Dancin’ in Anson: A History of the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball

By Paul H Carlson and Michael Martin Murphey

In the 1880s, there wasn't much in Anson, Texas, in the way of entertainment for the area’s cowhands. But Star Hotel operator M. G. Rhodes changed that when he hosted a Grand Ball the weekend before Christmas. A restless traveling salesman, rancher, and poet from New York named William Lawrence Chittenden, a guest at the Star Hotel, was so impressed with the soiree that he penned his observances in the poem “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball.”
Reenacted annually since 1934 based on Chittenden’s poem, the contemporary dances attract people from coast to coast, from Canada, and from across Europe and elsewhere. Since 1993 Grammy Award-winning musical artist Michael Martin Murphey has played at the popular event.
Paul Carlson defines the many people and events mentioned in Chittenden’s poem and explains the Jones County landscape laid out in the celebrated work. The book covers the evolution of cowboy poetry and places Chittenden and his poem chronologically within the ever-changing western genre.
Far more than a history of the Jones County dance, Dancin’ in Anson: A History of the Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball is a novel but refreshing look at a cowboy poet, his poem, and a joyous Christmas-time family event that traces its roots back nearly 130 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Release date: Apr 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9780896728929

Paul H Carlson

Paul H. Carlson is emeritus professor of history at Texas Tech University. He has published numerous books and articles, is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the Philosophical Society of Texas, and a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association and the West Texas Historical Association. He lives with his wife Ellen in Lubbock County.

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Dancin’

in

Anson

A History of the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball

PAUL H. CARLSON

FOREWORD BY MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2014 by Paul Carlson

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic storage and retrieval systems, except by explicit prior written permission of the publisher. Brief passages excerpted for review and critical purposes are excepted.

This book is typeset in Adobe Garamond. The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

Designed by Ashley Beck

Cover photograph/illustration by Tiffany Homan

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carlson, Paul Howard.

Dancin’ in Anson : a history of the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas ball / Paul H. Carlson ; foreword by Michael Martin Murphey.

        pages cm. — (Grover E. Murray studies in the American Southwest)

Summary: Explores the history and reenactment of the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball held in Anson, TX every year since 1934; analyzes the poem by William Lawrence Chittenden written about the Anson Christmas dances in the 1880s and is the basis for the reenactment.—Provided by publisher— Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-89672-891-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-89672-892-9 (e-book) 1. Chittenden, William Lawrence, 1862-1934—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Christmas—Texas. 3. American poetry—History and criticism. 4. West (U.S.)—In literature. I. Title.

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 / 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Texas Tech University Press

Box 41037 | Lubbock, Texas 79409-1037 USA

800.832.4042 | [e-mail] | www.ttupress.org

For Suanne Holtman and Bernie Holtman, the heart and soul of the Modern Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, and in memory of Leonora Barrett and Hybernia Grace.

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

CHAPTER 1

Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball: The Background

CHAPTER 2

Anson and Jones County in the 1880s

CHAPTER 3

Larry Chittenden: His Life and Letters

CHAPTER 4

Explicating Chittenden's Popular Poem

CHAPTER 5

Cowboy Poetry and Pioneer Dances

CHAPTER 6

Michael Martin Murphey and the Modern Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

PHOTOGRAPHS

Larry Chittenden, c. 1890s

Illustration of the Cowboys’ Christmas Ball: That Lively Gaited Sworray

Illustration of the Star Hotel, 1885, by Rhea J. Vernon

Leonora Barrett, c. 1954

Hybernia Grace, c. 1950s

Old gymnasium, c. 1930s

Dancing inside Anson High School gymnasium, 1938

Pioneer Hall, 2012

Crowded dance floor inside Pioneer Hall, c. 1960s

Anson, Texas Historical Commission Marker

Anson post office mural depiction of Cowboys’ Christmas Ball in early days

Anson at night, with Opera House in background, c. 1920s

Bob Weatherby, who danced at the ball in Anson in 1885, 1934, and 1955

Larry Chittenden with dogs at his ranch, c. 1880s or early 1890s

Larry Chittenden's signature in the Palace Hotel register in Abilene

Larry Chittenden ranch house in Jones County, c. 1890s

Larry Chittenden's room at ranch house, c. 1890s

Skinout Mountain

Double Mountain

Larry Chittenden, c. 1900

John Milsap, c. 1890

William Windy Bill Wilkinson

Swenson-Spur Ranch dance, 1918

Pages from the first official program for the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, 1938

Several couples dancing at Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, c. late 1940s or early 1950s

Michael Martin Murphey outside Pioneer Hall, c. 2000

Leonora Barrett directing activities at 1938 reenactment

Grand march at the 1938 dance

Lively dancing in high school gymnasium, 1938

Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball dancers in Washington, D.C., 1938

Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball dancers at National Folk Festival, St. Louis, 1947

Members of the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball Association, 1972 or 1973

Folks associated with the first pre-dance dinner, 1993

The Honor Wall in Pioneer Hall

Plaque honoring J. L. and Juanita Beasley for many years of service to the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball Association

Members of Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball Association, 2004

Suanne Holtman and Bernie Holtman, 2011

Karen and Michael Martin Murphey and recently married couple leading grand march, 2011

Michael Martin Murphey's daughter Sarah asleep on the lap of Caroline Mayer, 2011

Couple dancing at Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, 2011

Children dancing at the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, 2012

Michael Martin Murphey and daughter Sarah dancing in Pioneer Hall, 2012

Michael Martin Murphey, 2013

MAPS

Anson in Relation to Southwestern Cities

Jones County Features

FOREWORD

The Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas, is a high-stepping, warm-hearted Wild West dance that can't be compared to anything else in the world. I've had the honor to perform at this high-spirited, family-oriented musical Christmas celebration since 1993. This pure Americana dance and party feature traditional songs and dance tunes popular in the days of the energetic frontiersmen, daring mountain men, intrepid pioneers, and boot-pounding cattle drovers, as well as contemporary country and western songs that emphasize the American ranching culture.

Texas is a proud, liberty-loving territory founded by rugged individuals, and its citizens still love to live high, wide, and handsome, and have a good time. After all, Texas used to be a nation! Since the days of the Republic of Texas, its citizens have been proud of the state's cowboy traditions. Even the most conservative of its churches love a good party—called fellowship—and I grew up with those customs. My Baptist family loved a good dinner on the grounds and ice cream social after church—and, yes, I peeked in the door to watch my parents dancing in the living room to swing music after I was supposed to be in bed.

The roots of my interest in the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball can be traced to 1982, when my mother gave me a copy of a book by Jim Bob Tinsley entitled He Was Singin’ This Song (1981). That book, as well as the events at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, inspired me to record an album called Cowboy Songs in 1989, which quickly became my best-selling album. Tinsley, a University of Florida professor and western-style musician, included in his book Larry Chittenden's poem The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, which was written about 1889. Tinsley also reproduced the music with its lively-metered lyrics, and mentioned how cowboys sang the six-stanza poem around evening campfires on western ranges. I was fascinated with the way the song described the original Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, with humor and colorful language.

Jim Ed Norman, producer of my recordings at Liberty Records (EMI), became the head of Warner Brothers Records-Nashville in the mid-1980s. I followed him to Warner Brothers. Jim Ed wanted an album from me right away, but I knew it would take time to finish the album I was working on at the time, Tonight We Ride. To get something out right away, I thought a Christmas song would be perfect, so I recorded my edited version of Chittenden's The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball with Riders in the Sky in 1985. Jim Ed liked it so much he wanted to save it for a later Christmas album, having recently been successful with Ann Murray's now classic masterpiece Christmas album. But he didn't think the time was right for another Christmas album. So I turned my attention to finishing Tonight We Ride, and put The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball on the shelf.

But I was still fascinated with the Cowboy Christmas song and ideas contained in the images evoked by the song. In 1985, I produced a series of Cowboy Christmas Ball dances in Taos, New Mexico. The events were wildly successful, and I continued the idea in Taos 1986, adding a Cowboy Christmas Ball in Amarillo. But, by 1987, things were different—for a very significant reason.

In 1985 I had been thinking of organizing an event I called WestFest—a tribute to the arts, culture, and music of the Old and New West. So…in January 1986, at the urging of Willy Matthews, who had designed my first album cover and package, Geronimo's Cadillac (and later, many more, including Cowboy Christmas), I attended the second Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Willy believed that I should consider cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell as the emcee of my WestFest concept, so I went to Elko—and it was a revelation! Here were men and women of the West I could understand, reciting poems about the West and singing the classic old cowboy tunes and new ones they had composed about cowboy life. I had always tried to be a poet of my beloved West, and now I had met my long-lost artistic family!

The first WestFest, held Labor Day weekend in 1987 at Copper Mountain, Colorado, was a huge success. People loved the mix of Native American dancing, Western art, and cowboy poetry and music with contemporary country music stars. By Christmas I had invited cowboy artists I met in Elko and who had presented at WestFest, to my Cowboy Christmas Ball in Amarillo—such as Don Edwards, Ian Tyson, Chris Ledoux, and Waddie Mitchell. The Taos and Amarillo events grew into today's Cowboy Christmas Tour, which has included many American states and several Canadian provinces.

In late 1989, riding high on the success of several WestFest events in Copper Mountain, I released an album called Cowboy Songs. The success of that album led to a request by Jim Ed Norman to produce my Christmas album for Warner Brothers—at last! I reminded him of my recording of The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball with Riders in the Sky, and we decided to add Suzy Bogguss and Don Edwards to my original recording of the song. In 1991, I released Cowboy Christmas—Cowboy Songs Vol. II, featuring Waddie Mitchell as cowboy poet narrator. It was a hit, and this led to more Cowboy Christmas balls and concerts.

In 1992, I received an invitation from the folks in Anson to perform at their Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball. I was surprised! I didn't know a dance similar to the one described in Chittenden's 100-year-old poem was still going on! I was honored to be asked, accepted the invitation, and in 1993 I appeared in the historic Pioneer Hall in Anson, Texas, accompanied by my Rio Grande Band, featuring Gary Roller, David Coe (his command of old-time fiddle playing was essential), and my son, Ryan Murphey. I was amazed to see so many people in attendance dressed like late nineteenth-century cowboys or old-time cattlemen and their Victorian-dressed spouses (for some it wasn't a costume), mixed with young and older folks in modern western clothes and gear. In my performance, I included classic cowboy songs and instrumental dance tunes of the 1880s, along with my pop and country hits, Bob Wills–style western swing, and contemporary cowboy songs. Although the old-timers were skeptical at first, by the end of the night they approved. They fed us like cattle kings at midnight. Later, those midnight meals led to the release of The Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball: Ranch Supper Cookbook. Like most Texans, I'd always enjoyed a good honky-tonk, I grew to love the idea of a no-smoking, no-drinking, family dance. Today, the event represents a renewed interest in cowboy culture.

The Anson Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball reflects the historical West Texas range life and cattle-country rural activities. A winter dance was one of the few times during the year when cowboys of the Old West might get free to attend a big-time social event. They dressed up for the occasion. They came early. They stayed late. And they had Texas-sized good times! For single men and women, such a dance provided a time to meet and get acquainted. For married couples with families,