Starting the new century off right: Emporia recipes from 1900 - 1929
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Today we have the second of a five-part series on Emporia recipes from the past 150 years. Brenda Lavington and Linda Keller of the Lyon County Historical Society Archives focused this week on the period from 1900 to the 1920s, particularly recipes from Emporia’s First Presbyterian Church and a cookbook they published in 1900.
According to Laura M. French’s “History of Emporia and Lyon County,” the First Presbyterian Church was established in 1867 by Rev. James P. Gordon. There were 11 members, which grew to 68 within a year. They found a permanent meeting site at Eighth Avenue and Commercial Street, and laid the cornerstone of the current building in 1895.
Occasionally, French comments on the weather, and how it affected food supplies. She wrote, “In May 1908, 3.6 inches of rain fell, accompanied by heavy hail. [The Gazette reported] ‘The Jay Ames family had ice cream for dinner May 14, frozen from hail which fell May 5. Drifts of hail lined the creek banks five to six feet deep, and did not entirely disappear for ten days.” According to French, wheat fields were destroyed, and a 90-day crop of corn was planted to try to recoup the loss.
French has a lot to say about women during the first two decades of the 20th century. In 1918, the flu pandemic made its way through Emporia, coupled with an outbreak of smallpox and absence of medical professionals (who were out of town tending soldiers). Women of the town were called upon to nurse the sick at the Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic Temple, the Elks Club and even the Country Club, as every available public space was turned into an isolation ward for the ill. All through World War I, the women of Lyon County worked tirelessly for the Red Cross and other relief agencies, knitting, sewing, building first aid kits and doing whatever else needed to be done to support the war effort.
Emporia area women were no shrinking violets. French reported on their activities during the years women fought to be given the right to vote. “The Lyon County Equal Suffrage Association was organized Nov. 1, 1911, with Mrs. I.E. Perley as president. ... After the year’s campaign, which resulted in the passage of the suffrage amendment in Kansas, Mrs. W.A. Johnston, of Topeka, president of the State Suffrage Association, declared that the work of the Lyon County Association was the greatest in volume and the most effective of any county in the State.”
Emporia women got to work, forming various organizations and associations. According to French, “Three hundred Lyon County women met at luncheon to discuss the duties of their newly acquired citizenship [Fall 1913].” Various coalitions addressed the need for a mother’s pension law, the “censorship of amusements, especially for moving pictures,” and a committee to investigate conditions at the county farm. She goes on to mention that at the next city elections, pool halls were banned in Emporia. On a more pleasant note, the women of the Rinker neighborhood “organized a cooperative egg-selling association, which functioned with profit for several years.”
That, coupled with a newly established city market (in May 1912, “on the east side of Commercial between Third and Fourth”) meant that the cooks of Emporia had a ready supply of foodstuffs to purchase and prepare for their families.
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Information on Mrs. R.J. Edwards is sorely lacking, but I did find a reference to her daughter in French’s history.
“To Miss Hannah Edwards, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Edwards, and her class of twenty-five boys of the First Presbyterian Sunday School, credit is due for the first active work looking toward a city Y.M.C.A. building for Emporia.” They successfully raised funds to help establish the “ ... erection of a substantial building for Emporia’s boys and young men.” I’m willing to bet Hannah’s students enjoyed more than one batch of her mom’s gingerbread!
MRS. R.J. EDWARDS’ SOFT GINGERBREAD
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour milk
3 cups sifted flour
3 eggs beaten separately
1/2 cup melted butter
1 level Tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon soda
Stir thoroughly and bake about 30 minutes. (I would suggest 350 degrees and testing for doneness at 35 minutes. RM)
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Again, we have practically no information on the Gillette family. When Keller began her research she’d hoped this was the same Gillette family that started construction on Red Rocks at 10th Avenue and Exchange Street, but it wasn’t. It is interesting, though, in the use of a unique ingredient called “Cottolene.” This was a lard substitute made from cottonseed oil and beef tallow.
It looked like lard — an opaque white solid at room temperature — and was sold in lard buckets, but was presented as being healthier and incapable of splattering when used to fry things.
MRS. F.L. GILLETTE’S
POPOVERS
2 cups milk
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 small tsp. melted Cottolene
Beat the eggs until very light, then add them to the milk and salt. Add this little by little to the flour to prevent its being lumpy. Strain it through a sieve, fill well-greased gem-pans half-full. Bake in a quick oven (400 degrees — RM) about 25minutes.
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William E. Connelley wrote in his book “A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans” (1918) of J.S. Kenyon: “Besides his business in the city he owns a fine home at 226 West Twelfth Street, eight other houses which are occupied by tenants, and two farms comprising 400 acres in Lyon County.”
Virginia Hardcastle married Mr. John Kenyon in 1874 — she was the daughter of an Illinois farmer, and he was a New Yorker on his way to Kansas to make a new life. As of 1882, they were living in Emporia where her husband owned and operated Hardcastle & Kenyon, a furniture business at 520 Commercial St., with Virginia’s brother O.B. Hardcastle.
Kenyon also assisted with the organization of and served on the board of directors of the Citizens Bank. He campaigned for and got the road to the Maplewood Cemetery laid with gravel, as it “ ... used to be a sea of mud.”
When Virginia Kenyon passed away in 1915, her husband gave the First Christian Church an organ in her memory. The Kenyons eventually bequeathed properties to the College of Emporia and Newman Memorial Hospital
MRS. J.S. KENYON’S
PRESERVED STRAWBERRIES
Remove the hulls from berries and put in a colander, a couple of quarts only at a time. Pour water over to cleanse them. Have on the stove a pan of syrup made of 2 pounds of white sugar and a half cup of water. Drop the berries into it, allow them to cook rapidly for 20 minutes, remove all scums that rise, but do not stir the fruit. Pour the fruit into cans, cook the syrup until quite thick and pour over fruit.
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Mrs. Miller was the wife of Dr. John Calvin Miller, who served as president of the College of Emporia from 1899 to 1906. The College was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, and it was during his tenure that the Anderson Library — the first Carnegie Library built west of the Mississippi and the first on a college campus — was completed and dedicated.
Founded in 1882, the College of Emporia was one of two higher education institutes in Emporia, the other being an early incarnation of Emporia State University. Because Emporia had not one but two colleges and was home to the “Sage of Emporia” it was sometimes called the “Athens of Kansas.”
The Millers entertained frequently and were avid travelers. Their home was located on 15th Avenue north of the C of E campus.
Mrs. J.C. Miller’s
Scalloped Corn
Fresh or canned corn may be used for this dish. Butter baking dish, cover bottom with cracker crumbs, over this a layer of corn seasoned with salt, butter, pepper, thin layer of crackers so on till the dish is full; pour over the whole cream or rich milk enough to moisten crackers; bake 30 minutes.
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Mary Adelia Kinnean was born in Frankland, Penn., in 1846. She met and married Albert G. Randolph in 1867 and they came to Kansas in 1880. She died in 1920 and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery.
Mary Adelia was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Eastern Star and the Women’s Relief Corps, while her husband (also Presbyterian) was a Civil War veteran, member of the Preston Plumb GAR Post, a rancher and eventually even chief of police.
Mary Adelia would have had little trouble keeping her salad cool in the winter of 1910, when, according to Laura French, “the coldest weather on record since 1872 occurred early in 1910, when snow and ice lay on the ground from December until February.”
MRS. A.G. RANDOLPH’S
CABBAGE SALAD
One pint good vinegar, 4 well beaten eggs, 1/2 cup of butter; put them on the fire and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken, then add a tablespoon of made mustard, 2 of salt and 1 of black pepper. Chop 1 head of cabbage very fine, with 1 bunch of celery, and soak in salt water for 2 hours; drain and pour dressing over it, and mix it. It will keep all winter in a cool place if kept well covered. By mixing lobster or chicken with it, you will have a nice salad.
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In 1881 Chicagoan Susan Howey married Charles W. Squires in Fort Wayne, Ind.,, and they moved to Emporia in 1882 to establish a family. She lived at 613 Exchange St. until her death in 1933.
The Squireses were members of the First Congregational Church, where Susan was an active worker in the Women’s Society. She was also a member of the Miriam Chapter of the Eastern Star.
Charles W. Squires was an architect who designed over 2,700 buildings in Kansas including the second Lyon County court house, the First Presbyterian church, the Union and Century public schools, the city library (now the Lyon County historical museum), the Cross house, and the Anderson Memorial Library,
MRS. C.W. SQUIRES’ ROAST WILD DUCK
Parboil ducks for 15 minutes adding one teaspoon soda to water. Take out and let drain. Make a filling of bread crumbs and chop up very finely three medium sized onions and one slice pickled pork and add to dressing.
Season to taste. Lay in roasting pan four or five slices of pickled pork and take a toothpick and fasten a couple of slices on breast. Baste well.
kathipink (anonymous) says...
I was researching the cookbook you published for the Presbyterian Church in 1900 to put on Ebay. I stumbled on this article and wondered if you could shed any light.
Thank you,
kathi
November 13, 2010 at 7:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )