Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= The Muskegon Chronicle Saturday, 15 December, 1900 CHRISTMAS IN EARLY MUSKEGON Was a Much Different Thing When This Town was Only a Hamlet. Christmas was a very different thing here in early days when Muskegon was a mere hamlet huddled in a little spot up beyond Pine street.Then the remainder of what are now the thickly settled city lots of over 20,000 inhabitants, was given over to tall pine trees and dense underbrush. "My first Christmas in Muskegon," said MRS. FANNY SHEPHERD, "was that of 1847, which we celebrated at our home at Black Lake. We lived in a log house which consisted of a dining room and kitchen that we had to go out of doors from and around to enter the parlor and other rooms. You couldn't get wall paper in those days. Father took the 'Sunday Times' of New York for a long while, so I took copies of that and papered the walls. Then I used ground hemlock to decorate over the windows and doors. In that I put paper flowers. "The following Christmas of '48, we went into town to attend a party. It was given at the old Walton hotel, which latter was kept by G. W. WALTON, one of the earliest settlers, and who came here when a boy. The house stood on the corner of Market and Water streets. It was a great, long building, with a big addition. We had a big dance in the long dining room. Everybody was there and my father, JOEL C. WITHERELL, played for us to dance by. The place was trimmed up with fragrant evergreen branches. The girls used to dress in white a great deal for such occasions. We danced cotillions, eight hand reels, monie musk and another dance called MacDonald's reel. "Afterwards we always had a fine supper with roast pigs, chickens and turkeys, plum pudding and everything you can imagine. They used to have the finest cake I ever saw then, not the kind people make now. Sometimes we had a little roast beef, but we always had a good supper and it was served about 12 o'clock. In those days we used to dance all night till broad daylight. "They hung up their stockings and gave presents here in early days, just as now. They always had cakes or some- thing for Christmas. At the time of that first dance, we had our presents before we went over. But I can't think of one person outside of our family who was there that night, who is living today. ===============================================================================