Charles Tapp Chivaree #NotMyTapp

Okay, I thought this story was funny.  I'll let you read the article first, then we'll have a history lesson.  I expect this practice continues to some extent, which we will explore some.  I separated out this particular story because I wanted to go into this in greater detail.

1902 Charles Tapp and New Wife

Charles Tapp and his new wife
Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville WI
15 October 1902, page 1
downloaded April 2017 from
Newspapers.com

Great Hilarity Brings Penalty

 Young Men in Center Chirivari Newly Married Couple

 Called up Before Judge Fifield

Frenk Yees, of the town of Center, and a number of his friends, neighbors and acquaintances were given a preliminary examination before Judge Fifiled this morning in regard to the "shiveree" which was held on the occasion of his daughter's wedding.  Sufficient damage was done to justify Mr. Yees, in his estimation, in bringing a damage suit against the parties who made the trouble.  Under-Sheriff Cochrane went to Center on Monday to subpoena several witnesses, and they were called this morning.
According to the story told by Mr Yees, the trouble occurred on Saturday night.  His daughter had been married to Charles Tapp that morning, and in the evening as the family and a few guests, about thirty in all, were assembled in the parental home for a celebration, about one hundred and fifty young men from the surrounding country for miles around appeared on the scene with cow bells, horns and the instruments of torture used on such occasions.

Beer Or Cash

They demanded either six kegs of beer or six dollars, so Mr. Yees said, and this he refused to give.  They then began to sorm the house with pumpkins, apples and other fall farm products.  A stand abut thirty feet by sixteen had been erected outside the house for dancing purposes and covered with canvas.  The revelers tore off the canvas, and directed their missiles at anyone who dared show his head at a door.
No strong objection would have been made to this, alhtough it was hard on the guests assembled to be obliged to forego the dance, but soon some of the bolder spirits went so far as to hurl a couple of pumpkins through a window.  The damage done was considerable, according to Mr Yees's account, and he believes that some one should be prosecuted.  It was not until after eleven o'clock that the uninvited tuests saw fit to depart, and allow the guests within to return to their homes unmolested, after having been robbed of an evening's pleasure.

Said They Were Innocent

A more guileless lot of individuals than the witnesses who had been supoenaed from among the alleged disturbers of the peace, it would be hard to find.  They "didn't know nothing about it, and hadn't seen nothing."  They said, however, that Yees had promised them two kegs of beer and failed to deliver the goods.

History Lesson

-- or, what is this thing and why did they do it?

Basic information by way of two videos.  

We will start with a video example from an old TV show, Death Valley Days, Season 1, Episode 7 "The Chivaree."  Start watching at minute 18:00 -- https://youtu.be/VdkFa3KmFvg -- (This Is Invader, 2017)

How in the world do you pronounce this weird word?  Here's how! -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpn4Au9FaWk -- (Pronunciation English, 2016)

Definition from Wikipedia

Charivari (or shivaree or chivaree) ... are terms for a folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade.  Since the crowd aimed to make as much noise as possible by beating on pots and pans or anything that came to hand, these parades are often referred to as "rough music,"

Depiction of charivari, early 14th century 

(from the Roman de Fauvel)

(Wikipedia, 2018)

So-called "Rough Music" practices in England were known by many regional or local designations.  The very essence of the practice was public humiliation of the victim under the eyes of their neighbours.  

William Hogarth's engraving "Hudibras Encounters the Skimmington"
(illustration to Samuel Butler's Hudibras)(Wikipedia, 2018)

The charivari as celebration was a custom initially practised by the upper classes, but as time went on, the lower classes also participated and often looked forward to the next opportunity to join in.  It is possible that the blowing of car horns after weddings in France (and indeed, in many European countries) today is a holdover from the charivari of the past.

 Chariviari has been practised in much of the United States, but it was most frequent on the frontier, where communities were small and more formal enforcement was lacking. It was documented into the early 20th century, but was thought to have mostly died out by mid century.   

As practised in North America, the charivari tended to be less extreme and punitive than the traditional European custom. Each was unique and heavily influenced by the standing of the family involved, as well as who was participating. While embellished with some European traditions, in a North American charivari participants might throw the culprits into horse tanks or force them to buy candy bars for the crowd.  

This account from an American charivari in Kansas exemplifies the North American attitutude.  In contrast to punitive charivari in small villages in Europe, meant to ostracize and isolate the evildoers, North American charivaris were used as "unifying rituals," in which those in the wrong were brought back into the community after what might amount to a minor hazing.  In some communities the ritual served as a gentle spoof of the newlyweds, intended to disrupt for a while  any sexual activities that might be under way.  In parts of the midwest US, such as Kansas, in the mid 1960-1970s, shivaree customs continued as good natured wedding humour along the lines of the musical Oklahoma!.  Rituals included wheeling the bride about in a wheelbarrow or tying cowbells under a wedding bed.

Whatever happened to the Chivaree?

(Van Meer, 2010)

Lisa Van Meer writes an article for Country Magazine in 2010, describing the Chivaree put on for her big sister and her new husband in 1970.  By this time, the Chivaree has mostly disappeared, except in rural areas.  In fact, she wrote that by the time she married 10 years later, the custom was dead.

(Van Meer, 2010)

It was early evening and the honeymooners were snuggled down on the couch watching television with the bride’s parents. It was hard to believe that only a short 10 days ago they had been married at the Cherry Valley church down the road. They had been to the east coast and back. Now home in her parent’s family room the bride is anxious to move into her new home with her new husband. They were just planning to retire early and get a fresh start in the morning. As night fell the house was calm and peaceful; all of a sudden a crash echoes through the night air. The newlyweds leapt off the couch. The crash was soon followed by the whoops and hollers of a wild mob, wielding pots and pans, garbage can lids and anything else that makes a noise. The couple race out to the deck to witness the Chivaree that is taking place on the yard in their honour. -- (Van Meer, 2010)

She watched an episode of The Walton's, set in the 1930s, in which the community Chivaree'd a newly married couple.  Season 3 episode 20.  She was flooded with the memories, and tried to explain the event to her city-boy husband who had never heard of such a thing.  She then conducted an informal survey of family and friends.  She found -- not surprisingly -- that the younger people her own age had never heard of such a thing, although some remember a party with lots of noise when they were very young.  But, when she asked a couple at their 40th wedding anniversary what they remembered most, she wrote -- "The night they came home from their honeymoon, the chivaree was at my parents house. However, the guys still got into the trailer and messed around with the bed."

She writes that everyone in her family had been chivareed (is this really even a form of the word?) except for she herself.  Apparently, her father organized quite a few noisy bands in his day.  One couple she interviewed remembered her chivaree experience:

Marion ... remembers when she and her late husband Claude were married in 1943.... Their bed was short sheeted, corn flakes in the sheets and the bed was rigged to fall when they climbed in it that night.  Her daughter Vicki and hubby Mike were married 36 years ago. When they arrived home to her parents place ... the guests were there waiting. It turned out to be a big party but sort of a Community Shower as well. She remembers one thing they did back then that they wouldn’t do today was cigarettes were handed around on trays just like h’our derves.    -- (Van Meer, 2010)

 She recommends that rural people bring back this memorable custom -- "let them know you care by scaring the bejeepers out of them!"  -- (Van Meer, 2010).  But, she recommends checking with the local law enforcement.

Shivaree: The traditional hazing of our newlywed ancestors

More recently, Frederick Wertz wrote on his Find My Past blog about the Shivaree.   He says that if your ancestors married on the frontier, they may have been the subject of the traditional custom -- "wedding guests would often return uninvited to the homes of newlyweds, banging pots and pans, shooting guns and forcing entry into the matrimonial residence."  He further says that the newlyweds were sometimes "kidnapped and paraded through town, or dunked in a horse trough and abandoned in the countryside, - anything to mischievously disrupt the presumed wedding night activities of a newly married couple."  It became sort of a "hazing inducting them into the community of married couples."  Sometimes the crowd could be bribed to disperse and let them consumate their marriage.

His source for this information is -- Michael Taft, "Shivaree", Encyclopedia of the Great Plains David J. Wishart, Ed. Accessed 2/11/2016 at http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/e...

One commentor says that her small German community in the midwest had a coustom of pancaking the newlyweds, by banging on the door in the middle of the night demanding to be fed pancakes.

Chivaree!

Matthew Burns writes on his Appalachian Lifestyle blog in his post Chivaree! -- 

The best time to start a chivaree was after the newlyweds turned out the lights.... Then, all of a sudden the boisterous crowd gathered outside the house.... On cue, the crowd started hollering at the top of their lungs, banging on pots and pans, setting off firecrackers, beating on windows and doors, and hollering out the names of the newlyweds and yelling “chivaree”. This usually scared both of the newlyweds half to death, especially if one or the other had never heard of chivaree before. It really depended on the crowd, but sometimes they’d force the door open and gather up the bridegroom and rough him up a little. -- (Burns, 2009)

He recounts when his cousin and her city-bred husband were the victims of "a pretty lively chivaree"  The family decided to give the city man a REAL introduction to mountain life, a chivaree "like they did in the old days" -- (Burns, 2009).  His cousin's name was Sal, and her new husband was Kingfisher.

A crowd of about 50 people surrounded the honeymoon house and were hollering out the names of Sal and Kingfisher ... [who] panicked and couldn’t understand why this crowd was gathered all around their house, hollering and screaming, banging on the windows and doors…and some of them were even carrying lit torches!

... a bunch of men ... dragged Kingfisher out of the house kicking and screaming, and he was wearing nothing but his underwear! They ... hoisted him up on the greased rail and paraded him all around the community, fully thinking that they were honoring their sister’s choice of husband by doing this.

 ... they brought Kingfisher back to Sal and expected to get asked in for some drinks and such, as was the custom. By this time, Kingfisher was fit to be tied, and was really angry at everyone, and started hollering at everyone to leave them alone and to leave. Well, that just offended Sal’s brothers, who really had thought that they had honored Kingfisher by riding him around the community on a greased rail, so they figured they cool him off a little. They grabbed Kingfisher again, and this time tied his arms and legs, and grabbing the greased rail again they tied him to it, they carried him to the water trough that was used for the stock. They dipped Kingfisher into the trough a few times, and each time they’d pull him up out of the water, they’d holler, “Chivaree…Chivaree”. Well, Kingfisher caught on pretty quick and told the boys, “Let’s go back to the house and have a drink.” They did, at which time Sal hastily explained to Kingfisher what a chivaree meant, and this time he listened intently, so as not to again offend the family he had just married into. He didn’t make that mistake again, and resigned himself to celebrating the marriage with his newly acquired family. An hour or so later, everyone left the honeymoon house ... still beating on their pots and pans, and hollering out the names of the newlyweds and “chivaree’.  -- (Burns, 2009)

One commentor, Granny Sue, suspects that the custom of tying cans to the back of the wedding car may have come from the Chivaree.

Another commenter, Bruce L, wrote --

 I was 10 years old in 1960, when my oldest sister got married. The family and many friends got together, a bit after midnight, with the usual hollering and noise making outside. We had woke them up. I remember dragging my new brother in law out of his bed (along with my sister). The "mob" tore their house up,meaning, they up ended furniture, tore off labels from cans, and filled their bed with cereal. We left them standing in their house wondering what had just happened in such a short time! But the night wasn't over! My cousin also had just been married in another town, 20 miles away, so off we went to their house. Once again, they did everything to them, but also dragged him to the main street of the little town, where they made him carry his wife up and back in the center of the main street (I think the town was asleep, as we were the only ones awake then!), in a wheel barrow.

 So, back to the article with which we started this admittedly long post.  The young boys got out of hand with their drinking and throwing things.  Had they not caused real damage and frightened the good folk and their celebration, it may not have become such a big deal.  However, if you decide to throw a Chivaree yourself, make sure you are out in the country, that your subjects don't have a sawed off shotgun they are willing to use on you, and that you don't break anything in your partying.  Oh, and get the okay from your local sheriff.

Resources

Burns, M. (2009, April). Chivaree!! Retrieved from Appalachian Lifestyles blog: http://appalachianlifestyles.blogspot.com/2009/04/chivaree.html -- used with written permission 10 May 2018
Pronunciation English. (2016, December 1). the correct pronunciation of chivaree in English. Retrieved from Youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpn4Au9FaWk
This Is Invader. (2017, February 20). Death Valley Days S1E7 The Chivaree. Retrieved from Youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdkFa3KmFvg
Van Meer, L. (2010, May). Whatever happened to the Chivaree? Retrieved from Lisa Can Write: http://lisacanwrite.blogspot.com/2015/05/whatever-happened-to-chivaree.html
Wertz, F. (2016, February). Shivaree: The traditional hazing of our newlywed ancestors. Retrieved from Find My Past: https://blog.findmypast.com/shivaree-when-the-whole-community-interrupted-your-wedding-night-1598001953.html