How did the term "hootenanny" become connected with a folk music gathering?

While browsing through Pete Seeger's The Incompleat Folksinger, I encountered the following paragraphs on page 327. Pete says:

In the summer of 1941 Woody Guthrie and myself, calling ourselves the Almanac Singers, toured Seattle, Washington and met some of the good people of the Washington Commonwealth Federation, the New Deal political club headed by Hugh DeLacy. They arranged for us to sing for trade unions in the Puget Sound area, and then proudly invited us to their next "hootenanny." It was the first time we had heard the term. It seems they had a vote to decide what they would call their monthly fund-raising parties. "Hootenanny" won out by a nose over "wingding."

The Seattle hootenannies were real community affairs. One family would bring a whole pot of some dish like crab gumbo. Others would bring cakes, salads. A drama group performed topical skits, a good 16-mm film might be shown, and there would be dancing, swing and folk, for those of sound limb. And, of course, there would be singing.

Woody and I returned to New York, where we rejoined the other Almanac Singers, and lived in a big house, pooling all our income. We ran Saturday afternoon rent parties, and without a second's thought started calling them hootenannies, after the example of our west-coast friends. Seventy-five to one hundred Gothamites would pay 35 cents each to listen to an afternoon of varied folk songs, topical songs, and union songs, not only from the Almanacs but from Huddie Ledbetter, Josh White, the Mechau family, and many many others -including members of the audience.

Pete goes on to describe the spread of hootenannies and the dissemination of the term "hootenanny," along with the evolution and devolution of both; hootenannies organized by Ed McCurdy in New York, and Win Stracke's "gather-alls" in Chicago; then, in 1963, the peremptory appropriation of the word "hootenanny" for commercial exploitation by ABC-TV and other promoters and carpetbaggers.

I first heard the term (other than the Spike Jones gag, "What do you get if you cross an owl with a nanny goat?" The answer followed by raucous laughter) was in 1953, shortly after I started singing folks songs and associating with doubtful company. The first one that anyone had thrown in a long time (years) was held at The Chalet, a basement restaurant in Seattle's University District. About sixty or seventy people showed up, many toting guitars, banjos, autoharps, Swiss bells, you name it! There was no separation between singers and audience, and if anyone felt an urge to sing--just jump right in. The singing started at about 7:30 and we didn't wrap it up until well after midnight.

This was the first of many over the years. During the Fifties especially, hardly a weekend would go by without someone declaring a "hoot," most often in someone's living room. No structure like a "song circle" and no song books or crib sheets. BYOB (usually a six-pack of beer or a bottle of jug wine--but I don't remember anybody getting all that splashed) and often the host or hostess would provide a table or sideboard loaded with a variety of snacks. Serve yourself ad lib.

It really worked. This was my (and a lot of people's) first experience in singing before other people. And I heard a lot of songs that I later learned. Warm plunge for a rank beginner!

Don Firth