1909

BEN NOONAN’S REALLY GREAT RACE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Some athletes train for years to win a major sporting event, and others are yanked away from breakfast at the last minute and ordered to compete in a high-profile auto race against some of the top national drivers. Such was Ben Noonan’s morning on May 9, 1909.


(ABOVE: Ben Noonan and J. W. Peters in the 1909 California Grand Prize Race held in Sonoma County. This photo, taken from some unidentified point along the route, appeared in the May 20. 1909 edition of “The Automobile”. CLICK or TAP to enlarge)

The race was the California Grand Prize Race: Santa Rosa to Geyserville and back again, 52 miles in all, for a big trophy and a $500 prize. Similar cross-country races would soon be held regularly around the Bay Area – an Oakland to San Francisco via San Jose race followed a week later – but this was the first, so it was a very big deal. Thousands came from San Francisco and other places.

“Santa Rosa saw more automobiles on Saturday and Sunday than ever had been in this city before,” the Republican newspaper reported. “Special service on the bay brought many machines and every boat on Saturday carried four cars, the number allowed at one time.” Every garage in the city was crammed with cars Saturday night, and vacant buildings that could accomodate an auto were also used.

By 7:30AM on that Sunday morning, “fields and cross roads were badly congested with people and vehicles of every description, everyone anxious to catch a glimpse of the speedy cars.” Santa Rosa National Guard Company E had uniformed men along the entire route to keep the road clear of spectators.

Ben Noonan was a local young man; his family owned the slaughterhouse at today’s corner of W. College and Dutton Ave. (no mention of Noonan Meat Co. can pass without noting that the company had an entitlement from Santa Rosa to herd cattle down College Avenue from the Southern Pacific stockyard on North Street). Ben had not competed in an auto race before, but he was well known in town for his remarkable speeds on a bicycle. He had won several local competitions, and once beat the electric train from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol – even more remarkable when you consider that he did it on a dirt road using a bike with a heavy iron frame.

The car he drove in the race was one of two Stoddard-Daytons entered by the J. W. Leavitt auto dealership of San Francisco. The other was to be driven by Fred J. Wiseman, Ben’s old friend and former business partner. They had been “Wheelmen” together in Santa Rosa’s bicycling club, then opened the Santa Rosa Cyclery, where they also rented small cars out by the day or week. Wiseman – who would make history a couple of years later for making the world’s first air mail flight – was then a professional driver for the Leavitt dealership, competing on race tracks around the West in a Stoddard-Dayton and showing off the powerful car.

Noonan was also apparently then working as a driver for Leavitt, as the story in the Press Democrat remarked he was having breakfast at a downtown hotel when he was told he had to be at the starting line in twenty minutes; M. Peters was supposed to drive, but injured his arm. (This is certain to be J. W. Peters, who was often Wiseman’s passenger-mechanic on cross-country races, and later helped Wiseman build his first airplane.) Ben demurred until he was told that Wiseman would be disqualified unless both Stoddard-Daytons were in the race (it was never explained why). “At this urging and condition Noonan jumped from his seat, leaving his breakfast untouched, ran to the garage donned overalls and jumper over his good clothes, climbed into the machine and was off,” the PD said.

The starting point was on Mendocino Avenue at the edge of city limits, which in 1909 was the current location of the new SRJC parking garage. The 12 racing cars were lined up in a string, and left at one minute intervals. All cars had a passenger-mechanic, and the injured Peters rode with Noonan.

Crowds cheered for them all and it was said that the entire population of Healdsburg turned out to watch the cars round the square. Some of the local cognoscenti camped out at spots they knew would be hard-going. Motor Age magazine reported, “One of the most interesting points along the road was at the Healdsburg bridge, at the end of which the cars had to make a turn at right angles. This meant a complete shutdown and the shots of the motor due to the surplus gas suggested an artillery duel.”

It was immediately clear that this would be an endurance race. One car didn’t make it out of the starting line, another only made it as far as Healdsburg before its frame cracked, and another hit a rock so large that it bent the tire rim. Several had flat tires. Fred Wiseman had to stop on Dry Creek Road to tie up a broken rod with hemp rope, which wouldn’t hold and caused him to stop three more times. The most astonishing tale, however, belongs to “plucky driver” Fay Sheets, who lost the tire off his left front wheel around Windsor on the way back – yet still finished the race.

Only half of the cars made it back to Santa Rosa. Ben Noonan won the day, with a time of about 1:05. Wiseman came in third about five minutes later, his rod still hemp tied.

Noonan won by virtue of having no mechanical failures, avoiding pointy rocks, and being very familiar with the road, having ridden it many times on his bicycle. “I know that route like a book,” Noonan told the Republican afterwards. “Every corner and every bad place on the road is marked in my mind’s eye, and when I came to one of the spots, I slowed up and let the car make it up on the straightaway, where the surface was good. I didn’t have a particle of trouble, and I attribute the victory to the reliability of the car and that easy going at the corners.”

It was a great day, and as the Press Democrat explained, “Noonan must have been a happy lad. He was cheered repeatedly when he drove by the Santa Rosa contingents all along the line, and more so when it was learned that he had won the race. At the garage of the Houts Auto Company, the local agents for the Stoddard-Dayton, the winning machine was photographed probably a couple of hundred times. For a time both machine and driver were under the camera.”

Much photographed and much cheered on that morning in early May, the end of the month found Ben Noonan being held in the Ukiah jail for a day and fined $25 for speeding in city limits. Sic transit gloria mundi.

SANTA ROSA BOY WINS THE GRAND PRIZE AUTO RACE
Ben Noonan Drives to Victory in His Stoddard-Dayton
Thousands of People Watch in Breathless Excitement the Progress of the Great Speed Contest for Fifty-two Miles–Winner is Cheered

BEN NOONAN, the Santa Rosa boy, drove a Stoddard-Dayton to victory and a splendid finish in the grand prize automobile road race at Santa Rosa on Sunday. Maintaining a thrilling rate of speed throughout the fifty-two miles of the course he accomplished the great feat without accident or a hitch. New in the racing game as far as driving automobiles is concerned he ran away with the older and professional experts, gaining well earned laurels for himself and for the City of Roses.

It was the first road race ever held in this state and consequently automobile owners and dealers all over the state of California were interested in the event pulled off in Santa Rosa. In the opinion of many, grand automobile prize road races may come and go but none better will ever take place. In no race will a better bunch of cars and drivers be entered as competitors. And it was particularly pleasing that the race passed off without accident, except to machine.

Thousands of people, occupying all the points of vantage along the fifty-two miles of racing, watched with excitement and as the racers flew by pent-up enthusiasm broke out into cheers that echoed through valley and across the hills. They came from all over northern California to be present and witness the first road race in the state. Scores of automobile loads of people passed through this city early in the morning bound for different points where a broad expanse of country allowed an uninterrupted view of the race for a mile or two. The biggest crowds naturally gathered at the dangerous turns of the road, and while they breathlessly witnessed what seemed hairbreath escapes from disaster, yet every car made the turns without accident.

Noonan’s fine car, his skill and nerve and knowledge of the road were his triumph in that most strenuous of tests on Sunday morning. He had unbounded faith in his car and that counted for much. It was known to comparatively only a few Santa Rosans that Noonan was to take the wheel in his Stoddard-Dayton in the race. But those who were in possession of the information were willing to stake their pile that if nerve and skill without an accident to car was in the balance that Noonan would come mightly near taking the race.

The Stoddard-Dayton won by a very narrow margin, however, as the Stevens-Duryea, driven by Ontank, crossed the tape just two minutes and twelve seconds behind it, winning the handsome cup offered by the Moore Motor Supply Company for the winner of the second place. On the return trip coming through Healdsburg one side of the frame cracked almost in two pieces. Onthank kept going and made a splendid run.

For sixteen miles that plucky driver, Fay Sheets, drove the Acme with the tire off the left front wheel. When the car passed the hundreds of spectators during that long run, minus a tire, they fairly gasped. It was nothing short of miraculous how the driver kept the car on the road at all.

The cars were started one minute apart at nine o’clock from the city limits on the Healdsburg road. Wiseman’s car was the first to leave the starting line, having drawn the first position. He led the Acme, which was off second, all the way to Geyserville, and was first to reach the Dry Creek road. Here the Stoddard slowed up somewhat and half way around the loop the Acme went to the front. Wiseman had to get out of his car to fix a broken rod, but when he got going again he was still ahead of his other rivals, and he went on to profit by the Acme’s misfortune in losing the tire already mentioned and reached the finish in the position he started.

After the sensation caused by the arrival of the first four cars had subsided, the spectators had an intermission of a few minutes before the cloud of dust at the end of the finishing straightaway heralded the approach of the Buick, driven by Frank Murphy, which figured into fifth place, was followed by the Tourist, driven by Ely, which proved to be the last of the cars to cover the course. Ely made a great run, but a tube broke in the ignition system and dropped into the flywheel of the machine. Before the driver could get under way again he had lost thirteen minutes, but the Tourist man was determined to fight it out to the end and he went on and secured sixth place.

Tire troubles were the cause of the dropping out of most of the cars which did not complete the journey. Louis Burnham’s Thomas did not get as far as Healdsburg on the outward journey. His car was fitted with detachable rims and the rim and tire came off one of the wheels before the car had gone ten miles. The Packard car centered by A. J. Welch was close behind the winning Stoddard at Healdsburg on the return trip when a stay nail went through the tire and the car had to be pulled up.

The Speedwell was another sufferer from punctures. After making the fifteen-mile run to Healdsburg in eighteen minutes, the car had to stop on account of a flat tire. The Comet had two tires out of commission at one time, one of the tires cut as by a knife, evidently the result of running over a sharp rock.

Two Stearns cars were entered and were favorably regarded by most of the experts before the race, especially as Soules and Bonney, two skillful drivers, were handling the wheels, but neither completed the journey. The Pope-Hartford was ready to start, but its fibre timing gear stripped and the car did not get across the line.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the arrangements for this race made by officers and directors of the Sonoma County Automobile Association, particularly President J. Rollo Leppo and Secretary Don C. Prentiss. They and the directors and members of the Association along the course saw to it that the course, particularly the road crossings and turns and the streets in the city of Healdsburg, were well guarded and patrolled…

[..race officials named..]

Santa Rosa naturally feels proud of itself that its boy won the great race, and that Fred J. Wiseman, another Santa Rosa boy, who drove a Stoddard-Dayton too, figured so prominently in the race and won third place. Noonan must have been a happy lad. He was cheered repeatedly when he drove by the Santa Rosa contingents all along the line, and more so when it was learned that he had won the race. At the garage of the Houts Auto Company, the local agents for the Stoddard-Dayton, the winning machine was photographed probably a couple of hundred times. For a time both machine and driver were under the camera. The machine was garlanded with flags. The auto was given a critical inspection by experts and was thoroughly gone over. It was found to have stood the strenuous drive in fine shape. Both the Stoddards in the race were entered by the Leavitt Company.

As the horsemen would say, ’twas a great day and a great race.

– Press Democrat, May 11, 1909

GOT UP FROM BREAKFAST TO DRIVE TO VICTORY

Up to within twenty minutes before he took his seat in his car to drive from the Houts Auto Company’s garage in the starting place for the big road race on Sunday morning, Ben Noonan did not know for sure that he would drive in the race. In fact he had made up his mind that he would not. He was eating his breakfast, dressed in his Sunday best, at a table in the Hotel Lebanon. Someone rushed in and told him that he must come at once and drive the car.

“Oh, I am not going to drive. Let someone else do it,” he said.

“You must come, you and nobody else,” he was told. “If you don’t drive the other Stoddard will be pulled out of the contest.”

At this urging and condition Noonan jumped from his seat, leaving his breakfast untouched, ran to the garage donned overalls and jumper over his good clothes, climbed into the machine and was off.

– Press Democrat, May 11, 1909

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WHO DESIGNED THE SONOMA COUNTY MUSEUM?

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

There’s a plaque at the Sonoma County Museum noting the building was “designed by James Knox Taylor.” Perhaps that line should be taped over, or at least a question mark added. A bright red question mark.

The magnificent old place was once Santa Rosa’s post office. Even before the 1906 earthquake, the town’s Congressman requested funds for a new federal building because the post office had outgrown its 19th century rooms in the old Athenaeum, Santa Rosa’s opera house. When that building collapsed in the quake, the post office temporarily relocated to the tent city on a Mendocino street vacant lot (along with almost every downtown business). After that, postal workers operated a window at a grocery store as they waited for a new home to be built by the government. And waited. 1906 turned into 1907, then 1908, when the Squeedunk parade mocked the endless delays with a float portraying a vacant lot surrounded by a worn fence. Finally, the blueprints arrived from Washington (now available online via the Library of Congress). On each page was stamped the signature and title of “James Knox Taylor Supervising Architect Treasury Department”.

(TOP: Santa Rosa received its first glimpse of its new post office in an unsigned architect’s rendering that appeared in the Republican January 14, 1909. CLICK or TAP any image to enlarge

MIDDLE: Construction progress was delayed by water continually filling the excavated site, probably because of an underground tributary to Santa Rosa creek. Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library

BOTTOM: Postcard c. 1910. Note the bicycles strewn on the curb and steps. Photo courtesy Bancroft Library/University of California)

James Knox Taylor was in charge of the Office of the Supervising Architect, a Treasury subdepartment that designed and commissioned federal buildings as well as awarding construction contracts. It was a job of tremendous responsibility; he managed an annual budget and inventory worth around $25 million, which would be closer to a billion dollars today. In FY 1909, when work was underway in Santa Rosa, he had 134 new buildings under construction or recently completed, additions or major repairs on dozens of others, and a further 263 projects somewhere in the pipeline, clamoring for attention.

Taylor’s appointment in 1897 to this post surprised many. It was usually a political patronage job and the designs produced by the Office were generally considered lackluster (one critic at the time called the work “excretable”). But Taylor had worked as an architect himself – albeit one who couldn’t make a living at it. Although he wasn’t the Treasury Department’s first choice, he was selected because he had been a draftsman there for three years and knew how the large Office functioned, and also because he wrote a convincing essay that outlined his philosophy: That public buildings shoud have a dignified style, be beautiful, and be pleasant to work in. Taylor quickly transformed the Office into a true architectural studio that turned out designs that might not have been the best of the day, but were certainly nothing to be ashamed of. He also awarded commissions to top architects for prominent buildings in major cities, which earned him high praise from top architects. Alas, that policy proved his undoing, and he resigned in 1912 amid a scandal that he gave one of these valuable contracts to his former partner from their failed architectural firm.

But did James Knox Taylor design the building that’s now the Sonoma County Museum? Unless unpublished correspondence turns up that proves authorship, assume the answer is no. The primary reference book on the Supervising Architect’s Office, “Architects to the Nation” (my source for background on Taylor) explains that during his tenure, “…modest government buildings, usually post offices, located in small communities…were designed by the Office staff.” Architectural database archINFORM similarly notes, “As the head of a sizable government office, Taylor’s direct involvement with any of these projects is open to question.” And then there was Taylor’s own essay that won him the position, where he stated that he believed the Supervising Architect should be a manager and leave designing to others, so “…[the Supervising Architect] could devote his attention to seeing personally that the three general considerations stated in the beginning of this thesis were studied, and that the actual work of construction was honestly done.”

In sum: It can be claimed James Knox Taylor was the designer of hundreds of public buildings in the same sense that hundreds of cartoons were “made by Walt Disney.” The man with his name on the title signed off on the final product, but likely didn’t do much of anything to shape the work; it was his talented employees who were the real creators.

So who does deserve our thanks for that beautiful building? The only full name on the blueprints is Taylor’s Supervising Architect stamp, and the actual draftsman is anonymous draftsman’s name can be read as “Smith” on some pages of the blueprints. The only other name associated with the building’s creation is one William N. Collier, and he was an engineer sent to oversee construction, not an architect.

Perhaps the true architect’s name might be found somewhere in the cavernous National Archives, but it’s useful to compare Santa Rosa’s old post office to other California post office/federal buildings that were in the works at the same time: Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Stockton. I was unable to find any image of the historic Stockton building, but photos of the others reveal they share Santa Rosa’s Beaux Arts-Neoclassical-Spanish Colonial mashup. All have a low-pitched hipped roof with red tile; strong cornices under the eaves; masonry walls; a portico with a colonnade; an entryway filled with windows. Each building has slightly different tweaks. Santa Rosa’s Corinthian columns became Doric columns in Santa Cruz, then arches with pilasters in Santa Barbara. The post office in Santa Cruz is a single story, but has a larger footprint than the other two. (Only Santa Rosa is well proportioned, in my opinion, and the steps on the other buildings are not an integral  part  of the design, looking more like afterthoughts.)

Does that mean the same unknown architect designed all of the 1909-1910 California post offices? Possibly, but if they look enough alike to be a set of fraternal triplets, the East Coast federal buildings of the same vintage can be recognized as their first cousins. You’ll spot the same Beaux Arts-Neoclassical look – particularly in the shape of the oversized windows and doorways – at Saratoga Springs, NY, Selma, Alabama and Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, among others. Slap a hipped tile roof and a portico-colonnade on any of these buildings and they’d fit right in with the “California” style of architecture coming from Taylor’s office. (UPDATE: On further study, even the hipped tile roof can be found on post offices in the South and Southwest from this period – one example is Bessemer, Alabama.) I think the best conclusion is that the designer/architects were following the Office pattern book and not their muse.

Our treasure of a federal building was officially completed on March 1, 1910 for a total cost about $60,000. And so everything remained for 55 years, until the current post office was built in 1965 on Second street. The government sold the old building to Sonoma County, which used it as a data processing center. In 1977 it was sold again to the Santa Rosa Urban Renewal Agency, which was itching to get rid of it to make room for a shiny new mall that guaranteed lotsa’ renewing would follow. The building was slowwwwly moved from its original location at 405 Fifth street (on the corner of A street, an address now obliterated by the mall parking structure) about 750 feet to Seventh street. We should be very grateful that Santa Rosa didn’t just rip it down, as it recklessly demolished most of the rest of its history.

The old post office deserves to be better appreciated. If a drama were written about the history of Santa Rosa (R-rated, for sure), the first act would be set in a downtown saloon, sweaty, dank and thick with the grit of the Old West. But the scene for act two would be on the sunshined steps of the post office, because that’s where you bumped into everyone every day during the decades when Santa Rosa bloomed. This was the heart of the charming place that Alfred Hitchcock loved and immortalized. Venerate today that quiet lobby, which remains a perfect time capsule of memories not your own.

Contrast that with our present underwhelming main post office, which is notable for having a complete set of walls, floor and ceiling. Every time I’m in there – waiting at the back of a mile-long line – I think back to my aunt Ethelyn, who in the 1960s had a repulsive “modern” sofa with plastic upholstery. When anyone in the family teased that it was remarkably ugly even for the low standards of the day, she’d huff defensively, “well, it’s very easy to keep clean.”

HANDSOME NEW BUILDING FOR THE POSTOFFICE FOR THE CITY OF SANTA ROSA

The new Santa Rosa postoffice building, which is to be erected on the corner of Fifth and A streets in this city, has been admirably designed to harmonize with our history, climate, and natural surroundings. The building will be of Spanish design and will present a pleasing contrast to our other public buildings in the city. The building proper has a frontage on Fifth street of eighty-two feet, and a depth on A street of fifty-two feet. In addition to this main building there is a portico across the front fifty-one feet wide by thirteen feet deep. The general construction of the building is brick masonry, laid in pure cement mortar, no lime whatever. To the height of the first floor the building will be faced with cut stone laid as “coursed ashlar.” This stone will probably be “Indiana Buff Bedford Limestone,” the finest building stone now obtainable in the United States. From the cut stone line to the rafter extensions, the plain brick work will be stuccoed in a rough cast “stipled” surface and nicely paneled and ornamented in mouldings. The roof of the building will be covered with the best grade of Spanish terra cotta tile, including ornamented tile hips and ridges. All of the lintels over the portico and door and window openings will be of cast reinforced concrete, and all sills will be cut stone of same as base course. The portico floor is reached by a set of massive solid granite steps forty-six feet wide. The roof of the portico is also Spanish tile, and is held up by two heavy masonry corners, and four stone columns, twenty inches in diameter, with heavy base and carved caps.

The cornice of the entire building is overhanging with darkened beams and huge rafters. In all, the effect is one of massiveness and solidity. Each buttress on either side of the granite steps is surmounted by a heavy cast iron lamp standard, of highly ornamented design, and with five large opalescent glass globes to each standard. These lamps stand about ten feet high.

The first floor is given over entirely to the use of the postoffice, the public lobby extends across the entire front of the building and is thirteen feet deep, with high ceiling and heavy plastered arches and cornices. At the left end of the lobby is a fine solid oak stairway leading to the internal revenue offices on the second floor. Another passageway at the left leads to the private offices of the postmaster and assistant postmaster.

The workroom occupies all the central portion of the first floor and is practically two stories in height, as is the public lobby. The money order and registry department is at the right of the double entrance, and is separated somewhat from the general workroom. Large roomy vaults of reinforced concrete and steel are provided for all purposes. The floor of the portico and public lobby is of marble terrazzo laid off in panels. All of the base and plinths of the lobby will also be of marble. The second story at the left is arranged into a suite of offices for internal revenue officers with private vaults, toilet, etc. On the right of the second story are arranged a store room, “swing room,” and toilet room.

All of the toilet rooms have terazzo floors and marble wainscoting. The large toilet rooms on the second floor have exceptionally fine facilities, including shower baths for employees of the postoffice. There will be a basement with ten-foot ceiling under the whole building given over to the heating plant and fuel storage, etc. The mechanical equipment of the building, including heating, plumbing, and electric installation, is superb and of the latest types throughout. The heating will have an automatic oil burning plant to operate a hot water heating apparatus.

The plumbing embraces some of the finest fixtures made, most of which will be the John Douglas manufacture. All heating and plumbing pipes and fittings will be jacketed with asbestos pipe coverings. There will be four distinct electric installations, one for lighting, one for power, one for vault protection service and one for telephone service within the building. All electric work will be run in metal conduits.

The inside finish of the building will be almost entirely of quarter sawed whiteoak for all doors, trim, fixtures, counters, desks, etc. All glass will be plate or ornamental opalascent glass. Wood floors will be of white maple. Artistic metal grilles at all screen openings and front doors.

As a whole our new Federal Building compares favorably with other like [illegible microfilm] and while not so large and pretentious as some, it is fully adequate to serve its purpose.

The building was designed by James Knox Taylor, supervising architect of the treasury, and its construction will be under the personal supervision of Mr. William N. Collier, superintendent of construction of public buildings, who is now in Santa Rosa. Hoyt Brothers have the contract to erect the building.

– Santa Rosa Republican January 14, 1909

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FADED NOTES ON DRAWN BUTTER

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

 If Comstock House was haunted, I expect it would be the ghost of Mattie Oates. This was first and foremost her home; she was clearly the client that architect  Brainerd Jones’ had to please, even though husband James Wyatt wrote the checks (his main concern was “there will not be a parlor in the whole house and there will not be a room in which I can’t smoke,” he repeatedly said). Yet of all the 20th century owners, she had the shortest time to enjoy living here – just nine years, with about a third of her tenure confined as a invalid.

Such little of her remains aside from the house itself. She left no immediate family. We have a blurry picture of her in a group photo of the Saturday Afternoon Club. She once said she wanted Virginia creeper to “run in profusion over the trees,” and the vine still climbs the great oak behind her old home. The only physical artifact is her nearly worn-to-dust copy of the Jewel Cook Book, which we found on a bookshelf in the study (interestingly, none of the Comstocks recalled seeing it before).

Even her presence in that book is tenuous; her name is softly written on an endpage, and there are pencilled notes on a single recipe for drawn butter. Other than that, it appears the book was rarely used, except a dog-eared page for apple dumplings and a recipe for corn muffins torn from a San Francisco (?) newspaper. The book falls open to the page on making pancakes. All basic stuff that suggests the kitchen was somewhat uncharted territory for Mrs. Oates. Which makes it even more surprising to find an item in the April 25, 1909 Press Democrat “Society Gossip” column that she gave a presentation to the Saturday Afternoon Club on “Economics of Modern Cookery.” As the first section of the Jewel Cook Book discusses how to shop wisely and prepare meals economically, it’s a safe bet that these very pages were used to prepare her speech.

Aside from the remarkable fact that a 120-year-old personal book of hers has even survived, it’s not unusual to discover she had such a volume. Probably every home in Victorian America had a copy of this book or another like it; they were often given as wedding presents to new brides (not in this case however; the Jewel Cook Book was published in 1890, and Mattie and Wyatt married in 1881). These books showed you how to prepare hearty grub for the hard-working family, and also served as a reference on how to take care of your household. They offered recipes for gravy and how to remove gravy stains; how to cure bacon and how to cure a headache.

The Jewel Cook Book – or more properly, “Jewel Cook Book: A Compendium of Useful Information Pertaining to Every Branch of Domestic Economy. A Manual for Every Household, Also a Book of Knowledge and Guide to Rapid Wealth” – is a bit more interesting than other housekeeping/cookbooks from that era.* One of the three co-authors was chemist, and there is a lengthy section with recipes for cure-alls, ointments, perfume, toothpaste and whatnot. But what really gave the Jewel Cook Book added value was its section on how to make all kinds of brewed and distilled liquor.

The book also offers many examples of hilariously bad advice. Douse your family in kerosene as a mosquito repellent (“the odor is not noticed after a few minutes, and children especially are much relieved by its use”). If someone is struck by lightning, “shower with cold water for two hours; if the patient does not show signs of life, put salt in the water, and continue to shower an hour longer.” And then there’s the contradictory instructions about treating a bite from a rabid animal: “The only safe remedy in case of a bite from a dog suspected of madness is to burn out the wound thoroughly with red-hot iron,” the authors suggest on page 272. Then in the “Book of Knowledge” section, it’s stated “Spirits of Hartshorn is said to be a certain remedy for the bite of a mad dog…an old friend and physician tried it in cases of Hydrophobia and always with success.”

Alas, the book is not specific about its “Guide to Rapid Wealth,” unless that was a wink towards the section on cooking up moonshine. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine how anyone would get rich quick by peddling homemade cosmetics or writing ink. Yet they did offer one interesting idea for a home business – I wonder why it never caught on?

New Method of Embalming–Mix together five pounds dry sulphate of alumine, one quart of warm water, and one hundred grains of arsenious acid. Inject three or four quarts of this mixture into all the vessels of the human body. This applies as well to all animals, birds, fishes, &c. This process supersedes the old and revolting mode, and has been introduced into the great anatomical schools of Paris.

* Victorian American housekeeping/cookbooks are hard to find today, despite the immense numbers that were sold. These books were printed on cheap paper and poorly bound; with regular use, it’s likely most fell apart in the lifetime of their original owners. A digital copy of the Jewel Cook Book is available for online reading via Utah State University, but I am unable to find another paper copy for sale anywhere. This 1890 book is not to be confused with the “Jewel Cook Book Containing Choice Cooking Recipes” published in 1900 by a stove company or “Jewel Cook Book: Recipes for Good Eating” published in 1940 by the Jewel Tea Co.

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