- Fashion - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: Canoeing down the Rock River
was one of the pastimes popular around the turn of the century.]
-
- What people did for fun
- What did socially interested men and women do for recreation
before singles bars?
- When Janesville celebrated its Centennial back in 1935, The
Janesville Gazette reflected on "Gay
- Times Recorded in Social History of City." The information
is reflected.
- Pioneer men of 1835 drank at Henry JANES' tavern.
- Pioneer women of 1835 - all six of them - found some consolation
there too, but not in drink.
- The tavern was where they went to pray on Sunday.
- But often these women yearned for the more civilized pleasures
of their New England homes.
- By 1849, Janesville had 827 females and 13 milliners and
dressmakers to aid them in the ever
- intricate search for fashion and beauty. JACKMAN and
SMITH dazzled the ladies with matchless quantities of
cashmeres and alpacas.
- Tom LAPPIN had bonnets and ribbons of such allure
that fair damsels, bloated with bustles and
- hoops, tried to preserve the gorgeous picture by having crayon
likenesses made by Wilson, the adroit artist, who stopped at
the Janesville Stage House.
- As early as 1841, when the first debating society was organized
in the schoolhouse, Janesville was
- the hub of culture and the center for show troupes.
- The Janesville Female Seminary started in the spring of 1846
as a rather high-brow cultural club,
- but by July 4 decorum was flung to the winds as laughing
young damsels reportedly flocked to the grove for the annual
celebration.
- Raymond & Waring's grand cavalcade of fowls in the air
and reptiles came to Janesville in 1846,
- the first circus to invade the new town.
- The men then were interested in Gen. Windfield Scott, the
Whig candidate for president, and
- General Pierce, the Democratic opponent.
- Women bought spotted muslins and printed delaines at McLAY
Brothers and rumors were that a
- sewing machine was to revolutionize the world.
- Women who dared to hope for such luxury dreamed of more time
to read "The Spectre Bride-
- groom" in the Janesville Gazette or the story of "The
Triumph of Truth" in The Fireside magazine.
- A milestone in social life was reached in 1857 when the Rock
River Engine Company gave its
- first annual gala ball in Young America Hall.
- Early educator James Sutherland was urging the cultivated
to read a program of the poems of
- Tennyson with the bard's latest "Enoch Arden" as
the high light of the program.
- On the London stage, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was being
produced and right here in the American
- Hall, Miss Higgins and her Columbia Singers exploited the
merits of the local singing school.
- Sherman marched to the sea in 1865 and while Janesville lads
were in Dixie the girls back home
- were warding off disease with Cherokee pills and Dr. Wright's
rejuvenating elixir.
- A tableaux which the ladies of Christ Church gave in LAPPIN's
hall was well attended, with many
- of the duplex and demi-Quaker hoop skirts for RIORDAN's
and LEACH's making their initial appearance. The 10th
annual festival of the Watch Witch Engine Company No. 2 was run
off at the Hyatt House with great success.
- Lincoln was shot in the spring of 1865 but by June of that
year mourning was set aside and a jolly
- delegation set off to the strawberry social at Mrs. McKINNEY's
on Court Street.
-
- 'Uncle Tom's cabin'
- In June, Janesville had the first opportunity of witnessing
that great domestic drama, "Uncle Tom's
- "Cabin," presented by the New York Dramatic Company.
- The '70s and '80s were big days for the dance. The Odd Fellows,
The Y.M.L., a club of select
- young ladies and the Grange all had in exciting parties.
The Janesville Guards and the broom brigade joined forces in
giving a never-to-be-forgotten dance in the Armory.
- Captain BUCHHOLZ with his "City of Newport"
was responsible for much of the fun in the '80s,
- for his palatial boat was the means of transporting crowds
to Crystal Springs.
- Moonlight excursions on the Rock River were considered just
as romantic as any cruise on a
- Venetian gondola.
- Camping up the river, at Clear Lake, at Delavan Lake and
several other fashionable watering
- places afforded the summer fun of the '80s and the '90s.
- Citizens who could not spend the entire summer at the lake
contented themselves with a Sunday
- excursion to the Dells. The special train left at 7:30 a.m.,
reportedly staggering under the load of picnic baskets and jubilant
excursionists.
- On July 6, 1895, the Commercial Travelers took over the day
for a celebration which began with
- a parade to the boatdock and an elaborate program at Crystal
Springs. Mayor Frank S. BAINES and H. F. BLISS,
publisher of the Gazette, rode in the first carriage with Hon.
John M. WHITEHEAD, the orator of the day. It was with
regret that townspeople read in the Gazette on Sept. 10 that
Captain BUCHHOLZ had closed his popular resort for the
season.
-
- Graphaphone popular
- At the turn of the century, coronet braids were worn by the
bonton and every first class home had
- a graphaphone.
- May Robson came to town in "The Rejuvenation of Aunt
Mary."
- Ruth FIFIELD won Phi Beta Kappa at Vassar College
in March and George STRAMPE's little
- friends got up a surprise party on him on his birthday.
- April 4, 1910, will be recalled as the date for the premier
of "Mudtown Minstrels."
- The Social Union Club of the YMCA, gave an elegant ladies'
night. Effie JONES sang in a
- "charming manner" and May HAYES "in
a speech replete with witty remarks told the men what was wrong
with them."
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