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City Government in Old Forney

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Early voting has started in Kaufman County as Forney is set to select 2 council candidates, 2 school board candidates, and a new mayor. Early voting runs through Tuesday, May 5th with election-day voting on Saturday, May 9th. If you attended either of the candidate forums held last week, you got a chance to hear from most of the candidates and form an opinion as to how you’ll vote.

Forney first elected a mayor and city council in June 1884, approximately ten years after its founding but having just been incorporated. At that time, the city government was a mayor and several Aldermen. It didn’t last long. The officials elected in 1890 were never seated due to a technicality. In Forney Country, Jerry Flook describes city government from 1890 to 1895 as being “in a state of flux”. Then in September 1895 the city charter was abolished by popular vote, and there was no city government at all.

So what happened in Forney with no local government? A group of men called the Forney Commercial Club took it upon themselves to run the business of the city. They acted essentially as boosters: recruiting businesses to town, encouraging improvements and beautification projects, and establishing basic utilities such as water, electric, and sewer systems.  They were able to do so in part by raising money from family, friends, neighbors, and businesses. During their tenure they re-shaped downtown Forney – literally.

Forney’s first commercial buildings relied on the railroad for transportation of supplies and the export of agricultural goods.  Businesses and gins were built close to and facing the tracks since most of the activity occurred on the railroad side of the building. But beginning in 1899 a dramatic shift occurred as new businesses were built between the streets of E. Main & E. Trinity and S. Bois d’Arc & N. Elm (still our central business district) with entrances to Main.  Existing businesses relocated their primary entrances to face the street as well, including Tom Layden who had built the first brick structure facing the tracks. There is no official reason why this happened, but it seems to have been a trend of the times since other area municipalities noted the same shift. Although some of the buildings have burned or otherwise come down, most of downtown Forney as it stands today was built between 1899 and 1910.

 

Downtown businesses in 1889 facing the railroad tracks. This is Front St. (or tha back side of Main St. depending on how you look at it).

Downtown businesses in 1889 facing the railroad tracks. This is Front St. (or the back side of Main St. depending on how you look at it).

Close up of Layden building, 1899. You can see this at far right in the picture above. Although this shot was taken from the tracks, byt this time Layden had added on the the building in the rear to make a new entrance on Main St.

Layden building, 1899. You can see this at far right in the picture above. Although this shot was taken from the tracks, this is around the time that Layden added on to the building in the rear to make a new entrance on Main St.

 

 

Forney well, 1909 or 1910

Forney well, 1909 or 1910

Forney tank built over the well, 1910.

Forney tank built over the well, 1910

In 1909 the Commercial Club was instrumental in developing Forney’s water supply and raised funds to drill a new artesian well. The need for a steady water supply had recently become tragically apparent due to a drought which dried up the ponds needed to operate the cotton gins and a deadly fire which broke out in the City Hotel near the corner of S. Bois d’Arc and W. Front streets. In fact, the drilling had struck water a few months before the fire, but the distribution system had not yet been completed. Needless to say, that become a top priority and was in place by  summer of that year.

Also in 1910, members of the Commercial Club petitioned to Kaufman County commissioner’s court to set an election to reincorporate the city of Forney with a new mayor, council, and marshal. Naturally the slate of candidates consisted of Commercial Club members, all of whom were elected. Forney selected as mayor Avery Duke, as marshal Robert Crawford, and as councilmen Richard Pinson, John M. Lewis, James Cooley, Yancy McKellar, and James C. Reagin.  Since these men had essentially been running the town for the past 15 years (with others), it was a pretty smooth transition.

 

 

Building on the success of the water system, one of their first acts as a council was the organization of a volunteer fire department. The first fire chief was J.E. Yates, and the VFD was ready as soon as the water distribution system was complete. Their first call was on July 11, 1910 when two houses in two different parts of town caught fire. One was saved while the other was lost, but the community was pleased with their efforts.

 

Volunteer Fire Department, 1912. This is on Trinity St. before the brick fire station was built in 1913.

Volunteer Fire Department, 1912. This is on Trinity St. before the brick fire station was built at Trinity and Bois d’Arc in 1913.

A water supply also made possible electrical service in Forney since the electrical generators were steam powered. The Forney Light and Ice Company was privately owned and was built in 1910 for $25,000. Its construction was rapid, as was the wiring of businesses and homes. Electric lights hummed in Forney for the first time on August 12, 1910.

As you can see, 1910 was a busy year here. In about 6 months Forney was reincorporated with new officeholders, completed a downtown overhaul, received water and electric service, and organized a new volunteer fire department.  It could be considered the beginning of “modern” Forney, and the town boomed for the next 20 years or so until crop prices tanked in the 1930s.

It seems as though Forney is in the middle of another big boom today. The population is rising, the number of schools has grown three-fold in the past few years, and construction is trying to keep pace with both retail spaces along 80 and housing developments a little farther south.  Voting in local elections is a way to voice your opinion about how Forney manages its growth and continues to prosper. So take the time in the next two weeks to go do it.

Thanks,

Kendall

 

Information about the election and polling places can be found here.

As always, we’d love to hear from you on our facebook page.

Remembering Irish Ridge

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It’s St. Patrick’s Day this week. For most people this is a fun day to wear green, watch a parade, partake of libations, and generally have a good time. For Irish Catholics and others the day holds a more meaningful significance commemorating St. Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.

I fall into the former category. I’m Irish but not Irish Irish. I’m an American mutt who’s probably more Irish than anything else and at least 3 generations removed from anyone born in the old country. And I’m not Catholic. Basically I don’t have any plans to celebrate on the 17th unless I happen to have potatoes for dinner.

 

But the Forney area has a strong connection to the Irish, or at least it used to. Talty, which is just south of town on 1641, was settled by so many Irish immigrants that the area was called Irish Ridge.

In 1873 when the Texas and Pacific railroad made its way across Kaufman County, many of the laborers were first or second generation Irish immigrants. When construction of this section of line ended, several of these Irish workers and their families chose to build permanent homes in the area between Forney and Terrell. The land was good blackland prairie soil which made it very conducive to growing hay and cotton. Within just a generation or two some of the descendents of the early Irish Ridge settlers were among the most prosperous famers, merchants, and bankers in and around Forney.

In Forney Country, Jerry Flook lists the names of the earliest Irish settlers as the Layden, Maloney, Vaughn, Spellman, and Collins families. A little later came the Adams, Brennan, Cochran, Costello, Dennehy, Glynn, Henry, Higgins, O’Connor, Sline, and Talty families.

Irish Ridge was a tight-knit community. Irish immigrants in the northeastern US often encountered prejudice and discrimination and were widely viewed as poor and uneducated second-class citizens. For these reasons and others the Irish often settled close together where they could live and worship together. In Irish Ridge, the Catholic diocese established a parish in 1891 and built St. Martin’s Church. In 1901 the St. Martin Convent and Academy was established next to the church and administered by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The boarding school closed in the summer of 1945.

St. Martin's Church, 1891

St. Martin’s Church, 1891

A more recent photo of St. Martin’s

After World War II when populations  shifted from rural to urban areas, the “Irishness” of Irish Ridge declined. Old families moved out and eventually new families moved in. Sometime between the late 1950s and the early 1970s people stopped calling the area Irish Ridge and referred to it as Talty. Talty actually was a slightly different area centered around Mike Talty’s general store established circa 1900 near the intersection of Talty Road and FM 148. But the name Talty took hold over the nearby area, too, and was in use well before Talty officially incorporated in 1999 with an in-city-limits land area of 4.0 square miles.

Mike Talty Store and the old Talty cotton gin, ca. 1912

Mike Talty Store and the old Talty cotton gin, ca. 1912

Connections to the town’s Irish heritage have waxed and waned over the years. St. Martin’s Catholic Church still sits at the intersection of 1641 and Interstate 20.   A new subdivision called Shamrock Ridge Estates was built on 1641 south of Helms Trail. The subdivision features streets named after early Irish Ridge families like Delaney Lane and Dennehy Drive plus more overtly Irish nods in Clover Lane, Dublin Drive, Shamrock Circle, Limerick Lane, and even St. Patrick’s Drive.

How did Irish Ridge inhabitants celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? According to reports from local historian Pat Costello, it was a major all-day event at the turn of the century. St. Martin’s held a special mass. Resident Michael Collins (b. 1884) recalled that after mass the Irish parishioners went from house to house, “celebrating with whiskey and Gaelic dance until the small hours of the morning.”

Today there might not be all-night parties and dancing in the streets, but I hope at least a few residents of old Irish Ridge say “sláinte” in memory of its founders this Tuesday.

 

As always, feel free to share your thoughts on Irish Ridge or other Forney area topics on our facebook page.

 

Thanks,

Kendall

 

For this post and many others, I’ve borrowed liberally from Jerry Flook’s book Forney Country. The section specific to Talty begins on page 276, and the section I quoted is on page 277. Copies of the book are available in person at the museum (please call first to make sure I’m there) or via our website.

Baby, it’s Cold Outside

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It’s been a little chilly the past few days here in Forney. For a few days in a row the temperature didn’t rise above freezing which means that all the snow and sleet that fell left an icy mess over area roads. Forney City offices were closed for two days, and even now snow is falling in Forney. At least today it’s pretty and the roads are clear.

The museum covered in snow last February.

The museum covered in snow last February

In Forney Country, my go-to reference and constant desktop companion here at the museum, there’s a graphic titled “Mother Nature Acts up in Forney Country” on page 16. It lists many natural disasters that occurred in this area back to the 1850s including cold spells, heat waves, droughts, tornados, dust storms, and even a plague of grasshoppers. One in particular stands out this week:

“1899 – Great Cold Wave of February 11. Mercury plunged to -10 degrees at Dallas. Livestock froze to death in their barns. Soil froze a foot deep.”

That’s cold. That’s almost unbelievably cold, at least for Texas. It is the record cold for Dallas (actually listed at -8 degrees on an unofficial website, but still pretty dang cold). I’m not sure I can imagine what temperatures that low feel like. I’ve got thin skin and thin blood, and pretty much anything below 50 degrees is freezing to me. I don’t feel much difference between 50 degrees and 20 degrees – cold is cold.

But it got me thinking about the coldest I’ve ever been. It’s a little hard to say since I generally choose warmth and try to avoid cold weather destinations. My family got caught in the “Blizzard of ’93” during Spring Break in Tennessee. We were supposed to be touring the Smokies in places like Knoxville and Gatlinburg but the roads froze over, leaving my parents, two brothers, my sister and me stranded and spending the night on the highway in our Oldsmobile waiting for them to clear. That was pretty cold. (The next day we turned south to visit my grandparents in Key West instead. Good call.)

I think we slept on the highway right about where that white dot is.

I think we slept on the highway right about where that white dot is.

 

I went to Lake Tahoe a few years ago in December. I remember that there wasn’t much snow; we were able to go skiing but not snowmobiling. For the record I’m not a very good skier, but at least the physical activity of skiing (and falling) kept me from being cold on the slopes. It did feel desperately cold, however, on the quick trips across the street between the casinos after dark.  Not enough hot toddies in Nevada to cut that chill. But still, that was maybe a 6-8 minute walk between two heated modern buildings. Not exactly roughing it.

 

But what’s the coldest I can imagine? Watching “Dr. Zhivago” or “The Thing”? The ice apocalypse of “The Day after Tomorrow”?

Probably shouldn't have left that window open, Omar.

Probably shouldn’t have left that window open, Omar.

How about being stuck in an iced-in ship in northern Canada searching for the Northwest Passage and waiting months or even years for the ice pack to break? We have a winner.

 

A book by Anthony Brandt details that very scenario when telling of the disastrous boots biggerexpedition led by Sir John Franklin in 1845 and the numerous rescue missions sent to find him afterwards. The book is titled The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage. The title actually refers to an earlier expedition Franklin led from 1819-1822 in which, spoiler alert, some of the men go for so long without food that they resort to eating their boots. And that’s not the worst of it.  Not by a long shot.

 

 

Take this passage about the mild winter the earlier expedition experienced:

“The lowest recorded temperature was 57 degrees below zero, but runs of 40 degrees below were common enough, and during January and February the thermometer never once rose above zero.”

Yikes. It’s worth reiterating that that was considered a mild winter in northern Canada.

The 1845 expedition consisted of two ships, John Franklin’s Erebus and Francis R.M. Crozier’s aptly named Terror, and 129 men. They sailed in 1845 for what was supposed to be a 3 year journey and never came back.  Beginning in 1848 and for the next 10 years, numerous rescue and salvage missions sent by the British Royal Navy and private financiers found little trace of the ships. Eventually the sad fate of the crew was determined from Inuits and a few notes left in a cairn. The ships had become beset in ice in the fall of 1846. The crew debarked them in 1848 and trekked overland in hopes of finding food, friendly tribes, or a long-abandoned cache of supplies. Rescue missions were able to find only some relics, silverware, and bones.

The book is rather depressing, and not just for the accounts of cold and hunger taken in letters and diaries left from men on this expedition and others. The whole undertaking of finding a Northwest Passage was a sort of unfulfilled manifest destiny. British sailors were unprepared for the conditions, overloaded with supplies that eventually had to be abandoned, and ill-equipped to survive without the help and assistance of natives, whose advice they regularly dismissed. The ironic part is that many of the best maps and discoveries relating to northern Canada’s topography came from those searching for John Franklin, not the Northwest Passage itself.

 

At any rate, I’ll refrain from complaining about the cold and ice this week. Certainly others have it worse, like the eastern US where the storms have turned deadly. I’ll just bundle up with some hot tea next to the vent from my gas furnace and consider myself lucky. Maybe I’ll re-read Brandt’s book on the arctic. Better yet, I’ll wait until July when I could use a break from the heat.

Thanks,

Kendall

 

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For more info on The Man Who Ate His Boots, check it out on amazon.

For those who don’t think freezing and starving to death is scary enough, read Dan Simmons’ fictional account of the demise of the Franklin expedition in The Terror, also on amazon.

Terror

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belated Christmas Post: Bois d’Arc Crafts

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Last summer I did a post about bois d’arc and horse apples and included some ideas for craft projects involving the fruit. Well, I actually made an attempt to use some horse apple slices in a crafty way for Christmas.

The idea: Use horse apple slices as Christmas ornaments.

After my summer post, I had several people bring me horse apples. In a few weeks my bounty began to overtake the fridge here at the museum. As Thanksgiving approached (and I noticed some of the apples were rotting inside their plastic bags) I realized I needed to clear them out of there. Most of them made their way to my compost bin, but I saved a few of the better looking ones to play with.

I had read (and written) that horse apples are messy, sticky, and generally difficult to cut. Did I heed these warnings? I did not. I simply got out my glass cutting board and my sharpest kitchen knife and got to it. The first cut was easy, and I wondered what all the complaining was about. By the 6th cut my board was covered in milky sap and I struggled to get the knife all the way through the fruit. It was amazing how quickly things got sticky.

Some slices were too thin, some too thick. Some started thick and somehow ended thin. I obviously needed more practice with this and had plenty more apples to spare. But as I tried to clean off my knife and realized dish soap didn’t really help, I knew this would be my first and last sliced horse apple for this test project.

There are two ways to dry the slices. One can leave them on a baking pan in the oven on low for several hours. Or one can do as I did and leave them on a baking pan in a spare bedroom for several weeks. They take a long time to dry. The thicker pieces never really did dry and turned into a dark soft mess. The thin ones half-stuck to the pan and broke when I tried to peel them off. I was left with two decent-looking usable horse apple slices.

I could have strung them with wire and hung them on my small fiber optic tree as intended, but it seemed a little silly with only two. I just lay them on and around the tree instead.

The result:

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Two slices: one at top in lieu of a star, one below by the stocking

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A close-up of the stocking slice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I learned:

1. Horse apple slices CAN be pretty decorations for fall and winter projects! They’re not entirely useless!

2.  When cutting the apples, work quickly. Once the milk is exposed and starts to dry things get tricky.

3. The optimum thickness for a slice is approx. 1/8 inch.

4. Wear gloves. I mentioned this in the previous post but I didn’t do it. Latex or dishwasing gloves, even gardening gloves. Not necessarily helpful in the cutting but definitely in the aftermath. Trying to clean up sticky when your hands are sticky isn’t fun. I half expected Desi Arnaz to walk in as I stuck to things then got those things stuck to other things.

I think this is a good project. The slices look nice enough and would complement a tree with a “natural” theme like pine cones, berries, or small woodland creatures. With a few tweaks I could make it work next Christmas.

Maybe.

Kendall

 

Did you undertake any Christmas crafts this year? Anyone still have horse apples and looking for something to do with them? Post a comment on our facebook page.

Christmas Old and New

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The museum is decorated inside and out for Christmas. The FHPL had its December meeting and Christmas party last weekend, and many more holiday parties are to come. I’ve been late with my shopping this year, and I barely decorated my house for Christmas. I wouldn’t call myself a Scrooge or a Grinch, but I still think of Christmas as a holiday centered on children. Since I don’t have any, I tend to tune out a lot of the season’s spirit.  It’s the same for my sister. She works at Walmart where Christmas decor was out before Halloween was over. They’ve been playing Christmas carols on a loop over the loudspeaker for weeks now. Working Black Fridays for 10 years or more will drain just about anyone’s Christmas cheer.

It’s easy to decry the over-commercialization of Christmas and reflect on the “good old days” when times were simpler and people understood the true meaning of giving. But I’ve got news for you:  Christmas has been commercialized in America for a long time.

 

In one of my college classes we studied a book called “Merry Christmas!” by Karal Ann Marling. It explores the materialism of Christmas in America dating back roughly to the 1830s and how some of the traditions of contemporary Christmas got started. It has chapters titled “Wrapping Paper Unwrapped”, “Window Shopping” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” in an attempt to explain, among other things, how Santa came to hawk Coca-Cola in the 1930s and shredded wheat and fountain pens as early as 1902. (Marketing hint: Santa sells!)

 

Marling calls Santa a “captain of industry” for his effect on consumption. Way before Black Friday was a common phrase, several industries relied on the month of December to sustain their businesses. The lumber trade profited by selling trees and greenery. Railroads and other shippers were busiest in December because they transported not only the trees but commercial goods whose sales peaked near Christmas. Entire industries like candy, toys, and perfume blossomed based on December sales alone. In the 1890s, strung electric lights were one of the first industries tailor made for the holiday; they touted the safety of electrical lights over candles, gas lamps, and other open flames near trees.

 

Ad emphasizing the safety of electric tree lights. Saturday Evening Post, November 1914.

Ad emphasizing the safety of electric tree lights. Saturday Evening Post, November 1914.

Gift wrapping has ties to the commercial nature of the holiday, too. In the 1860s, wrapping presents was essentially unknown. Smaller gifts and candy were “trimmed” on the tree and hung like ornaments while larger or heavier gifts simply lay nearby. Parents dressed the tree late Christmas Eve so the kids were surprised by the gifts in the morning. This gave the appearance that Santa had delivered the presents overnight. In many cases the tree itself wasn’t erected until Christmas Eve since it essentially was just the method of delivery for the children’s presents.

As early as the 1870s, most gifts nationwide were purchased, not homemade. When you bought something, the store bundled everything up in brown or white paper and tied it with twine. Rather than unwrapping everything and putting it under the tree, gifts were presented as they left the store – bundled and tied with twine. The act of pretty-ing up a package a bit with a nice bow, ribbons, holly, or other decorations was an attempt to mask the fact that the gift was purchased. The giver sought to add a personal touch to a store-bought item by decorating it differently. Gift wrapping arose as an attempt to diminish the commercial nature of the Christmas present. Of course it didn’t take long for companies like Hallmark to start designing and selling wrapping paper, thus commercializing something intended to cover up commercialization.

Maria thought "brown paper packages" were just fine.

Maria thought “brown paper packages” were just fine.

 

Even Christmas trees, Marling argues, can be viewed as signs of conspicuous consumption. As already mentioned, the tree was the display piece for the gifts. It was a showpiece of presents, sweets, candles, and in later years ornaments, tinsel, and electric lights. It was a dramatic spectacle of bounty. People hosted Christmas parties to show off their trees and bestow gifts. They placed them in front of windows so that everyone walking down the street could see their trees and the gifts underneath. Department stores and other groups erected large and elaborately decorated trees to increase traffic and, thus, business. Public and government buildings also erected trees as a symbol of the wealth and health of its citizens. All of this in contrast to the earlier tradition – filling stockings hung by the hearth. For most of the 19th century, stockings and trees were competing traditions. Stockings are a lot less showy, you must admit. No sparkling lights, no garlands or ribbons. You don’t need gift wrap when you’re stuffing presents in a sock.

Vintage postcard with stocking as the centerpiece.

Vintage postcard

 

So if you really want to embrace the spirit of Christmases of yore, don’t wail against the consumerism of the holiday – embrace it! Christmas has been an American celebration of materialism for over 100 years! Deck the halls, feast and be merry! And when you finish your Christmas shopping, drop some money in the kettle as you leave the store or adopt an angel from the Lions Club tree to spread some joy to those who have conspicuously less to consume.

 

Thanks,

Kendall

Post your Christmas memories on our facebook page.

The book:

Marling, Karal Ann. Merry Christmas!. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Collecting Focus: Cars

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The Turkey Trax Auto Show is this weekend in downtown Forney. That makes this a good time to talk to Don Harris, owner of an extensive collection of classic cars (among other things). Mr. Harris came to Forney when he bought the Farmers National Bank in 1987. He stayed in town after he sold it and now devotes his time to his assorted collections. I asked him a few questions this week.

 

Q. How did you start collecting cars?

The first - a 1963 Ford Thunderbird

The first – a 1963 Ford Thunderbird

A. I just like them. I like history, and I feel like these cars are history and represent a certain time in history.

Q. Do you have a favorite in your collection?

A. My favorite is whichever I’m driving at the time. The first car I bought to keep was a 1963 Thunderbird. After that I just kept going.

Q. Is there a certain type of car, year or model, that you concentrate on?

A. No. I never know what I want until I see it. But I tend to like rare or unusual cars. I don’t want people to be able to say they saw something like that at such-and-such a place. I want it to be unique, something they wouldn’t see anywhere else.

Q. You have a lot of classic cars. Do you buy them already restored or do the restoration work yourself?

A. I prefer to buy them already restored. Restoration work is more of a labor of love than anything else. You have to put more money and time into it than you would ever get back out. I like driving a car more than I like working on it.

Q. How many cars do you have?

A. I think I’m down to 21. I used to have 30 but have sold some.

Q. How do you keep them in such pristine condition?

A. They don’t get driven very often. Usually just around town. My housekeeper cleans the cars 2-3 times per week to keep them in shape. I like everything neat and tidy.

Q. You collect other items, too, like model cars, Coca-Cola memorabilia, and country music memorabilia. You have guitars and clothing from the likes of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. How did you get into collecting those, too?

A. I just collect what I like. Everything I collect is for my own personal enjoyment. Most of the country music items were given to me by friends. I didn’t buy them at an auction or anything. My grandson is a country singer and has his own collection of guitars now.

Q. Are you currently collecting anything else?

A. No. I have some newer-model cars, but that’s it.  If I collect much more I’ll have to get a bigger place.

2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray

A few more classic Fords

A few more classic Fords

 

Mr. Harris will have some cars in this Sunday’s show. The Forney Historic Preservation League will be there, too, to award a trophy to our favorite car. For more information about Turkey Trax, visit Forney’s Economic Development Corporation website or see below.

 

TTrax ad 2014 bigger

As always, we love to hear from you on our facebook page!

Thanks,

Kendall

Heritage Cooking

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In 1986, the Forney Heritage Society first published the Forney Heritage Cookbook, subtitled “A Collection of Recipes Used by Forney Folks”. It’s been reprinted a few times by the Forney Historic Preservation League, most recently in 2013. I’ve toyed with the idea of using these recipes as a fundraiser, not just by selling the books (available here!) but by having a bake sale or progressive dinner offering dishes from the cookbook. Not a bad idea. One potential drawback is this: the recipes in this book are solid but, for lack of a better word, normal.

cookbook jpg

Some of the recipes could have been passed down through the generations, but the cookbook itself is only 30 years old. Some recipes which might have been truly “made from scratch” at one time now include boxed biscuit mixes and other shortcuts. Many of the dishes are standard fare for southern cooks, with casseroles, cakes and pies, hot and cold appetizers, and some flair from south of the border.

Now, I don’t want to downplay the recipes in this cookbook. They’re good! I would make these dishes and want to eat them! As a cookbook, it’s great. (Please buy one!) Local families share their recipes, and you can recreate your favorite dishes from the pot-lucks and church suppers of your childhood. But they’re not weird enough to pique a lot of interest. Enter the world of Historical Cookery.

Mount Vernon's cookbook

Mount Vernon’s cookbook

Historical cookery is a food movement which seeks to celebrate and preserve the recipes, methods, and farm-fresh ingredients of yore. Want to recreate a traditional medieval feast? You can do that. 17th century English dessert recipes more your thing? Find some here. Want to know what George and Martha Washington served for breakfast? Buy the book and make it yourself, from hoecakes and honey to distilled whiskey. How about a timeline covering the evolution of food preparation with recipes dating back to BC? Got you covered. 

Part of the interest in historical cooking is developing a closer relationship with your food, something akin to the farm-to-table movement. Learn where your food comes from, how it’s raised or grown, and how to prepare it with minimal preservative or additives. But part of this resurgence is due to historical organizations looking for a way to make history interesting by centering learning on a topic people can relate to: food.

Colonial Williamsburg has a program called Historic Foodways which operates demonstration kitchens onsite and incorporates 18th century recipes into the menu at the local hotel and lodge. The website and blog offers a recipe index, videos, and of course cookbooks for sale. The recipes include the original 18th century version plus an updated edition for modern cooks.

“Cooking in the Archives” is a blog and food history project with funding from a University of Pennsylvania fellowship. As described on the website:

“Cooking in the Archives” sets out to find, cook, and discuss recipes from cookbooks produced between 1600 and 1800. This project is situated at the intersection between the practice of modern cooking and the history of early modern manuscript and printed recipe books. Penn’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts holds over 100 recipe books from the early modern era. We believe these recipes belong in the modern kitchen as well as the historical archive. 

The fun part is that they cook the dishes and report on the results. Some are pretty straightforward (cookies) while others have interesting results (fish custard). The Special Collections of the University of St. Andrews also has a blog called “Echoes from the Vault” which showcases, among other items from its archives, historical cookbooks and recreations of their recipes, such as this mincemeat pie bake-off from last Christmas.

Recipe for an Egg Mince Pie from a c.1710 Scottish manuscript in the St. Andrews collection.

Recipe for an Egg Mince Pie from a c.1710 Scottish manuscript in the St. Andrews collection.

Another recipe (one of the winners) from the St. Andrews collection c.1760

Another recipe (one of the winners) from the St. Andrews collection c.1760

These recipes can get pretty complicated as some of the language from hundreds of years ago requires a little work and translation before even understanding exactly what ingredients you need and what to do with them. (Click the photos to see them better.) Others are impressive for their shear size – Martha Washington’s Great Cake has basic ingredients but in huge quantities: 40 eggs,  4 pounds of butter, 4 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of flour, etc. Still more inspire awe just for the inconvenience of making them without whisks, beaters, slow cookers, or ovens with temperature settings.

The recipes in our Forney Heritage Cookbook might not be that exciting, but they sure sound good.  And I can understand how to cook them.

Share your thoughts (and maybe some recipes) on our facebook page, and see below for links to the pages mentioned in this entry plus more.

Thanks,

Kendall

 

 

Links:

The “History is Served” blog from Colonial Williamsburg.

http://recipes.history.org/

The Recipes Project also incorporates historical recipes into education.

http://recipes.hypotheses.org/

The Food Timeline is, in fact, a timeline related to food going back thousands of years. It also includes A LOT of info about how certain dishes came about and why.

http://foodtimeline.org/

Assorted recipes from Mount Vernon can be found here.

http://www.mountvernon.org/search/?q=recipes#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=recipes&gsc.page=1

“Echoes from the Vault” from the Special Collections of St. Andrews discusses much more than food.

http://standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/

“Cooking from the Archives” – the adventures of historical cooking from U Penn.

http://rarecooking.wordpress.com/

Gode Cookery is your source for all of your medieval cooking needs. Includes recipes (with translations from Old and Middle English) and “Medieval Cooking for Beginners”, a handy guide for those looking to experiment with historical cookery without the obligation of documented historical sources.

http://www.godecookery.com/

“Feast of the Centuries” blog from a culinary historian includes lots of links and a handy breakdown of recipes by time period and cuisine.

http://feastofthecenturies.wordpress.com/

Digital Volunteers

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Have you ever wanted to work or volunteer at the Smithsonian? Maybe read some of the diaries or documents in their collections, see original sketches of patents or experimental designs, or view the field notes of leading botanists or lepidopterists in their own hand? Well, here’s your chance to do all of those and more without ever leaving the house. The Smithsonian has a program called Digital Volunteers which focuses on transcribing the millions of documents in the collections of the Smithsonian and its partner institutions.

This is the website:

https://transcription.si.edu/

 

The main goal of this initiative is to make the collections more accessible. Transcription and data entry enable original documents to be searchable and machine-readable. A scan or a photo of a document posted online doesn’t necessarily make that document useful. Researchers need a way to find out if that document contains information they are looking for, be it a name, a place, or a topic. Transcription makes the whole text available to researchers and also preserves the content of the document in case the original is damaged or destroyed. Transcription also serves to preserve original documents by making them available in a digital format, thus limiting the number of people handling them.

Don't even try to read this. It's 18th century Dutch.

Don’t even try to read this. It’s 18th century Dutch.

Another way transcription preserves historic documents, as listed on the “About” section of the website, is to make them more readable “for future generations as practices like cursive handwriting are less emphasized in school”. That sentence makes me a little sad. I understand that students type papers instead of writing them by hand, thus making penmanship seem more quaint and less necessary. But has it become so utterly obsolete that students can’t even read cursive handwriting anymore?

(Disclaimer: I have had personal struggles trying to read 19th century missives or census ledger entries that contain exceedingly flourished capitals and leading s’s. So I sympathize to a certain extent. Still, I think students should be able to read and write, not just type and text. Don’t even get me started on emoji.  But I digress.)

A page awaiting transcription

A page awaiting transcription

I’ve spent a little time as a Digital Volunteer myself. The website lets you browse projects by theme or by institution. Lately I’ve seen mostly natural history journals and field notes, but there are also business ledgers, journals, and a numismatic collection. You can even transcribe the small labels identifying individual bumblebee specimens in the United States National Entomological Collection. There is something for everyone, and transcribing a document you find interesting certainly makes the work more enjoyable.

There’s a “Tips” page with transcription basics and specific how-to’s for the more technical documents. Volunteers simply click on a page, transcribe, and click finish, at which point it is sent to a peer reviewer then eventually a Smithsonian staff member for approval. You do not have to register or log in, but unregistered users must complete captcha codes with each page submission.

It takes a little while to get the hang of it as there is some basic coding involved ([[underline]] or [[strikethrough]]), and some of the natural history collections in particular contain scientific names of plants or animals and foreign place names. One of the helpful hints provided is to include [[good guess]] or [[?]] when you can’t make out a word. You can also save a transcription to let someone else complete it if you get stuck. The project is crowdsourced with many, many contributors doing the work.

Visit the website if you want more information or to try your hand at transcribing a page. As I mentioned, some are easier than others. Remember when you’re doing online research of historical documents or old newspapers for school, work, genealogy, or general amusement, someone had to transcribe those documents, too. There aren’t enough hours in the day (week, month, year) or workers on staff for museums to complete all of these tasks themselves, which is why we so much appreciate help from volunteers like you.

Speaking of volunteers, the Preservation League will have a table at the Volunteer Fair which is part of the Forney Arts Council’s 2nd Saturday on September 13th. See their website or facebook page for more information.
Don’t forget to visit us on facebook, too!

 

Thanks,

Kendall

 

Questions about Cottonseed

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If you read the Forney Messenger, you saw Don Themer’s article on the Forney Cotton Oil and Ginning Company that operated in the first part of the 1900s. I had learned about the mill and other early industries in Forney as I researched the history of the town when I began working at the museum.  As I read Don’s article, though, it occurred to me that I wasn’t really sure what cottonseed oil was or how it was used. My grandmother may have picked cotton in the fields of northeast Texas, but my city/suburban upbringing insulated me from knowing exactly how food and fiber crops are grown and manufactured into the products in my house. So please humor me as I try to educate myself on at least this one subject.

First, a primer on cotton itself. From a seed the cotton plant progresses from seedling to bud to blossom, as most plants do, after which the blossom falls away to expose a closed green boll. Inside this boll are the seeds and fibers which gradually mature until the fibers grow so large that the boll splits open.

Life cycle of a cotton plant

Life cycle of a cotton plant

The lock is not all fluffy and soft, however, because the seeds are in there, too.

Cottonseeds by the handful

Cottonseeds by the handful

Separating the seeds from the fibers is a difficult and time consuming process if done by hand, which is why everyone learns about Eli Whitney in school. Ginning uses rollers to separate the fibers from the seeds. Although Whitney didn’t invent the process (people had been ginning cotton in India and China for centuries), the gin he patented included “teeth” or combs which enabled mechanical ginning on a much larger scale.

The fiber, of course, is processed into textiles and other things. But what happens to the seeds? For a long time, nothing. Some was used for planting or animal feed, but cottonseed was considered a useless byproduct that was a nuisance to dispose of. When animal fat and whale oil became scarcer and more expensive to purchase in the 1850s, some enterprising businessmen tried to develop cottonseed oil by crushing the seeds. But cotton is stubborn and makes you earn everything you get out of it, and so, of course, it was very difficult to separate the seed meat from the hull. By the time a reliable huller was invented, cottonseed oil was able to enjoy only a brief year or two of use as lighting oil before it was replaced by new petroleum products.

A new company called Proctor and Gamble began buying cottonseed oil as a supplement for lard in its candles and soaps. P&G bought so much it essentially cornered the market. With the onset of electricity, however, candle sales dropped dramatically, leaving the company with a lot of cottonseed oil and not much to do with it. Its engineers expounded on the edible liquid cottonseed oil that Wesson Oil had developed years before and hydrogenated it to create a solid lard substitute.  Crystallized Cottonseed Oil, trademarked Crisco, hit store shelves in 1911 accompanied by a vast marketing campaign which included cookbooks (with Crisco in every recipe) and eventually radio cooking programs.

Crisco ad from 1914

Crisco ad from 1914

Cottonseed oil became the most popular plant-based oil in the United States and was used as an ingredient in mayonnaise, salad dressings, and other products in addition to its main use as a cooking oil. But as cotton prices dropped during the Great Depression, farmers switched to other crops. When cotton production declined so did cottonseed oil, and soybeans took over the top vegetable oil spot in the 1940s.

But the possibility of a resurgence lingers. Cottonseed oil is cheaper than other products like canola and olive oil and is thus gaining popularity in processed foods. And as with any other food these days, specialty organic cottonseed oil producers are entering the mix, like this company which offers flavor-infused varieties. Others have begun converting cottonseed oil into a biofuel like ethanol. Only time will tell if that will prove profitable. Still, it’s come a long way from a useless byproduct, no?

Visit the National Cottonseed Products Association website for more cottonseed facts.

Share your thoughts on cotton, cotton gins, cottonseed oil, or any other subject on our facebook page.

Thanks,

Kendall

Bountiful Bois d’Arc

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Horse apples. Hedge apples. Monkey balls. I’m talking about the fruit of the bois d’arc tree, or osage orange. We have a lot of bois d’arcs around Forney (we pronounce it BO-dark). Last week our webmaster Tracy brought in some horse apples that she cut from a tree near White Rock Lake. They don’t usually ripen and fall to the ground until autumn.

Tracy's harvest

Tracy’s harvest

Bois d'arc tree

Bois d’arc tree

Bois d’arc trees don’t really look like much. They’re kind of brushy and non-descript. But they played an important role in Forney history (before there actually was a Forney) as the area’s earliest agricultural commodity.

As settlers arrived in this part of Texas, one important natural resource was timber. Hardwoods such as ash, walnut, pecan, bois d’arc, and oak flourished in the bottoms of the East Fork and had value as fuel, furniture, and wagon parts.

The bois d’arc was especially prized for being very dense and rot-resistant which made it ideal for building materials such as fence posts, railroad ties, foundation piers, and street pavers. Early settlers traded the wood with Indians who used it to make bows. The thorny trees could be used as windbreaks or hedgerows along property lines before barbed wire. As early as the 1850s, John M. Lewis was harvesting and selling the seeds for that purpose.

In the 1880s Forney shipped bois d’arc to Dallas to build its downtown streets. In downtown Forney, portions of the sidewalks along Bois d’Arc and Center streets were paved with bois d’arc, too. William Cisel, known as “Bois d’Arc Bill”, was Forney’s largest dealer while James A. Bolding’s Forney factory made bois d’arc walking sticks to sell at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.

You still can find older houses in northeast Texas with bois d’arc fence posts or foundation blocks, the wood having lasted a century or more. Cattle, hay, and cotton eventually overtook bois d’arc production as a staple of the Forney economy.

Today, bois d’arcs still make good hedge trees but don’t enjoy the popularity they did before wire or metal fences became the norm. The wood has a very close grain and an attractive yellow-orange color that darkens to brown. A very dedicated woodworker may make carved bowls or guitars using this dense species.

As for horse apples, some people swear that they repel roaches and spiders when thrown under the house or stored in a closet. The fruit isn’t technically poisonous to humans but is considered inedible. Deer and hogs might eat them, though, and squirrels will dig at them to get to the seeds.  When cut, horse apples exude a milky, sticky sap that many find irritating to the skin, and thorns on the bark and branches of the tree can prick pretty good. So, why would anyone bother messing with them?

 

To use the vibrant green coloring in a centerpiece or floral display.

To use the vibrant green coloring in a centerpiece or floral display

 

To cut, dry, and include in potpourri.

To cut, dry, and include in potpourri

 

To complement Halloween decor.

To complement Halloween decor

 

Or you can do what my family did as kids, namely throw them at the fence, the house, or even each other to see if they would burst.

If you’re feeling crafty, check out these websites for inspiration:

Decorated Chaos

eHow

Garden Guides

Don’t forget to wear gloves for  sticky protection. And if you find yourself in a horse apple fight you better be quick on your feet. Those suckers will leave a bruise.

 

Tell us your bois d’arc and horse apple stories on our facebook page.

Thanks,

Kendall