Rebecca Turner, ‘famous cook’ of Eastchester One historian’s quest to learn about a long-forgotten slave and the mores and foodways of her time Photo by Larry H. Spruill Editor’s Note: Larry H. Spruill received a CHNY’s Scholar’s Grant for 2012 to underwrite his research on the freed slave, Rebecca Turner, her family and their foodways. This is an account of some of his research. By Larry H. Spruill in the shadow of old St. Paul’s Church. The old homestead of her family, built over a century ago, is among the interesting curiosities Rebecca Turner, a well-known cook in 19th-century Eastchester, Eastchester and its quaint villages New York, was all but forgotten. In 2012 her gravesite was posi- are synonymous with the best of its kind in that vicinity. ‘Aunt Mary’s’ tively identified near her daughter Emmeline Turner-Pierce’s qualities of American suburban life, mother, who was known throughout that faded marble headstone. Rebecca’s name was inscribed on a region as ‘Aunt Becky Turner’ had been a slave tombstone for public viewing as part of St. Paul’s Church and symbolizing middle class comforts and Cemetery National Historic Site. in early life … for many years she was a abundance. Suggestions of historical con- famous cook in service at Guion’s Tavern…”1 their names, ages, hints of education nections between its modern self-image Rebecca Turner, “a famous cook,” and the deceased matriarch’s occupa- and African slavery are usually met with Mary Turner-Treadwell and her niece, tion. More than 100 years later, these disbelief and even ridicule. Yet, such ties Sarah Elizabeth Turner-Nelson were skeletal clues inspired me to undertake exist, buried in plain sight, in yellowing “old” New Yorkers with ties to the extended excavation to reveal their ledgers and antique memoirs. founding Dutch and English settlers. deepest meaning. My research eventu- On October 20, 1895, a reporter from At the dawn of the 20th century these ally unearthed the fascinating story of The New York Times toured the town three generations of African American the life of this family, in the kitchen and wrote, women were said to be among Eastch- and beyond. Their combined long lives “The oldest surviving native of East Chester ester’s “relics, landmarks, and memen- allowed these women to be eyewit- is Aunt ‘Mary Treadwell,’ [w]ho is now in tos of the far-away past…undisturbed nesses to the town’s history from the the ninetieth year of her age … with her well by the invasion of spectators and Revolutionary War to the bombing of educated, prepossessing niece, she occupies a unchanged by the progress of suburban Pearl Harbor.3 Mary and her niece, little unpainted, weather beaten cottage situ- improvements.”2 The Times provided Sarah Elizabeth, told the Times reporter ated at the edge of East Chester Creek, almost little biographical information beyond an unconventional Eastchester story continued on page sixteen The faces behind the lunch counter Female school cafeteria workers in postwar New York INSIDE

By Shayne Leslie Figueroa baby-boomers received a decent midday Letter from the CHNY Chair ...... 2 meal. In addition to their culinary Letter from the Editor ...... 2 Tuna casserole, large rectangular knowledge and skills, the majority of pizza, hot dogs in toasted buns, front-line school lunch workers belonged Kimberly Wilmot Voss on the multitudes of milk cartons and to a union during the postwar period and original New York foodies ...... 3 middle-aged women in hairnets still do today. serving it all up with a smile: these are Lunchrooms served as the domain of Ari Ariel interviews historian some of the familiar images of New York both professional women such as nutri- Hasia Diner ...... 4 tionists and dietitians, as well as cooks City school cafeterias in the 1950s and ...... 24 ’60s. The menu items may evoke smiles and semi-skilled laborers. In contrast, Members’ Books in 2014 big labor’s organizational structure of nostalgia or grimaces of disgust, but Angie Cruz on platanos, placed men in leadership positions and the employees are almost universally food and symbol ...... 27 remembered in a positive light for their women primarily in supporting roles at hard work to ensure that millions of continued on page six Cathy Kaufman, Chair LETTER FROM THE CHNY CHAIR Holley Atkinson, Vice Chair Nicole P. Stoner, Secretary Tanah Spencer, Treasurer Carolyn Vaughan, Programming A new editor and some exciting scholarship Donna Gelb, Public Relations Cathy Kaufman Linda Pelaccio, At-Large ur journal, NYFoodStory, is celebrating its third issue under the able stewardship Editor-in-Chief, Ari Ariel of CHNY member Ari Ariel. Ari received his PhD from Columbia University and Managing Editor, Karen Berman O has recently retired from his active position on the CHNY Board of Directors after Culinary Historians of New York accepting a teaching position in the University of Iowa’s Department of Religious Stud- (CHNY) was founded in 1985 to ies. We will miss his day-to-day contributions to CHNY and his technical wizardry in stimulate and share knowledge of managing to make even the most recalcitrant A-V system work at programs, but he is the ways food has affected humans not leaving us completely: he has graciously agreed to maintain editorial duties for (and humans, food) since earliest NYFoodStory from his distant perch (although we may have to send true New York times. bagels to combat homesickness or he if needs New York comestibles to get him in the proper editorial mindset). Members of CHNY include chefs, As academic interest in food continues to flourish, CHNY is keeping pace, growing cooking teachers, historians, anthro- as a venue where scholars and the general public can learn about culinary cultures. This pologists, food writers, food editors, May, CHNY was highlighted in The New Yorker magazine for George Solt’s food stylists, researchers, librarians, popular Ramen program: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-history- caterers, collectors, nutritionists and of-the-ramen-noodle. But more importantly, we are adding to the conversation by individuals who enjoy learning about supporting new research in the field of culinary history, something made possible for cooking and eating good food. the past three years by the Julia Child Foundation, which has given CHNY $5,000 to Submissions award in the CHNY Scholar’s Grants, and I am pleased to report that the JCF has NYFoodstory accepts proposals renewed the grant for a fourth year (2015). NYFoodstory: The Journal of the Culinary Historians New York for articles on the culinary history Under the terms of the grants, recipients present a paper or other report on some of New York. Send proposals aspect of their supported research to CHNY. On June 9, Jennifer Jensen Wallach, a 2013 of no more than 100 words grant recipient, presented “Dethroning the Deceitful Pork Chop,” to a rapt audience to Ari Ariel, editor-in-chief packed with academics and ‘civilian’ CHNY members at New York University’s Depart- ment of Food Studies. Among the guests was Jennifer Krauss, the administrator of the at [email protected] by JCF, who came away excited by the high level and the importance of the work we support. January 9, 2015. continued on page thirteen Visit us www.culinaryhistoriansny.org LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Follow us On Facebook: www.facebook.com/ History from below, through the lens of food CulinaryHistoriansNY Ari Ariel On Twitter: @CulinaryHistNY ood tells us more about society than most objects or ideologies. This claim, which will Fhardly ruffle any feathers among CHNY members, has only recently been fully On Instagram: acknowledged in the academic world. Food Studies, for years quite marginal, is now http://instagram.com/ emerging as a serious, rapidly expanding discipline. Within the field of history, food is culinaryhistoriansny particularly well suited to history from below. Culinary historians are not only interested Join us in the gustatory habits of the rich and powerful. We hope to understand how food and For information on membership, drink impact the daily lives of people within and across strata. Foodways, by their nature, highlight issues of ethnicity, nationalism, race, gender, and class. visit www.culinaryhistoriansny.org/ The authors in this issue of NYFoodstory are all engaged in corrective history. join.html They have, in a variety of ways, reinscribed the absent into the historical record. Larry Write to us Spruill tells us the story of the Turner family, a story of “slavery, freedom, faith and Culinary Historians of New York food.” Rebecca Turner began her life in slavery, obtained her freedom and became an P.O. Box 3289 accomplished cook and entrepreneur. Her story is moving, both in what it tells us about New York, NY 10163 momentous historical events like abolition, and in the picture it draws of the mundane lives of African Americans in early 19th-century New York. Using nontraditional sources, like Turner’s grocery lists, Spruill has been able to reconstruct her culinary © 2014 Culinary Historians of New York, Inc. repertoire in the form of a cookbook. More importantly, he has rewritten African Inc., in the collective work. Copyright in the Americans into the history of the region, not merely as enslaved people, but as pioneers individual works remains in the authors. Permission is required to reproduce these who played an essential role in the establishment of new towns and the development of works in any form. their economies. continued on page thirteen page two city were all vying for the same The original New York foodies stories.3 Jane Nickerson, Cecily Brownstone and James Beard and the Nickerson married Steinberg in making of the New York food community 1950 and by 1957, she was a mother and ready to leave the Times and join her husband in Florida where they By Kimberly Wilmot Voss nary world stands planned to continue raising their chil- without question; dren. Reportedly, she said to Claiborne, During the summer of however, his entry “I honestly think the Times didn’t 1957, New York Times food and acceptance into believe me when I said I was leaving. editor Jane Nickerson lifted a the New York food People simply don’t leave the Times. glass of Chassagne-Montrachet community was the They stay there until they die or are at restaurant “21” and toasted result of his rela- dismissed.”4 Editors at the newspaper her departure from the news- tionship with Nick- had interviewed many possible replace- erson and Brown- paper with her lunch guests, Courtesy of the family Jane Nickerson Steinberg ments for Nickerson, or as she put it, Gourmet magazine editor stone. The two food “anybody who can type with one finger Eileen Gaden and Gourmet editors regularly and who had ever scrambled an egg.”5 writer Craig Claiborne. socialized with Nickerson was among the first to Nickerson announced that she Beard and Alexan- interview Beard, visiting him in his would be leaving on September Jane Nickerson der Steinberg, who Twelfth Street home in 1945 when he 1, whether her replacement had been would later become was building his reputation as a caterer. hired or not.1 Claiborne was ultimately Nickerson’s husband. According to Evan He offered her a cup of instant coffee, hired to replace her, and his celebrated Jones’s biography of Beard, Epicurean and she asked him questions about career would eventually eclipse that of Delight, the four “probed New York’s appetizers. “Everything about him was his predecessor. Likewise, legendary food ethnic neighborhoods, titillating their unpretentious,” she later recalled.6 After writer James Beard would overshadow palates and venting their curiosity 2 Beard’s book, The Fireside Cookbook, his two close friends, Nickerson and about origins of recipes.” first published in 1949, made him a Associated Press food editor Cecily Nickerson graduated from the all- celebrity, Nickerson declared him to Brownstone. female Radcliffe College in 1938. The be “a titan of the table art, a leading Nickerson and Brownstone were vital following year, she began her journal- personality in contemporary cookery cogs in the foundational years of the ism career as an editorial assistant on this side of the Atlantic and a man culinary scene in New York City, but for the Ladies Home Journal. She moved whose vast culinary talents match his their contributions to that scene have on to the Saturday Evening Post before heroic proportions.”7 Nickerson did a been largely overlooked. Claiborne is moving to New York City in 1942 great deal of reporting and writing and often credited with modernizing food to become the first food editor at the was an insightful observer of the city’s journalism, yet Nickerson laid the foun- New York Times. During her time at food scene. By 1949, she wrote, there dation at the New York Times before he the newspaper, she penned the column, were more than 21,000 restaurants in ever arrived. Beard’s mark on the culi- “News of Food,” and covered features New York City, with cuisines as varied about the food as Polish, French, Italian, Chinese, and of the day. She German. “They serve to the city’s resi- guided her read- dents and guest foods in so many lan- ers through the guages as to rob the city of any one set rationing of of distinctive dishes,” she noted.8 Culi- World War II nary historian Anne Mendelson exam- and the chang- ined Nickerson’s work and wrote: “Jane ing food tech- Nickerson’s articles and recipes show nologies of the her as an observer of wide-ranging time. She curiosity and knowledge, moving with reviewed cook- some sensitivity between prosaic ‘service’ books and inter- information and higher-flying gastro- viewed both nomic matters.”9 She was also a journal- home cooks and ist first. In 2003, former Times food restaurant chefs. journalist Molly O’Neill credited Nick- She later said erson with being one of the first food that during her journalists to apply ethics and news values The Cecily Brownstone Papers at the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University The Cecily Brownstone Papers at the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York tenure, the eight to her craft. According to O’Neill, A party on the first-floor terrace of the townhouse that Cecily Brownstone co-owned major news- news was central to the story lines in in Greenwich Village, circa1940s or ’50s. From left, James Beard, Irma Rombauer, papers in the Brownstone and Clementine Paddleford. continued on page ten

page three way to do this was to migrate. At the What the peddler ate same time, the steamships bringing A conversation with historian Hasia Diner American goods to Europe weren’t going to return to the United States empty, so steamship companies had an interest in encouraging immigration, By Ari Ariel which became an important part of their business. Hasia Diner is the Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American AA: Did immigrants come to the Jewish History and the director of United States with a concrete sense of the Goldstein-Goren Center for what “Italian” or “Jewish” food was? American Jewish History at New York University. She has published HD: No, in large part those categories numerous books, bridging the fields of come out of the experience of migra- American Jewish history, and Ethnic, tion. There is a wonderful anecdote in Women’s, and Immigration Studies. the memoir of an employee of an Italian Her book, Hungering for America: Italian, olive oil company, who had come to the Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of United States on business. He was Migration (Cambridge: Harvard Univer- walking around New York, on Bleecker sity Press, 2002) was nominated for a Street, and he saw signs for something James Beard Award. Professor Diner Hasia Diner called an “Italian restaurant” and in his dance. The idea that immigrants recently sat down with me to talk about memoir he says he thought it was a thought that the streets in the United the transformation of immigrant food- joke. He went inside because he said he States were paved with gold is a com- ways in the United States, and about had to try it. On the menu there were plete myth. They knew that they would her latest project on Jewish peddlers in foods like such and such Siciliano (from have to work hard and might end up the New World. Her new book, Roads Sicily), and Milanese (from Milan), and working in a coal mine in rural Penn- Taken: The Great Jewish Migrations to Parmigiano (from Parma), and he says sylvania, but they were willing to do the New World and the Peddlers Who he couldn’t understand what they were that in order to eat well. Forged the Way, will be published by all doing together in one Yale University Press in early 2015. Part of the reason food prices restaurant. He decided to were lower in the U.S. order what he thought was AA: I think many CHNY members will was because the most unusual thing on know you from your book Hungering for of improve- the menu, spaghetti and America, which is about the foodways of ments in agri- meatballs. And he said it Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants to the cultural and was so good that some- United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. transportation body should send it back Could you tell us a bit more about who technologies. to Italy; people in Italy immigrated to the U.S. and why? Things like would love it too. HD: During the 19th century the steamships and In another sense, what United States had the most vibrant the completion of represented the food economy in the world, and this attracted the Erie Canal of home for them millions of immigrants, particularly made movement was what rich from the 1820s to the 1920s, among much easier. Ships people had eaten them about 30 million Europeans. Many were bringing Ameri- in their places of of these immigrants were those that I can foodstuffs to origin. And call “the almost poor.” They weren’t the Europe. For example, these foods poorest people in their communities who one observer calculated became Italian probably wouldn’t have had the that it was cheaper for a foods and resources to migrate. People who emi- baker in Budapest to then, combined grated were worried about hunger, and make bread from flour that with American abundance, felt that their economic situation at was grown in the United became the basis for Italian-American home was getting worse, and they were States, processed and trans- cuisine. willing to take the risk to come to the ported to Europe on a ship, than to use U.S., where they thought, and this was local wheat. And of course this meant For Jews, they too came to the United true, that food existed in greater abun- that local farmers had to find a new States with an idea of what rich people way to make a living, and often the ate and what was holiday food. There page four was a certain Eastern European com- the yeshiva. This meant that a young day, was amazing. That was just an monality, but also lots of regional varia- man from one region got exposed to enormous change, and the immigrants tion. For example what goes into gefilte foods, both in terms of class and geogra- began to incorporate meat into dishes fish–they’re all eating gefilte fish, other phy, that he wouldn’t have if he had that wouldn’t have included meat than the Romanians. All the Ashke- stayed at home. before; hence the spaghetti and meat- nazim are eating gefilte fish but there is balls. Meat became thoroughly essential a geographic line in Eastern Europe and – so meat on pizza, meat on lasagna. on one side of the line, the farther west “People who emigrated I’ve seen Italian community cookbooks one goes, it’s made with sugar and is were worried about hunger, from the 1920s that include a recipe for sweet, and in the east it is savory. Or something called “Italian steak” – it and felt that their economic there is a meat dish called russel fleisch was obviously just steak – it is dressed –should it be made with beets or no situation at home was getting in oregano and olive oil before it gets beets? So there are regional variations, worse, and they were willing grilled, or “Italian meatloaf,” which I but in some ways Eastern European to take the risk to come to the think is still on menus – again, it has Jews were much more geographically some herbs in it, and tomato sauce. U.S., where … food existed mobile within Eastern Europe than Ital- They would have never seen steak or ians. A Sicilian village dweller may in greater abundance. The idea meatloaf before, but, unlike Jews, who never have left his village, never trusted that immigrants thought that the reveled in things called American, for anybody who didn’t live in that village, streets in the United States were the Italians this was their chance to be and probably married someone from paved with gold is a complete Italian. For the immigrants from Sicily inside the village, whereas Jews had or Apulia or other regions, this was many reasons to go beyond their towns, myth. They knew that they their chance to be Italian by eating both men and women. For example, I would have to work hard meat, but they ate it, incorporating it read the memoir of a man who went to and might end up working in into the dishes of the well-off folks in Slonim [now a city in Belarus] as a boy a coal mine… but they were their places of origin. to study in the yeshiva. He wrote about willing to do that in order it as a miserable town that he hated, but AA: Your new book, Roads Taken, is one thing he really liked was a phenom- to eat well. about Jewish peddlers in the United enal pudding made from rice, rose water States? and oil, called gutman. In his memoir he AA: So in Europe, foodways had already says that since then he’s always wanted HD: Right, although it’s actually been altered by migration. How did this global. I look at all the New World to find somebody who could make gut- process develop with migration to the places to which the peddlers went, man for him. United States? although the United States was the HD: The overwhelming characteristic most important destination statistically. AA: Rose water is not an ingredient I of America was that food was cheap and During that great Jewish migration would expect to find in Eastern Europe. varied. Lots of food was available at very about 85 to 90 percent of the immi- grants came to the United States. The No, but the rich did have a certain low cost, meat in particular. Commen- HD: other destinations – South Africa, or amount of access to imported goods and tators had noted this since the colonial Australia or the British Isles – are presumably rose water was one of them. period – one called Americans a “flesh- interesting but statistically not as So, just using the experience of yeshiva consuming people.” They were eating important. I’m looking at the peddlers students as an example, they had some- meat all the time, a couple of times a that are out on the road. Five days a thing called essen teg, or eating days. day. On the other hand, in Italy, it was week they’re out in the countryside sell- Families in town were expected to feed described that people ate meat on ing to customers and they only return the yeshiva students. And the boys in Christmas, Easter and on their towns’ to the big cities or town on the week- the yeshiva talked a lot about which saint’s day, and if they found a dead ani- ends, to what is sort of the nucleus of families were the nicest, who let you eat mal, the landowner might allow them Jewish life. with the family as opposed to in the to cart it off, hack it up and cook it. kitchen, who gave you leftovers. Of For Jews, who had greater exposure to AA: When they’re peddling, they’re course, only the rich families in town meat, it was usually the Friday night largely selling to non-Jewish customers? could afford to feed yeshiva students. chicken. For many Jews this was some- They were gaining the mitzvah of thing they got through charity, and HD: One hundred percent, so the ques- studying by feeding the students. So the they got one chicken for a huge family. tion is not only what did they sell and students got to try rose water or some The idea that in America you could eat how did they speak to these people, other imported food that they would chicken every night and have meat, but where did they sleep and what did have never had if they hadn’t been in maybe not the best cut, but you could they eat? They tried to always sleep in this educational elite and hadn’t gone to have meat every day, three times a continued on page fourteen

page five The faces behind the lunch counter con tinued from page one this time. The inclusion of school lunch workers within District Council 37, better known as DC37, an umbrella union that represented a wide variety of public service posi- tions, presented challenges when they sought a redress of grievances. Out of a total union roll of approximately 5,000 school lunch workers, only 151 filed written griev- ances or expressed documented displeasure in their jobs in the four-year period between 1958 and 1962.1 Who were these workers and what issues pro- voked their complaints? The history of women employed to serve food in New York City schools dates to the Progressive Era. School lunch programs first appeared as a response to both the growing problem of poverty A photo that illustrated an article by David McLane about school lunch, which appeared in the New York Sunday News and an increased academic inter- in December 1966. est in food reform. In January of 1919, the Board of Education one healthy meal per day. Their efforts County and Municipal Employees), an allocated $50,000 (over $700,000 in finally met with success in 1946. Con- affiliate of the AFL-CIO. The Board of today’s market) to study the feasibility cerns about the future of the nation’s Education officially recognized the of implementing a citywide, non-profit health, combined with an immense renamed Local 372 as the school lunch school lunch program. One year later post-war agricultural commodity sur- workers union at this time and entered the board allocated an additional plus ultimately convinced legislators to into contract negotiations with them at $50,000 and began lunch service at establish the National School Lunch one- to two-year intervals. Dietitians selected schools in March 1920. The Program. and cafeteria managers affiliated with a program targeted poor immigrant In New York City, funding from the different union, Teamsters Local 832. neighborhoods with large numbers of National School Lunch Program allowed Although Local 832 repeatedly children suffering from malnutrition, the Board of Education to greatly attempted to poach school lunch work- with the higher aim of not only prevent- expand its lunch services. As the pro- ers throughout the postwar period, the ing starvation, but also of imparting gram expanded and bureaucracy suc- school lunch aides remained loyal to modern American food knowledge to ceeded its original charitable intentions, Local 372. children and their parents. over 650 school lunch workers formed New York City’s school cafeteria On the national level, health profes- School Lunch Employees Union Local 1. workers were fairly amenable to letting sionals in the Bureau of Home Econom- This union negotiated a verbal commit- their union leaders take the lead when it ics and the National PTA petitioned ment for a 9 percent pay raise for hourly came to agitating for rights: only 5 per- Congress for many years to establish a workers in June 1947. When the Board cent of the workforce appealed to the national school lunch program with the of Education submitted the official union for help in any given year during goal of providing all children, and espe- budget in July without including the the 1950s and ‘60s. School lunch work- cially the needy, the guarantee of at least increase, 500 school food workers pick- ers often found their needs subjugated eted the Board of Education offices. This to those of other groups perceived by Shayne Leslie Figueroa is a doctoral would be the only direct action ever administrators and the public as more fellow in the Food Studies program at taken by school lunch employees.2 After important, such as teachers. In May New York University. Her current a series of changes in union organization 1962, DC37 Vice President Harry Gray research focuses on food and families over the next 10 years, School Lunch ceded to the requests of Board of Educa- during the postwar period in America. Employees Local Union 1 became School tion officials to postpone annual contract Shayne's dissertation is a social history Lunch Workers Local 372 and in 1955, renegotiations for lunch workers, of the National School Lunch Program the rapidly expanding DC37 absorbed “because of the repeated crises affecting in New York City, with a focus on the the school lunch employees union into the teachers, and in sympathy with the construction of children as consumers. AFSCME (American Federation of State, fact that the Board could only deal with page six so much at one time.”3 The union finally service work offered dietitians and nutri- Elsie Strahan, the supervisor of junior took action on the school lunch workers tionists an opportunity to pursue careers high school lunches for the city, reap- behalf in November 1963, when Presi- that served the public interest while pears regularly in the grievance files and dent Jerry Wurf threatened a strike if embracing acceptable images of femi- she stands out as a strong female figure the much-delayed negotiations did not ninity. As nutritionists and dietitians, in the postwar expansion of New York take place immediately. A November 8, they promoted healthy eating and nutri- City’s school lunch system. She served as 1963 internal Board of Education memo tional values to younger generations. the de-facto chief nutritionist for the indicates that President Max J. Rubin Their bachelor’s and master’s degrees Board of Education from 1955 through wanted the bargaining dealt with indicated that they were intellectually 1965. Strahan’s correspondence reveals a “before it develops into a rhubarb.”4 adept in science and had taken advan- caustic, no-nonsense approach to the job Collective bargaining on behalf of school tage of opportunities to advance their that used claims of prioritizing service lunch workers occurred that winter. education past high school. The school to schoolchildren to justify the dismissal Union members worked in a variety cafeterias and lunch program allowed of worker complaints. “We are in the of different foodservice environments these smart women to express their school to feed the children, not to throughout the five boroughs of New intellect on a daily basis without chal- appease the workers,” proclaimed one York City. The Board of Education’s lenging the gender status quo. In post- particularly succinct line from a Decem- Central Kitchen facility in Long Island war America, a woman’s place was in ber 1959 letter to DC 37 Vice President City serviced all elementary school the kitchen, and these professional Gray.6 Strahan viewed the union as lunchrooms. Workers in the Central women supported that notion because it another part of the school bureaucracy to Kitchen prepared sandwiches, soup and was in their interest: they could pursue be dealt with, and expected union lead- dessert items such as fruit cups or cook- legitimate careers while still appeasing ers to also prioritize a well-run system ies. Some popular sandwich fillings of societal norms. over the complaints of a few women. this time included peanut butter, egg Strahan remained consistent through- salad, cheese, cold baked beans and hot- out her career in her lack of sympathy dogs. Trucks then delivered the lunches School lunch workers for worker grievances. For example, a to over 600 schools. Junior high schools often found their needs similar epistle arrived in Miss Beatrice that did not have their own kitchen facilities also received meals from the subjugated to those of other Hayes’s mailbox in mid-October 1962. This school lunch worker in Queens had Central Kitchen. High schools operated groups perceived by as autonomous units, since many had been reported several times by her man- on-site kitchen facilities. In 1967 it was administrators and the public ager for poor attitude and lack of cooper- estimated that students ate over 74 mil- as more important, such as ation. It is unclear how Local 372 received a copy of the letter, but neither lion school lunches over the course of teachers. the academic year. School lunch helpers the union representative at P.S. 74 nor and aides in the lunchrooms and cafete- any executive board members were rias were responsible for receiving foods, Men also worked in foodservice copied on the original. Strahan’s stern assisting in prepping raw materials if administration, but they were the excep- tone in the letter conveys a great deal there was an on-site kitchen, preparing tion to the rule. When male managers about her relationship with the rank- the lunch counter, cooking food, serving show up in the Local 372 grievance files, and-file lunch workers. She treated them it to students and faculty, cleaning up they are often summarily dismissive of as interchangeable cogs in the school their workspaces, running the cash reg- the female workers and their culinary lunch program machine, there to per- isters and meeting all federal health and skill-sets. A dietitian by the name of Mr. form their work in a pleasant manner or safety food-service guidelines. All Silverburg demoted Margaret Calliste else suffer the threat of dismissal. And employees were expected to work effi- from her temporary position as a cook to they certainly did not need coffee ciently within the system to guarantee a school lunch helper in August 1958. breaks: that all children received a nutritious Calliste sought help from her union rep- “…I take it for granted that you lunch, the founding principle of the resentative for what she viewed as an want to work at 74. I take it for granted National School Lunch Program. unjust and unfair action. She com- that you are interested in your work School lunch helpers and school plained that Silverburg criticized her and I expect you to prove this to your lunch aides working in the cafeterias cooking when “all he’d ever eaten out manager. were often neighborhood women. The of my kitchen was a cheese sandwich.”5 poor grammar exhibited in the griev- It’s possible that Silverburg might have “There are no coffee breaks for hourly ances indicates a low educational level demoted Calliste because her food did workers and I am very much surprised and photographs of the Central Kitchen not meet his standards, or, judging by to think that you, coming in at 9:30 staff reveal that it was primarily black the seemingly lax personnel practices of in the morning, find it necessary to women and men working for the Bureau the time and the low status of foodser- have a cup of coffee before the serving of of Lunches. These women reported to vice workers, it could have been because school lunches. If coffee is essential for white cafeteria managers, professional he wanted to bring in a different cook your good health I suggest that you find women with degrees in dietetics, nutri- and did not fear any repercussions from a job where coffee breaks are a part of tion or domestic science. the school’s male principal or the larger the routine.”7 Cafeteria and school-related food - school bureaucracy. continued on following page

page seven The faces behind the lunch counter con tinued from page seven There are no responses or further notes Most of the grievances on file with successful blacks who left Harlem and on either of the cases, which leaves the the union are stand-alone incidents, but Bedford-Stuyvesant for the “suburbs” of possibility that the officers of Local 372 the record also includes the story of one southeast Queens. Biographical com- could have sided with Strahan against worker who submitted a series of letters ments by Wise in these letters seem to the workers. The Staff Relations Plan of between 1957 and 1961. The case of indicate that she was a part of this the Board of Education stated that a Mary Wise demonstrates how many migration. worker had the right to representation at women workers solved their own prob- Wise began working in 1955 as a any stage in the complaint procedures, lems and only sought union help when school lunch helper at J.H.S. 142 in the and grievance files from 1958 through their situations escalated beyond their 1962 indicate that workers reached out control. Her neighborhood of St. Albans to the union in the case of more personal straddled the border between Queens Cafeteria and school-related matters only after first trying to work and Long Island, and from 1956 to 1964 foodservice work offered the situation out on their own with experienced a rapid change in demo- direct supervisors and Strahan. graphics, from a mix of ethnic whites– dietitians and nutritionists an While Strahan’s written record Italians, Jews, Armenians and Por- opportunity to pursue careers portrayed her as a tough, no-nonsense tuguese–to upwardly mobile and that served the public interest while embracing acceptable images of femininity.

Jamaica section of Queens. At the beginning of the 1956 school year, she verbally expressed concerns about her three-bus commute to her on-site super- visor, Mrs. Ford. The dietitian spoke with another supervisor and they both advised Wise to contact Mrs. Bleier at

Library of Congress, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection the Board of Education for a transfer to her local school, J.H.S. 59. This was a good-willed decision on the part of the managers and Wise referenced them and her subsequent supervisor in a later let- ter, stating, “I am mentioning all these dietitians and supervisors to prove that previously I have not had any difficul- The school cafeteria of Public School 220 in Forest Hills, Queens, September 1956. ties of any kind with my immediate administrator, one grievance letter sug- gests that she occasionally participated in a bit of the drama herself. In February 1961, cook Evalyn Carter wrote Strahan about a recent demotion and transfer that added over an hour to her commute time. The missive, however, reads as an appeal to a former confidante, referenc- ing an earlier “turkey incident” and pre- vious problems at two different schools. Strahan’s misanthropic response only exacerbated the situation. She told Carter earlier that she had been transferred tLibrary of Congress, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection because of “lack of harmony” and that “three enemies” resulted in her proba- tion. While there is no resolution to this grievance on record, the case demon- strates that even the strictest administra- tors could sometimes allow workplace dynamics and individual personalities to impact their work decisions. A window connected the cafeteria and the kitchen at Public School 220 in Forest Hills, Queens, September 1956. page eight supervisors.”8 In May 1957 she was asked to apply for the cook position in J.H.S. 59 and was subsequently pro- moted to this job. In September 1958, a new dietitian arrived at the school, and their problems started about a year later. Wise wrote to Strahan in February 1960 to express her concerns about the deteri- orating workplace environment: “When Mrs. Brown was hired we had a very harmonious relationship, both on and off the job. This relationship has gradually deteriorated into a constant petty bickering due to the oppressive atti- tude assumed by this dietitian. Whatever I do seems to start a discussion. I am constantly on edge trying to cooperate in Sam Reiss Photographs collection University, Library at New York Courtesy of the Tamiment every manner possible. “I am also aware of the fact that Mrs. Brown is the dietitian and I am the District Council Vice President Harry Gray addresses union members. cook; therefore the tendency is to regard her respondence with Bleier, Whalen and her position at the end of the school views on this situation in a better light Strahan. She reiterated in the cover year because she was pregnant and than mine.”9 letter her belief that Brown had “suc- chose to become a full-time home- Wise copied a Mrs. Whalen, assis- cessfully instilled fear in all the other maker, an unexpected but welcome tant manager in the Bureau of School ladies.” This is a recurring theme in resolution to the workplace problem. Lunches, on this grievance letter, but Between 1957 and 1962, Local 372 not Gray or anyone else in Local 372. won the school lunch aides two pay This omission was probably made … I take it for granted that increases and improvements to their either because she trusted the Board of you want to work at [P.S.] 74. benefits packages, but it demonstrated a Education to resolve the matter, or I take it for granted that you benign paternalism toward workers because she did not feel that the situa- engaged in disputes. Female union tion had reached the level where it are interested in your work members frequently tried to navigate warranted union involvement. and I expect you to prove this the Board of Education complaint proce- The Board of Education attempted to dure bureaucracy on their own, unsure resolve the dispute by scheduling regu- to your manager. There are of the efficacy or advocacy of the union lar meetings between Wise, Brown and no coffee breaks for hourly when it came to help with interpersonal mid-level Bureau of Lunches supervi- workers and I am very much drama on the job. In the postwar period, sors. This worked for a while, but in a woman’s place was commonly under- February 1961 Wise reported that surprised to think that you, stood to be within the home; thus these Brown had once again created a hostile coming in at 9:30 in the women did not want to risk their posi- work environment as, “she emphatically morning, find it necessary to tions as respectable wage earners by stated that she, Millie Brown, is the boss voicing too many complaints. When of that kitchen, that she does not ‘give a have a cup of coffee before the they did submit grievances to Local 372, dam’ [sic] about what anyone else says– serving of school lunches. their emotional appeals often failed to she will run the job the way she sees fit.”10 elicit proactive responses from the union At this point, instead of interviewing If coffee is essential for your leadership. Instead, the school lunch other kitchen staff to verify Wise’s good health I suggest that aides found themselves caught between reports and taking disciplinary action you find a job where coffee a city bureaucracy that privileged the against Brown, Strahan told Wise that if opinions of managers over those of she was unhappy at J.H.S. 59 she could breaks are a part of the routine. workers and a union that focused the be transferred to another school. Most – Elsie Strahan, supervisor, junior majority of its efforts on other, more vis- workers who filed grievances with the high school lunches ible government employees. Food prepa- union requested such a transfer, but ration and distribution in schools con- Wise preferred to stay in her local school tinued to be viewed as women’s work many of the grievances, that of one and continue to fight. It was at this time through the late 1970s, and the union school lunch aide standing up to an that she finally contacted Local 372 for consistently deferred to the Board of unfair supervisor when fellow workers assistance. Education’s School Lunch Bureau in fail to take action. Immediately after Wise spoke to Gray via phone and matters involving grievances by school her conversation with Gray, Wise forwarded him copies of her earlier cor- lunch workers. learned that Brown would be leaving continued on page fifteen

page nine The original New York foodies: Nickerson, Brownstone and Beard con tinued from page three the vast majority the Times’ food stories about Brownstone, who had worked establishment rarely begin with curry. in the Nickerson years.10 in magazines before joining the wire Instead, historians tend to describe the When Nickerson announced that service. “Our friendship flowered in return of soldiers from World War II, she was leaving the Times, Beard was Denmark during an assignment,” the increase in post-war travel, and the particularly saddened by what her Nickerson wrote. “Her magical sense decline in domestic help. “This back- absence could mean to food coverage in of humor charmed me in the several ground is well and good, but it leaves New York. Her popularity was punctu- days we sampled Danish cheeses, hams, ated by the number of farewell parties beers, Cherry Herring and aquavit.”14 held in her honor, as Beard wrote in a Nickerson later introduced Beard to … Brownstone’s recipes were letter to food writer Helen Evans Brownstone and the two would become “unusual, appetizing and Brown: “Going to four parties for Jane such good friends that they spoke on this week. She leaves next week for the phone daily. Brownstone covered accurate down to the last Florida, and how we hate to see her go. food for the Associated Press from one-eighth of a teaspoon She has done more for dignified food 1947 until she retired in 1986. She coverage than anyone. Everyone will wrote two columns and published five of salt.” Brownstone’s success, miss her keenly, and I more than most, recipes a week for the national wire according to Nickerson, for she was a good friend and a most service, for an estimated 14,200 “was derived, in my view, amusing person always.”11 articles during her career. Nickerson Initially the editors were more inter- wrote that Brownstone’s recipes were from her sensitivity to readers’ ested in hiring someone with a back- “unusual, appetizing and accurate tastes and her insistence ground in test kitchens than in the down to the last one-eighth of a “rarefied atmosphere of a publication teaspoon of salt.”15 Brownstone’s that recipes give highly like Gourmet,” according to a New York success, according to Nickerson, appealing results.” Times memo.12 Nickerson and Beard had “derived, in my view, from her sensi- hoped that Brown would become the tivity to readers’ tastes and her insis- second food editor at the New York tence that recipes give high quality, out the curry development,” Ephron Times. When the position went to appealing results.”16 wrote.20 In his book, The United States Claiborne, they publicly supported the Beard described several meals with of Arugula, David Kamp asserted that decision. Privately, however, Beard Brownstone in his letters to Brown, the curry craze was “instigated, or at wrote to Brown that he and Nickerson who was best known for authoring least stoked” by Brownstone’s recipe for had agreed that she was the better the 1952 The West Coast Cook Book. Country Captain Chicken, which choice, “But that is in the family and In a 1954 letter, he detailed the steak included curry.21 never breathe it.”13 he cooked for Brownstone during a Brownstone introduced the New Nickerson and Brownstone devel- meal they shared in her sister’s garden York food community to Irma S. Rom- oped a long personal friendship. They apartment. Brownstone prepared a bauer, author of The Joy of Cooking. met in New York City in the 1940s fried onion dish that they named The success of the classic cookbook was when Nickerson published a profile “Cecily’s Onions.”17 He included the in part a result of the positive reviews recipe in the letter to Brown. The written by newspaper food editors. Kimberly Wilmot Voss, PhD, is an following year Beard wrote, “We had At the time of the book’s publication associate professor of journalism a delightful dinner at Cecily’s. She Brownstone was a food editor at Parents at the University of Central Florida and made Country Captain but differently magazine She traveled to St. Louis to the area coordinator of the journalism from her usual recipe. We all liked it meet Rombauer. As they sat on a bench program. She is the author of The Food 18 Section: Newspaper Women and the very much.” at the St. Louis Zoo, Brownstone asked Culinary Community (Rowman & Decades later, in the Times, Molly the cookbook author, “Did you vote for O’Neill described Brownstone as the Roosevelt?” The answer was “yes” and Littlefield, 2014) and a co-author of 19 Mad Men & Working Women: Feminist “Curator of Country Captain Chicken” the two fans of the New Deal became 22 Perspectives on Historical Power, and “a one-woman preservation society friends for life. Brownstone said she Resistance and Otherness (Peter Lang, for this particular version of curried was one of the few editors to interview 2014). She earned a Scholar’s Grant chicken.” In an essay about the New Rombauer because the cookbook author from the Greater Midwest Foodways York City food establishment in her would not, at first, come to New York. Alliance in collaboration with Culinary book, Wallflower at the Orgy, Nora In later years, Brownstone would finally Historians of Chicago in 2013. Ephron pondered that the beginning of get the chance to introduce Rombauer She received the 2014 Carol DeMasters the foodie movement may have been in to the “foodie community in New Service to Journalism Award from the the 1950s when cooking with curry York,”23 and she would write the fore- Association of Food Journalists. became popular. She wrote that histori- word for the fiftieth-anniversary edition She blogs at WomensPageHistory. cal explanations of the rise of the food of the cookbook, describing Rombauer page ten as a “great and good friend.”24 The Joy of Cooking was written in a conversational tone and mixed simple dishes with complex cuisine. Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church wrote: “If this book has too wide a cir- culation, there will be little for us food editors to do.”25 Nickerson also posi- Courtesy of the James Beard Foundation

Former Times food journalist Molly O’Neill credited Nickerson with being one of the first food journalists to apply ethics and news values to her craft. News, O’Neill wrote, was central to the story lines in the vast majority the Times’ food stories in the Nickerson years. tively reviewed the 1951 edition of The Joy of Cooking for the New York Times, explaining that it was a time when there were fewer servants and thus cooking was encouraged by being a “joy” to do.26 Brownstone hosted a party in her home for Rombauer when the 1951 edi- tion of the cookbook was published, and James Beard, circa 1940s or ’50s. a photo from the event, found in her to the fledgling own plane, she flew to papers at the Fales Library & Special culinary group. Nickerson was among different cities to write Collections at New York University, Paddleford was the first to interview Beard, about home cooks and shows well-dressed women gathered on reviewing restau- restaurants. While in a garden balcony. Nickerson was fond of rants for the visiting him in his Twelfth Street Milwaukee, she wrote that 1951 edition, writing that the New York Herald home in 1945 when he was about the city’s famed book was a classic with a personality: Tribune and the building his reputation as Mader’s restaurant, “Mrs. Rombauer summed up her lively, newspaper insert a caterer. He offered her a which had been serving intelligent approach to the table arts as This Week from cup of instant coffee, and she German food since the New Deal of the American house- the 1940s through 1903. She described the 27 hold.” Anne Mendelson, who chroni- the 1960s when asked him questions about history of the restaurant cled the story behind The Joy of Cooking her newspaper appetizers.“Everything about and included recipes for in her book, Stand Facing the Stove, folded.29 In the him was unpretentious,” she Sauerbraten, potato wrote: “The cachet of the New York book Dining Out, later recalled. dumplings, and cheese Times food coverage under Miss Nicker- about restaurant torte.31 son was already considerable.” Thus, her reviewing, Gael In 1964, the endorsement of the book meant “an Greene stated, “Clementine Paddleford New York Herald Tribune published a authoritative announcement that The was writing about restaurants before collection of columns from its top Joy of Cooking could stand as the Ameri- me. Food was considered women’s writers, including Paddleford, who 28 can cookbook of its era.” work.”30 Paddleford wrote about the noted that “restaurants are my beat.” It is worth mentioning that Clementine history of Waldorf Salad and Lindy’s Paddleford was also an occasional visitor Cheesecake in her city. Often in her continued on following page page eleven The original New York foodies: Nickerson, Brownstone and Beard con tinued from page eleven with him. Her association with him has 4Craig Claiborne, A Feast Made for Laughter, led her to be described as “the ad hoc p. 122. 5Claiborne, A Feast Made, pp. 122-3. matriarch of James Beard’s culinary 6Jones, Epicurean Delight, p. 136. 33 34 salon” and a “cuisine maven.” Brown- 7Jones, Epicurean Delight, p. 149. stone amassed a collection of some 8,000 8Marian Tracy, ed., Coast to Coast Cookery cookbooks during her career, most of (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1952), p. 143. 9Anne Mendelson, “Review of Craig Claiborne’s which she donated to New York Univer- Revised New York Times Cookbook,” Journal of sity in 2002. According to the Marvin Gastronomy, 1990, p.83. Taylor, the head of the Fales Special 10Molly O’Neill, “Food Porn,” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2003, p. 38. Collections at NYU, “Even if we had 11James Beard letter to Helen Evans Brown, all the time and money in the world, September 16, 1957. John Ferrone, ed., Love and we couldn’t reassemble a collection this Kisses and a Halo of Truffles (New York, NY: Arcade 35 Publishing, 1994), p. 192. size and scarcity.” 12 Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Box 169, Food News Brownstone died in 2005 at age 96. folder. New York Times Company Records. Arthur Nickerson died in 2000 at age 83. Hays Sulzberger Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Beard and Claiborne certainly have Division, The New York Public Library. 13 Beard to Brown, September 1957. Ferrone, hammered out their rightful histories Love and Kisses, p. 190. in the establishment of the New York 14Jane Nickerson, “Countless Read Her,” City food community. But equally as Lakeland Ledger, June 12, 1994. 15Nickerson, “Countless Read Her.” Cecily Brownstone’s photo on the jacket of important are those of Nickerson and 16Nickerson, “Countless Read Her.” Cecily Brownstone's Associated Press Cookbook, 17 published in 1972. Brownstone. According to Claiborne Beard to Brown, August 13, 1954. Ferrone, in his memoir, A Feast Made for Love and Kisses, p. 60. 18 Of the 18,000 eateries in the city, Laughter, Nickerson “was, to my Beard to Brown, November 1, 1955. Ferrone, she detailed her one hundred favorites. Love and Kisses, p. 130. 19Molly O’Neill, “Long Ago Smitten, She Rather than being negative about a Remains True to the Country Captain,” The New York restaurant’s failings, she focused on Nickerson and Brownstone Times, April 17, 1991. what was best. In the French category, 20Nora Ephron, “Food Establishment,” Wallflower were vital cogs in the at the Orgy (New York: Bantam Books, 2007), pp. 5–6. she recommended Café Argenteuil, 21 foundational years of the David Kamp, The United States of Arugula: How writing, “My favorite appetizer there We Became a Gourmet Nation (New York: Broadway is Baked Clams done with garlic and culinary scene in New York Books, 2006), p. 69. 22Anne Mendelson, Stand Facing the Stove: herbs, with a dash of lemon and Per- City, but their contributions The Lives of Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer nod.” She wrote that at Le Veau d’Or, to that scene have been Becker (New York: Scribner, 2003), p. 175. 90 percent of the customers spoke 23Elizabeth S. Demers, “Irma Rombauer and French. She gave three stars to Italian largely overlooked. Marion Rombauer Becker,” Icons of American Cooking, p. 234. Pavilion. Of Michael’s Pub, she wrote, 24Cecily Brownstone, Cecily Brownstone’s Associated “When a pub becomes famous in New mind, the most inventive and diligent Press (New York: David McKay, 1972), p. x. York City you can bet your buttons 25Mendelson, Stand Facing the Stove, p. 160. food writer in Manhattan. What she 26Jane Nickerson, “They Wanted to Cook Like it’s quite a place.” Rather than being did not know she researched with Mother,” New York Times, August 12, 1951. 27 anonymous, she went into the kitchen great gravity and concern.”36 As noted Nickerson, “They Wanted to Cook.” to speak with the chef. At Karachi 28Mendelson, Stand Facing the Stove, p. 221. by Kamp in his recent take on food in 29Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris, Restaurant, she described the chef Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, 32 America, “Though Beard still did not bending over his curry pots. reach as many readers as newspaper the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America In the years after Nickerson left the Ate (New York: Gotham Press, 2008) columnists like Brownstone … and 30Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, Dining Out New York Times, Beard and Brownstone Nickerson, he eclipsed them in fame (New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998) p. 8. stayed in contact, and Brownstone often through force of personality.”37 Person- 31Clementine Paddleford, How America Eats visited Nickerson in Central Florida. (New York: Scribner, 1960), 346–47. alities and fame notwithstanding, the 32Clementine Paddleford, “Gourmets’ Choice,” in After a few years off to raise her four two women belong in any conversation New York, New York (New York: Delta Books, 1964), children, Nickerson became the food about the role of writers in American pp. 147-88. editor at the Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, 33Stephen Miller, “Cecily Brownstone, 96, Editor, food culture. Downtown Food Diva,” New York Sun, September 7, in 1973 and remained in the job until *** 2005. 1988. It was a New York Times-owned notes 34Associated Press, “Food writer Cecily Brown- newspaper at the time. When Brown- 1Craig Claiborne, A Feast Made for Laughter stone,” Washington Post, September 5, 2005. stone retired from the Associated Press (New York, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1982) p. 125. 35“Major Collection in Food Studies Acquired,” in 1986, Nickerson wrote about it. 2Evan Jones, Epicurean Delight (New York, NY: Progressions: New York University Libraries Newsletter, Touchstone, 1992), p. 170. Fall 2002, p. 1. Brownstone continued to socialize with 3“Food Columnist Reveals Recipes for Exciting 36Claiborne, A Feast Made, p. 122. Beard, including spending the holidays Career,” Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, April 28, 1974. 37Kamp, The United States of Arugula, p. 61. page twelve Letter from the CHNY Chair con tinued from page two Further evidence is in this issue of offal pudding we associate with the dish of “self-determination, heritage build- NYFoodStory, which contains an essay today, all the while noting the Scots’ ing, and resistance to racial oppression. by Professor Lawrence Spruill, a recipient reputation for frugality. Dr. Fraser will Evangelical dogma implies that the of a Scholar’s Grant in 2012. use the funds for archival research in inclusion of palm oil renders all regional Looking to future scholarship, Scotland, and we found her beautifully recipes into sacred dishes worthy of boy- CHNY received 16 proposals for the written proposal particularly resonant cotting.” Barton will use the funds to 2014 Scholar’s Grants, covering a work with local Brazilian organizations diverse range of topics and media, from to map identity markers of the vendors. biographical investigations, oral histo- We were particularly thrilled This demographic work will enable ries, a new food and culture journal, groups representing the baianas de documentary film-making, as well as that the grant can support both Acarajé to advocate for better health more traditional archival studies and scholarship and positively care and other human services. We were field research. It was a rich and fascinat- particularly thrilled that the grant can ing array, and the five anonymous impact a living community. support both scholarship and positively reviewers awarded Dr. Joy Fraser, a pro- impact a living community. fessor of English at George Mason Uni- We are also profoundly grateful to versity, a grant of $3,500 for “Honest given the recent devolution fight. our newest corporate member, The His- Poverty vs. Foreign Fakery: Popular The second recipient ($1,500) was tory Channel, which has generously sup- Histories of Haggis, and a Culinary His- Scott Alves Barton, a doctoral candidate ported CHNY with a $5,000 grant that torical Corrective.” She called haggis “a in NYU’s Food Studies program. Bar- we are using to upgrade our website and contested cultural signifier of Scottish- ton’s project, “Feeding the Gods,” prom- critical membership software. Once ness . . . and explores how the dish ises a fascinating ethnographic look into these upgrades are completed, we will became embroiled in a transnational Afro-Brazilian street food traditions, be able to include much more informa- debate [versus England] about what it particularly the palm oil (dendé) to fry tion about our programs, have an opt-in, means to be Scottish.. . .” She deftly fritters. Barton notes that the vendors searchable database to help find experts wove together questions of national (the baianas de Acarajé) traditionally in different areas, and allow us to post identity, class and economic status, trac- have been practitioners of Candomblé, and images from our programs. ing changes in the dish of haggis itself that dendé is essential in Candomblé We look forward to continuing to from elegant luxury in 17th century worship, but that the vendors now seem improve our work and invite feedback England, made with butter, cream and to be Evangelical Christians. Barton’s from our membership. Write to us at breadcrumbs, to the coarser oatmeal- doctoral dissertation explores the themes [email protected].

Letter from the Editor con tinued from page two In the latter half of the 19th century, Shayne Figueroa’s article is, likewise, Cecily Brownstone, have been largely factors including the extension of rail- a history from below. Focusing on erased from this history. Nickerson and road lines, the impact of immigrant lunchroom workers in the New York Brownstone, in fact, founded the food labor, urbanization and suburbanization City public school system, she paints a scene that Beard and Claiborne would transformed Eastchester, New York, in multidimensional picture of race and later enter and helped the two men join ways that obscured the role of the Turn- gender relations in organized labor and the New York culinary community. ers in the town’s formative era. These government bureaucracy in the late Finally novelist and professor Angie phenomena were not, of course, unique 1950s and early 1960s. She asks how the Cruz writes of the plantain as a sign of to New York. They were global transfor- mostly African American women and home, a site of resistance, a slave food, a mations that provoked migration men who worked in these lunchrooms racial slur, an alliance builder, a source of throughout the world. In my interview interacted with the mostly white female pride, and a symbol of resilience. Her with Hasia Diner, we talk at length dietitians and nutritionists who super- piece is both a family history and the about European immigration to the vised their work. These white women, migration story of a staple food. That her United States, changes in foodways, and for whom the school lunch program was essay connects Alexander the Great, West questions of identity. Spruill and Diner’s an opportunity to further their careers in Africa, Washington Heights and baseball stories may, in fact, be linked. Diner’s a way that was in accord with acceptable is a testament to the value of Food Stud- peddlers might have traveled to Eastch- images of femininity, in turn had to ies, and Culinary History in particular. ester. Professor Diner rejects a static negotiate their positions with the I’d like to conclude by thanking the notion of authenticity, instead high- mostly male administrations of the Board for allowing me the opportunity lighting the role of migration to the Union and the Board of Education. to work on NYFoodstory. There is no U.S. in the development of Italian and Both in lunchrooms and in the greater way I can even attempt to fill the shoes Jewish identities. Class relations in New York City food world, the founda- of my predecessor. I will try, however, to Europe, expectations of their new lives tional role of women has been obscured. maintain her high standards and will do in the U.S., and interactions with others, Kimberly Voss argues that while James my best to ensure that this journal fur- led immigrants to negotiate their iden- Beard and Craig Claiborne have been thers the goals of our organization and tities and to alter their foodways in rightfully recognized for establishing contributes important scholarship to the diverse ways, sometimes stressing assim- New York as an international culinary field of Culinary History. ilation and other times continuity. center, two women, Jane Nickerson and page thirteen What the peddler ate: A conversation with historian Hasia Diner con tinued from page five customers’ homes, so they planned their would ask, “If you can’t eat this, what routes so that the last customer of the “What we consider to can you eat?” Sometimes peddlers day was the nicest. They basically all be deli is a mélange would carry their own pots with them talk about having very positive experi- and cook their own food. Or women ences, people were warm and friendly, of stuff from around would say, “Leave the pot here and their accounts are very upbeat. So, they the world. So pastrami when you come, I’ll use it to make what would sleep in customers’ homes, which comes from Romania … you can have.” Again, it is hard to ver- inevitably led to the housewife asking: and corned beef is from ify these things, but it has been said, “We’re happy to have you here; would Germany, and most of and repeatedly, that many of the Native you like to eat with us?” These cus- American groups – because the peddlers these delis fairly early on tomers are Americans or Australians or would go onto Indian reservations – South Africans, and what they are eat- start selling halva, referred to the peddlers as “egg eaters” ing is obviously not kosher food. The and that was from the because the one thing they would eat peddlers talk about things like bear and Ottoman Empire, so what would be eggs cooked in their shells. So squirrel, and so they had to negotiate develops … is this sort of it’s a kind of negotiation along a spec- with themselves – “Do I eat this, do I blending which then trum. Some would say, “During the not eat it? What do I say?” In one week I ate anything but when I went memoir, a peddler said he was eating at becomes something back to the community, to town, on the a customer’s home and every dish had called American weekend,” which is where they would pork in it – pork meat, greens with Jewish food.” pay back their creditors and replenish pork, pork in this, lard poured over the their stock, “then I got to eat Jewish biscuits, and he says, “Look I’m eating AA: Would you say that this is not just a food.” How much this extends with it .” The local Protestant minister was change in foodways, but also part of a them into their life beyond peddling is there and said, “I thought Moses made process of secularization? hard to say. I think you’re right that it laws that say that Hebrews can’t eat the causes them to think, “You know, I ate HD: Absolutely, although we don’t flesh of the swine,” and the peddler squirrel and I’m still a good Jew.” And know enough about him. It’s possible responded, “You know what, if Moses those people who we know more about, that when he finally settles down and had come to this place he wouldn’t have who have left really good memoirs, hav- has a store in a town, made those laws.” ing been out on the road and having maybe he reverts to eaten this stuff, we know that kashrut, but it’s situa- when they tional. Other peddlers finally settle Ari Ariel is the editor–in-chief say to the housewives, down they found of NYFoodstory: The Journal of the “I can’t eat what you’re the synagogue in Culinary Historians of New York. serving me.” The their town. So He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia housewife often asks they don’t see the why, and the peddler University and a diploma in classical connection, as responds that his culinary arts from the French Culinary it were, between religion doesn’t Institute (now the International eating and allow it. This leads Culinary Center). His new book, Jewishness. the housewife to Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration ask, “What’s your from Yemen to Palestine in the Late religion? And AA: Like many of us Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries what religion who eat non-kosher (Brill, 2014), examines Yemeni Jewish says you can’t eat food but still feel emigration, highlighting global transfor- this?” Why Jewish. mations and migration theory. He is would the cus- HD: Right, in a sense also particularly interested in ethnic, tomers know they come to redefine national, and religious identity, that? The ped- it. I guess one could migration, and foodways. This fall, dler would think about it this he assumes the position of explain being Jewish, and way – there are many sometimes the customers would relate Visiting Assistant Professor in the other elements of this to people from the Bible. Many of Jewish law that many observant Jews Department of Religious Studies at the the memoirs, written by both peddlers don’t follow. For example, how many University of Iowa. and customers, say that the women modern orthodox people actually page fourteen investigate what their clothing is made Bavaria, Galicia, Alsace, and he’s of blending which then becomes of? [Jewish law prohibits mixing wool Romanian. So they presumably learned something called American Jewish and linen in garments.] Probably very from each other about taste, and what’s food or Jewish food in America. And few go to a shatnez expert to analyze the good. And who’s running the boarding marriage patterns in the immigrant clothes they buy from the Gap. I know house? Well, that woman–we don’t generation, those who come single the ultra-orthodox do have shatnez have any documents from the women very early on – unlike among Italians institutes, but probably for most obser- where regional marriage patterns at vant American Jews, that is something least persist for a while, maybe a that is not connected to being an “An employee of generation – among Jews it was gone. observant Jew. And so, for some of these They married across lines and so there peddlers, maybe many of them, kashrut an Italian olive oil are all these letters to the editor in also went that route. “I know it’s part of company … had come the Jewish daily Forward which say, the tradition, but it’s not that important, to the United States “I’m from Galicia and why wife’s from and what’s more important is founding Lithuania, and how can I tell her that a synagogue, building a school or on business. He was walking her cooking is disgusting. I so long creating a cemetery.” around New York … and for the foods and tastes … but she he saw signs for something won’t cook them.” AA: I wonder if this is also part of the separation between Jewish ethnicity called an ‘Italian restaurant’ and religiosity? … He decided to order Behind the lunch counter con tinued from page nine HD: I think that over time that comes what he thought was to play a part, although looking at these the most unusual thing on notes people, where we know the details of the menu, spaghetti and 1Author calculations based on review of Local their lives, they do participate [in the 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employees: Jewish community], they create the meatballs. And he said it Grievances 1958-1961; box 48; files 12 and 13; synagogues in their towns, so I’m Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. was so good that somebody 2 almost not sure what the line between “Food Workers Picket Board for Increase,” should send it back to Italy; New Amsterdam News, 28 June 1947, p. 14. ethnicity and religion is within “School Lunch Workers Heard,” The New York Judaism. In some ways, I don’t think people in Italy Times, 26 June 1947, p. 16. The historical record of Judaism as just a religion at all. does not indicate if the workers got their pay raise would love it too.” after picketing. 3 Gray letter to Rubin, May 24, 1962; Max AA: Even a synagogue is really Rubin Files; State, County and Municipal Employ- community center. ees; Box 1; Series 379; File 199; New York City who ran these boarding houses–but I Municipal Archives. HD: That’s right. So why did they go think we can assume that she both has 4 Quoted in memo from Sylvia Jaffee to John there? They went to hang out with her way of cooking, how to make a Ferris. November 8, 1963; Max Rubin Files; Board Friday night dinner, but also she says, of Education; box 1; series 379; file 489; New York their friends, and probably talk about City Municipal Archives. business and catch up on gossip, and “I know there are a bunch of Alsatians 5 Calliste Grievance Letter, Aug, 1958; Local afterwards they had cookies at the here, and they’d like such and such.” 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- ees: Grievances 1958-1961; box 48; file 12; Tami- Kiddush [light ritual refreshments ment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. after the religious service]. AA: And then those regional foods merge 6Strahan Memo to Gray, Dec. 12, 1959; Local to form a Jewish cuisine? 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- ees: Grievances 1958-1961; box 48; file 12; Tami- AA: For these Jews, when they come back HD: That’s right. So what emerges is ment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. to wherever their home base is and they something that’s acceptable to every- 7Strahan Letter to Hayes, Oct. 18, 1962; Local have Jewish food, is that “Jewish” food 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- body. Certainly we know this in cities. ees: Grievances 1958-1961; box 48; file 12; Tami- defined by their place of origin, or is there What we consider to be deli is a ment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. already an idea of a general “Jewish” food? mélange of stuff from around the world. 8 Wise letter to Strahan, Feb. 6, 1960; Local So pastrami comes from Romania, and 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- HD: That’s interesting because many of ees: Grievances, 1958 – 1961; box 48; file 12; them come back to places where there the Romanians were a very tiny part of Tamiment / Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. is going to be a jumble of peddlers the Jewish immigrant population to the 9 Wise letter to Whalen, May 16, 1957; Local United States, and corned beef is from 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- [from different places]. The memoir ees: Grievances, 1958 – 1961; box 48; file 12; of a man who peddled in the New Germany, and most of these delis fairly Tamiment / Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Orleans area says that he’d come back early on start selling halva, and that was 10Wise letter to Raynor, Feb. 25, 1961; Local to New Orleans on the weekends, and from the Ottoman Empire, so what 372 (Board of Education); School Lunch Employ- ees: Grievances 1957 – 1961; box 48; file 12; he’d spend the weekend with a bunch of develops as an American Jewish cooking Tamiment Library / Robert F. Wagner Labor other peddlers, other Jews, from Lithuania, style, or cuisine, or foodway, is this sort Archives. page fifteen Rebecca Turner, ‘famous cook’ of Eastchester con tinued from page one about slavery, freedom, faith and food. eties gathered, politics and gossip dis- By the end of the 18th century creolized Other documents filled in more cussed, post riders delivered mail, African women waiting for news of state- details, and eventually resulted in a notices posted, and exhausted farmers wide emancipation faithfully cooked, cookbook based on “Aunt Becky’s” unwound with pints of ale and danced cleaned and served until death and were recipes, Down by the Creek: Cooking to rousing live music. Importantly, they placed in unceremonious graves, leaving with Rebecca Turner in Old Town Eastch- offered food, drink and lodging for visi- few historical footprints.11 tors passing through the area. ester. Modern New Yorkers have little Charles Guion’s and Billy Crawford’s Founded in 1664 by 10 Connecticut memory of the region’s forgotten slaves. Taverns were Eastchester’s most celebrated families, Eastchester is one of the Their spirits were left to plead for public inns. They were menu-less eateries with nation’s oldest towns. The original recognition from “Negro burial common long wooden tables heaped settlement was a rural enclave seven grounds.” Rebecca Franklin-Turner, with hearty soups, seasonal seafood, fresh miles east of the Harlem River known as “Aunt Becky” was one of the nestled between the Bronx and neglected women.12 Hutchinson Rivers. It was a frontier Finding food and drink, * community of middling farmers, servants Born in New York, Rebecca reached and slaves clustered around a tidal so essential to life, generously adolescence during the struggle to creek and an Indian path that became logged in a death journal establish our national republic. She the original Boston Post Road. The belonged to James and Gloriana colonists built shelters and rationed was astounding. It revealed Franklin, wealthy 18th-century Quakers.13 food supplies until forests were cleared, obscured sources … By the time she was 12 she fetched crops planted and harvested. It became water and wood, built a perfect fire, a conveniently located part of New about Rebecca’s family meals gathered eggs, milked cows, killed and 4 York’s “bread basket.” [and] … sample menus at plucked chickens and tended kettles and As Eastchester planned its 2014 roasting spits at the hearth. She watched Sesquicentennial celebration, researchers Billy Crawford’s Tavern. older enslaved women under Gloriana’s wrote a history of “Old Town.”5 They supervision cook elaborate meals, bake turned to its earliest records and recalled bread, pies and pastries.14 fruit and vegetables, wild game, poultry, the names and achievements of the set- As a young woman, Rebecca learned various meats, pastries, beer, cider tlers. A prominent agreement in the to cook and serve their well-to-do and wine pressed from local vines. They founders’ 1665 governing covenant guests, for whom no detail was spared.15 were family operations often employing required “that one man either of himself Her reputation at the Franklins’ led to enslaved women to work in their or by consent may give entertainment to gainful employment at Charles Guion’s kitchens and service the nightly rooms. strangers for money.”6 Before the con- legendary Post Road tavern, known for A record dated April 23, 1672 cited struction of a church and completion of its hospitality and patriotic support the sale of a “neager woman about 30 their homesteads they established the during the War for Independence. Guion years of age which (was) formerly bought office of tavern keeper.7 was influential in the three powerful of William Larance of Fairfield” by Eastchester taverns were places where town institutions, the church, the Moses Hoite, one of the founders.8 The Town Meetings were held, fraternal soci- annual Town Meetings and taverns. enslavement of this anonymous woman His favor was beneficial during Rebecca’s Larry H. Spruill, PhD, has spent a was not peculiar. Women like her did transition from slavery to freedom and half-century living and working in not wield an axe to clear the forests or self-determination.16 Mount Vernon, New York, and has drive nails to construct crude shelters, In 1805, Rebecca took advantage of served as its municipal historian for the but worked in gardens, washed, cleaned, the Franklins’ compliance with New past 25 years. He is an author, award- spun, made garments, cared for children York’s 1799 Gradual Abolition law and winning photographer, and history and prepared meals. was granted freedom.17 She immediately professor at Morehouse College in By 1750 Africans were common married Benjamin Turner, a freedman Atlanta, Georgia. He has spent three among Eastchester’s families.9 Captive decades researching and writing about formerly owned by a Quaker family women likely felt differently about food 18 colonial and early African American life cultivation, cooking and consumption from the adjoining Town of Westchester. in Westchester County. He is the lead than their masters. Bondage always Charles Guion brokered, for the Turners, historian and designer of Westchester’s reminded them they did not own land, a long-term lease for common land African American Historic Trail. produce, livestock, or the kitchens adjacent to the church cemetery. The In 2000, he was designated the inaugural where they cooked and often slept.10 growing family settled on the “garden Westchester County Trailblazer in They were preoccupied with managing lot” and worked as farmers, cooks and 19 History by the County Executive and the exploitation of their labor and laundresses. They earned wages, Legislature. He is currently finishing a humanity. Hopes that freedom would bartered produce, paid taxes and estab- cookbook and novel about Rebecca and one day bring the necessities of inde- lished stable lives as independent Benjamin Turner and their lost legacy pendent life such as land, housing, food citizens. The Turners were broadly in the town of Eastchester. and opportunities to prosper were fleet- respected and tasted what it felt like to ing and escaped most. page sixteen “I Do hereby Cer- FARM situated in the town of Eastch- tify that my Black ester near the Episcopal Church, late the Servant Woman property of Charles Guion, deceased,16 Rebecca was deliv- miles from New York, containing about ered of a Female forty-two acres of land…a large spacious Child Whose Name House, a good Barn, Stable, Carriage is Mary on House, and other out-buildings; and the Twenty fourth of there is a well of good water near the September Eighteen door. On the place there is a quantity of hundred and Six. good fruit.”28 Gloriana Franklin Long after her death, The Times Entered East Chester introduced Aunt Becky as “a famous March 6 1810 By me cook,” but did not define her cookery John Alstyne.”23 beyond the colorful account of her Mary lived to be baking. It is known that Eastchester 99 years old. Unlike apples were available, as were ingredi- many former slaves ents for common pastry.29 A recipe for of her parents’ gen- a “General Washington’s Green Apple eration, she knew Pie” was tested for my book, Down By her precise birthday. When The Times The Creek, Cooking with Rebecca Documents compiled from St. Paul’s Church and Cemetery archives and designed illustrated by Larry H. Spruill Documents compiled from St. Paul’s 30 toured the region, Turner in Old Town Eastchester. “Aunt Mary” was In our time, we take for granted the personification that notable dishes begin with replic- of what was left of able recipes detailing ingredients, Old Town.24 She measurements, utensils and cooking passed on the con- time. Like so many cooks of her era, troversial story of Rebecca Turner’s recipes required her mother cooking experiential, experimental and mem- and caring for Gen- orized procedures to consistently eral George Wash- satisfy diners. She internalized approximate measurements of specific By 1832, Rebecca was forced to rely on laundry and domestic services for income. ington during a Her sons and son-in-law found work in the cemetery and they often “traded out” for wartime sickness spices and ingredients while observ- their labor. The interment journal for the church burial ground described the goods and and recovery at ing, smelling, touching and tasting provisions available at the general store run by the church sexton. By the 1840s frequent 25 dishes to her perfection. purchases of soap indicated Rebecca’s reliance her laundry business. However, Guion’s. She said she never stopped cooking, as is evidenced by the quantity and variety of meat, fish, Rebecca made Thus, the challenges of assembling grains, vegetables, fruit and spices listed. broth, soup, peas a credible cookbook for an illiterate be somewhat “ordinary” in segregated and an apple pie for New York slave were many. The work antebellum New York.20 the general. As evi- required verified personal access to Their land included a vegetable dence she wore a shawl, an heirloom locally grown ingredients. After 200 garden and an enclosure for chickens, given to Rebecca by Washington.26 A years, it seemed impossible to know pigs, a cow and horse. Natural fruit neighbor translated Aunt Mary’s recol- the contents of Aunt Becky’s pantry. and nut trees, and bramble bushes, as lections in stereotypical “Southern” I was determined to locate a repository well as fowl and game in the meadow- Negro dialect explaining that, of foodstuffs related to her mythical lands and forests supplemented their “Gin’rl Washington, he war taken cookery. After years of research and diets. Like other town folk they cut powerful sick at the old tavern... I made good fortune: “Eureka!” salt meadow hay to feed their live- him broth and soup. Bime-(till) he got so The breakthrough came while I stock, and fished and gathered oysters he could eat peas. He was powerful fond was tracing her daughter, Sarah and clams from the waterway. They of green peas, and could eat three sassers (Sally) Ann’s 1826 marriage to used their horse to ride or hitch to a of ’em at a meal; green apple pie, too; he Samuel Nelson, a recently arrived spring-less wagon to conduct day-work war just as fond of that; and he done say fugitive slave seeking refuge and for the church, cemetery, taverns and that I did just make de bestest apple pies work. He was taken in and hired by neighboring farmers. What was not he ever did eat.”27 the Fay-Griggs family, the owners of available from the land, streams, bay The narrator claimed Washington the defunct Crawford’s Tavern.31 Sarah and forests was bartered or purchased was impressed with Rebecca’s green Ann mostly likely worked at the at the general store.21 apple pie. Legend or fact, there is no house when she met Nelson. For the Rebecca’s daughter, Mary Turner- question the general stayed at the tavern next 30 years the couple was Treadwell’s certificate of birth was and Guion’s property had apple and employed at the Fay-Griggs house. recorded as required by the new other fruit trees. A newspaper printed a In 1836, John Griggs became the abolition laws.22 In 1810, Gloriana public notice that Guion’s son was rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Franklin testified, going to “…sell at public auction…the continued on following page

page seventeen Rebecca Turner, ‘famous cook’ of Eastchester con tinued from page seventeen Samuel was hired as the gravedigger. He and Sarah Ann raised four children across the Post Road at the Turner homestead.32 Samuel’s steady work helped support Rebecca’s extended family. Opening and closing graves was hard work rewarded with cash or credit for goods at the general store. From 1842 to 1850 Theodosius Hunt, grocer and church sexton, kept a journal of burials and carefully noted those hired to dig graves, as well as what and how they were paid.33 The detailed transactions from “the book of the dead” were prima- rily with Samuel Nelson and periodi- cally Rebecca’s sons, Abraham, Henry and Joshua. Finding food and drink, so essential to life, generously logged in a death journal was astounding. It revealed obscured Virginia Moskowitz Local History Room Public Library, Courtesy of Mount Vernon Crawford’s Tavern, built in 1732 and also known as the Fay-Griggs homestead, was located opposite St. Paul’s Church sources not only about Rebecca’s family and the Turner homestead. William Crawford operated it during the American Revolution. Samuel and Sarah Turner- meals but led to sample menus at Billy Nelson were affiliated with the house until their deaths in 1867 and 1860 respectively. In 1966, it was torn down to make Crawford’s Tavern.34 The journal chroni- room for industrial development. cled transactions with gravediggers, Samuel and Sarah Ann’s connection From family records and oral histo- itemizing the portions and price of to Billy Crawford’s Tavern supports the ries she described the tavern’s menu: bartered or credited provisions. It was a Turner tradition of lifelong cooking and “Eastchester Lodge No. 46 of the “grocery list” for Rebecca Turner’s service affiliations with the town’s Masonic order conducted its meetings at kitchen, a real-time indicator of her cook- important families and social and reli- (Crawford’s) Inn in the year 1797, ing and dining habits. It was a treasure gious institutions. The Fay-Griggses paying for the use of it six pounds, three trove of opportunities to recreate what were intimate and supportive neighbors. shillings and six pence per annum. Its they ate and drank. The lists included Samuel’s years of service were remem- communications were held every Monday diverse meats, fish, grains, vegetables, bered with a tombstone in full view of at four in the afternoon when the Moon beverages, cooking oils and spices, cook- the Turner homestead. The inscription was at full according to John Grigg’s ing fuels, soap, candles, medicines, work recorded his close relationship to the records…As the door opened in came the clothes and tools, hunting and fishing Crawford House. members, bowing to each other...The equipment, candies, smoking tobacco, In 1942, Mary Hicks-Fay wrote a Chairman called the meeting to order beer, wine and even an almanac.35 history of her husband’s family connection …Many resolutions were passed...the to Crawford’s Tavern.37 She referenced meeting adjourned and the members were As a young woman, Rebecca sources describing meals served in the delighted to hear the dinner bell rung by learned to cook and serve their dining hall. Oyster dishes were enjoyed the hostess of the Inn…the general stam- by all social classes and were so popular pede for the tables…the onslaught on the well-to-do guests, for whom that communal harvesting of the beds tempting edibles thereon arranged, from no detail was spared. had to be regulated by the following soup, wine, and steaming oysters to nuts, Her reputation at the Franklins’ April 3, 1792 ordinance: after which cake was served and eaten “Also agreed by vote…that there shall with relish. The food vanished…”39 led to gainful employment be no oysters got out of East Chester Creek She gave an additional reference to at Charles Guion’s legendary up to Fisher’s Landing by no person or per- tavern cooking and eating from around Post Road tavern. sons whatsoever without the consent of one the time Rebecca worked at Guion’s: of the Trustees of said town, after the first “As the door would open again admit- day of May now next, until the fifteenth ting the balmy air, the patrons inside, The Turner-Nelsons did not suffer day of September next ensuing, and person with appetite getting sharper every minute from the lack of food. Aware of the or persons whosoever found offending after their long journey from New York, insecurities of other freedmen, Rebecca against this act it shall be lawful for the waited to hear the call of the evening din- was grateful that her family ate well 38 Trustees to fine him, them, or her…” ner bell. This same bell Billy (Crawford) and often. Her dining table was not only The poor were dependent on oysters gave to John Grigg. When it was sounded for eating but a sacred gathering place for and shellfish. The question is how did the patrons, all respectably dressed, entered expressing faith, gratitude and blessings Rebecca prepare them? Mary Hicks-Fay the dinning room, and found on the menu for daily meals.36 offered a possible response to the question. such good things as beef, ham and eggs, hot page eighteen biscuits and old-fashioned gingerbread, In creating Down By The Creek, my Tragically, Benjamin died in 1832, honey, sweetmeats, apple sauce, apricots greatest challenge was identifying leaving Rebecca a widowed head of and an after-piece of pie …”40 archival food references and connecting household.47 It was the beginning of Rebecca’s “grocery lists” and Mary and converting their content to early unsettling times. The creation of com- Hicks-Fays’ reflections together form a New York recipes. The cookbook’s con- muter railroads brought thousands of unique mosaic portrait of Old Town’s ceptual foundation was the appropriate city-dwellers seeking relief from urban cuisine and a historical foundation for use of documented food sources relevant blight.48 The trains drew away the tav- the mythologized “Aunt Becky’s” cook- to Rebecca’s pantry, and hearth and later erns’ customers and economic vitality. ing. I used these two sources to identify stove cookery.45 Inevitably the best To feed the family and pay property and recreate the content and quality of understanding of her reputation was for taxes Rebecca took in more laundry. family and tavern recipes in my book. home-cooked meals. At the same time, once loyal customers Her family meals were certainly rudi- The cookbook includes a “slice of Old increasingly preferred and hired young mentary but satisfying affairs. However, Town history” for every recipe. The first Irish women who competed with her the lists suggested she occasionally made dish was assembled from a citation daughters for domestic service jobs.49 fancier meals, perhaps once served to describing Benjamin Turner serving as Upwardly mobile city workers and road-weary diners feasting at the an authorized but unofficial town ambitious immigrants followed the rail- Guion’s Tavern. pounder permitted to hold stray animals roads northward and established com- The Old Towners were for a fee. It was the earliest record con- muter villages. Eastchester’s proximity “Yankees,” and chowder was firming “a Turner residence.” made it prime real estate for suburban a staple, even at the Turners’. development. Anticipat- On her grocery lists were ing the extension of rail essential ingredients for a lines along the Bronx “John and Joseph Fay’s River and rumors of a Cod Fish Chowder.” Both second track toward were neighbors and witnessed New Haven, farmers her Last Will and Testament sold their land, moved in 1871.41 It was a dish cer- and started new lives.50 tainly prepared during her Rebecca’s sons lost their service at Guions. farm work and found The following provisions only occasional odd jobs. from the “grocery lists” likely By 1850, two of her sons made a flavorful chowder for were dead.51 Several of appreciative farmers: her daughters married January 31, 1844 Samuel and left for New York. Nelson Dr (due) Red Cow Rebecca, Samuel, Sarah September 14, 1844 Samuel Ann and their children

1/2 peck potatoes Church and Cemetery National Historic Site Archives, Parks Service Courtesy of St. Paul’s chose to remain close by 52 September 20, 1844 Samuel the Eastchester Creek. due on pork In 1850, the train to New Haven came November 25, 1844 Samuel 1/2 A scan from the 1844 Cemetery Interment ledger, top, shows Samuel Nelson’s contribution to Rebecca Turner’s through Eastchester. The peck Salt Samuel Loaf Bread grocery lists and household needs: salsoda, pairs of suspenders, handkerchief, fishing lines, firecrackers, beer, soap, bread, cider, sugar, boots and butter. An 1858 receipt for $7.50 from Dr. William S. Coffey, following year 1,000 December 19, 1844 Samuel rector of St. Paul’s Church, made out to Rebecca Turner, for washing the minister’s clothing and vestments. New York families began paper of pepper to build houses on small April 1, 1847 She (Becky or Sally?) “Taken up on the 29th day of Sept 1818 lots and organized the village of Mount said...1/ 1/2 lb crackers a stray cow a black cow with white star in Vernon. At the Creek, life remained sim- June 12, 1848 Samuel Nelson 1 codfish42 her forehead the owner may have her again ple; the water was clean and full of fish July 3-4, 1844 2 fish lines pack/fire- by providing property and paying charges by and the old ways honored. In 1854, crackers by Samuel) Bottle of Beer 43 applying to Benjamin Turner in the town of Samuel and Sarah Ann gave birth to their Today, the Fourth of July might East Chester N.B. Said cow has 4 white last child, Sarah Elizabeth. Aunt Mary include fishing, fireworks and a few cold feet & a belly Entered East Chester Sept was widowed in 1855 and returned home beers. It is not unreasonable to envision 30th 1818 By Benjm. H. Underhill Town to help her mother with the laundry Rebecca cleaning and battering the Clerk fee not pd.”46 business. Sarah Ann died in 1860 and catch for an outdoor fish fry cooking It was not difficult to imagine Samuel in 1867, leaving Sarah Elizabeth “Samuel Nelson’s Fried Flounder.” Fish unclaimed strays finding their way into in Rebecca and Aunt Mary’s care.53 battered with local ground cornmeal, Rebecca’s well-seasoned soup kettle. The When Rebecca died in 1874, Mount pan-fried in lard must have filled the air cookbook’s first dish is a hearty “Ben- Vernon was a growing village with with an aroma that attracted neighbors jamin Turner’s Oxtail Soup.” It was pre- future commercial and industrial plans and friends alike to gather and partake pared to refresh the hardworking men at for Eastchester’s creek and dock.54 in the seafood feast.44 the homestead. continued on following page

page nineteen Rebecca Turner, ‘famous cook’ of Eastchester con tinued from page nineteen Fortunately for Mary Turner-Treadwell, story for the last time not just to town- heiress of the estate, the region was folk but the newspaper’s cosmopolitan under Eastchester’s jurisdiction. Two readers. It was as if their interviews were decades later, in 1892, Mount Vernon final words before an execution. became an incorporated city and pro- The 20th century was not kind to the posed annexing neighboring villages elderly women. The onslaught of paved under the guise of a “Greater Mount roads, automobiles, indoor plumbing, Vernon.”55 Acquiring Eastchester Creek electricity and a national fixation on oil was its priority. overwhelmed their old-fashioned exis- In 1895, The New York Times antici- tence. Aunt Mary and Sarah Elizabeth pated Old Town’s clash with New York stood in the way of progress and moder- and Mount Vernon’s territorial and nity. The homestead was an impediment industrial ambitions. It foresaw the to straightening and dredging the defenseless hamlet’s demise. The creek ancient tidal stream to make it a deep- tour included a stroll through the over- waterway capable of docking and storing grown church cemetery. After short petroleum and home construction sup- Courtesy of St. Paul’s Church and Cemetery National Historic Site Archives, Parks Service Courtesy of St. Paul’s Dr. William S. Coffey, pictured here in 1852, served for 57 years as the rector of St. Paul’s Church. One of the first people he met there was Rebecca Turner, who lived di- rectly behind the parish house. In an 1865 discourse on church and local history he made reference to “good old Aunt Becky” as an Eastchester Creek “landmark.” by Carle Robinson and Larry Spruill mean. My sister and me lived alone; our chickens were taken and we were disturbed nights. The garbage was dumped around our place so that it was difficult for us to When The Train Came When The Train get to the road. It was also impossible for us to do laundry work for a living any more, as the grass and everything was cov- Illustration from ered with ashes and the well water was spoiled so that we were obliged to carry it from a neighbor’s well, and the saloon was also an annoyance to us...we could not stand it any longer. Will you please send me the bill of our taxes and assessments. We have been in possession of the property nearly a hundred years and paid our taxes The homestead of Benjamin and Rebecca Turner was on the north bank of Eastchester Creek. Charles Guion, tavern owner, church vestryman, superintendent of common lands and a trustee of the Overseers of the Poor until several years ago. Gentlemen I helped the Turners to realize their dream of land ownership. appeal to you for help will you not recon- excursions to the remaining colonial plies on its banks.57 sider this bill of ours and reduce it and houses and abandoned structures, the Mary Turner-Treadwell died in 1905 give us another chance at it…I will go to reporter was convinced that the nostalgic and was buried with her ancestors. Sarah Mount Vernon and see about it if you will story needed a human connection, Elizabeth’s older sister, Maria came to send me word when to go.” 59 endangered personalities clinging to live with her.58 They continued to work There was no invitation to return or rural lifestyles while facing Greater as laundresses. Besides fierce competi- consideration of a tax reduction. Mount New York and Mount Vernon’s uncom- tion from Chinese launderers, Mount Vernonites did not know or care about promising industrial invasions.56 Vernon city officials made it difficult for Benjamin and Rebecca Turner. “Aunt Unexpectedly, the reporter found them to remain at the Creek. In 1912, Becky’s” legacy was buried in her Aunt Mary and Sarah Elizabeth living in Sarah Elizabeth and Maria left for New unmarked grave; however, the Turner the century-old clapboard house with an Jersey and worked as domestic servants. story was not over. For the next quarter- outdoor privy, deep-water well, chickens In 1916, Sarah wrote an appeal letter to century Sarah Elizabeth continued to running about the yard and garden, the Mayor and Common Council: fight for the Turner property.60 cooking and washing and worshipping at “Gentlemen: I am one of the heirs of the In 1931, Maria Nelson died in the church. They were the face of vanish- property of Rebecca Turner deceased. We Creswell, New Jersey. Sarah Elizabeth ing rural metropolitan New York. Old were compelled to leave the old place over arranged for her burial in the cemetery Town was indeed a community facing four years ago on account of our surround- with their parents. She attended the extinction. The women told Rebecca’s ings. I will explain right here what I funeral and never returned to Mount page twenty Vernon. In 1941, two months after the toric Site.64 It marked “Aunt Becky’s” included them in her will with the promise of land homestead was foreclosed and sold to an formal recognition as a pioneering and substantial support. The will was amended in 1812. They served her until her 1824 death. They oil company, Sarah died in a lonely Eastchester woman. enjoyed less than 10 years of freedom. For Hannah and Nyack rooming house. In her last will Down By The Creek, Cooking with Nat, freedom was an elusive dream. See the detailed and testament she bequeathed her mod- Rebecca Turner in Old Town Eastchester is provisions for the couple in “The Last Will and Testa- est estate to a wealthy patron. Unlike a social history about an accomplished ment of Gloriana Franklin, August 24, 1810, in the her ancestors there was no one to return entrepreneurial cook and servant. It is Town of Eastchester.” 12Ibid. Rebecca was not mentioned in Gloriana’s her earthly remains to the cemetery by also a tribute to her and to her family, as wills, indicating she was manumitted and married the Creek. She was buried at the top of a hardworking “Old New Yorkers” who between 1800 and 1809. During the years following hill overlooking the Hudson in a segre- made the best of their bondage and lib- the passage of New York’s 1799 Gradual Emancipa- gated Rockland graveyard.61 eration. Down By The Creek is an appre- tion Act, rural free black families like the Turners Sarah Elizabeth left a trail of docu- ciation of this inspirational American refused to follow others fleeing to the squalor of segre- gated New York City’s black communities. They chose ments about her grandmother’s encoun- family, living, laboring and dining in to cast their lot with town folk and work through the ters with slavery, freedom, family, faith Old Town Eastchester. inevitable indignities and denial of civil liberties. and, of course, food. An attorney from Owning land with the help of whites was their path to *** the foreclosure hearings wrote that her long-term stability. Benjamin and Rebecca attached detailed deposition “was based not only notes their family to the stability of St. Paul’s Church and 1“A Historic East Chester Ancient Colonial Tavern cemetery and nearby taverns. on her memory, but also on correspon- 13 Where Washington Was Entertained, Recent Discov- James and his siblings were members of New dence, notes and entries” through which ery of Interesting Old Relic.” The New York Times, York’s influential nouveau riche. When the city served she kept her family alive as encourage- October 20, 1895. as the nation’s first capital, Walter Franklin’s Manhat- ment.62 In a dramatic 1934 letter to 2Ibid. tan mansion was often President George Washington’s 3 “White House.” The Franklins twice married into Mount Vernon politicians ending her Larry H. Spruill, A Time to Remember, A Por- trait of African American Life in Mount Vernon, N.Y. New York’s first political dynasty, the Clintons. When 30-year fight to regain the “Turner Lot,” (African American Workshop, 1987), pp. 1-99. the British were expelled and abandoned New York, she recalled Rebecca’s dinner table and 4Otto Hufeland, Westchester County During The Governor George Clinton, Sr., called the Council of unshakable faith. She wrote, American Revolution, 1775-1783. (New York: Harbor the State to create a temporary government for the “The land is in your hands, I am the Hill Books, Harrison, New York) , 1926, 1982. Dur- southern part of the State to assemble on November 21, 1783 at Guion’s Tavern. The marital, social and last heir, the city may go right on and do ing the Revolutionary War the British and patriotic forces focused on Westchester County to supply New political networks between the Franklins, Clintons, what they like as before, It is now over a York City and their armies. The constant foraging and George Washington, and Guion’s Tavern give credibil- hundred years ago, since our dear and pillage of farms was major cause of the evacuation of ity to Rebecca’s association with fine cookery. It also godly grand parents, gathered their chil- large numbers of the farmers. gives her multiple opportunities to meet George 5Richard Forliano and Eloise L. Morgan, eds. Out of Washington. dren for family prayers, morning and 14 The Wilderness, The Emergence of Eastchester, Tuckahoe and The term was coined years after Gloriana’s death. Bronxville, 1664-2014. Scheduled for a fall 2014 It aptly describes her responsibility to instruct and release during the 350th anniversary of the founding supervise meal selection and preparation. It is believed The trains drew away of the Town of Eastchester. that Hannah Franklin trained the younger Rebecca. 6 The term was referenced from Sarah Josepha Hale’s the taverns’ customers and Records of the Town of Eastchester, 1665. The origi- nal 10 families drew up The Eastchester Covenant, list- Early American Cookery, The Good Housekeeper, 1841 economic vitality. To feed the ing 27 agreed-upon rules or governing framework for (reprinted by Dover Publications, 1996). The original the fledgling community. Establishing the office of 1839 publication date paralleled “Rebecca’s Grocery family and pay property taxes tavern keeper was rule number 20. Lists” found in St. Paul’s Church cemetery ledger 7Ibid. (1842-1850). Rebecca took in more laundry. 15 8Records of the Town of Eastchester, Book Two, Eastch- Op. Cit. The Franklins were well connected to At the same time, once loyal ester Historical Society, transcribed 1964, p. 13 ½. the emerging political elites in post-Revolutionary 9In 1710 Eastchester’s population was 314, includ- New York. 16 customers increasingly ing 25 slaves. In 1790, out of 730 persons 75 were Op. Cit. Oakley. “The Guions of Eastchester.” 17 preferred and hired young Irish slaves; and in 1800 the town had 819 inhabitants with John Cox, Jr.’s Quakerism in the City of New York, 106 slaves. The figures are from a 1710 colonial census 1657-1930 (originally published in 1869, reprinted in women who competed with and the 1790 and 1800 federal censuses. 2011 by Heritage Books) covers the society’s policies, her daughters for domestic 10Caleb Morgan’s 1803 will stated “I give individual obligations and practices regarding slavery, my…my negro woman Easter to my beloved wife so emancipation, reparations, freedman education and service jobs. long as she remains my widow…and the liberty of marriage. It includes the Franklins and Clintons as making use of the kitchen for the Negro Woman prominent Quakers. Pages 54–70, and 86–95 are Easter to lodge in and to wash bake and cook in…” useful in explaining Rebecca’s liberation in the first From Caleb Morgan’s 1803 Last Will and Testament, decade of the 19th century. They clarify the moral evenings, and a blessing at each meal, and pressure on James and Gloriana to emancipate their it was handed down to us, to me the last Eastchester, New York. Caleb and Charles Morgan mar- ried Charles Guion’s nieces, Isabella and Susanah. See slaves. After her husband’s death she was a reluctant heir. Now I can say with boldness their Edward T. Oakley’s “The Guions of Eastchester.” emancipator, doing so at her death three years before God is my God. A father to the fatherless Town of Eastchester Series: Families, No. 1. William the mandatory 1827 deadline. 18 and a judge of the widows. Psalm. 68.5 S. Pellatreau’s, Early wills of Westchester County, New Ibid. pp. 86-88. Quaker marriage practices were York: from 1664 to 1784, New York Surrogate's Office often applied to slaves and freed servants. They made and, the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not arrangements for them to marry others of their race 63 at White Plains, N.Y. want. Psalm. 23.1.” 11Gloriana Thomas-Franklin was born September and status from neighboring fellow Quakers. 19 In 2012, the National Parks Service 27, 1740. In 1800, she had 10 slaves; two were inher- How did the Turners obtain valuable land on the discovered Rebecca Turner’s burial site ited from her father. There are questions as to why waterway? Were they “negro squatters” as suggested and erected a gravestone at St. Paul’s Gloriana manumitted Rebecca and left Hannah and by 20th century politicians? There were several Nat Franklin, her oldest and dedicated slaves, in Church and Cemetery, National His- bondage for nearly the balance of their lives. She continued on following page page twenty-one Rebecca Turner, ‘famous cook’ of Eastchester con tinued from page twenty-one documents illustrating Charles Guion’s authority to sugar to a bolt of cloth. In 1842 money was not plentiful Archives, Series 13036-78, Enrolled acts of the State assign perpetual leases of common lands to individu- in East Chester, but the farmers maintained a credit at the Legislature, 1778-2005. als. The 1794 and 1798 leases to Hannah Fisher and store by bringing in eggs and vegetables in exchange for ‘for- 23Ibid. Hannah Hunt’s “Garden Lott” executed for 14 and 20 eign goods.’” The Old Red School House of East Chester, 24The title “Aunt” was inherited from her mother. years respectively by Charles Guion indicate land- Public School 15, Bronx, April 14, 1942, p. 14. Julia Both Rebecca and Mary lived long lives. The first ref- marks that coincide with the Turner homestead. In a Treacy Wintjen’s Along the Road To Bedford and Ver- erence to her mother as “Aunt Becky” was made in foreclosure proceeding 110 years later it was known as mont (p. 4) describes goods sold at Andrew Purdy’s 1865 by Rev. William S. Coffey, rector of St. Paul’s the “Turner Lot.” The end of the Hannah Fisher’s lease store near the new rail lines in the village. He was one Episcopal Church. During his 57 years as rector one of was 1817. The first public record of Benjamin Turner of the three Purdy brothers who sold their farms to the first persons he met was Rebecca Turner. She lived residing in Eastchester behind the parish. In a was dated 1818. It is speech on church and possible that the Fisher local history he made ref- agreement was extended erence to “good old Aunt to Benjamin and Rebecca Becky” as a town land- Turner. Hannah Fisher mark. The quotation was had a tavern on Kings- part of a lengthy speech bridge Road. It is possi- published in “A Com- ble that the Turners memorative Discourse obtained the lot in 1809 (1865)”, The Westchester at the end of the Hunt Historian, Quarterly of lease. Gloriana Franklin’s Westchester County His- 1810 filing of the birth torical Society Vol. 6, No. of Mary Turner and refer- 1 (Summer 1969): pp. 8- ence to Rebecca as her 12. On October 20, 1895, “servant” and not “slave” Dr. Coffey was present could have been more for The New York Times’ than compliance with queries. He knew “Aunt

state law but may have Virginia Moskowitz Local History Room Public Library, Courtesy of Mount Vernon Mary” for over 50 years coincided with Benjamin and in 1905 buried her in and Rebecca’s marriage the cemetery. Dr. Coffey and acquisition of the died in 1909. Sarah Eliza- expired Hunt lease. To beth attended his funeral. read the Fisher option, 25Op. Cit., The New see Register of the Proceed- York Times, October 20, ings of St. Paul’s Church at 1895 East Chester, June 1797 to 26Marvin Kitman’s 1834 Parish Register 1787 George Washington’s Expense p.23; and Miscellaneous Charles Guion’s Tavern was popular during the colonial and revolutionary era. During the war, General George Washington Account by George Washing- was a guest. Rebecca Turner, a former slave, was a well known as a tavern cook. The building burned down in 1909. Records of the Town of Eastchester When the masonry walls were pulled down, a large number of gold coins were found. ton. (New York: Simon New York, 1794-1834 Series I, and Schuster, 1970). Volume X, Section I, Report of the Commissioners of High- the New Yorkers creating Mount Vernon. His 1850 There is an entry suggesting that during the war the ways 1801-1841, p.53). For the Hunt option see store account book noted “bread, cheese, broome, candles, general was very generous to Northern slaves who gave Miscellaneous Records of the Town of Eastchester New York, butter, drink of whiskey, tobacco, brown soap, 1/2 lb. of him good service. On September 1, 1776 he makes an 1794-1834, Series I Volume X, Section II pp.145-147. sugar, muslin, flour, mending boots, coffee, molasses, pair of entry No 151 writing, “To servants at Sundry times 20Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in shoes, pork, sheets of paper, matches...” $327.60 cents.” It was odd for a Southern slaveholder the Free States, 1790-1860. (Chicago: University of 22This record is the partial manumission of Ben- to provide cash to slaves on a regular basis. He did this Chicago Press), 1961. jamin and Rebecca’s daughter, Mary. Eastchester’s Book throughout the war. He liberally spent his $450,000 21The port of New York was the gateway for of the Colored People, is in the Eastchester Town expense account on quality food, Madeira and domes- goods from distant American and foreign markets. Records; a copy is at the Mount Vernon Public tic services. The cost of a shawl was not out of charac- The town general store supplied chocolate, molasses, Library. It is also cited in “Records of Slave Manumis- ter or behavior. codfish, sugar, coffee, imported tea, cinnamon, pepper sion in New York.” Journal of Negro History, 1941, 27Ibid. The New York Times. and goods trucked in by wagon from New York. 26:7. Gloriana was complying with 1799 laws provid- 28“Sale of Charles Guion’s Property in Eastchester,” Herman W. Johnston recalled, “William Gordon con- ing for the gradual abolition of slavery, specifying that The Westchester Spy, January 10, 1832. Vol. 2-36. ducted a grocery and liquor store opposite the Village Green. children born to a slave mother after July 4, 1799 Whole No. 88. p. 3. The village store of 1842 had a covered porch across the were declared legally free –but not until male children 29The cookbook has not yet been published. It is front, the summer meeting place of the less energetic members had turned 28, and females, 25. Slaves born before being edited and graphically designed for a 2015 release. of the community. Hitching posts were provided along the that date remained in servitude, although they were 30A similar 1839 notice of sale for Richard Shute’s front and sides of the building. Everything was sold, from redefined as indentured servants. See New York State neighboring farm defined what “a quantity of good

In a dramatic 1934 letter to Mount Vernon politicians ending her 30-year fight to regain the “Turner Lot,” Sarah Elizabeth recalled Rebecca’s dinner table and unshakable faith. She wrote,“The land is in your hands, I am the last heir, the city may go right on and do what they like as before, It is now over a hundred years ago, since our dear and godly grand parents, gathered their children for family prayers, morning and evenings, and a blessing at each meal, and it was handed down to us, to me the last heir. Now I can say with boldness their God is my God. A father to the fatherless and a judge of the widows. Psalm. 68.5 and, the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm. 23.1.

page twenty-two fruit” meant stating, “Near East Chester Church…will niture. “A stove” was specifically left to Sarah Eliza- 55Richardson Dilworth’s The Urban Origins of sell at Public Auction…the Farm formerly occupied by the beth living at the homestead. It was likely acquired in Suburban Autonomy. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: deceased…several apple orchards of select grafted fruit, a the late 1840s, while he was employed in the ceme- Harvard University Press, 2005) best explains the variety of cherry and other fruit trees, and well watered...” tery. His last will and testament was filed March 20, 1892 incorporation of Mount Vernon as a city to avoid (“A Farm For Sale” The Hudson River Chronicle, Sing 1867, Westchester County Surrogate’s Court 1867 (#201). annexation by Greater New York. It details the politics Sing, N.Y. October 15, 1839. p. 3.) Florence Minnard 46Records of Town of Eastchester, Volume V, Book of “Greater Mount Vernon” and the infrastructural, affirmed additional evidence of apple trees on the of Strays. political, economic and environmental machinations adjoining property including School House Number 471832 State records of parents of schoolchildren involved in its acquisition of Eastchester’s historic dis- One, “Each season brought its particular season events. In helped confirm Benjamin’s death. The following year trict, waterway and dock. the fall there were applehoards, nutting, hopscotch and Rebecca was listed as the responsible parent. In the 56For birth of the “Empire State and Imperial swinging beneath the old apple tree.” Op. Cit., “The Old 1820 and 1830 census he was listed as head of the City” see Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace’s Red School House of East Chester.” household. Benjamin never reappeared in the records. Gotham, A History of New York City to 1898 31This relationship is inscribed on Samuel Nelson’s In the 1840 thru 1870 censuses Rebecca was listed as (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), headstone purchased by the Fay-Griggs family and the head of household. She remained a widow until her pp. 1219-1236. reconfirmed in a March 9, 1942 letter from Henry H. death in 1874. 57George C. Richard. “Eastchester Creek Is Life Line Fay to Stephen Doig during the probate proceedings 48For the impact railroads had on Eastchester, see of Leading Eastern Industrial Center.” The Daily Argus, for Sarah Elizabeth Nelson’s will. The letter can be Next Stop Westchester! People and The Railroad (Yonkers, Mount Vernon, N.Y. Wednesday, April 1, 1942. [Fifti- found at St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site. N.Y.: The Hudson River Museum, 1996). The New eth Year as A City Celebration – Special Industrial Sec- 32Ibid. They were included in the 1850-1860 fed- York & Harlem Railroad, primarily a horsecar system tion.] Also Mount Vernon Reference Guide of 1948 Spon- eral censuses for the Turner household. was incorporated in 1831 to build a line on Manhat- sored by the Mount Vernon Board of Trade. (Mount Vernon 33My cookbook used numerous citations from tan. In 1840 the railroad’s charter was amended to Public Library), pp.150-151 gives a 1946-1949 indus- Records of St. Paul’s Church Eastchester, Volume II, Deacon’s allow it to build north toward Albany. In 1844 it trial list dominated by oil-related businesses. Book 1826 to 1841, and Sexton’s Book, 1842-1851. passed through Eastchester along the Bronx River, 58I was astonished to find her sister, Maria Nelson’s The ledger provided a mosaic view of 19th-century reaching White Plains. In 1849 tracks were laid live birth recorded on January 27, 1849 in the sexton’s Turner-Nelson family meals. The Sexton’s Book listed a through the town toward New Haven. New trans- “book of the dead.” In 1931 she died in Creswell, New variety of groceries received by the Turner-Nelson portation technology ended the town’s advantage as a Jersey. From Rockland County, Sarah went to great household as payment for cemetery and church work. gateway for stage and roadway travel to and from New lengths contacting Fay-Griggs descendants and offi- 34They were neighboring households in the 1820 York, initiating a flurry of farm sales. cials of St. Paul’s and Asbury Methodist Churches to and 1830 federal censuses. 49 The number of live-in Irish women servants listed pressure the new Episcopal rector to grant Maria bur- 35Op. cit. They are reflected throughout the Sex- in the 1850-1870 town censuses reflected the mid-cen- ial rights in the cemetery. There is St. Paul’s corre- ton’s Book, 1842-50. A sampling is provided in the tury wave of immigrants fleeing the Irish potato famine spondence highlighting the desperate appeal. In 1941, accompanying illustrated list. and poverty. In the 1870 census, Rebecca’s granddaugh- Sarah Elizabeth died. She was 87 years old. There was 36Sarah Elizabeth Nelson’s Aug. 28, 1934 letter to ter, Harriet Turner lived as a domestic servant at school no one left in the Turner-Nelson clan. the County Court of Westchester and City of Mount headmaster, Beekman Van Gasbeck’s Mount Vernon 59Sarah Elizabeth Nelson’s Aug. 31, 1916 letter to Vernon referenced the ritual of blessing food. residence. He also owned Creek property adjacent to the Mount Vernon’s Mayor and City Council references 37Mary Hicks-Fay. Billy Crawford’s Tavern, 1944, Turner homestead. His prominent residential neighbors raising chickens while protesting new city regulations pp. 25, 27-28. The use of historical food references to employed Irish women. prohibiting the practice in city limits. The well water reconstruct cooking and dining is a credible 50Harold A. Wintjen. “The Village of Mount Ver- was polluted, as was the creek. approach. There are only secondary sources about the non, New York, From 1851-1891” (Mount Vernon 60From 1920 until her health began to fail, Sarah taverns. The Fay-Griggs family had proprietary Public Library, Historical Pamphlet, No. 2, 1940). Elizabeth cooked and cleaned for a wealthy Nyack claims on the inn going back to the colonial period. 51Their interments were recorded December 20, Methodist family. She was the “nanny” for their seven Billy Crawford purchased the house, owning it 1841 and August 3, 1849 in the Sexton’s Book. children. She assigned them as executors and benefici- through the Revolution to 1820, when the property 52The 1850-1870 U.S. Census listed them as aries of her modest estate. returned to the Fay-Griggs family. The anecdotal ref- residing at the homestead. Assessment Rolls, Town of 61She was a member of a Nyack Baptist church. erences are the only glimpses of tavern meals. Samuel Eastchester, Westchester County, NY for 1855 and 1958 She did not share her “Old Town” and Mount Vernon and Sarah Turner-Nelson worked for them for three lists the Turner property and tax assessments. roots with anyone. Suffering from a stroke, she tried to decades. Mary Hicks-Fay repeated the story told in 53Sarah Ann’s death was recorded at St. Paul’s Epis- contact Fay descendents, classmates and members of the 1895 New York Times article about Charles copal and Eastchester Methodist Churches. Samuel’s Asbury Methodist Church to leave instructions for her Guion’s wife receiving a farewell kiss from General tombstone at St. Paul’s Cemetery confirms his date of remains. They were too far away. The pastor of the Washington. Though Rebecca’s daughter and son-in- death. He also left a will dated March 20, 1867 Baptist church buried her at Mount Moor Cemetery. law were tied to the Crawford House, she did not recorded in Westchester County Surrogate’s Court. The enormous Palisades Shopping Mall is built around mention “Aunt Becky’s” portion of the story. Until 54Mount Vernon village was a decade old when the burying ground. Down By The Creek, this was the last we would hear this 1862 notice announced the potential for shipping 62Op. Cit., Burke 1937 foreclosure deposition. of the legend of Rebecca Turner. During Sarah Eliza- and storage at the Creek. “Our Predictions Fulfilled!!! The 30-year foreclosure proceedings contained legal beth Nelson’s 1942 probate hearings, Henry Fay, The Fact Demonstrated!!! Great Excitement!!! On Satur- records focused on “Benjamin Turner, a negro squat- Mary’s husband, gave new biographical information day morning last, the inhabitants of the quiet town of ter.” By the 1920s and 1930s Rebecca’s name was not about the Turner-Nelsons. Eastchester were aroused by the scream of the steam whistle, mentioned in court cases or newspapers concerning the 38Eastchester Town Records, April 3, 1792. and all eyes were at once directed toward the place from foreclosure. Sarah Elizabeth represented Turner claims. 39Op. Cit., Hicks-Fay, Billy Crawford’s Tavern. whence proceeded the sound, when lo! a veritable steamboat, My cookbook excerpted those documents as “Slices of 40Ibid. Similar descriptions are not available for having in tow a barge of coal, heaved in sight, and soon History.” Guion’s. The competitive taverns were a hundred landed at Lockwood’s dock. Commodore Porter, of army 63Sarah Elizabeth Nelson’s Aug. 28, 1934 letter yards apart. Guion’s was more prominent. notoriety, successfully piloted her up without difficulty. The to County Court of Westchester and City of Mount 41Westchester County Surrogate's Court, In the people swarmed from every direction to see the strange sight, Vernon conceded that her age and poor health did not matter of proving the Last Will and Testament of but this will soon cease to be a wonder, for already, schemes permit her to continue fighting for the homestead. Rebecca Turner, September 17, 1871. are in progress which will open the way for commerce in this It is on file at Mount Vernon City Clerk’s office. 42Sexton’s Book. 1844, 1847, and 1848. direction. Westchester county property will rise rapidly in 64In addition to the Rebecca Turner gravestone, 43Ibid. value; now then is the time to buy cheap. We simply offer our her life story has become an important part of 44Ibid. In November 1844 there is a citation of the suggestion, a word to the wise is sufficient. – Enterprise.” the Historic Site’s interpretive tour and digital Turners using lard as a cooking oil. The Village News. Vol. 1. Mount Vernon, N. Y. program. She was to be included in Eastchester’s 45A stove was listed in Samuel Nelson’s will. The December 5, 1862 no. 23. p. 1. By 1910, Creek prop- 350th Anniversary’s publication, Out of The Wilderness, inventory included cash in a bank, gold and silver erties were exclusively zoned for commercial and The Emergence of Eastchester, Tuckahoe and Bronxville, watches, a clock, two shotguns, a feather bed and fur- industrial purposes. 1664-2014.

page twenty-three PUBLISHED Books by CHNY members, published in 2014

Eating Wildly: Foraging for Mallmann on Fire Life, Love and the Perfect Meal (Artisan) by Francis (Simon and Schuster) by Ava Mallmann with Peter Chin. Chin’s food memoir Kaminsky and (CHNY details how engaging in member) Donna Gelb. traditional foraging practices The book chronicles and the DIY-food movement the international helped her to heal old wounds grilling adventures of (an absent father, the loss of Francis Mallmann, the grandparents) and ultimately Argentine grill master taught her lessons in self- who takes readers on reliance. It’s also about grow- far-flung journeys – ing up at her Chinese grand- in winter’s snow, on parents’ kitchen table in mountaintops, on the Flushing, Queens, and the beach, on the crowded wealth of culinary and herbal knowledge that she gained there. streets of Manhattan, on a deserted island in Patagonia, in Paris, Brooklyn, Bolinas, Brazil – each locale inspiring new The Macaroni’s in the Basement discoveries as revealed in 100 recipes for meals both intimate (Changing Lives Press) by Fran and outsized. At every stop along the way there is something Claro. This recipe-laden cook- delicious to eat and a lesson to be learned about slowing down book bubbles with reminiscences and enjoying the process, not just the result. of the old neighborhood and takes readers back to post-World Rice: A Global History War II Brooklyn to tell the story (Reaktion Books) by of the Nonne, four Italian- Renee Marton. While American grandmothers whose rice originated in Asia lives revolve around food, family and Africa, it is now and weddings. With a dash of planted, harvested and this, a spoonful of that and a consumed all over the pinch of whatever, the Nonne world. This is largely prepare their sumptuous Old thanks to the geopoli- World recipes between going to Mass, smoking a Chesterfield tics of slavery and and giving the mal’occhio to anyone who doesn’t do things their indentured labor, way. Illustrated with vibrant photos, the book is a hybrid of followed by more reminiscences and cookbook, grounded in the traditions and traditional immigra- customs of new Americans with Old World values. tion and the move- ment of foodstuffs that The Donut: History, Recipes occurred as a result of and Lore from Boston to Berlin all three. In this book, (Chicago Review Press) by Marton chronicles Michael Krondl. A highly many aspects of rice, digestible morsel of a book that from rice in the field to rice on the plate or in the bowl, explores the history (and prehis- as well as the importance of rice as reflected in art, ritual, tory) of donuts in Europe, the etiquette, mythology, marketing, advertising and technol- Middle East and North America. ogy. She also details the many ways that different cultures It travels the breadth and depth eat rice, from congee to sushi, gumbo to pilaf, paella to rice of the donut ecosystem, from the pudding and more. A sampling of tempting recipes is heights of multinational corporations to hipster donut dives. And included. yes, there’s a baker’s dozen recipes in case you want to reproduce one version or another of humanity’s favorite sweet snack. page twenty-four The American Plate: Delicious December: How the A Culinary History in Dutch Brought Us Santa, Pres- 100 Bites (Sourcebook) ents, and Treats (SUNY Press) by Libby O’Connell. by Peter G. Rose. Rose’s new A mouthwatering history book is a celebration of of the evolution of Ameri- Dutch and American Christ- can food from the lead mas traditions. In more than historian at The History 100 tried-and-true recipes, Channel. For generations, award-winning food historian people have proudly Peter G. Rose draws on tradi- defined themselves and tions that date back to the their values through Middle Ages, as well as her their national cuisine. own reminiscences of her But American food, like native country, and suggests its history, is a world of its many ways to incorporate these true Dutch treats into Ameri- own. This book introduces modern readers to lost American can celebrations. The book describes the history and recipes of food traditions and leads them on a tantalizing culinary jour- St. Nicholas Day celebrations, as well as Dutch specialties for ney through the evolution of our vibrant cuisine and culture. Christmas and New Year’s. Rose includes recipes for savory Covering a hundred different foods from the Native American cookies and party treats as well as menus and recipes for the era through today, the book features over a dozen recipes parties that might happen between the feast days. The book is and photos. divided into two parts; part one discusses the history of St. Nicholas, how he was brought to America and became Santa, The Vegetarian Flavor Bible (Little, Brown and Company) and the other changes that have taken place here as well as in by Karen Page, with photography by Andrew Dornenburg. the Netherlands. The second part consists of 111 recipes that The Vegetarian Flavor Bible is an essential guide to culinary are easy to make and easy to love. creativity, based on insights from dozens of leading American chefs. Emphasizing plant-based whole foods La Varenne Pratique including vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, (Anne Willan, Inc.) the book provides an by Anne Willan. A digital edition of the A-to-Z listing of hundreds 1989 classic, which has of ingredients, from açaí been out of print for some to zucchini blossoms, time. The digital repro- cross-referenced with the duction of the original was herbs, spices, and other created by scanning its seasonings that best 500-plus pages. The book enhance their flavor, consists of four parts, each resulting in thousands of of which includes a glos- recommended pairings. sary of cooking terms, This book’s first chapter is cooking equipment and a devoted to a history of bibliography. Readers can purchase only the part or parts of vegetarianism and the key greatest interest to them, or the entire volume. Each part is people, books and other completely searchable, its images can be enlarged or viewed events that have led us to the point when eating less or even independently and formatting can be adapted (to the extent no meat is considered mainstream. It features an illustrated allowed by the user’s e-reader). Part 1: The Basics covers timeline of key events marking the history of vegetarianism Herbs and Seasonings, Soups, Stocks and Sauces as well as and veganism (from the establishment of Hinduism through Milk, Eggs and Cheese; Part 2: Meat, Poultry and Fish NPR’s 2013 Intelligence Squared debate “Don’t Eat Anything includes Game; Part 3: Vegetables, Pasta and Grains includes with a Face”) and celebrating our infatuation with vegeta- Mushrooms and Legumes; and Part 4: Baking, Preserving bles (from America’s first victory gardens to the vegan and Desserts also covers Fruit & Nuts and Freezing. The print restaurant Vedge being named one of GQ’s 10 best new edition’s groundbreaking photography has been digitized and restaurants). continues to illustrate each topic with detailed images of food groups and step-by-step instruction on basic to advanced cooking techniques.

continued on following page

page twenty-five . . . And a few late entries from 2013 con tinued from page twenty-seven

On the Chocolate The Picnic: A History (Altamira Press, Vegan Chocolate: Trail: A Delicious Rowman & Littlefield) by Walter Levy. Unapologetically Adventure Picnics are happy occasions and have Luscious and Connecting Jews, always been a diversion from everyday Decadent Dairy- Free Desserts Religions, History, cares. We think of the picnic as an outdoor (Perseus Books) Travel, Rituals meal, set on a blanket, usually in the middle by Fran Costigan. and Recipes to the of the day, fea- Author and vegan Magic of Cacao turing a ham- baking instructor (Jewish Lights per filled with Costigan has Publishing) by tasty morsels recreated some of Rabbi Deborah Prinz. Now in its second and perhaps a her favorite chocolate desserts as better- printing, this book explores the surpris- bottle of wine, for-you vegan interpretations, including ing Jewish and other religious connec- but historically Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles, Brooklyn tions to chocolate in a gastronomic and picnics came Blackout Layer Cake, Sacher Torte and in many forms, Moon Pies! Detailed instructions make historical adventure through cultures, professional-quality outcomes easy. countries, centuries and convictions. served any Rabbi Prinz draws from her world time of the day. This first culinary history reveals rustic If you will be publishing a book in 2015 travels on the trail of chocolate to and would like to share the news with unravel religious connections in the outdoor dining in its more familiar and your fellow CHNY members, send early chocolate trade and shows how unusual forms, the history of the word an announcement including the title, Jewish and other religious values infuse itself, the cultural context of picnics and publisher, any co-authors, and a brief chocolate today. The book includes who arranged them and, most important, description of the book, as well as a cover recipes, a glossary, tips for buying the gastronomic appeal. Drawing on image, to Managing Editor Karen Berman, at [email protected]. ethically produced chocolate, a list of various media and literature, painting, music and even sculpture, Levy provides Please send ONLY news of published chocolate museums around the world books, not works in progress. The deadline and more. an engaging and enlightening history is July 20, 2015. of the picnic.

Banana of the sages con tinued from page twenty-seven others in the African diaspora. Even the word mangú may come from a translates into “banana of the sages.” Long before the transatlantic slave Congolese word that refers to mashed *** trade, in 327 BC, Alexander the Great root vegetables. notes landed in Pakistan with a 150,000-man An urban legend claims that mangú 1Plantains were introduced as a staple food for ‘pigs and slave’ (Vega, 1986) during Hispaniola’s colonization. army and became enamored of bananas got its name around 1916, during the first 2“Our vegetables are mostly plantains, yams, beans, and plantains, which are different U.S. occupation. Dominicans offered a plate and Indian corn.” The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. cultivars of the same plant, the plantain of mashed plantains to American soldiers *** being starchier and drier; the banana and the soldiers said, “Men good!” The bibliography having more moisture and sweetness. Dominicans repeated “Man gu.” It’s funny, Equiano, Olaudah, The Project Gutenberg EBook The trade in plantains and bananas but also reminds us of the denial within of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, was significant in the prosperity and Dominican culture of its African roots. Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, March 17, 2005, https://archive.org/stream/theinterestingna1 expansion of Southern and Central In 2013, the Dominican Republic won 5399gut/15399.txt African states around 1500 AD. Some the World Baseball Classic without losing Marte, Lidia, “Migrant Seasonings: Food Practices, believe that Portuguese Franciscan a single game and headlines announced Cultural Memory, and Narratives of ‘home’ among monks first introduced them to the “Platano Power.” If platano was once a Dominican Communities in New York City,” https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/martel79117/ Caribbean island of Santo Domingo in slur, it’s now a source of pride, a symbol martel79117.pdf, p. 3. the 1516. I wonder if this historical nar- of resilience. Vega, Bernardo, 1981 “La Herencia Indigena en la rative is more popular because it affirms Today the plantain is considered a Cultura Dominicana de Hoy.” Museo del Hombre Domini- the platano as a European contribution. super-food. It contains more dietary fiber, cano, Series Conferencias, No. 10, Sto. Dgo. Rep. Dom. However, it has also been documented and less sugar than its cousin the banana. “The Latin Kitchen,” http://thelatinkitchen.com/ article/history-plantain-recipes. that plantains reached the Caribbean It is also a great source of vitamin C, “Garden Betty,” http://www.gardenbetty.com/2012 along with enslaved peoples. And many Vitamin A, B6 and potassium, which /01/a-banana-by-any-other-name/#J5LFY5XMaGFF1GDb.99. Caribbean plantain dishes are closely makes it an excellent food for weight “El Valle de Anton, Panama,” http://elvalleinforma- related to African staple foods. For control and suitable for diabetics. It’s no tion.wordpress.com/bananas-and-plantains/. Raw-Food-Health,” http://www.raw-food- example, mangú is a variant of fufu, a wonder that the plantain once had a health.net/Plantains.html. favorite in Western and Central Africa. botanical name Musa sapientium, which page twenty-six NEW YORK (FOOD) MINUTE Banana of the sages For New York’s Dominican community, the plantain was more than just another fruit

By Angie Cruz

My mother and tias watched the price of a platano, bull and bear, like bankers following the stock market. Photo by Edwin Martinez Even during the hardest economic times in my family’s history, platanos were served pretty much with every meal. A meal felt incomplete without them. The platano – plantain in English – was a sign of home. In fact, it is believed that Dominicans in New York, sick with nostalgia and desire to return to their country, eat them in greater proportions than Dominicans back home. Lidia Marte, in her doctoral dissertation, “Migrant Seasonings: Food Practices, Cultural Memory, and Narratives of ‘home’ among Dominican Communities More than a tasty dish, the plantain is a cultural symbol for New York’s Dominican population. in New York City,” uses the term “migrant you have mofongo. Platanos completes the economically, unlike earlier immigrants seasonings” referring to “the creative classic sancocho (a soup of everything) and who were fleeing from the brutal contestation and agency of these Afro- is the base vegetable for el pastelon, the Trujillo dictatorship. Caribbean populations as they seasoned Dominican version of a lasagna stuffed Though not a staple in the United their food, lives and homes in relation to with ground meat or cheeses. Platano is States or Europe, platanos are a huge colonial and post-colonial situations.” also the key ingredient for the festive part of diets in Africa, Southern and In our house, in the morning the green pasteles, our version of tamales. Central America and parts of Asia. ones were served with bacalao or scrambled According to Marte, “This former Between 2000 and 2002, 25 million eggs, with onions and tomatoes, fried slave1 cuisine (plantains) and present plantains were produced, of which 89 cheese, salami, or canned tuna, sautéed working class fare is a good example of a percent were consumed in Africa– they’re with fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions. Dominican food whose meaning and a staple food for 70 million Africans. They were sometimes boiled, then mashed prestige is shifting through the new expe- The first time I saw the word plantain into a mangú. My mother would soften riences of Dominicans in NYC. In the in print was as a college student, in the them into a purée with the saltwater they new localities it is becoming one of the slave narrative, The Interesting Narrative were cooked in, my grandmother used main indexes of Dominicanness chosen Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano.2 margarine, my aunt, olive oil. Every even to name Dominican neighborhoods Equiano listed plantains as a staple in his woman in my family cooked with nostal- such as ‘Plátano City’ and ‘Mangú Heights’ diet. I learned that plantains had gia, conjuring up whatever they could (Washington Heights in Manhattan). “ migrated to the Caribbean during the from a land they planned to return to as I grew up in “Platano city” or “Mangú 15th and 16th centuries, during slavery, soon as they saved enough money to do Heights.” For most of my childhood we as an inexpensive, nutritious food. In the so. Red onions were sautéed with salt and were called platanos. We were new, off 1620s, more than 30,000 plantains were vinegar and lumped over the mangú right the plane. The men stood out because imported annually to Cartagena, Cuba, before serving. For snack, they would fry they wore high water pants and socks and then distributed throughout the me up a ripe platano and smear it with with no shoes on and the women packed Caribbean. In many ways the platano cheese. For dinner they would double-fry themselves in brightly colored chicles, – served as a bridge between me, as a the green plantains into tostones. If you what are now called jeggings. Platano descendent of the Dominican Republic, mash the tostones and add some fried pork was a mean-spirited, derogatory term and the continent of Africa. Seeing the originating with Dominicans who word “plantain” in the slave narrative immigrated in the ’60s and were perhaps was the impetus for me to deconstruct Angie Cruz is the author of two novels, more interested in assimilating and false mythologies that essentially erased Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee. maintaining a distinct distance from slavery from the Dominican historical She teaches creative writing at African Americans, Puerto Ricans and experience. This eventually allowed the University of Pittsburgh and is from Dominicans like us, who came to me to build bridges and alliances with the editor of asterixjournal.com. America in search of a better life continued on previous page

page twenty-seven www.universalprinting4u.com | Fairfield, Connecticut | Courtesy of St. Paul’s Church and Cemetery National Historic Site Archives, Parks Service Courtesy of St. Paul’s

A photograph of the Old Village Green in Eastchester, New York, taken during the Civil War. St. Paul’s Church and its cemetery are visible in the background; behind the church is the site of the homestead of Rebecca Turner, a former slave known in the town for her cooking during the 19th century. CHNY Scholar’s Grant recipient Larry H. Spruill writes of his research into her life and foodways on page one.

The Journal of the Culinary Historians of New York Westport, Connecticut Westport, | www.whitelightdsn.com • Printed by Universal Printing & Mailing Services, Inc. | Visit us Follow us Write to us www.culinaryhistoriansny.org On Facebook: www.facebook.com/ Culinary Historians of New York CulinaryHistoriansNY P.O. Box 3289 Join us New York, NY 10163 For information on membership, On Twitter: @CulinaryHistNY visit www.culinaryhistoriansny.org/ On Instagram: http://instagram.com/ join.html culinaryhistoriansny Design by White Light Design, LLC