Rebekah Sheats
Contributor
Step back in time with me to a few Christmases of long ago. Times have changed in the past few hundred years, but was the holiday so very different way back when?
The year is 1859. The political wrangling between the North and South fills most headlines across the nation, but in December of 1859, the people of Jefferson County are still taking time to prepare for Christmas.
“Have you finished your holiday shopping?” one woman inquires of her neighbor on the dusty streets in downtown Monticello. “No?” she asks in surprise as she shakes the dust from her hoopskirts. “Well then, take a stroll down to J. T. Budd’s on the northeast side of the courthouse square and step inside. It’s a sight that beggars description!” The lady wasn’t exaggerating. That year, Budd’s new supply of fall and winter dry goods included every variety of ladies’ dress and staple articles. Dress silks (of the latest Paris styles), plain silks of American and English prints, French embroideries, muslin collars and undersleeves, and handstitched cambric handkerchiefs were only a few of the delightful articles on display.
“But don’t forget the men on your list,” the woman continued. “Budd informed me that he has recently received an astonishing array of men’s and boys’ boots and shoes as well as all manner of gents’ clothing.”
But perhaps you don’t care for J. T. Budd’s selection? In that case, simply leave your buggy at the hitching post outside the railroad store owned by Johnson, Bird & Company. Their 1859 inventory includes one of the largest, varied, and cheapest stock of miscellaneous goods ever offered to the people of Jefferson County (at least, that’s what their advertisements guarantee). You’re sure to find something there for everyone on your list.
Besides the new supply of goods at Johnson and Budd’s, the great attraction of 1859 was a Christmas Festival hosted by Levi J. North’s National Circus. The circus boasted a great new musical wonder known as a calliope as well as a high-wire act and a steam-powered musical display. Opening in Monticello the day after Christmas, the circus ensured a large attendance by offering its marvels free of charge.
Nearly sixty years later, Christmas of 1917 showed a more somber face as young Jefferson County men said farewell to their families and joined the American forces preparing for the European trenches of World War One. In 1918, the Monticello News featured a short poem recalling the awful din of war and the birth in Bethlehem that heralded peace to mankind:
Over the roar of the cities,
Over the hills and the dells,
With a message of peace to the nations,
Ring the beautiful Bethlehem bells.
Bringing joy to the souls that are sighing
In the hovels where poverty dwells—
There is life—there is life for the dying
In the beautiful Bethlehem bells.
Throughout the war years and into the 1920s, the commemoration of Christmas remained a key annual event in the life of Jefferson Countians. The Christmas season was a time of celebration, a time of gathering with family and friends to show one’s love and express one’s gratefulness for each other and the God who created us.
These expressions of gratitude took differing forms in various times. In 1924 (when telephones were still a relatively new luxury) the residents of Monticello showed their thankfulness by sending Christmas cards to the local telephone company. The company was owned by George Choice Bishop; his niece Annie Goff served as the switchboard operator. George Bishop’s company received so many cards that year that Annie published a note of thanks in the newspaper after the Christmas holiday. “[We received] many kind remembrances during the holiday season from the telephone subscribers,” she explained. “Be sure that they made our heart glad.”
A simple note, a simple Christmas remembrance. A small, kind touch to commemorate the season, or a gift to remind us of the gratefulness and love that often remains unspoken. For two hundred years, the people of Jefferson County have been celebrating Christmas in much the same way, using the holiday as a time to express the love that was reflected on that day so long ago in Bethlehem.
Shout it loud from the housetops and hedges,
Let the earth hear the wondrous Noels:
There is hope, peace, and life for the nations
In the beautiful Bethlehem bells.
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