Pantagraph.com Weather forecast, local radar and more
NewsSaturday, November 11, 2006 9:31 PM CST
Comments Comments (0) | E-mail this page E-mail this page | Print this page Print this page | Enlarge type Enlarge type | Reduce type Reduce type | Search archives Search archives | RSS RSS feeds | Add to My Yahoo! Add to My Yahoo!
Mansion offers flavor of 19th-century holiday
By Phyllis Coulter
pcoulter@pantagraph.com
Advertisement

BLOOMINGTON - Celebrating Thanksgiving was hard work in the 19th century, but it was an important holiday for uniting a nation teeming with immigrants.

That was a message visitors to the David Davis Mansion State Historic Site heard on Saturday at "The Blessings of the Table: Thanksgiving at Clover Lawn." The event honoring how the holiday was celebrated in the Victorian era continues through this week.

"It was a lot of work (preparing Thanksgiving then)," said Barbara Wittemann of Gibson City. She was among 24 members of the Gibson City Girl Red Hats who visited the mansion.

"We're the last generation who could appreciate what the work our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did," she said. Wittemann and her contemporaries witnessed their grandmothers preparing for such holidays, she said.

The women attended a tea and toured the mansion to learn about the traditions Sarah Davis, David Davis' wife, imported from her New England family home.

Several visitors were impressed by the long list of items on the menu. The Thanksgiving menu displayed included oysters on the half shell, cream of chicken soup, fried smelts with tartar sauce, roast turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, baked squash, boiled onions, parsnip fritters, olives, chicken salad, venison pastry, pumpkin pie, mince pie, almond ice cream, lemon jelly, hickory nut cake, cheese, fruits, coffee and tea.

"The menu is so extensive," said Ann Roten of Bloomington, who toured the museum with her sister from Kankakee. "Celery was such a luxury then it was served in a special bowl," she noted.

It was the kind of menu that Davis' contemporary, Sarah Josepha Hale, published in Godey's Ladies' Book, said Marcia Young, the museum's superintendent.

Hale promoted Thanksgiving as a way to unite the country, Young said. At that time, immigrants from many different countries brought their own customs and there were few common American traditions, Young said.

Hale wanted to promote ways families could celebrate in a homogenous way.

Her recipes included food, such as cranberries, turkey and pumpkins, that was available in New England and specifically in the Boston area, where she lived. She was among those who invented the modern Thanksgiving menu, which is very different from the seafood meal the early Pilgrims and American Indians shared.

As the wife of a U.S. Supreme Court justice and friend of Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Davis was social trendsetter who popularized those recipes and traditions here.

Lincoln himself also played a major role in the holiday's history. He made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.



Taste of history



What: "The Blessings of the Table: Thanksgiving at Clover Lawn"

When: Continues through Saturday

Where: David Davis Mansion State Historic Site, 1000 E. Monroe St., Bloomington.

Hours: The mansion is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Cost Donations of $2 for adults and $1 for children are suggested.

Contact: Call (309) 828-1084.

Mansion offers flavor

of 19th-century holiday

Take a look
Video
Most commented stories
Browse online archives
Recent issues:
Reader comments on this story - 0 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
Add your own comments

Please read the rules before posting comments.

You must be logged in to leave comments.
If you don't have a member ID, please register.

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login?
(requires cookies)
  Forgot Your Password?
 
Lee Enterprises Customer Service | 301 W. Washington St., PO Box 2907, Bloomington, IL 61701-2907 | Ph. 309-829-9000 | 800-747-7323
Copyright © 2008, Pantagraph Publishing Co. and Lee Enterprises. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy