By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Librarian
It’s become a common tradition in wedding reception halls around the country for a newlywed couple to have a “dollar dance.” In this dance, guests pay a dollar to dance with either the bride or groom. Once everyone gets a chance to dance with the couple, the money is tallied and whoever wins is expected to perform an act of kindness for the other, such as making breakfast in bed. This tradition may be all fun and games but throughout history there have been cultures who have taken similar fundraising dances much more seriously.
Dances for profit, or “benefit socials,” were particularly popular during war times and the periods immediately following them. In Tiffin some were held in either the National Hall or City Hall to “welcome the boys home from the war.” Others were held to raise funds for the fire department (Between the ‘80s). Several others throughout Seneca County are documented in various accounts throughout the 1920s. The District No.6 Lehman School near Bloomville raised $15.25 at a dance held around the end of World War I (the exact year is unknown). Columbian High School held several in the early 1920s as a fundraiser for its annuals (yearbooks). The 1924 dance was able to raise $30 (Seneca County, Ohio History & Families). Likewise, Risingsun High School organized a dance in 1912 for repairs to its school after it suffered a major fire.
Calvert student perform a scene from the musical Oklahoma! in 1969.
A box social is a profitable dance of a different kind. If one has ever watched the musical, “Oklahoma!,” he or she will be familiar with the box social. Before cell phones, social media sites and cars, people who lived in rural areas and small towns were essentially isolated from their neighbors. Large dances were coordinated as a social gathering. The tradition went that single women of marriageable age filled boxes with homemade goodies which were auctioned off to their single male peers.
“Generally the boxes are anonymous, so the men don't know which woman belongs to which box, nor what the box contains, the mystery and sometimes humorous results adding to the fun. However, it is not unknown for a young woman to surreptitiously
drop hints to a favored man indicating which box is hers, as a way of "rigging" the results (and avoiding potentially less desirable company). The bidding involves teasing, joking, and competition.” (Wikipedia, “Box Social”)
Any funds raised from these box social usually went to either the school, church or a civic project. A box social was held for the Tiffin-Seneca Sesquicentennial in 1967.
Also common during this time were corn husking bees, where the folks from the agricultural communities celebrated their hard-earned labors with a dance after their harvesting was finished. Most communities had at least once gentleman who was skilled in the art of playing the fiddle and others would accompany him with whistling or a harmonica. These “husking parties” weren’t just for the adults but for the entire family. Author E.R. Eastman in his autobiography, “Journey to the Day Before Yesterday,” written near the turn of the 20th century, writes,
“After the corn was husked, the barn floor was cleared, old Dan tuned up his fiddle, and the young folks danced in the light of the lanterns until midnight. If, during the husking, a girl was so lucky or unlucky, according to her point of view, as to find an ear of red corn, then she got kissed by most of the young men present. Let me tell you there was lots of tears shed (in private) and some heartaches caused by the red ear of corn.”
Native American women perform a dance in Columbus in September 1987. Photo taken by a Columbus Free Press staff member and displayed on the Ohio Memory Project website.
The Seneca Indians are just one of many Native American tribes who had their own form of corn dances, which also celebrated the fall harvest. It typically occurred in August. Europeans eventually adopted this practice and revised it to form their own version of a “Green Corn Ceremony.” These involved both feasting and fasting, repairing public buildings, public speeches, dancing and games. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, a “sacred fire” was lit and townsfolk used it to light their own fires within their homes. Some say these celebrations are where the term “stomping grounds” derived (modern Native American tribes actually perform a Stomp Dance during the Green Corn Ceremony).
Works cited:
Between the Eighties, Tiffin, Ohio 1880-1980. Myron Barnes, 1982. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/224/rec/4
“Box Social” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_social
“Corn Husking Parties.” The Authentic Campaigner. 2004, Jan 19. https://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?694-Corn-husking-parties
“Green Corn Ceremony.” Eric B. Bowne, Wake Forest University. 2016, Jan 31. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1553
Seneca County History Volume 1, A.J. Baughman, 1911. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17316/rec/1
Seneca County Ohio, History & Families, Seneca County Genealogical Society, 1998. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28323/rec/20
Seneca County Digital Library, Ohio Memory Project, https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27