The Palimpsest

The Palimpsest, vol.73 no.1, Spring 1992

Campaign Collections: Reminders of Iowa's Political Past

The Doremus Diary: Dodging Sandbars and Log Booms

Lobdell, Arthur T

accounts and could be exchanged for coupons 
good for purchases in their canteens, or they 
could authorize donations to approved projects 
and causes. Kaib and many other POWs gave 
generously to the nativity scene project.
Financial support also came from another 
source — the prisoners’ canteens. Modeled 
after the U.S. Army’s post exchanges, the can­
teens were handled by POWs who had run
0
businesses in Germany. The POWs exchanged 
coupons for items such as toothbrushes, razor 
blades, playing cards, soda pop, 3.2 beer (when 
available), and snacks. Canteens earned a mod­
est profit, and the Geneva Convention had 
directed that such money be used for the bene- 
fit of the captives. A board of American officers 
and German POWs who supervised the dis­
bursement of canteen funds endorsed Kaib’s
Observations of a POW Camp Commander
Note: In these excerpts from a 1946 speech man­
uscript, Colonel Arthur T. Lobdell provided more 
details of the Algona POW camp he commanded.
For two and a half years I was commanding officer 
of German prisoner of war camps in Iowa, Min­
nesota and the Dakotas. At the beginning of each 
camp we established the following policies:
. . . Every American must absolutely control the 
P.W.’s. The American is to give the orders, the 
P.W. is to obey or be punished. The prisoners from 
Algona, who would later return to Germany, would 
judge the U.S.A. by the way they were treated at 
Algona.
Each American to he dignified, fair, cold, mili­
tary and efficient in handling P.W.’s with no frater­
nizing permitted. Every P.W. was to work every' 
working day and have every' hour of his day filled in 
either with work, studies or recreation and religious 
services on Sunday.
. . . Most of the Americans treated their job with 
dignity, neither fraternizing with the Germans nor 
maintaining a cocked gun attitude. They simply did 
a good job treating their prisoners as soldiers and 
maintaining to the letter those international laws 
which govern our activities. . . .
. . . Most of the Germans preferred hard routine 
manual labor, 10 to 12 hours a day. We had one 
camp in Clinton, Iowa that worked around the clock 
. . . with two shifts, each 12 hours, handling 11 
different kinds of products each in 100 lb. sacks. In 
the north woods the prisoners w'orked winter and 
summer and only stopped when it got below' 45 
degrees below zero; when the axes got too brittle to 
use. . . .
Anti Nazis — In July, 1944 I had my first request 
from behind the barbed wire from a P.W. claiming
to be anti-Nazi. . . .  He gave me the names of three 
other P.W.’s, and we soon had 12 from behind the 
barbed wire. . . . Once outside the P.W.’s could 
not go back for fear of violence by the Nazis. . . . 
[These and other anti-Nazis were later taken to Bird 
Island, a camp in western Minnesota.]
S.S. — In a shipment of P.W.’s to our camp in the 
winter of 1945 there were 91 S.S. troops. Most of 
these had been tatooed under their right arm pit.
This tatoo was their mark of authority over all Ger-0
mans. The tatoo gave their individual blood type 
and assured them of first treatment if wounded. 
Some said it also had to do with their mating with 
S.S. women and the production of S.S. children for 
the permanent governing body in the Nazi plan. 
The S.S. controlled an organization of about 
2,000,000 men and women. Its word was law in 
Germany. . . .
The attitude of these S.S. men was insolent and 
insubordinate and it wras evident that the P.W.’s in 
our camp stood in fear of these new arrivals. . . .  I 
lined [the S.S.] up . . . and offered w'ork. No one 
accepted so I placed them on a restricted diet 
of bread and water . . . under the rule “no w'ork, 
no eat.’ . . .
Military Characteristics— . . . Living 50 in a 
barracks 20 x 100’ it was necessary' that [the Ger­
man prisoners] he well-disciplined which they 
were. Many of the German prisoners had been in 
service for 10 years and barracks life was the only 
life they knew'.
May 8th, 1945 — On that day Germany surren­
dered. Our P.W.’s were generally dejected and 
with shoulders bent forward, heads down they went
about their business. On that dav in our base and
0
branch camps 7 P.W.’s went insane. These were a 
part of the S.S. and Nazi who had never given up
178 THE PALIMPSEST
ir
requests. He spent about eight thousand dol­
lars from individual POW donations and can­
teen profits for material. (Considering that 
POWs earned eighty cents a day, this repre­
sents well over two thousand POWs working a 
six-day week.)
Kaib recruited five other captives with artis­
tic abilities as his helpers. For almost six 
months he and his team sculpted and painted
the scene s seventy-five figures. The human 
and animal statues were constructed of wire 
frames covered with concrete and coated with 
plaster of paris. Features and other details 
were then carv ed in the plaster and each figure 
was painted.
Creating and storing the multitude of figures 
required more space than what was available 
inside the stockade, and so Kaib and his
- 1/ 1/
hope. All 7 were put in straight jackets and were 
brought to our base hospital. 3 recovered and 4 
were immediately shipped back to Germany.
Immediately after V. E. Day we received 378 who 
were on the ocean on V.E. Day. This was the 
sorriest group we ever received. Of the 378 about 
90% were estimated to have been wounded, many 
having been shot both from the front and rear. 
About 30 in the group were badly infected with itch 
and scurvy. Included in the group were 75 young 
boys, many without any hair on their chests, appar­
ently 14 years to 16 years of age and weighing 60 lbs. 
apiece, also 60 old men, 42 of whom had double 
hernias and had to be sewed up before they could 
even do the lightest kinds of work. It was very 
apparent that Germany had scraped the bottom of 
the barrel of manpower and further that their Civil­
ian Army was ineffective. We put the young boys in 
a squad of 7 under an older man and usually worked 
them on K. P. ’s. In their case we put about 30 lbs. of 
weight on them in the next 6 months. . . .
. . . Physically the 10,000 Germans that passed
POWs pause during winter work,
/
x
through our camp returned to Germany in very 
much better condition than when they arrived.
. . . [Regarding their mental condition"] my 
guess is that 15% went back unchanged. The Nazi 
teaching, plus the nearly 200 years of Prussian train­
ing and theory of the super race were not changed 
by their internment. I believe that 1,500 from our 
camp will need careful watching in Germany for 
many years. As for the remaining 8,500 I believe 
that they expressed themselves in the following 
paragraphs of their camp paper [titled Lagerzei- 
tung, written by the POW editor, and later trans­
lated for Lobdell by Gunnar Norgaard or a 
Nebraska university professor.]
We Germans may be glad for two reasons, first 
the frightful massacre of the last decade has come to 
an end and the world is moving again. Whatever 
spasmodic pains in the present toward the past that 
in the future will also give us the possibility to build 
up a quiet, laborous life in moderate limits. Second, 
the United States will get a fabulous prosperity in 
the next few years and therefore, they will be able 
economically to support the destroyed Europe.
Germany has lost the war. Irrevocably and defi­
nitely having understood this hard fact and having 
seen the chance of a total world victory' by the Nazi 
system collapse we may call ourselves lucky finding 
the powers of the universe in the hands of the 
democracies, for only these are the guarantees that 
the immense energies will not be applied for world 
destroying conquests. Our lives depend upon that. 
All Germans feeling freedom of fear the most pre­
cious of the four freedoms will agree with our 
statement.
“Germany has lost the war, but it had to lose it to 
clear the way to the closed resources of the German 
spirit and German inwardness. If this will give the 
German people a respect ofothersf] rights we shall 
be able to establish a German kind of democracy, 
but the way there is stony and long, long______ ”
WINTER 1992 179
BOTH p a g e s  COURTESY THE a u t h o r
The nativity scene as it first appeared at Christmas 1945. The photo was part of a souvenir folder.
assistants were put on the honor system and 
allowed to work in the American garrison sec­
tion. A storage building for sports equipment 
became Kaib’s studio and storehouse.
As November 1945 drew to a close, the Ger­
man sergeant and his five helpers turned their 
final attention to the display area. Lobdell had 
provided an empty warehouse for the diorama. 
Although Kaib modified his plan to fit the ware­
house, the display was much as he had origi­
nally visualized it. Indeed, in many ways, it 
was more elaborate than most supporters had 
anticipated.
WHEN THE nativity scene was com­pleted, Kaib wrote a brief narrative, A Little Guide Through the Christ­mas Scene. He labored to find the 
proper English words and sentence structure 
for his German thoughts, and in somewhat 
awkward yet eloquent prose, he expressed 
what he hoped his audience would see and feel. 
He began, "The Christmas star — fourteen feet
high [above the manger] — like the star of 
Bethlehem, its light beams through the 
darkness and attracts the people from nearby 
and far away to visit the Christmas scene. This 
object [scene] has been performed [built] by 
German prisoners of war . . . from their own 
earningsf.] It is supposed to testify [to] the 
artist’s will to create even in . . . [his] gravest 
hours.
First the visitor sees the oil picture at the 
gate [entrance] and then comes into a room 
illuminated by a mild blue light,’ Kaib con­
tinued. He hears the sound of bells and harps 
and his heart is impressed . . . [as] he listens 
devotionallv and he [views] . . . the nativity 
scene which represents the soul ol the work, 
fhe Son of God lies in a straw-covered crib, 
born as mankind. On both sides of the crib are 
Marie and Joseph and praying shepherds.
The diorama was truly impressive. Columns 
and arches divided the low, semi-circular stage 
into three parts. The manger scene was the 
focal point of the large, central section. Lead­
ing camels and servants, the Wise Men 
approached from the left against a dim sil­
houette of Bethlehem. On the right, amidst 
grazing sheep, a small stream flowed down
180 THE PALIMPSEST
from the hills and tumbled over a miniature 
waterfall. Angels hovered above the manger, 
and startled shepherds gazed at a star-filled 
sky. Christmas music could be heard in the 
background.
Out of the interior of the mountain, Kaib’s 
narrative concluded, it sounds like the voice 
of angels: silent night, holy night. . . ‘Gloria in 
excelsis deo. Angels sang this song of love and 
peace the first time in the Christmas of Beth­
lehem long, long ago. But every year at the 
same time this message of heaven is being 
heard by millions of people. And peace on 
earth to the men of good will. ”
When the nativity scene was ready, Kaib 
commented to Lobdell that the star of Beth-
Eduard Kaib poses with two figures from the nativity 
scene during summer 1945. Years later, Kaib remarked 
about the scene, “I made that at the darkest time of my 
life.’ Below: Kaib s original layout.
WINTER 1992
lehem was "inviting the people of the Algona 
community' to visit the scene” and the colonel 
agreed. The camp public relations officer 
issued a press release announcing times for 
public viewing and quoting the camp com­
mander. It is a well established fact, Lobdell 
said, "that the German people before the time 
of Hitler were deeply religious and regarded 
the Christmas season as one of the great 
religious periods of the church year. The 
Kossuth County Advance published a front­
page photograph of the diorama and declared 
that it was "probably one of the greatest Christ­
mas scenes to be ever shown in Algona.
Nearly two thousand people from Algona 
trooped through wretched weather to the 
remodeled warehouse. Another fifteen hun­
dred came from other Iowa towns and coun­
ties, and over a hundred viewers came from 
other states. Local ministers and a Catholic 
priest held brief worship services at the scene. 
How different this Christmas was from Christ­
mas Eve 1944, when American guards huddled 
tensely around machine guns in anticipation of 
a mass escape by German POWs.
BY THE TIME the nativity scene opened that December, the war with Germany had been over for half a year, and the surrender of Japan was three 
months past Algona s newspapers carried 
accounts of the homecoming of its sons and 
daughters, and the first peacetime Christmas 
in five years was celebrated in a joyful and 
relaxed fashion.
At the POW camp, however, the season was 
filled with feverish activity. Lobdell had re-
0
ceived word that all the prisoners would soon 
be sent to ports of embarkation and the camp 
would be closed early in 1946.
What would become of Eduard Kaih’s 
impressive Christmas diorama? A department 
store in Chicago offered to buy it. A nearby 
college asked that it be donated to its campus. 
Many in Algona hoped it could stay in the
community.0
Lobdell left the decision to Kaib, his help­
ers, the German Lutheran chaplain Alex
Funke, and the POW spokesperson. Sergeant 
Ereidrich Henkel. The group recommended 
unanimously that the display should remain in 
Algona if proper arrangements for its preserva­
tion and care could be made. Thev wanted
0
their Iowa hosts to remember them through 
this memorial to peace, produced as a result of 
a painful wartime experience.
Algona’s citizens responded quickly. The 
Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Javcees, 
volunteered to relocate the scene to a building 
donated bv the Kossuth Countv Fair Board and 
promised to exhibit it during the Christmas 
seasons to come. Kaib and his colleagues were 
delighted and imposed only one condition — 
no admission should ever be charged to view 
the work. In January 1946, German POWs and 
Algona Jaycees moved the scenery and heavy 
figures to their new location (each camel alone 
weighed more than five hundred pounds).
Bv mid-Februarv all of the Germans were/  0
gone from the Algona camp. So were most of 
the Americans. Lobdell turned the camp over 
to an engineer officer who presided over the 
sale of surplus property. By June, almost all of 
the camp's buildings were demolished. 
Algona s direct experience with its prisoner-of- 
war camp was at an end. The continued pres­
ence of the elaborate nativity scene, however, 
kept alive the memory of the camp long after 
the site was transformed into an airport.
Kaib s nativity scene is still housed on the0
Kossuth County Fairgrounds and is opened to 
the public each Christmas season (see box on 
page 184). In 1958 the Men’s Club of the First 
United Methodist Church assumed the
NOTE ON SOURCES
This article is based largeb on documents from the Arthur 
T Lobdell manuscript collection, in the possession ol the 
author Other major sources include the author s conver­
sations and correspondence with Wes Bartlett, Jean Har­
rington, A T Lobdell, Gunnar Norgaard, and Dick 
Norton Madeline Summitt made available written infor­
mation by Eduard Kaib, which he had sent to students 
Angie Heldorferand Sharon Kadow for their 1985 History 
Da> project at St Johns Grade School, Bancroft, Iowa. 
Clippings, letters, and photos displayed in the Nativity 
Scene building in Algona provided additional informa­
tion. An annotated cop\ of the original manuscript is in 
Palimpsest production files.
182 THE PALIMPSEST
COURTESY THE AUTHOR
t
( aptor and captive visit reads the caption from the 
December 30. 1968, Algona Kossuth County Advance. 
That Christmas, Lobdell (left) and Kaib (right) were 
reunited. Algonans raised money so Kaib and his family 
could travel from Germany to Algona.
responsibility for the nativity scene and five 
years later they built a new building for it on 
the fairgrounds.
Over the years it has attracted tens of thou­
sands of visitors from all fifty states and many 
foreign countries. Brief articles about the 
diorama have appeared in several American 
newspapers and magazines. In 1953, a United 
States Information Agency official wrote Dick 
) Norton, an Algona Jaycee member, that the 
f SIA planned to use the story of the Algona 
nativity scene “through newspaper, pam­
phlets, pictures, posters, and displays in 82 
countries of the world.’ In 1945 neither the 
German sergeant nor his American camp com­
mander could have foreseen the durable popu­
larity and quiet influence of the remarkable 
display.
DUARD KAIB and Arthur Lobdell 
corresponded for some years after the 
[  war, and the colonel and iiis wife, Betty, 
sent the Kaibs care packages from time 
to time. The postwar years were difficult for the
German veteran. When he had returned to 
Germany, Kaib reported that my wife and my 
little daughter had fled [from Silesia] from the 
Russian Army, leaving all the goods we had 
owned behind.’ Within two years his wife died 
of cancer, leaving him to raise his daughter 
Marita alone. Four years later he remarried 
and became the father of two more children, 
Norbert and Cornelia. He settled in Bielfeld, 
West Germany, and eventually prospered as 
an architect and the proprietor of a small fac­
tory producing plastic advertising items.
Lobdell was honorably discharged from the 
army in February' 1946, and returned to his 
office in Lincoln, Nebraska, as administration 
engineer for the state’s Department of Roads 
and Irrigation. In 1950 he suffered a stroke, but 
he recovered months later and continued serv­
ing as a highway department official until his 
retirement in 1965.
During the years after the war, several 
Algona citizens had corresponded with Kaib, 
and the Jaycees had sent Christmas parcels to 
him. In 1968, several Algonans raised money to 
bring the Kaib family to Iowa during the 
Christmas season and invited the Lobdells to 
join the celebration. Twenty-three years after 
the nativity scene was first displayed, Eduard 
Kaib and Arthur Lobdell met again in Algona.
There, surrounded by the peaceful farm­
lands and friendly people of northwest Iowa, 
the retired American colonel and the former 
German sergeant spent several pleasant hours 
reminiscing about their time together on either 
side of the wire fences of the old prisoner-of- 
war camp. Eduard Kaib’s wish in 1945 — for 
peace on earth to the men of good will — 
seemed to have become a reality as he and the 
former commanding officer celebrated Christ­
mas together for the last time in Algona.
For a closer look 
at the nativity scene, 
please turn the page.
WINTER 1992 183
The Algona Nativity Scene
The nativity scene is open to the public from the first Sunday in December 
through December 31. Weekdays and Saturdays: 2 to 9 p.m. Sundays and Christ­
mas Day: noon to 9 p . m . December 31: 2 to 6 p . m . The display is housed in the 
Kossuth County Fairgrounds in Algona. There is no admission charge. For more 
information, contact Wes Bartlett of the Men’s Club of the First United Methodist 
Church in Algona.
The Palimpsest thanks Wes Bartlett for allowing us to photograph the scene and 
for sharing his own thoughts about it. As he remarked, “The most meaningful 
thing is that during a time of military conflict, those we considered our enemy and 
who were our prisoners wanted to create a symbol of peace. "
Color photos by Chuck Greiner
184 THE PALIMPSEST
i«ËÉÉ :V. . .
V *■ y JV V ■Bf 1vl/lrvj





English

Observations of a POW Camp Commander

Bennett, Mary

The Stereoscope: 3-D View of the Past

Meixner, Mary L

Lowell Houser's Poetic Glass Mural in Des Moines

Swaim, Ginalie

Home is where 
the history is
A
X  X  HOUSE is a reflection of its designer 
and builder, of its occupants, and, more gener­
ally, of the culture, time, and place in which it 
was built. In the 1920s a young entrepreneur 
named Howard Moffitt began building small 
rental houses in the university community of 
Iowa City. His houses are neither large nor 
ostentatious, yet they tell an important story — 
how a local builder adapted national trends in 
American housing. It s an entertaining story as 
well, for Howard Moffitt was no ordinary 
builder. Architecturally, the houses may be 
broadly categorized as Period houses.’ 
Locally, they are known as 'Moffitt houses. 
Their enduring appeal — explained by two 
current owners on pages 159 and 160 — attests 
to the effect a structure can have on people and 
on a community.
Historical study and preservation efforts
have often focused on nineteenth-century 
buildings, including elegant Victorians. But 
more modest structures, as well as those built 
in this century, also tell us much about our 
past. Indeed, the Moffitt houses, built just over 
fifty years ago, are now eligible for the National 
Register of Historic Places because of their 
architectural significance on a local level. In 
fact, a cluster of five Moffitt stone cottages is 
currently in the process of being nominated to 
the National Register.
By looking at Moffitt houses from three 
viewpoints — the builder, the historical con­
text, and the occupants — this Palimpsest 
encourages readers to look at their own com­
munities and countryside for similar examples 
of how Iowa’s built environment reflects the 
past.
— The Editor
Side and front views of a Moffitt stone cottage (drawings by Phil Miller).
146 THE PALIMPSEST


Home Is Where the History Is

McDaniel, George William

World W ar II
Comes
to Davenport
by George William McDaniel
W
HEN PEOPLE in Davenport, 
Iowa, awoke the morning of 
December 7, 1941, they had little 
reason to suspect that this day 
would be any different than countless other 
Sundays in their lives. Picking up the morning 
Democrat and Leader, a Davenporter would 
have smiled to read that the weather was fore­
cast to be fair and warmer with fresh, southerly 
winds. The high temperature would reach 
thirty-eight degrees, not unusual for the begin­
ning of December. In a box in the lower corner 
of the front page, the newspaper continued to 
count down the number of shopping days until 
Christmas, while urging readers to buy 
defense bonds and stamps. The minutiae of 
daily life in early December 1941, gleaned 
from local newspapers, portray a quiet eastern
DAVENPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
à
Summer or winter, Davenport stores attracted shoppers along busy West Second Street (here, circa 1930—40). In earlv
December 1941 newspapers, the optimism of holiday ads
Iowa city anxious about the international situa- 
tion but largely focused on living peaceful 
lives.
To be sure, the newspapers were filled with 
the dangers of war with Japan. Negotiations 
were under way to avert war, but United 
States’ insistence that Japan pull out of China 
had proved to be a stumbling block. The ban­
ner headline in the Davenport Democrat and 
Leader that morning announced, “F.D.R.
belied fears of war between the America and Japan.
Sends Note to Jap Emperor.’ But the paper 
had carried banner headlines about the con­
tinuing negotiations all week.
Inside the paper the editor urged that there 
be no compromise with the Japanese on the 
issue of China. Hoping that Japan would be 
guided by wise counsel, the editor warned, 
Any other course will bring the military 
strength of not only the United States, but also 
Britain, to her door. W hat that will mean.
90 THE PALIMPSEST
Japan had better ponder before it is too late.’
The front page mostly comprised news of the 
829th day of the war in Europe. One story 
noted that Great Britain had declared war on 
Hungary, Finland, and Rumania. Another told 
how the British Roval Air Force had used 
American-built Tomahawk warplanes in the 
Libyan offensive. On the Russian front, Ger­
man troops battled the Red armies in deep 
snow and “paralyzing cold. ”
Stories hinting at war were sprinkled 
throughout the paper. Two days before, Leon 
Henderson, head of the federal Price Control 
Administration, had told 550 Quad-City busi­
ness leaders that Davenport and neighboring 
cities on the Mississippi would likely play an 
important role in the coming war. Industrial 
manufacturing was sure to prosper with the 
need for war machinery, and increased food 
production would benefit the farm implement 
industry . Already this was reflected in figures 
released by the Work Projects Administration. 
In the last year, the number of Iowans 
employed by the New Deal program had 
dropped from about 23,000 to 15,000. As 
industry geared up for the war, fewer Ameri­
cans needed government relief jobs.
Other stories, too, showed this readiness. 
St. Ambrose College in Davenport announced 
that three graduates of the Civilian Pilot Train­
ing program had been placed as flight instruc­
tors in various branches of the armed forces. 
Moreover, a long list of students in the pro­
gram awaited placement with the army or 
navy. The European war had touched 
St. Ambrose in yet another way: a feature on 
music professor Robert Hernried told how he 
had fled his native Vienna in 1939.
Yet the two events that weekend that had the 
most profound consequences for history went 
unreported. On December 6, Vannevar Bush, 
head of the federal office of Scientific Research 
and Development, convened the first meeting 
of a small group assigned to explore the possi­
ble use of uranium 235 as a weapon of war. 
From this group would come the Manhattan 
Project and the atomic bomb.
And on the night of December 7, seven hun­
dred Jews arrived in the Polish village of 
Chelmno. The next morning the first groups 
were loaded into closed trucks and driven to a
nearbv woods. There, the exhaust svstem was 
redirected into the back of the trucks, and the 
Jews were gassed, their bodies dumped into 
pits. Hitler s SS was beginning to find efficient 
means for the final solution, the mass exter­
mination of Jews and other “undesirables.” 
The Holocaust had begun.
T
HE SOCIETY PAGES said nothing of 
the war, but announced typical social 
events. At 4:00 that Sunday afternoon 
Janet Anne Heim would marry Harold 
Dethlefsen at the First Presbyterian Church. 
Also that afternoon Catherine Harnev, born in 
1855, would celebrate her eighty-sixth birth­
day. Her party would coincide with the begin­
ning of the fifth American war in her lifetime.
People who lingered over the paper that 
Sunday morning before church probably 
checked out the ads for holiday gift ideas. Hills
Drv Goods store advertised a Santa Claus✓
Special — a chair, ottoman, and table for 
$19.95, or fifty cents a week. M. L. Parker 
department store suggested buying impecca­
bly tailored gabardine and flannel robes for 
men and flattering, swirling-skirted house­
coats for women. Penney’s offered hand­
kerchiefs (“The Always-Welcome Gift!”) at a 
variety of prices. Shoppers could also add 
pieces to their Fostoria dishware for prices 
ranging from twenty-five cents to $7.95. On 
sale for $167.50, the Philco “Music on a Beam 
of Light” would bring Christmas music into the 
home.
Reflecting the optimism of the holiday gift 
ads, retail sales were good nation-wide, up 
about 35 percent from the previous year. In 
part this was because of a rising industrial 
payroll and an increase in farm prices due to 
defense spending. But another reason for a rise 
in holiday consumer spending was voiced by a 
New York merchant who said that many people 
feared that 1941 may be the last chance for a 
real Christmas for many years.
The sports pages still carried a few college 
football scores. That evening at the 
St. Ambrose College Bees football banquet, a
SUMMEH 1992 91
sell-out crowd would hear Notre Dame coach 
Frank Leahy praise the Bees and show films 
from Notre Dame’s undefeated season.
If there was still time before church, the 
comics provided a momentary diversion, with 
the adventures of Superman, Popeye, Joe 
Jinks, Etta Kett, or Brick Bradford, who was 
engaged in mortal combat with a giant frog. 
Before the day was over, many may have 
wished for a man of steel or a spinach-eating 
"sailor-man to set the world aright.
P
UTTING the paper aside, many Daven- 
porters went off to church. According to 
a Gallup Poll that weekend, Americans 
in overwhelming numbers did not want 
to hear about war from the pulpit. This trend 
had started in 1939, shortly after the beginning 
of the war in Europe. "Stop talking about the 
war, one man had pleaded. I wish ministers 
knew how sick and weary college students are 
of hearing the war dominate sermons. 
Another man said it was the duty of clergy to 
present “eternal spiritual values.’
Davenport pastors apparently followed the 
trend. At the Central Baptist Church the 
Bev. A. R. Strasen spoke on "Partnership with 
God, and his colleague at Third Baptist 
preached on The Steadfastness of Faith. 
Rev. E. Wesley Perry, at St. John’s Methodist 
asked "What Is Christianity? Churchgoers at 
the Zion Lutheran Church would hear Rev. 
Louis G. Krebs speak on “Happiness of Hun­
ger at the 10:30 service, and on "Hunger Nach 
Gerechtigkeit at the 11:30 German-language 
service.
Following church the family might have 
planned to go out for dinner (a sixty-cent beef 
tenderloin dinner at the Mississippi Hotel 
Grill), and later take in a movie. The Capitol 
theater featured Gary Cooper in Sergeant 
York, the story of the Kentucky mountain boy 
who became a World War I hero. Adult admis­
sion was forty cents before 2:00 and fifty-six 
cents after. For only eighteen cents, one could 
see Cary Grant and Irene Dunn in Penny Sere­
nade at State Theater. Those wanting even 
lighter fare could consider a double feature at
the Garden: Life Begins for Andy Hardy with 
Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and Dr. 
Kildare’s Wedding Day with Lew Ayres and 
Loraine Day.
But most people probably stayed at home for 
a quiet afternoon with family. If they wanted 
entertainment, the radio would offer the Chi­
cago Bears/Chicago Cardinals football game, or 
Sammv Kaye’s Sundav Serenade. WOC s 
Wake Up, America program had scheduled a 
lecture on Can There Be a Substantial Reduc­
tion in Non-Defense Expenditures of the 
Federal Government? Music lovers could 
hear the New York Philharmonic with Polish 
pianist Artur Rubenstein.
It was, in other words, an ordinary Sunday in 
December.
I
 T WAS ALREADY past noon in Davenport 
when people in Hawaii began to stir. Intel­
ligence officers already at work translated 
coded messages routinely received at v ari­
ous listening stations throughout the Pacific. 
Most felt that if Japan did attack it would be to 
the south, in French Indochina or the East 
Indies. At the big naval base of Pearl Harbor 
ninety-four United States battleships, cruisers, 
destroyers, submarines, and auxiliaries were 
lined up on Battleship Row. At the four air 
bases, hundreds of American planes were lined 
up wing tip to wing tip, the easier to protect 
them from expected sabotage. There was little 
reason to think that Americans in Hawaii would 
not spend their Sunday as normally as Daven- 
porters were spending theirs.
M
OST IOWANS remember precisely 
where they were when they heard 
the news that afternoon that the Jap­
anese had attacked Pearl Harbor ear­
lier that morning. For some, their radio 
programs were interrupted. Others received 
phone calls, or the next-door neighbor ran over 
to pass on the news. Davenport became part of 
a national community gathered around the 
radio for the latest news. Reactions ranged 
from shock to disbelief to worrv for friends orw
92 THE PALIMPSEST
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Poster No. 15 from the U.S. Office of War Information in 1942 shows one response to the Japanese attack of Pearl 
Harbor on December 7, 1941. After the attack, Davenport newspapers in December 1941 reflect the new focus of a 
nation officially at war. (The poster is part of a new exhibit on the Pacific theater; sec inside back cover.)
SUMMER 1992 93
family in the Pacific, including 111 men from 
Scott Countv.
M
ONDAY MORNING, December8, 
was more than the beginning of a 
new work week; it was the beginning 
of a new era. Davenport newspapers 
reported no “hysteria or false enthusiasm,’ just 
a “calm realization that the American people 
had a new job to do. At 11:30 a . \ i . Iowa time, 
President Franklin Roosevelt entered the 
chamber of the House of Representatives and 
began his war message: Yesterday,
December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in 
infamy — the United States of America was 
suddenly and deliberatelv attacked by naval 
and air forces of the Empire of Japan. . . .’’ 
Although Congress quickly passed a declara­
tion of war that Monday, Davenporters had not 
waited for the president or Congress. When 
the navy recruiting office opened that morn­
ing, two men were already in line. At the army 
recruiting office a man on crutches walked in to 
enlist. Before the day was over more than a 
hundred men had registered or re-enlisted. 
Leonard Kinman of Milan, Illinois, had served 
aboard the Arizona until his discharge the pre­
vious month. Now he wanted to “avenge the 
deaths of [his] shipmates who lost their lives on 
the Arizona.’ Within a week the Selective 
Service System began to review the status of 
those classified 3-A, married.’ Men with 
self-supporting’ wives were likely to be 
drafted soon; those with dependent wives, par­
ents or children would be held back.
FREE
R i f l K H U m S
ARMED
FORCES
MOBILE C A N T Ü N
treachery and brutality were to be defeated.* w
“We are all Americans — first, last, and all the 
time, he said, and he urged citizens to show 
their loyalty by flying flags and buying bonds.
All Japanese citizens were placed on curfew, 
although it was not certain if any people of 
Japanese ancestry lived in the area. (In Iowa 
City, however, the police checked up on all 
Japanese students and told them they must 
report to the police station daily.) In response 
to Germany’s and Italy’s declarations of war on 
America on December 11, a German alien was 
arrested in Davenport — one of five arrested in 
Iowa and sent to Fort Des Moines. A similar 
arrest order went out for Italian aliens, but no 
arrests were made in Davenport. The Federal 
Bureau of Investigation soon took over investi­
gation of aliens and let it be known that any
L
IFE IN DAVENPORT changed 
quickly. All private airplanes were 
grounded and pilots’ licenses were sus­
pended. Armed guards took up posts at 
Cram Field, Davenport’s municipal airport. 
The pilot training program at St. Ambrose Col­
lege was suspended until the citizenship of the 
students could be determined. Most industrial 
plants posted extra guards to prevent sabotage.
Mayor John H. Jebens issued a statement 
about the “treacherous acts of Japan and 
demanded “revenge for Pearl Harbor. Sacri­
fice would be necessary if the “dark powers of
94 THE PALIMPSEST
m  ■ .....
1 he Davenport Commercial Club is decked in bunting as a group of supporters sends off departing draftees (1943?). The 
Good Luck, Buddy!" banner is signed by various war-related groups in Davenport.
SUMMER 1992 95
considered dangerous would he placed 
under “constant surveillance.
On Tuesday, December 9, Davenport’s 
Contemporary Club speaker was Unitarian 
pastor Charles E. Snyder. He took as his topic 
When the War Drums Sound, but he spoke 
mostly of the period to follow the war. A new 
world order must be constituted, he said, to 
ensure that there would be no future war. He 
called for an organization of nations, an interna­
tional police force, fixed currency, and lower 
trade barriers.
Most people, however, had more immediate 
concerns to contend with than a post-war world 
order. On Wednesday, Company A, 6th Illi­
nois Infantry was called to active duty to guard 
the Centennial and Government bridges 
against sabotage.
In Des Moines, Governor George Wilson 
called a council of war. Leaders of veterans 
groups, the National Guard, and others with 
military experience in the state met to deter­
mine whether a home guard was necessary. 
Not waiting for the governor’s orders, local 
World War I veterans had already organized a 
local defense unit. Spanish-American War vet­
erans across the Mississippi in Hock Island met 
to renew the oath of allegiance they had taken 
in 1898.
The following Sunday, the first Sunday of the


World War II Comes to Davenport

Acton, Richard

Great Names 
and Rattling Skeletons
A CAUTIONARY TALE
by Richard Acton
I
N HIS 1895 Inaugural Lecture on the 
Study of History,’ the British historian 
Lord Acton — my great-grandfather — 
said: ‘Guard against the prestige of great 
names; never he surprised by the crumbling of 
an idol or the disclosure of a skeleton. When 
researching Iowa history, 1 did not dream that 
the first session of the Supreme Court of the 
Territory of Iowa in 1838 would be an excellent 
illustration of his warning.
I had become interested in Iowa’s pioneer 
lawyers and wanted to learn about the first 
meeting of the territorial supreme court. I did 
not think that this research would be particu­
larly difficult or particularly exciting. In the 
event, 1 found myself in an enthralling maze. 
At length I arrived at answers to my original 
questions, only to discover that fascinating fur­
ther questions arose about supreme court cases 
throughout the territorial period.
I thought an obvious place to seek informa­
tion about the beginning of Iowa’s supreme 
court was a weighty 191(5 tome by Edward 
Stiles called Recollections and Sketches of 
Notable Lawyers and Public Men oj Early 
Iowa. In it I found an account in 1882 by the 
ubiquitous 'I heodore S. Pan in, who would fig­
ure prominently in my quest. “The first term of 
the Supreme Court . . . was held at Bur­
lington on the 28th of November, 1838,” Par- 
vin wrote. James W. Woods was the senior 
member of the bar. . . .  He had the only case 
before the first Supreme Court. . . .  I was the
youngest of the twenty [lawyers] admitted at 
that first session, and the case was called imme­
diate!)' after our admission, and because I was 
the youngest Woods came up and tendered me 
the honor, as was customary for many years, of 
making the argument. I made the argument 
and won the case — the first speech made in 
the Supreme Court of Iowa. After announcing 
its decision, the Court adjourned, Pan in con­
tinued, and the Judges came down and con­
gratulated me on my maiden effort.
Theodore S. Parvin (1817-1901) had a
remarkable career. Private secretary to Iowa s✓
first territorial governor in 1838, he served also 
as district attorney, county judge, correspond­
ing secretary of the State Historical Society of 
Iowa, and editor of The Annals of Iowa. His 
greatest contribution was to Freemasonry. 
Grand secretary for many years, he founded 
the superb Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids.
Every aspect of Pan in’s career qualified him 
as a highly credible witness to Iowa’s first 
supreme court session. But one feature in his 
story puzzled me. What on earth was this busi­
ness of the senior member of the bar honoring 
the junior by letting him make the argument, 
as was customary for many years”? No doubt 
early Iowa had its own quaint legal cus­
toms, but would clients really have tolerated 
employing senior lawyers at considerable 
expense only to find an inexperienced junior 
arguing their case? Parvin had not related what 
his case involved, nor where it was heard. I
2 THE PALIMPSEST
decided I must do more research.
I found that in 1886, Parvin had given 
another account of the first court session in an 
"Address at the Bar Re-Union at Des Moines.’ 
He confirmed the date of the session as "that 
early morn of November the 28th. 1838. The 
court appointed a clerk and court reporter and 
admitted the twenty attorneys. Parvin related 
that the one case before the court. . . . was a 
case of larceny (for stealing a rifle). Pan in 
again stated that Woods, the senior member of 
the bar, had invited him to argue the case. "We 
were successful and cleared 
the rascal,’ Parvin wrote, 
and while the court and bar 
were congratulating us upon 
the success of our maiden 
effort at the bar, the defen­
dant made off. and with him 
the stolen rifle, which was to 
have been [Woods’s] fee.’
He recorded that the court 
had convened in a small 
room of a dwelling house.”
In "The Early Bar of 
Iowa (1894), Pan in gave a 
similar account — the date, 
th e num ber of lawyers 
admitted, and the case of the 
stolen rifle are the same. But 
a new puzzle developed — 
about the meeting plac 
when I read his words, "The 
first session of the Supreme 
Court met in the parlor of a tavern. Two years 
later, in his Who Made Iowa, Pan in wrote that 
the Supreme Court . . . held its first session 
in the parlor of one of the pioneers, the good 
lady having put her house in order for the 
purpose.” While it is possible by a strained 
construction to reconcile all three of Panin’s 
descriptions of the first meeting place, it 
seemed more likely that these discrepancies 
showed Parvin to have a fallible memory. I 
dismissed the inconsistencies and accepted the
rest of his story.✓
Later 1 happened to be reading Statesmen 
and Politicians in Early Iowa in The Annals of 
Iowa (1945) by the Reverend Charles E. 
Snyder. Snyder could not have been a greater 
Parvin fan, for he wrote: "Theodore S. Par­
vin. . . . said that the two greatest men in Iowa 
history were Charles Mason and James W. 
Grimes. I submit that Parvin s name must be 
added for a third. Parvin was a large part of the 
history of Iowa. ” As Mason was chief justice 
throughout the territorial period and laid the 
foundation of Iowa law, and Grimes was an 
immensely distinguished governor and sen­
ator, including Parvin in this company was high 
praise indeed.
A sentence later in the article made me sit up 
with a jolt: "The Supreme court held its first
s e s s i o n  at  B u r l i n g t o n ,  
November 26, 1838, the 
only business being an order 
for a writ of error . . . and 
the admission of twenty 
young lawyers to practice. 
November 26 was two days 
before the date Parvin  
repeatedly had given as the 
opening of the supreme 
court. Furthermore, a writ 
of error did not sound like 
the criminal appeal of the 
stolen rifle that Parvin 
insisted had been the first 
and only case. Why had such 
a devotee of Parvin contra­
dicted him so? Clearly I 
needed to dig deeper.
Next I turned to an article 
in a 1939 Palimpsest, “The 
Supreme Court in Session.
It made two points about the date that appar­
ently showed Parvin right. According to the 
article, Parvin had recorded the supreme court 
meeting as November 28 in his 1838 diary. 
Furthermore, the Iowa legislature had passed 
a law that provided: the first session of the 
supreme court of the Territory shall be held at 
the city of Burlington, on the twenty-eighth 
day of November one thousand eight hundred 
and thirty eight. The article also mentioned 
that the Iowa Territorial Gazette and Bur­
lington Advertiser of December 1, 1838, had 
reported that "twenty members of the bar had 
been admitted to practice,” but that “no fur­
ther business seems to have been transacted.” 
November 28 thus appeared to have been 
the date. But now there were three different
SPRING 1992 3
versions of what had been before the court — 
Parvin s ritte case, Snyder’s writ of error, and 
“no further business.
Under the gaze of Theodore S. Parvin, 
whose portrait dominated the library of the 
State Historical Society in Iowa City, 1 reached 
for the Iowa Territorial Gazette and Bur­
lington Advertiser of Saturday, December 1, 
1838. It reported: In accordance with an act of 
the Legislature recently passed, the Supreme 
Court of Iowa Territory met in this place on 
Monday last.’ The article named the judges, 
officials, and the lawyers 
admitted. No case was men­
t io n e d . S atu rd ay , D e ­
cember 1 . . . Monday last.
I did some hasty arithmetic
— that meant the supreme 
court met on M onday,
November 26. That couldn’t 
be right. If it was in accor­
dance with an Act of the 
L e g is la t u r e  r e c e n t ly  
massed, as the newspaper 
lad reported, it had to be 
November 28 as the law had 
ordained. Newspapers can 
be wrong. The next place I 
had to look was Parvins
diary.
¥
The Masonic Library in 
Cedar Rapids keeps the 
diary. Parvin s entry for 
November 28, 1838, read:
“Court — P.M. the Supreme Court of the 
Territory organized. Judge[s] Mason Williams 
and Wilson present. Bayless appointed] 
Cl[er]k & Weston Reporter — 20 Lawyers 
admitted I among the number. But why was 
there no mention of his great rifle larceny 
triumph?
It was the entry for the verv next dav, 
November 29, that was really disturbing. 
“Court, prisoner trial I assisted in the defence
— my first criminal case — Jury brot in a 
verdict of guilty of larceny. Across the margin 
ol November 29 Parvin had written, in differ­
ent ink: First Case — Iowa. If there was a 
jury, this must have been a district court trial. 
To assist in losing a larceny case in the district 
court could hardly be further from personally
Chief Justice Charles Mason
winning a larceny appeal in the territorial 
supreme court. Surely no lawyer would de­
scribe a district court case as “my first criminal
case or “First Case — Iowa’ if he had already
¥
won a criminal appeal in the supreme court.
I was completely confused. Then I learned 
that in Des Moines the State Archives of the 
State Historical Society holds the original 
handwritten Supreme Court Order Book 
1838-1853 , covering the entire territorial 
period. I rushed to Des Moines.
Page 1 of the Supreme Court Order Book
began: "At a Supreme Court 
of the Territorv of Iowaw
begun and holden at the 
Court House in Burlington
in and for the Territorv‘ ¥
aforesaid, on, Monday To 
w it th e  2 6 th  day of 
November AD 1838. The 
three supreme court justices 
were present. Twenty law­
yers including Parvin “were 
duly admitted . . . accord­
ing to law. The court 
a p p o in ted  a clerk  and 
reporter. Finally, in a civil 
case later reported as Gor­
don a n d  W a sh bur n v. 
Higley, the court granted a 
procedural writ of error. The 
lawyers who appeared were 
Rorer and Starr. Immedi­
ately below the entry about 
the writ of error was written: “Ordered that 
this Court adjourn sine die," signed “Charles 
Mason Chief Justice. Page 2 of the Supreme 
Court Order Book commenced "the first day of 
July a d  1839.”
Thus the official record of the supreme court 
gave November 26 as the date of its first ses­
sion. The chief justice had signed under that 
date. The Burlington newspaper corroborated 
that date. I could only conclude that Parvin s 
private diary entry was wrong. Furthermore,
there was no rifle larceny case at the first ses-¥
sion, and Parvin did not make the first speech.
Parvin undoubtedly was a very important 
man. The memories of the important and 
unimportant alike can play tricks, and fifty 
years later old men can forget. No doubt the
4 THE PALIMPSEST
I
young Pan in was a busy secretary to the gover­
nor, Robert Lucas. Presumably he made the 
entrv in his diary for November 28 sometime 
after the supreme court sat. The law had spec­
ified November 28 as the date for the first 
term. Pan in must have assumed the court had 
indeed sat on the specified date and entered 
this in his diary accordingly.
But the contemporary records showed he 
assumed wrong, which raised awkward ques­
tions. As the supreme court met two days 
before it should have by law, where did that 
leave the writ of error it ordered? And far more 
importantly, what about the twenty lawyers 
admitted to practice according to law two 
days before the law specified? Why had Chief 
Justice Mason, another of the great men of 
early Iowa, anticipated the correct date by two 
days?
The hill fixing November 28 as the date for 
the first session of the supreme court was 
passed by the House of Representatives on 
Saturday, November 24, and by the Council of 
the Legislative Assembly on Monday, 
November 26. The governor did not approve 
the bill until the morning of Wednesday, 
November 28 — the day the supreme court 
was supposed to sit. Did Chief Justice Mason 
assume the governor had signed the bill on 
November 26, assume the bill specified 
November 26, and then just go ahead and hold 
the first session on the twentv-sixth? Why on 
earth didn t he double-check? Furthermore, 
when the court sat on the wrong day, at least 
two of the lawyers present could have pointed 
out Mason s error. One of the lawyers was the 
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee -
none other than the young James Grimes, the 
third of the Reverend Snyder s great men of 
early Iowa. As chairman, Grimes must have 
known the date in the bill. The other was the 
governor’s private secretary — none other than 
Theodore S. Parvin — who surely knew the 
governor had not yet signed the bill. It seems 
that Chief Justice Mason, at the very least, 
made a glorious muddle.
But it may have been much more than that.¥
Besides fixing the date of the first supreme 
court session, the bill had one other important 
feature. Before a lawyer could appear in the 
supreme court, he had to upon motion, be 
qualified and admitted. By being admitted to 
practice before the appointed day, all twenty 
lawyers may have been admitted to practice 
unlawfully. Does that mean that every single 
case won by each of these lawvers in the 
supreme court might have been successfully 
challenged — on the grounds that the winning 
lawyer had not conformed with the law requir­
ing his admission to the supreme court? Should 
all the lawyers have been readmittedJ To avoid 
doubt, should a special statute have been 
passed by the legislature to ratify their admis­
sion retrospectively?
One hundred and fifty years later, these 
questions probably are of greater significance 
to historians than to lawyers. For the former, 
Theodore S. Parvin has shown feet of clay, 
while Charles Mason seems to have brought 
forth a rattling skeleton. Indeed, this saga illus­
trates another saying of my great-grandfather, 
Lord Acton, about the study of history:
“No trusting without testing. □
NOTE ON SOURCES
Lord Acton s quotations are from his Inaugural Lecture 
on the Study of History," Lectures on Modern History 
(New York, 1912). Sources by Theodore S Parvin are
The Early Bar of Iowa, Historical lectures Upon Early 
Leaders in the Professions (Iowa City, 1894); Who Made 
Iowa? (Davenport, 1896); and Thomas S Wilson/* Iowa 
Historical Record, 10-12 (1894-96). Other sources 
include “An Act to Fix the Time for the First Session of 
the Supreme Court of the Territory'of Iowa . . . /* Laws 
of Iowa, 1838-39 (Dubuque, 1838—39); “An Act to Divide 
the Territory of Wisconsin and to Establish the Territorial 
Government of Iowa/ Benjamin F. Shambaugh, Docu­
mentary Material Relating to the History of Iowa. 1 (Iowa 
City, 1897); Morris Reports, 1 (1838—46); Journal of the 
House of Representatives of the First Legislative Assem­
bly of tfie Territory oj Iowa, ¡838-39 (Dubuque, 1839);
Laws of Iowa 1838-39/ vol. 1, H.R. File No. 8 (State
Archives, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines); 
Benjamin F Shambaugh, Executive Journals of Iowa 
(1838—II) (Iowa City, 19()6); JohnC Parish, Robert Lucas 
(Iowa City, 1907); Supreme Court Order Book: Vol /, 
1838-1853 (State Historical Society of Iowa. Des 
Moines). Sources cited in this article include Edward 11 
Stiles, Recollections and Sketches of Notable lawyers 
and Public Men of Early Iowa (Des Moines, 1916), 
.560-66, 569-70, Hon T S. Parvin*s Address at the Bar 
Re-Union at Des Moines, June 8th, 1886, Iowa Histor­
ical Record. 1-3 (1885-87), 305. 309-10; Rev. Charles E. 
Snyder, Statesmen and Politicians in Early Iowa, ’ 
Annals of Iowa, 27 (1945-46), 15-36; Jack I Johnson, The 
Supreme Court in Session, The Palimpsest (1939), 
191-95, Iowa Territorial Gazette and Burlington Adver­
tiser, Dec. 1, 1838. Complete citations are in the Pal­
impsest production files, State Historical Society of Iowa.
SPRING 1992
f


Great Names and Rattling Skeletons: A Cautionary Tale

Horton, Loren N

Victorian Victual
by Loren N. Hortonr
A BEWILDERING abundance of food marks many historical accounts of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. For instance, a 
New Year’s menu at a Des Moines hotel in 1885 
listed no less than fifty-nine items.
More modest celebrations also were marked by 
abundance. Looking back to when he was a boy of 
nine, Iowa author Phil Stong recalled a Christmas 
dinner in 1908 in Keosauqua, Iowa. For a person of 
about my years and swallowing ability, he 
explained in a 1957 Palimpsest article, Christmas 
dinner included an entire leg of a large turkey, with 
some white meat; a half-pint of sage and onion 
dressing; a pint of mashed potatoes and giblet gravy; 
a half-pint mashed turnips; one-third of a loaf of 
bread, spread with butter and varied jams; a pint of 
cranberries and pickles; a pint of vegetables such as 
onions, beets, peas, and lima beans; a quarter of a 
mince pie, 'oranges, celery, olives, and candy to 
fill, and a pint each of milk and cider. (Stong added 
that the cider and milk didn’t count because they 
would “soak” in.)
This is far beyond the capacity of the human (a 
vague term) stomach, of course,” Stong commented 
but it is well within the capacity of the entire boy.
He continued, About halfway through the meal 
Great-Aunt Beatie would tell us again of a little boy 
of her acquaintance who ate so much he busted his 
stummick and died in prolonged and horrible ago­
nies. We never did learn whether he busted inside 
only or whether he spilled But we felt nothing but 
contempt for the feeble wretch.
In the tradition, then, of Victorian dining excess, 
the Palimpsest offers here a few Victorian holiday 
recipes, just as they appeared in turn-of-the-cen- 
turv cookbooks.
Victorian etiquette and cookbooks abound with rec­
ipes for plum pudding, a ceremonial dish brought 
blazing to the table. The following pudding and 
sauce recipes are from Woman’s Favorite Cook 
Book, by Annie R. Gregon/, published in 1907.
CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING
Chop one cupful of beef suet, two cupfuls of bread 
and one-half cupful of citron. Mix the citron, one 
cupful of seeded raisins and one cupful of currants, 
well washed, with part of a pint of flour. Put four 
well-beaten eggs, one heaping cupful of sugar, one 
teaspoonful of salt in one cupful of milk, one tea- 
spoonful of cloves, two of cinnamon, one-half of a 
nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the fruit, bread-crumbs 
and suet, putting in last a level teaspoonful of soda 
dissolved in warm water and adding the rest of the 
Hour. Mix thoroughly and boil for four hours. Turn 
bottom-side up on platter, pour over it some good 
brandy and touch a match to it. Bring on the table 
while blazing. Serve with brandy sauce.
RICH BRANDY SAUCE
Stir a small teaspoonful of corn-starch in a little cold 
water to a smooth paste; add to it a cupful of boiling 
water, one cupful of sugar, a small piece of butter, 
boil all together five minutes. Remove from the fire 
and when cool, stir into it one-half cupful of brandy.
In 1891, the Ladies of Plymouth Church in Des 
Moines, Iowa, edited “76”: A Cook Book. Mrs. 
Henry Scribner contributed this recipe:
NEW YEAR S COOKIES
Beat three-fourths of a pound of butter and one 
pound of sugar to a cream and add three eggs, one 
teacup of sour milk, one teaspoon of soda, a half cup 
of caraway seeds and flour enough to roll nicely.
204 THE PALIMPSEST


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