1904 - Hugo Beyer, "the Burbank of Iowa"

As an east coast resident who has spent most of my life living in New England events in the 19th century seem "new" to me as I read historical accounts.  Thinking about it, you need to reference the 16th or even 15th centuries before I perk up thinking "OK, that's old!".  
In this age of YouTube and being able to access BBC shows even those dates are loosing their impact; just yesterday I was watching Escape to the Country and the hostess was standing in front of a flour mill which had been there and working for a thousand years!   

Back to my point - businesses in the west are old when you see 1850s for their start date.  Iowa was opened for settlement in 1833!  Another factor I need to remember is that the railroads, necessary to support a bigger business, didn't cross the Mississippi until after 1850.  
One did not come near Mr. Beyer's community until late 1856 when it came as far as New London on its way to California from Chicago.
Hugo Beyer arrived in America in 1854, part of a large wave of German immigrants which had begun earlier in the century.  Most were farmers looking for good land in which to invest their modest savings.  

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This synopsis of his life is from The History of Henry County, Iowa - 1879.

BEYER, HUGO, cultivator of vegetable and flower seeds, S. 10; P. O. New London; born in Prussia March 21, 1830; was brought up there, and came to America in 1854; he came to Iowa and located in this county in 1856, on the place where he now lives, and engaged in cultivating vegetable and flower seeds. 

He is the oldest seedsman in this State, and has built up a large business; he has demand for his seeds throughout this State and Missouri, and as far west as California.
Mr. Beyer is very successful in keeping plants through the winter without fire—a method peculiarly his own, and which keeps the plants nice and fresh and far more healthy than the old way. (To which I say, "So what is that method?!!!) 

He married Miss Bertha Schael, from Prussia, April 16, 1868; they have two children— Herbert and Oswald; they have lost two children—Hugo and Max.

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The Luther Burbank of Iowa

unimproved R. occidentalis
Artist: Helen Sharp, 1907

Hugo Beyer, the veteran seedsman from New London, IA., was hero this week with samples of his “Perpetual Bearing Raspberry.” Mr. Beyer, who will deserve to be remembered as the Luther Burbank of Iowa, has been developing this new and wonderful variety of blackcap raspberry for the past 13 years.

It will interest especially the people of this community to know that Mr. Beyer secured the original stock from Dr. Tom Hell of Wapello, who is supposed to have transferred it from its original wild state. It is what is called a “sport”, an “accident” in the speech of of the unthinking, but what Mr. Beyer calls a “Providence.” 

It remained for him to discover and develop this remarkable new variety of one of the most valuable berries grown. The peculiarity of "Beyer’s Perpetual”,  by which name it is known in the government department at Washington, is that it fruits continuously from the time it begins to bear until frost. 

The cane which he left at the REPUBLICAN office contains fruit in all stages from the blossom to the ripe berry. Thus it bears for two or three months, and at a season when most small fruit is scarce.  The sample given us on the first day of August indicates that this variety fruits later than the ordinary black and red varieties.  Another peculiarity in which it differs from other kinds of raspberries and from the blackberry, is that the fruit is found on this year’s growth of canes, thus insuring against winter killing and injury from rabbits and mice. The roots also strike down deep into the ground, instead of spreading over the surface, thus preventing the injurious effects of drouth. 

It is certainly a gift of providence to the people through the watchful care of a good man, who spent fifty years in the study of fruits and flowers. Hugo Beyer, who is a native of Germany, and a resident of Henry county, Iowa, for over fifty years, is known for his integrity.   This new variety of raspberry has been introduced into thirteen experiment stations in the U S. and has also been sent to the Horticultural Society of London. And the original stock came from Louisa county. 

From the Wapello Republican, Aug. 3, 1904.

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Testimonials are always hard to ignore!  

I wonder where the watercolor is, and who painted it.

1894 - The World's Columbian Exposition Potato from Iowa

Potatoes.  They are so visually humble.  I think I like them as horticultural art because they are a challenge.

I wonder how many vegetables were named so as to bask in the glow of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893?!    

I haven't found reference to it being at the fair.   

The Iowa Seed Company was established in 1871.  

Columbian Peachblow Potatoes 

Every dealer in seed potatoes has numerous calls for the old Peachblow potato, and often in the descriptions various sorts are compared in quality to it. In this grand new variety we have combined all the good qualities of the old variety and none of the poor ones.

It originated in this state about eight years ago from a seed ball of the White Peachblow, and has been carefully grown and selected ever since. It is an exceedingly handsome variety, the shape and peculiar color is well shown by our illustration. 

It is nearly round, but slightly flattened. Color a beautiful creamy white with an irregular blotch of bright red at stem end. Sets tubers earlier than either the old Peachblow or the White Peachblow. Matures with Bonanza, or a trifle earlier. 

It is remarkably productive, exceeding any potatoes in existence that we are acquainted with in this respect, yielding ten to fourteen or more large tubers to the hill, or about twice as many as Potentate and other similar sorts, and the crop averages good medium size, not overly large and very few small ones. 

The eyes are very nearly level with surface except a slight depression at the seed end, a characteristic of the Peachblow. It cooks dry and fine without "cooking off," and is unsurpassed in quality. Keeps better than any other we have ever seen or heard of. Have kept them in an ordinary way until State Fair time (about September 1st) nearly one year from the time they were dug, and had them in good eating
condition then. Very uniform in size, shape and characteristics. Vines very strong and robust but not tall, foliage very dark green, with flower of dark purple. 

Summing it all up it is the very best potato for main crop in existence, and we hope every farmer and gardener who receives our catalogue this year will give it a trial. Order early so as to be sure and obtain them. They will be shipped at the proper season. 

Per lb. 50c, 3 lbs. for S1.25, postpaid; 3 lbs. by express for 75c; peck. S2.00.

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In spite of the most exceeding bad weather for late potatoes this year, the Columbian Peachblow did well, yielding nine to twelve fine, uniform potatoes to each hill. Am greatly pleased with them, and would like to plant ten acres of this variety next year.

WILLIAM H'JSTER. Dallas County. Iowa.

More Columbian Exposition and bits and pieces:

• other posts

• 

  an 1884 ad

1894 - A Fine Toast for Thanksgiving

Here is a toast for the pie lover at Thanksgiving!

“With rich pumpkin-pie
   And turkey give thanks.
Feel your heart mollify
   With rich pumpkin-pie.
In your neighbour descry
  A man first in the ranks.
With rich pumpkin-pie
  And turkey give thanks.”

                                             

The toast is from The Academy and Literature - Volume 45, 1894.

1816 - Thomas Jefferson and the Persian Melon

Th Jefferson presents his salutations and respects to Mr. White with his thanks for the Persian melon seed he has been so kind as to send him.  he will endeavor to do it justice by his attentions, and especially to disperse it among his most careful acquaintances.  it is by multiplying the good things of life that the mass of human happiness is increased, and the greatest of consolations to have contributed to it.

from a USDA resource

1880's - Jerome B. Rice's Little Jokes

Why is she dropping a good squash from her window?

Jerome B. Rice's cards were the most amusing around!  If you skim older posts you will find more smiles (as well as information about an interesting man and the history of the family business).

Link:

• Older Jerome B. Rice posts

Dec. 7, 1881 - “Hunger is the best spice”: Remembering Grandmother's Pumpkin Pie

It seems like "American as apple pie" is a more recent American pie identity than I realized! Pumpkin pie was the one identified with the United States more often than not in the 19th century.

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This essay by "L. B. B." appeared in the New Outlook, Volume 24, 1881.

THIS is pro-eminently an American dish. No other people that I ever heard of use it. But so long as the American Eagle and the Stars and Stripes are our national emblems, so long shall we glorify our national pie. 


One generation passeth away and another cometh, yet the popular sentiment seems not to be diluted, but rather to grow in strength_ as the intrinsic excellence of the dish increases. I submit that the original “pie of pumpkin", which poets have extolled, would now be considered anything but a dainty dish, and must have borne about the same resemblance to the modern delicacy known by that name as the gowns of Puritan women did to the attire of a fashionable lady now.

I have a friend whose husband used to be always telling what good pumpkin pies his grandmother made. Unlike the traditional husband, he praised his grandmother’s cooking instead of his mother's. But he doesn’t do it now, and this is the reason: 

One day there was a guest at his table whose grandmother and his were one and the same person. This cousin was a few years older than he, and had a more accurate memory of long bygones in which they felt a common interest. For dessert my friend had provided one of her delicious pumpkin pies, called so by courtesy, but really made of squash. Naturally the host led the conversation toward his grandmother‘s pies. Not that he depreciated his wife’s skill in that line—except inferentially—but he was especially mindful of his grandmother’s. 

Said his cousin to my friend: ‘If Fred had a piece of one of her pumpkin pies now he could not swallow a mouthful of it. She made them very thick with pumpkin, sweetened them with molasses, and flavored them, if at all, with allspice."

“But you must admit, Amelia," said the discomfited gentleman, “that grandmother’s pies were good for those days."

“Hardly so much as that; for she was the plainest of plain cooks even then. But you used to call there coming home from school, hungry as a bear, and no doubt her blocks of pie tasted good; but they wouldn’t now."

That is precisely to the point. “Hunger is the best spice,” and though the primitive pumpkin pies were doubtless made according to the above simple formula, our ancestors relished them because they could get nothing better; but if one of them could step out of his picture-frame some day, and dine at the family table, he would scarcely recognize the pumpkin pic of the period as being in any degree related to his old favorite.

Alas! that the requisite skill to make these best of all pies is not universal in the land, as witness the flabby, insipid specimens seen upon so many tables. it must be chiefly for its name's sake that people continue to use the old coarse-grained pumpkin when squashes are so abundant, a thousand times better, and more easily made into pies; for squash enough for a dozen can be stowed in a few minutes, while it is a half day's job or more to stew a pumpkin. 

“The longer it is stewed the better it will be", is the old theory ; but squash is not improved by long cooking. Those which are too moist for table use are the kind for pies. Stewed squash can be kept for a week or more in a cold place, and is convenient to have all ready to make up. A teacup of the strained squash and an egg to a pie is the rule; but at the present price of eggs they seem to go further, and two for three pies will do very well, and you would hardly know the difference. Cinnamon and ginger are the only spices needed—enough of both, especially the former—a little molasses for color, and. a good deal of sugar—the amount can only be determined by tasting, and “ a little more " is nearly always needed. The remainder is all milk, the richer the better ; but if last night’s milk is used, from which the cream has been removed for coffee, it will scarcely be missed. Now what can be simpler to make than such a pie ? And yet in perfection it is the very poetry of food, and fit for a king's table.

Of course the crust is a factor not to be overlooked. It should not be thicker than the under crust of other pies, though it used to be thought otherwise, and that any degree of toughness was allowable for pumpkin pies. Happily, in these days, the kind that we have to exert ourselves to cut is not popular.

But the filling is the principal thing; above all, let there be enough to fill the dish, without having a battlement of crust to guard the edge and hinder approach to the riches within.

The baking is also important. An underdone pie, especially at the bottom, had better never have been made. No rule for the time required can be accurately given; but a slow bake is the best, which will require about an hour. 

When done "just right," cutting the pie will scarcely soil the knife, and the cut places will have a sort of granulated appearance. This, if other requisites are not wanting, is a pretty sure test of a perfect pumpkin pie. Tastes differ, but I have yet to see the first person that does not like this kind.

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1892 - Artist Deborah Griscom Passmore Starts With the USDA

       

The previous post on seed jewelry brought me in contact with an extraordinary botanical watercolor of the Carob pod.  

Signed DG Passmore, and the date of 1904, the illustration prompted me to look for information about the illustrator.  
It was easy-peasey!  

Deborah Griscom Passmore is a widely respected botanical illustrator who left her mark mainly through the many illustrations she did for the USDA. 



Wikipedia gives all the details.



I just want you to enjoy her work in this post.