By Sandy Vasko

Today we continue or look at Christmas in Will County 150 years ago. Step on the way back machine for another ride. And what is the first thing we see? A familiar name greets us.

Barrett’s Hardware was a going concern in 1876, and in its advertisement in the Joliet Signal, we read of typical holiday gift items:

“Perhaps you wouldn’t dream it, but in Barrett & Son’s well-known establishment we find many an attraction for Holiday presents. What good matron’s heart will not beat faster with joy on the receipt of a handsome set of knives and forks, table and teaspoons? And no place in this country can better goods be obtained for less money than at Barrett’s.

“And then how happy it would make a boy to receive a fine pair of skates or a money bank such as the Barrett’s sell for very low prices! The display of pocket cutlery is very extensive, and a good pocket knife is always an acceptable Holiday gift. In the line of new and improved styles of revolvers no one can surpass Barrett’s. Go there for the solid things.”

Note that several of the gifts mentioned are politically incorrect today. the pocket knife is no longer an appropriate give for a young boy living in the suburbs, but I think in rural areas, it may be acceptable. And certainly, few think of a revolver as a Christmas gift no matter where you are living.

Men’s gifts included boxes of cigars, meerschaum pipes or cigar holders, or a watch and chain. Neck ties were also popular gifts, probably, just as today, more popular in the giving, than in the receiving.

New clothes for the holiday season were also high on the list in the 1870s. The following ad gives us a picture of what the most popular items might be:

“Deutsch’s west store room, 21 Jefferson Street, Mr. G. W. Henry (son of Wm. E. Henry,) who has just opened a mammoth stock of almost everything one could well imagine, including Holiday goods of every description, Christmas toys, sleds, furs, caps, hats, gloves, boots and shoes, furnishing goods of every known style and kind.

“Think of a fine silk hat for $3.50 ($105), a genuine whalebone whip for 75 cents, a fine cap for 50 cents, a $6.00 sleigh for $1.50, a boy’s sled for 40 cents, boots for $2.00, shoes for $1.00 ($30), fine gloves worth from $2.00 to $4.00 for 75 cents to $1.50 and host of other fine goods at equally low prices. People wonder at these prices, and well they may, for the stock is a combination of two stocks of well-known Chicago bankrupts. None of these good are shoddy, and all are to be closed out at any and every sacrifice.”

And how was Christmas day spent? Although we think of a traditional Christmas as one spent at home with the family, the tradition in the 1870s was not to sit at home, but to get out to meet your neighbors and friends at some sort of function.

Christmas balls, usually masquerades, were the most popular, usually held on Christmas night. These were fund raising functions for the most part; money would go to the church, the fire department, the school, etc. The usual ticket price was about $2, ($60 today) and would include a banquet. The dances usually lasted until 4 or 5 the next morning, after which a breakfast was served.

Another Christmas Day tradition was shooting matches. Wilmington in particular was known for her Christmas Day pigeon and turkey shoots. A good shot might bring home enough pigeons or turkeys to feed his family for days.

An unusual, but popular place to visit on Christmas Day was the Joliet Penitentiary. Strange as it may seem, it was thought that if the convicts could see the upright honest folks on that day, their heart would change and they would want to walk the straight and narrow. After religious services, and before the Christmas dinner was served, the Warden would give out Christmas pardons as his gift to the prisoners.

The convicts’ Christmas dinner was abundant if nothing else, consisting of potatoes and turnips boiled and mashed and richly seasoned, pickles, roast mutton, and bread and coffee with five apples apiece.

Of course, we can’t forget religious services. In large cities like Joliet, each church would have their own services. But in small towns, the Protestant churches would hold one service that all the denominations would attend. One of the reasons being that pastors had another Christmas tradition to attend. Christmas was the most popular day of the year to get married. Those who could not find a clergyman settled for the Justice of the Peace. And if they couldn’t get either, the wedding was postponed until New Year’s Day, but no later.

And while I would like to say that the spirit of Peace on Earth, Good Will toward men carried the day, I can’t. In fact, I have looked at every year during that decade and found only one reference to peace. In that article, the writer said that the last war, that is the Civil War, was the last one the United States would ever see and that from that day forward, there would, of course, be peace on earth for all forever.

If only that were true.

God bless us all, everyone.

Sandy Vasko serves on the Board of Directors for the Will County Historical Museum & Research Center, and is the lead researcher there.