Dog’s Wool, Swingling Tow & The York Christmas Tree
The use of evergreens as holiday decorations dates back thousands of years to when ancient Romans and Egyptians used evergreens as part of their Winter Solstice celebrations. The first known decorated Christmas Tree was in Latvia in 1510. An evergreen tree was decorated with roses. Alsace, France is also sometimes recognized as the birthplace of the Christmas Tree, based upon a depiction of a decorated “paradise tree” from a play about Adam and Eve. By the 1700s, some European Christmas Trees were decorated with lit candles.
It is believed that the concept of the Christmas Tree came to America with Hessian soldiers fighting alongside the British during the American Revolution. Probably the first account of an American Christmas Tree is 1804 when soldiers at Fort Dearborn in Chicago brought evergreen trees into their barracks during the holiday season. Charles Minnegrode is recognized for introducing to America the custom of a decorated Christmas Tree in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842. One year earlier Prince Albert, the German husband of Queen Victoria, decorated a Christmas Tree in England’s Windsor Castle.
We’ll probably never know when or where the first decorated American Christmas Tree occurred; however, it was prior to 1842. Though York, Pennsylvania was part of Penn’s Woods, and had a notable population of English Quakers, the area was predominately settled by people from the Palatinate, an area that is today part of Germany. These Pennsylvania Deutsch (later mistranslated as “Dutch”) brought with them German Christmas traditions, including decorated trees. This tradition undoubtedly spread to other local residents, as evidenced by this newspaper advertisement, which ran in the York Demographic Press in 1840.
Interestingly, the individual who exhibited the tree did not have a German background. In fact, he was a freed slave. William C. Goodridge was born in Baltimore in 1806, and his mother and grandmother had been owned by Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Goodridge apprenticed in York and was given his freedom at age 18, eventually becoming one of York’s most prominent businessmen and a major conductor on the Underground Railroad. But the Goodridge Tree is not the earliest known Christmas Tree in York. The Dorcas Society of York was an “Association of Ladies” founded around 1820 for the “truly charitable purpose of clothing the poor widow and the friendless orphan.” In December 1830, the Society held the Dorcas Fair to raise funds to accomplish their mission. The items sold included everything from fancy-boxes and pocket-books to workbags, toys, dolls, and bonnets. An article in the Tuesday, December 14, 1830 edition of The York Republication told of something else happening at the Dorcas Fair:
We are particularly requested to invite our country friends, as goods will be sold low, and comprise the greatest variety of fancy articles, as well as the exhibition of a famous CHRISTMAS TREE. The fair will be open the day before Christmas, closed on Christmas day, and open in the evening, and thence until the articles are disposed of.
A subsequent article in the December 21 Republican stated:
Tickets will be sold for 6 ¼ cts. which will admit the bearers to the “Christmas Tree” during the time it remains for exhibition.
According to some sources, this may have been one of the first public displays of a Christmas Tree in the United States.
Seven years before the Dorcas Society showing of a Christmas Tree, the York Society of Bachelors exhibited an earlier Pennsylvania German version of the holiday tradition: a Krischtkintle Bauhm, which literally translates to “Kriss Kringle Tree.” The article below appeared in the December 23, 1823 York Gazette.
This humorous article is actually important because it is a public account of a decorated Christmas Tree written almost twenty years before Charles Minnegrode exhibited his tree in Williamsburg. But York’s connection with the Christmas Tree goes back even further.
York resident Lewis Miller is today recognized as one of the most important folk artists of the 19th century. A carpenter by trade, Miller lived for 87 years and chronicled daily life in York through his drawings and sketches, many of which were dated. His sketches covered the people, buildings, and events that shaped York during his life. Much of his work survives today and is part of the collection at the York County Heritage Trust. In fact, some of his work is on display at the Historical Society museum at 250 East Market Street. York’s Cherry Lane, an urban park near Continental Square, features thirteen mural reproductions of his drawings.
One of his drawings is dated 1809 and features a decorated evergreen tree clearly labeled “Christmas tree.” Miller most likely drew this sometime after 1809 from his recollections of youth. The Historical Society museum also features a reproduction of the tree. This is certainly York’s earliest known depiction of a decorated Christmas Tree and, for that matter, one of the earliest American depictions – if not the earliest – of the holiday icon. It is also worth noting that York has another national connection with the Christmas Tree. In 1978 a York County resident, William E. Myers, sold a Colorado Blue Spruce to the National Park Service. The tree left the York area and was promptly replanted in Washington, D. C. on the lawn of the White House. It is this live tree, the “National Christmas Tree,” that is lit every year for the nation and world to enjoy.
From the past to the present, York has played an important role in the development of the American Christmas Tree.
