MN History Text 55/5 8/20/07 11:27 AM Page 217 Here, …collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/55/v55i... · 2014. 9. 10. · l St. Anthony Express,Feb. 11, 1854, p. 2. All

“ Here, everybody dances—married and unmar-

ried—maids and matrons—laughing children

and the grey-haired sexagenarian, all, without

distinction, meet, to ‘Chase the flying hours

with giddy feet.’ Dancing is here a necessity—

the natural expression of that exuberant, joy-

ous flow of feeling, which this exhilarating

atmosphere begets. And then, too, such danc-

ing—none of your languid, formal, mincing,

automaton, city-ified stepping through the

figures, but live dancing in which head

and heels, arms and ancles, soul and

body all participate.” 1

l St. Anthony Express, Feb. 11, 1854, p. 2.All quotations in this article preserve theoriginal orthography and punctuation.

Bob Skiba researches and choreographs historicdance for groups across the U.S. and Mexico,including Diverse Passions (Denver); The Nation-al School of Music (Mexico City); Ex MachinaBaroque Opera Co. and Silver Moon VintageDance (Twin Cities); and Historic Philadelphiaand Mercury Vintage Dance (Philadelphia). Healso lectures and conducts workshops on classi-cal acting and stage movement.

SOCIAL DANCING IN EARLY MINNESOTA

Here, Everybody Dances

BOB SKIBA

MN History Text 55/5 8/20/07 11:27 AM Page 217

MH 55-5 Spring 97.pdf 35MH 55-5 Spring 97.pdf 35 8/20/07 12:27:01 PM8/20/07 12:27:01 PM

218 MINNESOTA HISTORY

In 1854, when editor George D. Bowman of theSt. Anthony Express wrote this article for a skepti-cal friend back East, St. Anthony, Minneapolis,and St. Paul were still only collections of scat-tered wooden buildings connected by muddy,unpaved streets and tied to the water power andcommerce that the Mississippi River made possi-ble. The villages, whose combined populationtotaled only a few thousand, were offspring ofnearby Fort Snelling, established in 1819. Thefort had acted as a magnet for squatters, includ-ing a group of Irish, Swiss, and Scottish settlersfrom the failed Red River colony in nearbyCanada, as well as French-speaking voyageurs.They seemed to mix easily with each other andwith the local native population.2

From the beginning, dances were a happyexcuse for social interaction among the area’s

newest arrivals. As early as 1834, surgeonNathan Jarvis reported from Fort Snelling,

“The soldiers amuse themselves by hav-ing Balls in the Fort twice a week. . . .

Their partners are mostly those ladiesof the garrison . . . Camp women

together with the Crapaud ladies[from] without [the fort]. If theydo not dance with grace they atleast make it up in strengthand duration, generally con-

tinuing it from 8 oclock in theevening until 8 in the morn-ing.” By the late 1830s Men-

dota was considered thecenter of all social life at

the head of navigation,where American FurCompany employeesheld “many dances

during the long wintermonths.” It was there, ac-

cording to an early St. Paulhistory, that “fate led James Clewett. . . . five

thousand miles out of the east to stand in thedoorway, an onlooker at the dance. Among thedancers was a girl who had traveled a weary wayfrom the north, Rose Perry. And when the eyesof these two, brought together in such a strangefashion, met, the thing was done—he wenthome that night with the Perrys when theycrossed the ice.” On April 9, 1839, the couplewed in the first legal marriage ceremony cele-brated at St. Paul.3

When tracts of land east of the MississippiRiver were opened to settlement in 1838, thesquatters near the fort were evicted from gov-ernment holdings, relocating at the future sitesof Minneapolis and St. Paul. Lured by thepromise of open land and limitless opportunity,settlers from eastern states, as well as emigrantsfrom Germany, Ireland, and the Scandinaviancountries, would swell the population in thenext few years.4 As they made the long journeyacross the open country and up the Mississippiby steamboat, they carried the things that wereprecious to them: books, clothing, and a fewpieces of furniture, as well as the music and

2 See, for example, J. Fletcher Williams, A History of The City of St. Paul to 1875 (1876; reprint, MinnesotaHistorical Society Press, 1983), 38–43; William W. Folwell, A History of Minnesota (St. Paul: Minnesota HistoricalSociety, 1956), 1:213–17.

3 N. S. Jarvis to Dear Mary, Feb. 2, 1834, copy of typescript in files at Historic Fort Snelling, St. Paul, original inNew York Academy of Medicine Archives, New York City; W. B. Hennessy, Past and Present of St. Paul, Minnesota(Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1906), 25.

4 Folwell, History of Minnesota, 1:216–23.

Dancing at a holiday party, portrayed in Godey’s Lady’s Book, anational magazine, 1849



SPRING 1997 219

dances that had been a part of the lives theyhad left behind.

In the midnineteenth century, America stillturned to Europe for culture—fashion, art,and music. European ballrooms were modelsfor the fashionable salons of New York and

Boston, and those, in turn, were models for thegrowing towns and cities of the frontier. Likethe lyceums, music societies, and theaters thatwould blossom in the area, balls and fashion-able dancing marked the level of refinementthat Minnesota Territory had attained. Thestory of European-American dancing in earlyMinnesota’s principal settlements shows arough and awkward frontier transforming into aproud and polished urban center. As Bowmanof the St. Anthony Express remarked:

No where is the advance of society moreapparent than in the parties and social gath-erings which have occurred during the pastwinter in St. Anthony. That stiffness andreserve, that apparent sense of distrust withwhich neighbor meets neighbor, in a villageof such rapid growth as this, is fast disappear-ing before the influence of a more familiaracquaintance with each other, and the influxof more polished and refined society.5

By the time Minnesota Territory was orga-nized in 1849, St. Paul, its capital, had a popula-tion of just under 1,000, and about 300 morelived at nearby St. Anthony. The editor of theMinnesota Pioneer, the territory’s first newspaper,recognized the value of social events to the well-being of a new and heterogeneous community.Soon after it began publication in St. Paul in1849, the Pioneer announced a grand ball at theAmerican House (formerly the Rice House) tocelebrate the Fourth of July. “We trust there willbe a large assemblage. Let the occasion be oneof free interchange of social feeling, and offorming acquaintances among our people ofthe different localities, who at so early a periodof the settlement of Minnesota are necessarilystrangers to one another.”6

There is wonderful civic pride evident inannouncing a “Grand Ball” in a small frontiertown on a holiday of such patriotic significanceas the Fourth of July. The editor, James M.

Goodhue, had cause to balance his cheerfuloptimism, however, with a lighthearted warningpublished six months later, after a ball atCentral House attended by “about 30 gentle-men and 30 ladies”:

Dancing, properly conducted, with chaste,correct music, has a tendency, not only toimprove the manners, but to elevate, to ethe-rialize the mind. . . . The ballroom is a placewhere every gentleman will avoid any degree

5 St. Anthony Express, Apr. 15, 1854, p. 2. The long history of dancing by Native Americans, métis, andvoyageurs passing through the area deserves further study but is beyond the scope of this article.

6 Minnesota Pioneer, July 5, 1849, p. 2; Williams, History of St. Paul, 228; Lucile M. Kane and Alan Ominsky, TwinCities: A Pictorial History of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1983), 6.

Invitation to the Fourth of July ball at the Rice (or American)House, 1849, a hotel on the corner of Third and Exchange Streetsin St. Paul




of coarseness. . . . Gentlemen should notwear pumps nor thick boots in a ball-room;nor worse yet moccasins . . . but fine boots.No person should presume to dance withoutgloves. Clattering, thumping time, pigeon-winging and all fantastic splurges with thefeet, are extremely vulgar. It is improper toshake hands in a ballroom. [Bowing was theaccepted norm.] . . . It is ill bred, yes! and illgotten bread, for a lady to sweep a quantityof cakes and nuts into her handkerchief, atthe table, to carry home. She might as wellpocket the sugar bowl and the tea-spoons. Ofcourse no lessons in these elementary princi-ples of etiquette, are needed in the refinedsociety of Minnesota; but we have readers inthe Sandwich islands.7

Well-meaning but high-spirited Minnesotansapparently still fell short of eastern ideals.

Fashions in dancing change as often as anyother fashions. The waltz itself had only beenaround since the beginning of the nineteenthcentury, and the popularity of the polka, a new-comer, only dates from the 1840s. It was thecountry dance that ruled European (and there-fore American) ballrooms since the early 1700s.By the midnineteenth century, however, qua-drilles were replacing in popularity all but a fewfavorite country dances. In the latter, each cou-ple progresses up and down a line to dancewith every other couple. In cotillions andquadrilles, on the other hand, sets of four cou-ples form a square, and each couple dancesonly with the others in that set. Getting togeth-er a dancing party was often referred to as“finding enough ladies to make up a set.”8

Early in the century, quadrilles had usedmore complicated steps and patterns such aspigeon-winging—a showy manuever involving,in part, jumping into the air and striking bothlegs together—and jigging at the corners. Bymidcentury those fancy steps, with a few excep-tions, had been replaced by simple walkingsteps. This made quadrilles accessible to danc-ers of even modest abilities. As Edward Ferrero,a New York dance instructor, explained:

The quadrille of former times was adopted asa medium for the display of agility . . . theexecution of difficult steps, vaults and pirou-ettes. . . . could be attained only by years of

7 Minnesota Pioneer, Jan. 23, 1850, p. 2.8 Here and below, Edward Ferrero, The Art of Dancing (New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1859), 121. 9 Rebecca M. Cathcart, “A Sheaf of Remembrances,” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, vol. 15 (St.

Paul, 1915): 517, 519, 544.

devoted study and unwearied zeal. . . . Thequadrille now in use, in which performerswalk or slide gracefully through the dance,may be executed without any special knowl-edge of the art of dancing, a familiarity withthe figures being all that is essential.

Newspapers such as the Minnesota Pioneer(St. Paul), the St. Anthony Express, theMinnesota Republican (St. Anthony andMinneapolis), and the Minnesota Democrat

(Minneapolis) documented the popularity ofdancing in Minnesota Territory. There wereweekly cotillions at every hall large enough tohold them. Mazourka Hall, the second story ofa small frame building that housed Elfelt’s drygoods store at Third and Cedar Streets inSt. Paul, was one such place. Rebecca MarshallCathcart, who was 20 years old when her familymoved to St. Paul in 1849, later remembered,“It filled a great need during several years;almost all our public dancing parties were heldthere.” There were holiday balls at hotels suchas the Rice, Central, and Winslow Houses inSt. Paul, the St. Charles in St. Anthony, and theCataract House in Minneapolis, all built toaccommodate the flood of new arrivals andtourists who made the upper Mississippi theirdestination. The growing number of civicgroups and clubs—for example, the OddFellows, Sons of Erin, and the MinnesotaPioneer Guard, as well as a volunteer fire orga-nization, the Cataract Engine Company—host-ed informal hops and more formal balls to raisemoney. And there were private dancing parties;Cathcart remembered, for example, “Mr. andMrs. Elfelt were most hospitable, and manydancing parties were given in their beautifullyappointed home” in Irvine Park. As early as1850 St. Paul could boast a social season thatbegan in about November and ended on AshWednesday before Easter. This coincidedalmost exactly with the period that theMississippi was frozen over, effectively isolatingthe territory from its distant southern “neigh-bors” such as Galena and St. Louis.9

These first balls usually included not onlydancers from St. Anthony and St. Paul but alsorevelers from Stillwater, about 20 miles to theeast. Carriages were made available to bring inresidents from outlying areas, and floor man-



Invitation to the last ball of the 1859 social season,in honor of St. Anthony’s dance master

SPRING 1997 221

Elfelt’s dry goods store, home to the originalMazourka Hall. In this photograph from about1852, Joel Whitney’s daguerreotype gallery occupiedthe building’s top floor.

agers were hired “to form the sets, and see thatthey are complete; to find places for all personswho may wish to dance; to direct the musicianswhen to commence, and to decide all questionswhich may arise during the ball.” The floormanagers were usually socially and politicallyprominent men who added a sense of impor-tance and propriety to balls.10

Since men outnumbered women in the ter-ritory, free invitations were sometimes sent toladies. Their gentleman escorts were chargedfifty cents or a dollar. It is pleasant to imaginethe coaches and sleighs arriving at a cheerfullylit hall on a clear Minnesota midwinter’s nightand the ladies alighting, shivering in their fash-ionable, thin dresses. Sarah Fuller wrote to hersister in Connecticut in January 1853:

Must tell you what a great dance we attended

10 Thomas Hillgrove, Hillgrove’s Ballroom Guide(New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1868), 237. On car-riages, see invitations and dance cards in the collec-tions of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), St.Paul.



Cataract Hall, 1860, a consistently popular place for dancing, asshown in a St. Anthony Express announcement from 1855. The elaborately encased dagguerreotype of the St. Anthony buildingis by John W. Monell.

Wednesday eve. at Mazourka Hall, greatestone there ever was in the Territory. If it wasnot the greatest, I enjoyed it the best. Musttell you how I was dressed, wore my doubleskirted muslin, and pink satin waist, low neck

and short sleeves, three rows of lace roundthe neck and two round the sleeves, and pinkflowers in my hair. Good many down fromthe fort. I suppose it will be the only one Ishall attend this winter probably.11

As later letters show, there were many moredances for Fuller that winter. These parties werea great chance for women to show off their silkfinery and elaborate coiffures trimmed withflowers, feathers, and ribbons. No fashionabledance began before nine o’clock in the eve-ning. At midnight, a huge dinner was the norm,like the one Bettie Russel described in 1858 toher mother in Vermont:

The rooms were crowded, and a very showycrowd it was. . . . Of the table before it wasspoiled I don’t know any thing, But I do, howthings tasted. Turkey, Tongue, Ham,Buiscuit, Ice cream, Charlotte Russe, Cake ofall kinds, Coffee, Wines, all very nice. . . . Wecame home about one, and were the first thatleft, but I was tired and sleepy.12

Although Russel left at one, dancing resumedafter dinner and, as was usual, continued untildawn.

Like the rest of the country, Minnesota atthis time was clearly divided over the temper-ance question. The constant presence of alco-hol at dancing parties gave ammunition to the“dry” contingent. After a New Year’s ball at theWinslow House, the Minnesota Republican fulmi-nated in 1858:

”There is no harm in dancing, you imperti-nent scribbler; don’t make such a fuss aboutthe innocent amusement.” Granted; “noharm in dancing” but isn’t it strange, dearmadam, “passing strange,” how Bacchus isone of the managers at almost every publicdance?—how lasciviousness leers and staresthrough the thin gauze of the Ball Room?How dissipation, vanity and late hours elboweach other through the cotillion?—how 400foreheads throb through the next forenoonwith pent up volcanoes—the inevitable resultof last night’s spree. . . . isn’t it queer how afew dozen cannot gather together in thename of Terpsichore, without one at leastgetting his head broken mysteriously, and abevy of his first cousins groping their oblivi-ous ways home about sun-rise, with all the

11 Sarah to Dear Lizzie, Jan. 16, 1853, in Abby Abbe Fuller and Family Papers; invitations and dance cards—both MHS.

12 Bettie Hockley Russel (Palmer) to My dear Mother, Feb. 9, 1858, MHS.




SPRING 1997 223

13 Minnesota Republican, Jan. 8, 1858, p. 1.14 Merritt C. Nequette, “Music in the Twin Cities

of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, to 1900”(master’s thesis, University of Minnesota, 1973), 7–9,15–16; 30–32.

15 Cathcart, “Sheaf of Remembrances,” 525, 545;Williams, History of St. Paul, 249. William Taylor appearsin the 1850 census as a married, 29-year-old “mulatto”who owned real estate worth $900; Patricia C. Harpoleand Mary D. Nagle, eds., Minnesota Territorial Census,1850 (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1972), 45.He was killed in the Dakota War of 1862.

directness of a Virginia rail-fence?13

Music for balls in the 1850s was supplied atfirst by the regimental bands from FortSnelling; the Sixth Regiment Band underRobert Jackson played frequently for civil-

ian balls during the decade. Later, local groups,such as the St. Paul Brass Band, Taylor’s Band,Ingall’s Cornet Band, and Memmler’s Band,formed in St. Anthony and St. Paul. Another of

these, the Great Western Band, would remainpopular until the end of the century. Music forsmaller parties in private residences was a bitmore modest—usually just a fiddler.14

According to both the Pioneer and early cen-sus records, the black community in the areafound employment not only as barbers but asmusicians. Rebecca Cathcart remembered aChristmas dinner and dance in 1849: “Aftersupper the dining room was cleared, and wehad a grand dance. The musicians were coloredbarbers from St. Paul, and the leader was alarge, fine looking man named Taylor; he had avoice a brigadier general might envy, and as atthat time the figures were called off, a clear,strong voice was much sought for. . . . This col-ored band was in great demand in both St. Pauland St. Anthony during several years.” Her con-temporary, historian J. Fletcher Williams, calledWilliam Taylor a “famous ball musician of earlydays” who had “‘called figures’ for hundreds ofballs and dances, almost.” Party invitations showthat Taylor’s Band played for cotillions inSt. Paul and St. Anthony.15

Although Minnesota in the 1850s was farfrom the glittering centers of style, the musicand dances popular in the territory were equal-ly fashionable not only back East but in the ball-rooms of Europe. Reminiscences of the era doc-ument dancing styles on the verge of change.Mrs. Samuel B. Dresser recollected that inFashionable attire for the ball, illustrated in Godey’s

Lady’s Book, 1854

St. Paul’s popular Great Western Band, 1868



16 Lucy L. W. Morris, ed., Old Rail Fence Corners: Frontier Tales Told by Minnesota Pioneers (1914; reprint, St. Paul:Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976), 50, 57.

17 Here and below, Hillgrove, Ballroom Guide, 149–52; Ferrero, Art of Dancing.

ning to lose ground, however, to the waltz àdeux temps, which consisted of a shuffling two-step that had the advantage of turning both toright and “reversing” to the left.17

The “French four” to which Dresser referredwas possibly a variation of the dance Harrisoncalled the Spanish dance, or Spanish waltz. Inthe latter, dancers arranged themselves in setsof four around the perimeter of the ballroom,couple one within each set facing clockwisearound the circle, and couple two facing coupleone. Each set of four completed a series offigures alternating with plain waltzing. Coupleone then proceeded clockwise around the largecircle and couple two counterclockwise, eachforming a new set of four with a new couple andrepeating all the figures.

Dance cards from Stillwater and St. Paulfrom the early 1850s through the 1860s show

Taylor’s Falls in the 1850s, “We used to go todances and dance the threestep waltz andFrench four with a circle of fours all around theroom, and many other old style dances too. Weput in all the pretty fancy steps in the cotillion.No prettier sight could be than a young girl,with arms circled above her head, jigging onthe corners.” Mrs. Mary Harrison described hermemories of the same period in St. Anthony:“On the Fourth of July we went to a dancingparty or ball at the hotel. . . . We danced contradances, such as ‘The Tempest’ and Spanishdances. The waltz too, with three little stepsdanced very fast, was popular. We took hold ofour partner’s elbows.”16

At midcentury, the waltz à trois temps, inwhich dancers whirled around in a constantright turn with three neat little steps to eachmeasure of music, was still popular. It was begin-


Dance card for ball at the American House, St. Paul, 1854; the card’s front appears on the cover of this magazine.



SPRING 1997 225

most of the evening at balls given over toquadrilles. Another factor in their popularity,besides the simplified dance steps, was the grow-ing awareness of social class in nominally equali-ty-minded American society. Country-dance for-mations meant that couples might findthemselves dancing with others of markedlylower social class as they moved down the line.A four-couple quadrille, however, meant thatfloor managers at large balls could placedancers in sets with their social equals.

Was this a concern in Minnesota? Matilda W.Rice, born in New York, raised in Virginia, edu-cated in Washington, D.C., and the wife ofHenry M. Rice, Minnesota’s territorial delegateto Congress in 1853, described her first ball inSt. Paul in the early 1850s: “About 8 o’clock,there was a rapping at the door . . . and on open-ing it we beheld a gentleman, his face wreathedin smiles, who announced, with an air of delight-ful anticipation, that there was to be a ball at theAmerican house . . . and that if I would consentto be one of eight ladies, they could have twosets.” She accepted, but on reaching the ball-room, actually the hotel’s dining hall, “what wasour chagrin to find that one of the ladies wasunable to come, and consequently it seemedthat we could have but one set.” One gallantman undertook to fill the vacancy:

The boat from Galena had arrived shortlybefore, and on board was a pretty chamber-maid. She readily accepted the ingeniousgentleman’s invitation, and entered the ball-room in a pink dress in a state of elation. Forowing to the scarcity of “lovely women” inthose early territorial days, she had been abelle from the moment the boat landed. . . .

But here a new complication arose, forthe gentlemen, jealous of their social stand-ing, refused to dance with the P.C., and eventhe one who had brought her from the boatjoined, with charming inconsistency, theranks of the ungallants. There was a politi-cian-statesman, we called him then, present,however, and he saw the opportunity of a life-time. He would show the people that he wasdemocratic, that he drew no social lines, thathis sympathies were with the struggling mass-es. Before his enchanted vision his column ofvotes grew higher and higher. With a courtlybow, he requested the honor of dancing withthe P.C. So the ball proceeded.18

In addition to quadrilles and polkas and plainwaltzes, dance cards of the period show thegradual introduction of newer dances likethe mazurka and the redowa. These dances

had swept Europe’s ballrooms as new interestblossomed in things eastern European.Intricate combinations of slides and hops, thesteps certainly taxed dancers of ordinary abili-ties. A satirical article in the St. Anthony Expressin 1851 provides a look at what many must havethought of these exotic and fussy but fashion-able dances:

THE SOMERSETSKI.- This is the name of anew dance, introduced at the fashionablewatering places, as an improvement on thePolka, or the Schottische. It is described as

18 Matilda W. Rice, “Fourth of July in the Fifties,” St. Paul Dispatch, June 27, 1895, p. 8. On Rice, see article bysame title in Minnesota History 49 (Summer 1984): 54.

Studio portrait of Matilda W. Rice dressed in day-wear, probably 1860s




follows by an exchange:—“It is danced byfour persons—two ladies and two gentlemen.The ladies are dressed in a frock reaching tothe knee, and the continuances are of stock-inet, fitting as close as possible to the skin.One lady wears a white stocking and a blackstocking. The gentlemen are dressed inshorts, and their dresses are of pink and pur-ple colors. The dance begins by the gentle-men turning somersets over the ladies, after

which the ladies turn somersets over the gen-tlemen, and then the whole party turn somer-sets over each other promiscuously. Duringthe last named movement, the performers,with their variegated costumes, present all thechanges of the kaleideoscope. Those whohave seen this dance admire it exceedingly.”19

Learning new and demanding dance stepsrequired a professional teacher and lessons, and

19 St. Anthony Express, Oct. 4, 1851, p. 2.

A modest sign announced Signor J. Hazazer’s dancing academy on St. Paul’s bustling Third Street, 1861



SPRING 1997 227

All illustrations are in the MHS collections, including the two volumes of Godey’s Lady’s Book (music is from 1854 volume)and the dance cards and invitations from museum collections.

by 1854 St. Paul, with a population of only a fewthousand, could boast its own dancing academy.Playing up the need to learn the latest dancesin order to be fashionable, Professor De GrayBennie, describing himself as “of the ItalianOpera, late of St. Louis,” advertised:

FASHIONABLE DANCING ACADEMY,Mazourka Hall (over Elfelt’s store.)PROF. DE GRAY BENNIE respectfully begsleave to inform the young Ladies andGentlemen of St. Paul that arrangements arenow being made for a select series of Demi-Balls, and Fancy Dress Soirees. Instructionswill be given to the subscribers on the Polka,Quadrilles, Mazourka, Spanish Dance, andall the popular Ball Room Dances at presentin vogue in the East. Those wishing to jointhe assemblage are invited to call atMr. Bennie’s Rooms.20

Bennie may have been the first danceinstructor in the territory, but another soon fol-lowed. Signor J. Hazazer, 22 years old and claim-ing to be a native of Brazil, began teaching inHastings in 1857 before moving to St. Anthonyand giving lessons in Stanchfield Hall. By 1859 aSt. Anthony newspaper described Hazazer as a“skillful and successful dancing teacher” whoseschool numbered 80 pupils: “He is probably oneof the most popular professors of the art ever inMinnesota.” Two years later he was teaching in

St. Paul, but by 1862 the peripatetic instructorapparently moved on; no mention of himappeared thereafter except in reminiscences.21

Bennie introduced something new to theterritory—the fancy dress ball. Elaborate cos-tume balls would remain a staple of the St. Paulsocial season throughout the nineteenth centu-ry, especially in the German community. In the1860s, these “masquerades” alternated generaldancing with short comic operas and tableauxrepresenting historical scenes such as “TheRetreat of French Troops from Mexico.”22

Dance masters like Bennie and Hazazer gaveMinnesotans something besides instructions indance. They offered parents the opportunity toadd polish to their children’s education. In thenineteenth century, external appearances werethought to reflect breeding and birth. Instead ofthe idea that everyone was equal, democraticsociety was beginning to mean that everyonehad equal opportunity to be better than every-one else. Children who behaved like ladies andgentlemen might pass for them, no matter whattheir birth. What surer sign of gentility than theability to dance well? With a dozen clothingshops, several bookstores, a university, and atleast two dancing schools, Minnesota on the eveof statehood was shedding its rough, makeshiftpioneer ways and developing the sense of societywith a capital “S” that would typify the secondhalf of the nineteenth century, the Gilded Age.

20 Minnesota Pioneer, Nov. 8, 1854, p. 3.21 United States Census, 1857, Dakota Co., roll 1, City of Hastings, p. 290, MHS; Minnesota State News (St.

Anthony), Feb. 25, 1859, p. 3; St. Paul Daily Press, Jan. 8, 1861, p. 2. 22 See St. Paul Daily Pioneer, Jan. 17, p. 4, Feb. 16, p. 4, Feb. 23, p. 4—all 1868.



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MN History Text 55/5 8/20/07 11:27 AM Page 217 Here, …collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/55/v55i... · 2014. 9. 10. · l St. Anthony Express,Feb. 11, 1854, p. 2. All