Journal Notes

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Diva Emma Wixom

Doc Wixom lifted his three-year-old daughter and stood her carefully in the middle of a table. Wrapped in an American flag, golden brown ringlets framing her sweet face, Emma Wixom smiled at her audience. The church on the banks of Deer Creek was crowded with miners and merchants, teamsters and saloonkeepers. They were there to benefit a local charity, and the sight of a child symbolized the hopes of the future.

Unafraid of the eager faces crowded around the table, little Emma Wixom knew what was expected of her. She was happy to sing on this lovely morning. She did it all the time, unaccompanied, singing for the pure love of the sound.

That summer day in 1862, in the thriving California Gold Rush town named Nevada, she gave a performance to remember. Inside the Baptist church on the banks of Deer Creek, Emma took a deep breath and released a pure soprano voice that held the audience spellbound. By the time the last note sounded, there was not a dry eye in the house. Brawny, wet-cheeked miners showered her with nuggets of pure gold.

Emma Wixom, the daughter of a country doctor, began a long and illustrious career that day in the church. She would go on to sing opera in Europe and America. She would draw standing-room-only crowds to her performances, but her biggest fans remained the reckless, rugged gold miners who first took a little child into their hearts.

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“Old West justice is quick and violent. A couple of nights ago one poor soul was caught sneaking into another man’s tent to steal some gold dust. A jury was called on the spot and after a hasty trial, the unhappy victim was adjudged to receive a hundred lashes, have his head shaved, and his ears cut off, and be drummed out of the mines; a sentence which was carried out on the spot.”  Robert Buckner, Forty-niner, 1850

 Juanita slowly walked to the gallows, took the noose in her hands, and adjusted it around her neck. She pulled her long, black hair out from beneath the rope so it could flow freely. A blanket of silence fell over the crowd watching the hanging in Downieville, California, that sunny July afternoon in 1851.

Less than twenty-four hours before, the people in this California Gold Rush town had been celebrating the country’s independence. The streets were still lined with bunting and flags. A platform still stood in the center of the town where prominent speakers had given patriotic lectures. There had been bands and parades. Drunken miners had brawled in the streets and bartenders had rolled giant whiskey barrels into tent saloons for everyone to have a drink. It had been a momentous occasion – the first Fourth of July celebration since California had become a state.

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With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

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Lola Montez, Queen of the Spider Dance

Lola Montez, beautiful, intelligent and spirited, arrived in California in 1853 preceded by a delicious aroma of European scandal. Irish-born in 1818, she had danced her way to success on the Continent and had dazzled lovers, two husbands and the King of Bavaria, who had taken her as mistress and titled her Countess of Landsfeldt.

In San Francisco her spider dance was a theatrical sensation until caricatured by a rival. Ridiculed, Lola and her latest husband, journalist Patrick Purdy Hull, sailed for Sacramento. There she quarreled with the theatre manager, challenged him to a duel, was laughed at, and in burning indignation swept on to Marysville where the tour fizzled out. Lola and Pat boarded a stage for Grass Valley, decided it was a painfully needed refuge. They bought this home and Lola busied herself in domesticity, even tending the garden.

The town’s best families shunned them , so their elegant hospitality and brilliant salons were lavished on a few daring citizens and a parade of out-of-town leading lights who found their way to the house on Mill Street. Lola may or may not have horse-whipped a local editor for disparaging her in print, as one story goes. She did, however, show yet another facet by helping the town’s needy, carrying food and medicine to injured miners, keeping watch all night at the bed of a sick child, and endearing herself to many by her acts of charity.

Lola evicted Patrick Hull after a quarrel over the shooting of her pet bear. Afraid of boredom, she left Grass Valley in the summer of 1855 for a professional dance tour of Australia. She retuned just long enough to sell her home, the only one she ever had owned and to bid farewell to the town that had promised so much tranquility. Beset by dwindling health and fortune, Lola died in New York in 1861.

To learn more about Lola Montez and the other ladies who made their mark on the Gold Country read

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Buffalo Bill Cody

“Buffalo Bill is a magnificent specimen of a man, and has a nasty grace of movement that is quite captivating. And a look that is unique and fitting to his work.”   The Chicago Review, 1872

William Frederick Cody was a frontiersman and noted marksman of the American West. Not only did he bring Wild West shows into prominence, he was a bit of a fashion plate, as well. His knee-length fringed shirts, ornamental leather coats, engraved and embroidered thigh-high boots, and broad-brimmed hat made him one of the most recognizable figures in the United States and Europe. His curly, shoulder-length hair, thin moustache, and small goatee accentuated the look. Costume historians credit Buffalo Bill with “bringing a bit of sophistication to the unruly plains.”

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Adah Menken in a scene from Mazzepa.

In August 24, 1863, San Francisco’s elite flocked to Maguire’s Opera House. Ladies wearing diamonds and furs rode up in handsome carriages: gentlemen in opera capes and silk hats were also in attendance. It was an opening night such as the city had never seen before. All 1,000 seats in the theatre were filled with curious spectators, anxious to see the celebrated melodramatic actress Adah Menken perform.

Adah was starring in the role that made her famous – that of Prince Ivan in Mazzepa. It was rumored that she preferred to play the part in the nude. Newspapers in the East reported that the audience found the scantily clad thespian’s act “shocking, scandalous, horrifying and even delightful.”

The storyline of the play was taken from a Byron poem, in which a Tartar prince is condemned to ride forever in the desert, stripped naked and lashed to a fiery, untamed steed. Adah insisted on playing the part as true to life as possible.
The audience waited with bated breath for Adah to walk out on stage, and when she did, a hush fell over the crowd. She was beautiful, with dark hair and large, dark eyes. Adorned in a flesh-colored body nylon and tight-fitting underwear, she left the audience speechless.

During the play’s climatic scene, supporting characters strapped the star to the back of a black stallion. The horse raced up a narrow runway between cardboard representatives of mountain crags. The audience responded with thunderous applause. Adah Menken and her revealing undergarments left the ticket holders in a state of shock – and scandalized the West.

To learn more about legendary trendsetters like Adah Menken read

How the West Was Worn: Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier

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Wild Bill Hickok was an American frontier army scout, peace officer, stagecoach driver, and gambler.  He was a big man and his six foot frame was accentuated by the long, wool jackets he frequently wore.  The red sash he generally sported around his waist stood out over the dark pants and vest of his everyday wardrobe.  The sash held two pistols, always pointed butt-forward beneath his coat.  His giant brimmed hat was cocked on his head and his long wavy hair, parted in the middle, cascaded down his back.  Many dime novel readers tried in vain to duplicate his style, but only one could do the look justice.

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and many other legendary trendsetters read

How the West Was Worn:  Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier.

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Oscar Wilde

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”  Oscar Wilde – 1883

When playwright Oscar Wilde made the long journey from London to California, he brought with him a flamboyant wardrobe. In 1882 he attracted large crowd of settlers in Leadville, Colorado, who were interesting in seeing Wilde’s velvet knickers suit and flowing bow tie. His outrageous costume was made complete with a high-crowned cowboy hat and knee-high cowboy boots. Although men found his fashion sense questionable, women admired the frilly, soft-collared shirts he wore, and they made patters of the garments so they could replicate the design for themselves.

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How the West Was Worn: Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier

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Annie Oakley

Among the most talent legendary trendsetter of the Old West was Annie Oakley.  Annie Oakley’s ability with a gun made her famous, but she also had a glowing reputation as a seamstress.  A  young  Annie was taught how to sew while living and working at an Ohio county home.  Her teacher, Mrs. Ira Eddington, recognized her talent for knitting and stitching, and encouraged the sharpshooter to make clothing for children and the elderly.  Throughout her life, Annie Oakley made most of the garment she wore.  She designed the costumes she wore in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and sewed the detailed embroidery that lined the sleeves, bodice, and hem of each outfit.

To learn more about Annie Oakley and how other western figures dressed read

How the West Was Worn:  Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier

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It happened in Dodge City, Kansas.  A stranger in town asked a resident where he could find Bat Masterson.  A lawyer who overheard the question broke in and said, “Look for one of the most perfectly made men you ever saw, a well-dressed, good-looking fellow and when you see such a man call him ‘Bat’ and you have hit the bull’s eye.”

Masterson was known for his trim, neat style, his derby hat, tailor-made pants and jackets, and linen shirts imported from France.  He was proof that being a tough lawman did not mean one had to dress like a cowhand.

To learn more about the trend setters of the legendary Old West read

How the West Was Worn:  Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier