By the time the night was over, Larry Chittenden was well on his way from being a traveling salesman to becoming a cowboy and poet. As the young northerner watched the couples dance the Virginia reel, polkas and square dances, he decided to not only commemorate the experience by writing about it, but also to become part of it.
Chittenden had borrowed $50 for his trip to Texas, where his family owned some land. He paid his way by selling dry goods along the way and writing dispatches of his travels for New York newspapers. He stayed in Texas to partner with his uncle on land northwest of Anson, near Skinout Mountain. When his uncle died in 1889, Chittenden bought the ranching part of his family's estate and settled down to the life of a West Texas rancher -- and poet.
Larry Chittenden's best-known poem was inspired by the Christmas dance in Anson, and was called "The Cowboys Christmas Ball." The Star Hotel, where he had first seen the dance, burned down in 1890, and his poem was published in the Anson "Texas Western," in June of that year as the town sought to retrieve some of the hotel's history.
Though he had dabbled a bit in journalism, he had never shown a real interest in poetry until he moved to Texas. He referred to his poems as "the offsprings of solitude -- born in idle hours on a Texas ranch." A collection of his poems was published under the title "Ranch Verses" in 1893, and became a national best-seller, eventually going into 17 editions.
The Christmas ball continued in Anson, but whether it was held every year and how much Chittenden's poem was part of the festivities isn't clear. Dancing in general was frowned upon by some and the annual ball apparently suffered a bit as a result. The event was revitalized in 1934, by an Anson schoolteacher and folklorist named Leonora Barrett, who brought back the old dance steps immortalized in the poem, along with the songs and instrumentation.
The unique music and dance steps caught the attention of organizers at the National Folk Festival in 1937 and 1938, where they danced on the White House lawn. Gordon Graham, a cowboy folklorist from Colorado, set the poem to music and performed it at the Anson ball in 1946, where it became a part of the ongoing local tradition.
The national exposure brought a new level of popularity to the annual Christmas ball, and in 1940, a permanent structure, the Pioneer Hall, was built to accommodate what has now become a time-honored annual event. A mural painted by artist Jenne Magafan titled "Cowboy Dance" can be seen in the Anson post office any time of year.
In 1985, singer Michael Martin Murphey recorded the song and spearheaded an effort to copyright and commemorate the event for the people of Anson, making the song and dance a holiday tradition for new generations. The Cowboys Christmas Ball has been performed continuously in Anson for the last 75 years, and shows no signs of losing steam.
As for Chittenden, he left the ranch after 13 years. He lived for a time in the Bahamas and later in Christmas Cove, Maine. He operated a low-key resort hotel for visitors in Maine, catering especially to Texans. For the rest of his life, after leaving the state, he continued to refer to himself as the "Poet-Ranchman of Texas." He died in New Jersey in 1934.
Chittenden's poems have been revived by the interest in recent years in "cowboy poetry." Some of his poems have been reprinted here and there, but nothing he ever wrote compared with the success of 'The Cowboys Christmas Ball."
