A Moment in Time

"Trick or Treat: How Kansans Made Halloween History"

October 1997
By Rebecca Martin

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

When you're passing out Halloween candy this year, consider yourself lucky that today's children are more interested in treats than tricks.

A century ago the opposite was true. Kansas newspapers from the 1890s are filled with stories of tricks played by young people on Halloween night. You can find these newspapers in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka, along with historic Halloween costumes, masks, greeting cards, and party favors.

Halloween night in 1897 was a rough one for the town of Chanute in southeast Kansas. The Daily Tribune reported on the "considerable damage" the following day. "The sewer pipe was rolled into the big ditch and some of it broken. Thomas' wagon was broken, gates were taken off and in some instances lost, outhouses thrown over and broken up and in some places the sidewalks were torn up," the newspaper complained on the first day of November. Just the previous day the Daily Tribune had advised local boys not to destroy property or "pull up culverts and bridges because you may endanger life by doing so."

Wichita attempted to control Halloween high jinks in 1899 by threatening miscreants with jail. "Chief Cubbon has issued an order that all boys, large or small, caught molesting property will be punished by fine and maybe by imprisonment," the Wichita Eagle stated on October 31, 1899. The following day the Eagle reported the business community was largely spared because of the close guard it kept on its property. "O. B. Stocker is reported to have sat on a lime barrel just inside his gate all night with a shotgun and a copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress'. . . Fred Van Duyn put placards on the Manhattan doors which read pleadingly: If you can, please leave the cook stove," the Eagle claimed. Still, a number of signs and boxes were moved out of their places in downtown Wichita that night.

Hiawatha, in northeast Kansas, had a terrible time with Halloween trickery in the early years of the twentieth century. The Hiawatha Daily World was pleased to call the 1913 holiday "the most sane Hallowe'en that Hiawatha has had in many a year. Outside of the one dangerous act of filling an old delivery wagon with inflammable material, setting it on fire and hauling it along the streets, there was [sic] no outrageous acts perpetrated, no pyramids of old vehicles and buildings in the streets, or on the corners." The same paper, however, reported that a boy from a nearby town was seriously hurt when the horse he was riding ran into some machinery placed in the road by pranksters.

Tragedies and excessive property loss moved communities to find creative ways of occupying children on Halloween night. Hiawatha's solution, an annual Halloween Frolic, was so successful that it was widely copied by towns throughout the United States. Started by a townswoman who lost a fence and flowers one Halloween, the Frolic's main entertainment in its early years was a parade of costumed revelers. Local business owners, eager to avoid property damage, provided cash prizes for the best costumes. The local newspaper proudly reported on the first Frolic in 1915, "There was no destroying of property and the marshals had the lonesomest Hallowe'en they have ever had."

Private dinner parties were another popular way of celebrating Halloween, and many were described by the local newspaper. The Hays Daily News informed its readers of a Halloween banquet and dance in 1930 at the Lamer Hotel: "A centerpiece in the room was fashioned of corn shocks and piled high with autumn fruits and vegetables. Each table held as a centerpiece a pumpkin filled with fruit on an orange and black paper decoration. Orange colored balloons were suspended from the chandeliers and gangling skeleton figures hung at each window. Jack O'Lanterns were used for lights."

Costume parties were common by the 1920s. Schools, social clubs, and fraternal lodges frequently held Halloween parties during the week before the holiday. Decorations, games, music, and refreshments were plentiful. Sweet cider and doughnuts were offered at many parties; at least one Kansas hostess served doughnuts from the end of a witch's broomstick. A party for the kindergarten at the Washington School in Hays featured "milk in sherbet glasses because it was a party and because it would go around that way," the Ellis County News reported in 1927.

Kansans can discover more about Halloween customs and celebrations through the many resources in the Kansas Historical Society's Center for Historical Research. Some resources may be available through interlibrary loan. For more information call the research room at 785-272-8681, ext. 117. The Society is headquartered at the Kansas History Center, 6425 SW Sixth Avenue, Topeka, KS 66615-1099; 785-272-8681; TTY 785-272-8683.

The Kansas Historical Society does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs. The Society requests prior notification to accommodate individuals with special needs or disabilities.