130 Years Ago, 1895, transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator:

“Pioneer Ball. Col. Caleb Wick leads the grand march last evening. Costumes of the ladies. Aside from the humidity the occasion was a pleasure to all.”

“A good many years ago; 15 perhaps, Tom Johnston, who is now at the head of his profession, as the managing editor of the Kansas City Star, and Grant Hamilton, whose caricatures delight the readers of Judge, were collaborators in the designing and drawing of a caricature in which extremely young people were depicted in the giddiness of the waltz. Beneath the picture ran the line ‘why call it the Old Folks Ball?’…

“So far as known no one has as yet solved the conundrum. The mercury in the thermometer stood near the top last night to make the weather ideal for dancing. Instead of the cool of a usual September night, the weather was like midsummer and any exertion was calculated to give to laundried linen, other than celluloid, a weary look.

“For this, and perhaps no other reason, the twenty-second annual Pioneer Reunion ball was not so well attended as have been those of former years.

“The arrangements made by the committees having the ball in charge could have been no more perfect for the enjoyment of the guests, the pleasure of the dance, than were those completed for last night’s ball.

“Cooling refreshments were served with almost prodigal hospitality, and electric fans made every effort to stir cooling breezes across the dance floor, but Sol had ridden a fiery chariot across the pathway of the day and made such sultry record of his passing, that even the shadows of the night could not dispel it.

“It was not a night for dancing, but even so, a merry crowd of pretty women in handsome toilettes, and men who wore fashion’s latest decree in full dress found pleasure in Terpsichore’s rhythmic movements, followed in the melody of most entrancing music.

“Preceding the dance program there was a concert of vocal and instrumental numbers, which furnished much pleasure to the audience, which from the balcony above the dance floor listened and applauded….

“Behind a hedge of potted palms the Mahoning orchestra awaited the hour set for the dance to begin, and at 9 o’clock promptly the orchestra broke forth into the magnificent melody of a grand march, which was led by C.B. Wick with Mrs. George C. Wilson, and the twenty-second Pioneer Reunion ball was at its sway.

“There were 30 numbers on the program, and each succeeding one seemed to have been selected to increase the pleasure of the dancers….

“Intermission at midnight took the party to the Tod House, where a most refreshing menu was served. It was among the growing hours before ‘Home Sweet Home’ was played and danced, and carriages bore homeward the last of those who will tell of having danced at the twenty-second ball of the pioneers.

“The committees having the ball in charge were: Arrangement committee – Mason Evans, George D. Wick, F.M. Powers, John A. Logan Jr., Robert Bentley, Richard Garlick, John Tod, G.B. Booth, R.T. Ellis, Porter Pollock, W.W. Bonnell; Patronesses – Mrs. Fred H. Wick, Miss Sallie Tod, Mrs. John Stambaugh Jr., Mrs. W. Scott Bonnell, Mrs. John A. Logan Jr.; Floor Managers – Jack Packard, W. Scott Bonnell, Caleb B. Wick, Alf H. Rice, O. Seymour Dutton, J. Fitch McEwen, Geo. H. Pickerell.”

• Compiled by Dante Bernard, museum educator at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society