Historically Speaking

By Linda Thompson

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What do you do to celebrate the new year?

For me, it used to be party time, although I have to admit, I was never a big partygoer. We usually lived in snowy country and it is a good night to be home, off the dangerous roads.

With the big celebrations all over the world, including Seattle, the majority of the partygoers seem to be enjoying the city celebrations.

We stay-at-homes get to have all the excitement while in our pajamas, thanks to television coverage. At midnight, we can toast the new year, kiss whoever is closest to us and go to bed. Doesn’t sound as exciting as what happened in east Grays Harbor in the late 1800s.

Uncle Major Rogers was a Civil War veteran who died in 1909 at the Old Soldier’s Home in Orting. He was a musician in Company A, 37th, Wisconsin Infantry. He gave himself the title of ‘major’ after he was discharged and moved to east Grays Harbor County. In 1930, Bessie Langenbach published an account of a New Year’s Eve celebration she had heard from a pioneer who called it a Watch Party. It appeared in the Jan. 2, 1930, Elma Chronicle.

“About 3 o’clock in the afternoon we yoked up old Buck and Jerry to the wagon with a hay rack, covered with hay about a foot deep. We drove around to the houses and picked up all the young folk in the community, about 18 to 20 in all, and we started out for old Uncle Major Rogers’ ranch at South Union. Old Uncle Major was a jolly old soul and could play a fiddle just like nobody else ever did and he could call a quadrille (square dance with four couples) at the same time.

“As it was raining a canvas was spread over the top of the wagon held up by some poles, making a make-shift cover. The oxen plodded along in the mud, belly deep in some places, and the old hay rack rocked from side to side, but we were all happy and singing popular songs, such as ‘Darling Nellie,’ ‘Aunt Dina’s, Quilting Party,’ ‘I Was Seeing Nellie Home,’ (and) ‘Coming Through the Rye’ when all of a sudden one masculine voice rang out clear on the following song, which was new to the rest of us and very appropriate for the occasion.

“I’ve reached the land of mud and rain,

“I often wish I hadn’t came

“For ever since I reached this spot

“I sometimes wish that I had not.

“Chorus:

“Oh, Washington! Oh, Washington!

“As in my house I sadly stand, and

“Gaze out through the dripping pane,

“And wonder when it will cease to rain,

“I often wish that I could fly

“To lands where it is sometimes dry.

“Second verse:

“The people ride around in hacks

“With green moss growing on their backs

“And umbrellas o’er their noses

“And rubber coats down to their toes.

“Third verse:

“And every time I step outside

“I get a soaking to the hide,

“My bones they ache, my knees they swell

“‘Tis rheumatism I know full well.’

“There were many more verses to this, but memory fails to recall them all.

“Promptly at six o’clock we stopped at the gate and were met by Uncle Major and Aunt Hatt and all of the young folks that lived within walking distance of their home. Aunt Hatt had a hot supper ready for us, after which the party was on.

“We played Pig in the Parlor, Old Dan Tucker, Miller Boy and danced to the tunes of Old Uncle Major’s fiddle until the clock struck 12 and at the first stroke everyone called ‘Happy New Year’ and grabbed his partner for a kiss. If he could accomplish this before the clock stopped striking all right, if not, well that was his hard luck.

“The party continued until daylight as it was impossible to drive home over such roads after dark, and after a hearty breakfast of Aunt Hatt’s batter cakes and pork sausage we started on our journey home to begin the new year, tired but happy.”

Linda Thompson is the editor of the McCleary Museum Newsletter. She has been a volunteer at the museum since 1990.