Christmas past in Central City
Yesterday was another day
Author’s note: Much of this information comes from the pen of Louis Carter, who wrote a series of columns in the Central City Register-Call describing Central City’s Golden Years (1895 – 1914). Carter was born in Central City in 1891. His columns have been gathered into a wonderful book Yesterday Was Another Day, which the Gilpin County Historical Society has for sale.
The Christmas celebrations 100 years ago in Gilpin County were 160 degrees different in some ways from our festivities today. Imagine the whole community gathering downtown on Christmas Eve to listen to the male choirs sing carols, or a Christmas morning tradition of all the men gathering in the saloons. The community closeness in the 1890s prompted a different type of celebration from those in large cities today. In that time, in this place, the people enjoyed a closeness and camaraderie that big cities simply cannot foster. Central City residents then met each other every day; they shopped in the same stores, they worshipped together, worked together, belonged to the same lodges and went to the same school programs. But remnants of those community celebrations cling in the lives of small towns today. Certainly one cherished activity remaining in Central City is the candlelight Christmas Eve service in the community’s churches.
Carter asserts that everyone at that time believed in Christ and the observance of Christmas was primarily religious, that even those who were called sinners, back-sliders and no-goods would not deny the Fatherhood of God and the Divinity of Christ. “Christmas itself is just a day. What it was, is, or will be rests and revolves on and around people,” Carter wisely observed. A century ago gifts were not as important as the birthday of the Christ the King whom they commemorated, and the gifts themselves were few and simple.
Gilpin County had three incorporated cities in the 1890s – Central City with a population 4,500, Black Hawk with 1,500 and Nevadaville with 1,000 – all in a line two miles long. Apex, Rollinsville, Russell Gulch and Perigo were other successful towns in the county at that time and their combined population was approximately 3,000. As the county seat, Central City was the largest town and center of activities. The Golden Years of Gilpin County were a period of prosperity when the mining industry was stable and lucrative, and the overwhelming influx of newcomers had leveled off and the communities had become one people.
The majority of the 10,000 people in the county were Cornish, with about half of those directly from Cornwall and the rest first-generation in America. There were immigrants from England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Austria and Italy also, but Cornish customs prevailed. These Cornish brought their childhood Christmas with them, and they made up a majority of the membership in the churches and lodges.
Central City and Black Hawk were nowhere close to the “Wild West” towns portrayed in the movies. These people were law-abiding, family-oriented and God-fearing. Central City had four churches, three of which still have weekly worship services and will offer Christmas Eve Services. These are the Catholic, Methodist and Episcopal. The Presbyterian Church is now gone. Black Hawk had two churches then, the Methodist and Presbyterian. The latter now serves as a City Annex and the former is now the home of the active Rocky Mountain Evangelical Free Church. Nevadaville then had a Methodist and an Episcopalian church; both are gone, as is the population of this picturesque “ghost town.” Russell Gulch at that time had two churches, a Methodist church and a Welsh Church (most of the population of that town emigrated from Wales) and both buildings are gone. Why so many Methodist churches, you might well ask? The Cornish were overwhelmingly Methodist.
There were 30 social lodges in the three towns combined in 1900, representing 20 different fraternal societies. Most lodges owned a building and rented space on the first and second floor, if there was one, and used the top floor for their lodge meeting room. The Masonic and Knights of Pythias lodge buildings still stand on Gregory Street in Black Hawk, although the lodges themselves have disbanded. In Central City, the Knights of Pythias building stands forlornly on Gregory Street, but the Elks Lodge and the Masonic Lodge in Central City still own their buildings and meet regularly. The Nevadaville Masonic Lodge meets during the summer months only; their building is the largest left in the downtown district. The International Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) building in Russell Gulch has been preserved and renovated into a private home.
Housewives prepared their plum pudding, their fruit cakes and their saffron cakes in November. These were very special dishes and a matter of pride for the cooks. Each woman put something extra into them to give herself an edge when the cakes would be compared by family, friends and neighbors.
Decorations in the homes were simple – only a few had trees. The average monthly salary was less than $75 a month, and presents were few and simple. Children usually received candy, fruit, nuts and one toy. Parents then, as now, seized the opportunity to supplement their children’s wardrobe, and many children in those times received a new pair of shoes.
The activities in the churches and the lodges were the biggest part of Christmas, and planning for these competing programs occupied the months before December, with practicing for the carol sings beginning immediately after Thanksgiving Day. Both the churches and the lodges had trees and programs, which the children loved and the parents enjoyed, because they had the rare opportunity to see their children perform. “The most active lodge in Christmas endeavors was the Rocky Mountain Lodge #2 of the IOOF.” Their membership of 100 men was 90% Cornish. Every meeting night after Thanksgiving they practiced their carol-singing. Thirty to forty men sang in the Oddfellows carol chorus and they were excellent, the best of all the lodge choirs, Carter maintains. Most of these Cornishmen were in the prime of their lives, between 30-40 years old, and they had sung all their lives in church choirs in England and America. They sang in their homes, in the mines, in the lodges, on the streets, in the churches, in the saloons – wherever they could. “They loved to sing and believed deeply in the Christ of whom they sang.”
A Very Different Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1900
No one stayed home on Christmas Eve. Everybody in town joined the throng in downtown Central City. The stores and shops were open, the carol singers were thrilling the crowds, and the whole town surged along the streets to hear the choirs. By 9:00 p.m., however, this all ended and downtown was quiet.
On Christmas Day the festivities were for the men of Gilpin County. As wives prepared dinner and the children enjoyed their new toy and clothes, the men headed to the saloons. There were 38 saloons in Gilpin County in 1897, 20 of them in Central City. It was traditional that all these saloons were open Christmas morning and served free drinks! From the time of opening – 8:00 a.m. – until noon, free eggnog and Tom & Jerrys were served as the saloonkeeper’s contribution to his customers’ Christmas. And the drinks better be strong and large, because the saloonkeeper’s reputation was on the line. No saloonkeeper wanted his drinks to be classified as “slop” on Christmas Day, so he served stout drinks, in gaily decorated cups and mugs. The guests set out to prove they appreciated this tradition, but Carter says there was never a drunken brawl – that it was strictly a social time and everyone recognized when to stop and head home for Christmas Dinner.
The days between Christmas and New Year were for socializing. The children skated and sledded and bowled. Carter says that “the tensions and pressures of Christmas were over and the people went from home to home enjoying their neighbors and sampling the fruit cakes and saffron cakes, cookies, wine, tea and ades.”
“Happiness Was Living in Gilpin County” in the early years of the 20th century, declared Carter. In 1914 the mines and mills were working all day, every day and the local industry – mining – was strong. Then came WWI. Gold mining was declared unnecessary to the war effort and banned, as it was again in WWII. The exodus from the county began and two-thirds of the population was soon gone.
All three churches in Central City have kept the tradition of a Christmas Eve service, and Weekly Register-Call readers are invited to join these heartwarming services. Saint James United Methodist Church, across from the Central City Opera House, will observe their Candlelight Service at 7:00 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located on East First High Street, one street up from Lawrence Street; their Candlelight Services is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, located on Pine Street above the Famous Bonanza, will hold a Mass at 8:00 p.m.