Four little ghosts welcomed guests to a Hooper home on Halloween in 1914. Two waited at the door and two at the top of the stairs. Inside, jack-o’-lanterns hung among black and yellow decorations, and a table was set with black cats and witches. The guests were members of Miss Esther Sanders’s Sunday-school class and their mothers, gathered at the home of Mrs. George Heine.[2]

Historic photograph of Hooper’s Main Street, approximately 1905–1920; a view of the town rather than a Halloween event.
Centennial History of Hooper, p. 7; approximately 1905–1920. Context photograph.

The November 5 issue of The Hooper Sentinel gives us a remarkably detailed look at that evening—and at a town where Halloween belonged to children, churches, clubs and neighbors. The “ghosts” in these accounts were people in costumes, and the newspaper made room for the food, games and hosts who helped everyone enjoy the occasion.

Parties before 1914

Hooper’s Halloween social life already appeared in the paper several years earlier. On November 5, 1908, the Sentinel reported a party given by Miss Clara Clark the previous Saturday evening. Another notice described a party at the Misses Bader’s country home, with young people from Hooper among the guests. The account praised their hospitality.[1]

These brief notices do not establish when Hooper first celebrated Halloween. They do show that the holiday was an occasion for getting together, and that the guest lists crossed the boundary between town and country.

A Sunday-school class meets the ghosts

In 1914, Mrs. Heine and Miss Sanders entertained about twenty-five people. Their Halloween table had a miniature black fence with black cats on it; witches and yellow marshmallows appeared inside the fence. Black-cat place cards were provided for the mothers and witch place cards for the daughters. The refreshments included witch cakes, pumpkin cakes and ice-cream pumpkins.[2]

After games, the gathering ended around a piano with familiar hymns. The details make this more than a notice that a party occurred. They preserve the choices of the people who put it together: how they welcomed guests, decorated a room and made a shared evening memorable.

The Sentinel’s Entertain Class item describing a Hooper Sunday-school Halloween party in 1914.
“Entertain Class,” The Hooper Sentinel, November 5, 1914, page 1, column 4. This is the original newspaper account. Open the image to see the complete page.

Apples, a bonfire and a familiar face

A separate item described a Halloween gathering for boys from Sunday-school classes. Steve Browne, assisted by Rev. Whittman, led the boys on a blindfolded walk from the park to the S. L. Browne home. The paper describes their entry into a cellar through a window and a game of taking apples from a barrel of water with their teeth. Later came a bonfire and roasted food.[2]

A masked visitor joined the gathering. Once the disguise came off, the boys recognized their Sunday-school superintendent, George W. Heine. It was a small surprise worth recording—and a reminder that adults were participants in the fun.

Halloween throughout the town

Other reports on the same front page describe Mrs. Sherman Whitcomb’s parties on two successive evenings, a gathering at Logan Lodge reached by automobile, and a Jolly Dozen Club party hosted by Julia Heine. Her guests arrived carrying jack-o’-lanterns. The paper also recorded a Halloween party for Mrs. Ed Hite’s sons and a celebration in a schoolroom.[2]

Those separate accounts give Halloween a place among the ordinary relationships of the town: classmates, friends, club members, teachers and families. A single issue preserves several versions of the same holiday.

A parade and a school dance in 1949

Thirty-five years later, the October 27, 1949, Sentinel announced a VFW Auxiliary Halloween party for children ages six through twelve. Plans included costume prizes and a parade; the notice corrected the party location to the VFW clubrooms and reported a $20 contribution from the Hooper Commercial Club. As an advance notice, it records what organizers intended.[3]

The 1949 headline inviting children ages six through twelve to Hooper’s VFW Halloween party.
The Sentinel, October 27, 1949, p. 1, explicitly invited children ages six through twelve. The notice describes plans for October 31, not a report of the completed party. [3] Original source.

On that same page, a report of a school Halloween dance described seventy-eight attendees, seasonal decorations and music by Fred Ott’s orchestra. Unlike the VFW announcement, this item looked back on an event already held.[3]

Perhaps a photograph, invitation or remembered costume survives in a Hooper family collection. If your family kept something from a local Halloween gathering, please send it our way with the date and names you know. It could add faces to the evenings the newspaper has already helped us recover.