After writing about the dances at Dewey Park, I started to think about how important dances have been to the Rochester community and its residents, especially young people. In the mid to late 1800’s, some of the places where teenagers (I don’t think they called them that back then) could socialize were harvest festivals or “Singing and Spelling Schools” where people gathered in competitions. J. Augusts Johnson says in his memoirs that a brave youth might ask a girl if he “might have the pleasure of seeing her home”, from one of these occasions.
By the 1900’s, dances at places like the Women’s Club and Grange brought young people together, often to participate in square dances. Annie Hartley Gurney kept a diary in her 18th year and in it she makes frequent references to attending dances that were held almost every weekend at one Grange or another. Freetown’s had dances every two weeks and there were frequent dances in Rochester Center and of course, the Rochester Grange hosted square dancing. Annie got to know Ralph Gurney at theses dances and they were married in 1924, 4 years after she started her diary.
Many people wrote in the Rochester Journals about dances. According to Ruth Fuller. “We built the Grange with card parties and dances.” The last line on the postcard that my grandmother sent to her mother at the start of her teaching career here in1914 was that she was just home from a social evening (dance). As a newcomer to town, it’s no doubt how she eventually met her husband to be, Jim Hartley.
Dances sparked romance for other couples. Bob and Harriet Sherman’s began when Bob saw her at a Rochester Grange square dance. He invited her to the Mattapoisett square dances held in the summer at the town wharf. There he taught her all the various steps and turns and that led to 70 years of marriage. The square dances were going strong in the 60’s when I was a mother’s helper in Mattapoisett and took my charges to the wharf to watch the dancers.
I’m sure somewhere there are still square dance groups, but their popularity has diminished over the years. It’s interesting to note thar one part of the Rochester Bicentennial celebration was a square dance demonstration. I wonder if dances continue to be popular in this age of social media. They will always be a good place for actual person to person interaction.
By Connie Eshbach
