In 1885, M.G. Rhodes hosted a wedding party and dance at his Star Hotel in Anson, where guest Larry Chittenden, a salesman and writer visiting his uncle in Jones County, was inspired by the night’s gathering of cowboys and ladies to compose “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball.” First printed in Anson’s Texas Western newspaper in 1890 and later included in Chittenden’s 1893 poetry collection Ranch Verses, the poem was remembered and anthologized many times in print and song. In 1934, Lenora Barrett and Hybernia Grace revived the historic ball and its folklore, and their group performed at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas and at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., in 1938, when they danced on the White House lawn. As annual interest increased, the group copyrighted the event and established a board of directors for the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball Association. Pioneer Hall, a new venue, was built in 1938-40 with help from the Work Projects Administration, and the dance has been a three-day event since 1940; the following year, Jenne Magagan’s mural in the Anson Post Office depicted the historic “Cowboy Dance.” Chittenden’s poem preserves real people and ranches of 1880s Jones County as well as observations of dress and customs that still shape some of the ball’s formal rules and decorum: ladies must wear dresses, gentlemen must check their hats, and some attendees wear period clothing. Drawing national and international visitors, including direct descendants of people immortalized in the poem, the Anson tradition continues such 19th century dances as the Grand March, Waltz, Cotton-Eye Joe, Polka, Virginia Reel, and Schottische, helping perpetuate an important aspect of life in frontier Texas.