Back in 1893, Ridgeway youth prepared for Halloween a little differently than kids do today. Trick-or-Treating did not become a popular tradition until the 1950s, so the boys celebrated the holiday with mischief-making. They rearranged things all over town, filling the streets with wagons, buggies, cows fenced in pens, etc., etc. They changed all the signs in town and moved things around. For the most part, the mischief was respectful, but there were a few destructive tricks. Someone broke out some of the lights in the schoolhouse and someone else threw a couple of chickens down into the town well. (Ridgeway Journal, Nov 2, 1893.)
The next week’s paper continued the story with a note that someone cut the bells from J. M. Henry’s dray harness and they were not seen again. “It was not done under the guise of fun, but it was pure, downright ‘cussedness’.” Mr. Henry wanted the miscreants caught and appropriately punished: “Learn them a lesson.” I didn’t find any follow-up if the offenders were caught.
