1. See also Ronald W. Walker, “Golden Memories: Remembering Life in a Mormon Village,” in this issue of BYU Studies, 191–218.

2. The term fiddle is generally understood as an old generic term for bowed lutes, in this case for violins. There is no substantial difference between a fiddle and a violin, though occasionally the former are homemade and thus of a somewhat rougher workmanship. “Fiddling” refers specifically to a style of playing the violin in which there are techniques, particularly in the bowing, which account for the fiddle “sound.” Fiddle music is characterized by pervasive offbeat accents and often droning, which is playing the melody on one string with the bow also touching another, usually open, string.

3. Warren Foote, Autobiography, typescript, 36, Special Collections and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (hereafter cited as BYU Archives).

4. Hosea Stout, Diary (1845), typescript, vol. 2, 25, BYU Archives.

5. Kenner C. Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler: The Life of a Northern Arizona Pioneer, ed. Larry V. Shumway (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990), 38.

6. See Thornton Hagert, program and liner notes, bibliography and discography for sound recording, Come and Trip It: Instrumental Dance Music, 1780s–1920s, no. 293 of the Recorded Anthology of American Music (New York: New World Records, 1978), 1–2.

7. Charles Hamm, Music in the New World (New York: W. W. Norton, 1983), 69.

8. Philadelphia Minerva 2 (December 10 and 17, 1796): 97–98, quoted in Joseph E. Marks III, America Learns to Dance (New York: Exposition Press, 1957), 33; ellipses in Marks.

9. Marks, America Learns to Dance, 21; see also 19–22.

10. Marks, America Learns to Dance, 62.

11. Luman Shurtliff, Autobiography, typescript, 11, BYU Archives.

12. Hamm, Music in the New World, 69. See also Andrew Karl Larson, I Was Called to Dixie (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1961), 458–60.

13. Susa Young Gates, The Life Story of Brigham Young (New York: Macmillan, 1930), 239–40. For additional information about dancing among the early Mormons, see Karl E. Wesson, “Dance in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1940” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1975); Leona Holbrook, “Dancing as an Aspect of Early Mormon and Utah Culture,” BYU Studies 16, no. 1 (1975): 117–38; and Michael Hicks, Mormonism and Music: A History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), especially chapter 5, “Going Forth in the Dance.”

14. Elizabeth Haven Barlow, Autobiography, quoted in Our Pioneer Heritage, comp. Kate B. Carter, 20 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958–77), 19:319.

15. Gilbert Belnap, Autobiography, typescript, 13, BYU Archives.

16. Benjamin F. Johnson, Autobiography, quoted in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 15:208.

17. Elizabeth Whitney, “Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent 7 (August 15, 1878): 41. See also Noel Carmack, “‘A Memorable Creation’: The Life and Art of Effie Marquess Carmack,” in this issue of BYU Studies, 101–35.

18. “To the Editor of the Times and Seasons,” Times and Seasons 5 (March 1, 1844): 459.

19. “To the Editor,” 459–60.

20. “To the Editor,” 460.

21. Helen Whitney, “Scenes and Incidents in Nauvoo,” Woman’s Exponent 11 (November 15, 1882): 90.

22. Brigham Young, “An Epistle of the Twelve, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:—Greeting,” Times and Seasons 5 (October 1, 1844): 669.

23. “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:426.

24. It is not clear exactly when the Saints resumed dancing in Nauvoo, but Brigham Young records one interesting incident of dancing in the Nauvoo Temple on December 29, 1845: “The labors of the day [in the temple] having been brought to a close at so early an hour, viz.: eight-thirty, it was thought proper to have a little season of recreation, accordingly Brother Hanson was invited to produce his violin, which he did, and played several lively airs accompanied by Elisha Averett on his flute, among others some very good lively dancing tunes. This was too much for the gravity of Brother Joseph Young who indulged in dancing a hornpipe, and was soon joined by several others, and before the dance was over several French fours were indulged in. The first was opened by myself with Sister Whitney and Elder Heber C. Kimball and partner. The spirit of dancing increased until the whole floor was covered with dancers, and while we danced before the Lord, we shook the dust from off our feet as a testimony against this nation” (Joseph Smith Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2d ed., rev., 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1971], 7:557).

25. “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” 8:428.

26. Rachel Emma Woolley Simmons, “Journal of Rachel Woolley Simmons,” in Heart Throbs of the West, comp. Kate B. Carter, 12 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1939–51), 11:161.

27. William Draper, Autobiography, typescript, 25, BYU Archives.

28. Thomas Kane, quoted in B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century One, 6 vols. (Provo, Utah: Corporation of the President, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1965), 3:84.

29. Zadoc Judd, Autobiography, typescript, 22, 26, BYU Archives.

30. Eliza R. Snow, Diary, quoted in “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:429.

31. Simmons, “Journal of Rachel Woolley Simmons,” 11:162.

32. Harriett Pulsipher, quoted in Amber Maria Hamson Doyle, “A Pan of Flour—a Few Eggs,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 17:164.

33. Sophia Goodridge Hardy, Diary, quoted in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 15:254.

34. Jessie Belle Stirling Pack, Autobiography, quoted in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 6:32.

35. Mary Culmer Simmons, “What Faith,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 12:32.

36. Elizabeth H. Welker, “Mary Mole Smith,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 12:194.

37. “Social Activities of Early Cache Valley,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:456.

38. Aroet Hale, Diary, typescript, 17, BYU Archives; [sic] in typescript.

39. Caroline Hopkins Clark, Diary, quoted in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 10:43–44, 47.

40. Snow, quoted in “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” 8:430. For other references to rowdy or improper behavior and its consequences, see Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 458–60; and Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler, 158–60.

41. Mary Isabella Horne, “My Pioneer Home,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:125.

42. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–86), 1:30–31, March 4, 1852.

43. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 6:148–49, December 27, 1857.

44. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 2:94, February 6, 1853.

45. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 9:244, March 6, 1862.

46. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 8:178, September 9, 1860.

47. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 10:313, June 10, 11, 12, and 13, 1864.

48. Gates, The Life Story of Brigham Young, 266.

49. Utah Musical Times 2 (February 1, 1878): 169.

50. “Celebrations in Utah Territory—1868,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 12:22.

51. See Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 458–60; and Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler, 158–60.

52. John Barker, quoted in “Letters of John H. Barker,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 4:90; italics added.

53. “Lest We Forget the Pioneer Christmas,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 15:195.

54. “George Wardle—Musician,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 2:492.

55. Andrew Jenson, “Salt Lake City Sixteenth Ward,” Encyclopedic History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing, 1941), 751.

56. “George Wardle—Musician,” 2:492.

57. “Kane County,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:470.

58. C. J. Arthur, “Centennial Celebrations,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 20:12.

59. “Centennial Celebrations,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 20:12–13.

60. “Centennial Celebrations,” 20:14.

61. Aurelia Spencer Rogers to President and counselors of the Primary Association of Farmington, n.d., quoted in “The Primary Association,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 15:162.

62. Emma B. Lindsay, “Christmas When I Was a Girl,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 20:186.

63. “Told by Emmeline B. Wells,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 14:535.

64. Charlotte Evans Adams, quoted by Jesse Archibald Atkinson in “Brigham Young—His Wives and Family,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:447.

65. Richard Burton, The City of the Saints (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963), 253.

66. Parley P. Pratt Jr., ed., The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 4th ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 335.

67. “Told by Emmeline B. Wells,” 14:534–35.

68. Emma B. Lindsay, quoted in “That They May Live Again,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:170.

69. “That They May Be Remembered,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 18:164.

70. “That They May Be Remembered,” 18:164.

71. Charles R. Bailey, quoted in “That They May Be Remembered,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 18:159.

72. Matilda Josephine Anderson Patterson, “Personal Journal and Other Writings of Matilda Josephine Anderson Patterson,” typescript, 3, copy in possession of author.

73. Venna A. Reese, “Utah County,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:163.

74. Myrtle H. Conover, “Springville,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:488.

75. Conover, “Springville,” 8:488–89.

76. Catherine H. Griffiths, quoted in Ann Godfrey Hansen, Wood Stoves and Woolen Stockings ([Salt Lake City]: Covenant Communications, 1991), 113.

77. “Pleasure—Beaver, Utah,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:455.

78. Merle Kartchner Shumway, personal communication with author, summer 1987.

79. Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 458.

80. Dean Chesley Robison, “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” 8:473.

81. Gates, The Life Story of Brigham Young, 253.

82. Charles William Carroll, quoted in Elsie C. Carroll, “Stories of Long Ago,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:192–93.

83. Carroll, quoted in “Stories of Long Ago,” 1:192–93.

84. Gates, The Life Story of Brigham Young, 262.

85. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1892), 1:459.

86. Simmons, “Journal of Rachel Emma Woolley Simmons,” 11:165.

87. “Social Hall,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 5:216.

88. George D. Watt, “Returned Missionaries’ Party in the Social Hall,” Deseret News, December 19, 1855, 325.

89. Ingrid Jolley Stringham Hardy, “Funk’s Lake—Sanpete County,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 2:188–89.

90. Lela N. Fackrell, “Sevier County,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:477–78.

91. Fackrell, “Sevier County,” 8:478.

92. Relva Booth Ross, “Recreation—Utah County,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 8:485–86.

93. Mabel Jarvis, “Utah’s Dixie,” in An Enduring Legacy, comp. Lesson Committee, 12 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1977–89), 4:363.

94. “Great Salt Lake Beach Resorts,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 2:152–53.

95. Mosiah Hancock, Autobiography, typescript, 14, BYU Archives.

96. The exact time of the passing of the pioneer period varied from place to place. It should be understood that in remote settlements, especially those in Nevada and Arizona, pioneer conditions continued into this century. While many of these communities had been established for some twenty years by the turn of the century, the general outlook and the quality of life was decidedly frontier and pioneer. This was so until WWI, which was also about the time when electricity, that harbinger of modernity, came into general use in these areas.

97. Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler, 238–39.

98. Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler, 239–40.

99. Shumway, personal communication.

100. Marks, America Learns to Dance, 76.

101. Robison, “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” 8:473.

102. Robison, “Utah Pioneer Recreation Centers,” 8:473.

103. See Davis Bitton, “Those Licentious Days: Dancing among the Mormons,” Sunstone 2 (spring 1977): 16–27.

104. “Organization of the Stakes and the Central Board, Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association—1893,” in Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 13:166.

105. Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith: The Life Story of a Mormon Pioneer, 1834–1906 (Salt Lake City: Jesse N. Smith Family Association, 1953), 258–59.

106. Quoted in Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 461. The context of this quote was a set of rules laid down by the St. George Stake high council to govern dancing in the stake, one of which stated their opposition to “round dancing, and in regard to waltz, schottische, or polka, or any other dance embracing the features of these dances” (461).

107. Derryfield N. Smith, ed. John Bushman: Utah-Arizona Pioneer, 1843–1926 (Provo, Utah: John Bushman Family Association, 1975), 103.

108. Kartchner, Frontier Fiddler, xviii.

109. Marks, America Learns to Dance, 76.

110. Shumway, personal communication.

111. Shumway, personal communication.

112. See note 96.

113. Fackrell, “Sevier County,” 8:479.

114. In the summer of 1998, a companion booklet will be available that discusses the role of dance as it has been lovingly handed down from generation to generation. The booklet, Social Dancing in the Mormon West, includes an essay by Utah Arts Council folklorist Craig R. Miller, which summarizes the community-based dance traditions that evolved in Utah and places these traditions in the unique context of Utah geography and culture. Another essay by ethnomusicologist Larry V. Shumway discusses how the Mormon pioneers’ love for music and dance laid the foundation that enriched subsequent generations. The booklet is illustrated with more than three dozen photographs from the Arts Council Archives of community-dance musicians and dancers, as well as images of the state’s best-loved outdoor dance halls. Perhaps most significant are the musical transcriptions, prepared by Shumway, that make the dance tunes accessible to musicians who wish to revive the music for their own community dances. For further information, write the Utah Arts Council, 617 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84012, or call 801-533-5760.

Larry V. Shumway

BYU Studies Publications