with Jack Woolsey, oldtime 'fiddler', continued to be favorites at dances all over the country. They, with Clay Luce calling the quadrilles (and did he sing them!) are amongst my earliest and fondest childhood memories."
I love singing calls on the rare occasions I get to hear them.
26. Charles Bemis (1848 - 1922). Owned a saloon and was a fiddler in a dance orchestra formed in the 1860s by Peter Beemer that also included another fiddle, played by Reuben Bessey (1816 - 1898), flute, banjo, and accordion. The Beemer orchestra's tune book survives.
Ms. Williams writes: "For the dances in Warrens, Charles Bemis's saloon...was converted to a dance hall. So that respectable ladies could attend, the bar was closed and covered with a canvas, the pictures were turned to the walls, the tables and chairs were stacked out of the way, and smoking or drinking were forbidden. On a typical Saturday night seventy-five to a hundred people would attend, about five men to each woman. At midnight the ladies served a buffet supper, after which the dancing resumed and might continue until dawn. This was a typical pattern for community dances in pioneer settlements."
27. Taylor Smith (1881 - 1968). Taught by Charles Bemis and played dances from the Beemer tune book. He played fiddle and later played horn and formed a trio with his sister (reed organ) and nephew (fiddle) to play for dances in the early 20th century.
28. Charles Barnard (???? - ????). Itinerant violin teacher listed as playing the "Polka from Sch. Barnhard of Florence".
29. Jay Rand Sanburn (1833 - 1919). He may or may not have been a fiddler, but Ms. Williams attributes the "Sanburn Schottische" (1862) to him.
30. Otis Howard (1887 - 1981). He played fiddle, banjo, and steel guitar. His father, uncle, four brothers, and two sisters all played fiddle or five-string banjo as well. In 1963 he recorded a set of tunes that included waltzes, schottisches, honrpipes, and the apparently popular "Arkansas Traveler". Many are believed by Ms. Williams to be of his own composition.
31. John Greig (1825 - 1892). A fiddler in British Columbia who did not read music, as described by his great-granddaughter, Priscilla Bethell: "...one evening while entertaining at a dance someone handed him a sheet of music. He promptly propped it up on a chair and continued playing. It was discovered later that the sheet music was upside down. John Greig played entirely by ear and therefore the sheet music meant nothing to him."
Wow, I'm glad I came across this article! Thanks so much for passing on the information I managed to dig up.
A couple of comments: In spite of the mostly lily white racial mix in the Northwest, my list of fiddlers includes three black fiddlers, as well as two who were part Native American, several white fiddlers who married Native American women, and one who married a Chinese woman. I've got to update that article; I found a cool fiddler named Charlie Kahana, in Northwest Washington, who was half Hawaiian and half Lummi Indian - and there are even recordings of him!
More updating that I need to do: I have found out a lot of information about pioneer era musicians in the Northern Willamette Valley, especially the Aurora Colony. They were incredible musicians on all sorts of instruments: brass, string, reed. And they left a lot of music manuscripts. The violin manuscripts alone contain hundreds of polkas, mazurkas, polka mazurkas, waltzes, quadrilles, polonaises, marches, varsoviennes, schottisches, gallops, a redowa, a landler, a tyrolienne, and an esmeralda! I'm trying to sort this all out - but I don't think one lifetime is long enough! Fascinating stuff - check out the website at www.auroracolony.org/
Posted by: Vivian Williams | December 28, 2015 at 07:52 PM
One year later, and we finally published a tunebook of a selection of the Aurora Colony manuscript dance tunes. Also, I have updated the pioneer fiddlers article to include Charlie Kahana, the folks associated with the Aurora Colony, and more. Check it out on the Voyager Recordings & Publications website.
Posted by: Vivian Williams | December 31, 2016 at 08:00 PM