The German and Swiss immigrants who settled here in the 18th century brought with them a tradition of lively and exuberant dancing. Although seldom noted or written about, in the early days the Pennsylvania Dutch danced at almost every excuse. Apparently, the village tavern was the scene of some wild nights. However, by the latter part of the 19th century dancing in its earlier forms seemed to have been suppressed – no doubt by Victorian mores, the spreading temperance movement and the relentless criticism from the pulpit.
One 20th century remnant of the dance traditions were the Saturday night hoedowns at taverns and fire companies, but these were apparently pale and tame compared to the old “tavern frolics.”
Rev. William Augustus Helffrich (born 1827), was a German Reformed pastor from 1852-1894 who served numerous congregations in Lehigh and Carbon counties. In his autobiography (translated from German) he describes an old time tavern frolic that he attended as a teenager: “We moved forward through the woods on a dark night to Heffrichsville Tavern, where a frolic was scheduled for the evening. It was a cold night in the fall. In the following account everything took place in the room. It was full of young people, boys and girls, those known to me and strangers. I pushed into the wild waves. A frolic! But what a wild, raw, savage nature these frolics had. There were not just a few, but the house was packed full; every room in the house was occupied. More than a few boys and girls had travelled five or six miles to get there. In one corner of the barroom, on a table, sat a pathetic fiddler, seldom two, creating a frightful cacophony on the fiddle. In the middle of the room a clear circle was reserved for the dancers.
“Each youth grabs his or a maid from the circle of spectators. The remaining portion of the room is pushing, smoky, noisy, talking, appearing like an intertwined knotted ball. Ten or more couples, depending on the amount of space, hop and jump around like crazy in a circle. The music to which they are dancing is called a reel or a jig. Then after the reel or jig has been repeated and played over about twenty times, in which the same ‘Ding Dang’ has been scraped through over and over, and has created a circulation of wild jumping dancers, then the fiddler stops, perhaps in the middle of a piece, and the tangled ball unwinds. After the dance, the bar is the refresher for the beasts who ran out of breath. Then the tavern keeper makes the harvest for which he scheduled the frolic. Whiskey flows like water and tangles up body, soul, and spirit. With excited thinking they go to the table in the corner where the fiddler sits. The boys each pay five cents musician’s money, the fiddler rakes it in and the music takes off anew, the longer, the wilder, the crazier. Thus the frolic continues until after midnight, whereupon the tavern keeper asks that it close and harvests another round of drinks. Or the fiddler packs up his fiddle and closes the frolic.”
Another decidedly dim view of a Pennsylvania Dutch tavern scene is provided by 19 year old Margaret Dwight (great-granddaughter of Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards) who in the company of three others spent “Saturday eve 2 miles from Bethlehem-Hanover – Oct. 27 [1810]. We are at a [Pennsylvania] Dutch tavern almost crazy – In one corner of the room are a set of Dutchmen talking & singing & laughing in Dutch so loud that my brain is almost turn’d – they one moment catch up a fiddle & I expect soon to be pulled up to dance.”
A scrap book at the Berks County Historical Society reveals that about that same year, 1810, George Heller recalled that at “the spring and fall fairs”: “At every hotel there was dancing, the music being furnished by two or more fiddlers. The dancing took place in the side room, only in the barroom when it could not be accommodated in the side room. A good deal of drinking was indulged in, a ‘sling’ [drink of rum and water] being taken to every three reels. The landlord received a levy [eleven penny coin] for each sling which includes a drink of whiskey for the lady and her partner. At the end of the second reel the sling would be drunk. After which the dance would proceed. A good article of whiskey was furnished for a fip [five penny coin] a drink.
Tavern licenses in Montgomery County in those days cost 100 dollars a year. So it took a good many fips and levys before the tavern keeper realized any profit.
Next week: Other dancing occasions…
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Township Historical Society. Contact Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with questions or comments.
