neck-tie party (=dinner party, 1870)

[Barnhart]

"Neck-Tie parties"  have dawned in the rural districts.  A neck-tie party
is one where each lady attending the party makes a neck-tie of the same
material as the dress she wears.  These are taken to where the party is to
be held and placed in a bag.  When the gentlemen arrive each one must go
to the bag and take out a neck-tie, and it is his duty to wait upon the
lady, during the evening, who wears the dress corresponding in material
with the neck-tie.  _Coshocton [Ohio] Democrat_, 12/20/1870, p 3

Mullins' suggestion that the hanging derived from the sociable (or the
like) needs further searching for both sense in early materials.  HDAS
shows _necktie_ in the sense of a hangman's noose (1866).