11
The diary—“January the first, 1822. My husband and I have been invited to attend a party at John Wyant’s today at 3 o'clock. I am unable to tell the aggregate of the happiness we shall enjoy.
“Mr. Hogden came for us with a carriage and carried us to Mr. Wyant’s house at the river. Mr. Russell played a few tunes on the fiddle and we danced a few reels; returned home about 12 o’clock not much fatigued. 20 couples were present.”
Going to a party in a carriage suggests a degree of luxury not yet attained by the towns people we would suppose; we find our conjecture is correct for Mrs. Martin, daughter of George Smith, the first publisher, and mother of Mrs. Gordon Tanner, Sr., also went to the ball in Hogden’s carriage which she describes as “a great lumbering thing similar to the mud wagons used in stage coach days, when an ordinary stage could not navigate the flooded roads.”
An incident occurred at this first dance and New Year’s ball in the settlement one historian relates “which indicates a stronger matrimonial exclusiveness among some of the pioneers than prevails at the present day.”
Mr. Wyant’s tavern was a double cabin; while the landlord was in t’other house, as the second cabin was called, the guests had been welcomed in the room to the right of the porch which divided the tavern. It was time for the ball to commence and the guests grew impatient at the delay. One polished gentleman from Kentucky, remembering his early training beyond the Ohio river, invited his hostess to open the ball with him. Mrs. Wyant accepted his invitaton with eagerness and the couple was moving gracefully across the dancing floor when the lady’s husband returned from t’other house. His manner at once indicated disapproval of the scene which met his gaze. Going to the end of the room where Col. Russell sat with his fiddle poised on his shoulder he ordered him
