Rodman Library continues to mark the 125th anniversary of public library service in the Carnation City— with a Holiday twist— on Tuesday, December 9 at 6:30 pm with the program “Alliance at Yuletide – December 1900.”
Robb Hyde, Friends & Family will share a festive and fun look at the holiday season of the turn of the last century -- with a little history, a little music, a little hands-on craft, and a little food in the Rodman Auditorium. The event is free to the public, but seating is limited and registration is required.
Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day in 1900 was a lively time for the emergent industrial city of Alliance at the dawn of a new century —The American Century. There was a fierce local pigskin contest on Turkey Day. The Whitacre property at Arch and College was purchased and the first City Hospital was outfitted. Natural gas, discovered just months before inside the city limits, became available for heating home and businesses for the first time. Mount Union College boys pranked their way into local infamy with a cow in the ladies dormitory and a Rampage of Red. The Catholic ladies of Alliance held a weeklong bazaar to cover the cost of purchasing and creating the first St. Joseph’s school. And as can be expected, the holiday season was also railroad season with passenger throngs coming and going, train wrecks, and freight to move across America and into Alliance.
Nationwide the county was getting ready for the second term of Stark County’s favorite son, William McKinley, who had just been reelected as president of the United States. It was facing new faraway commitments with a guerilla war in its Philippines protectorate. It was hearing the first crashes of Carrie Nation and her rock and hatchet assaults on saloons and taverns across the Great Plains. And it prepared to welcome the official start of the new century on January 1, 1901.
Alliance at Yuletide was the very epitome of the Holidays writ large with a bustling shoppers headed as early as two weeks before Christmas Day. There were music programs and pageants at schools and churches, and sleighing parties galore. Folks saw weepy young lovers parting at the train station, while travel to destinations far and wide began.
The Review published an official admonishment from the mayor to curb “drunkenness, disorder, and rowdyism” during the holidays. And there was a Hallmark movie-like story (about a century too soon) of a one-time Fairmount Home girl becoming an heiress and reuniting with family in the week around Christmas.
Hosting this evening and sharing a short vignette of December 1900’s events, local history guy/Rodman utility player Robb Hyde is having family -- daughter Marissa and granddaughter Sarah -- and friends -- from both the library and his Mount Union past, lend a hand. They’ll help with telling two Christmas tales from 1900, performing two Christmas favorites of the time as well as a carol sing. They will also instruct participants in creating a simple craft of a cinnamon stick and fabric strip tree ornament. Refreshments, inspired by the seasonal treats of the St. Joe’s fair and bazaar, will be served.
Because of its special nature, seating will be limited to 30 participants.