hchm-curator, Author at Harvey County Historical Society

Christmas Treats from HCHM’s Cookbook Collection

Last week, we shared a slide show of Christmas decorations over the years in Harvey County.

This week features another tradition to celebrate the holidays – food.

Several years ago, HCHM published a cookbook. The recipes below come from this book as well as a collection of recipe cards in a private collection. A Step Back in Thyme” is available at the Harvey County Historical Museum & Archives, Newton, Ks.

Hot Wassail & Instant Russian Tea

Cookies & Candy

Mrs. Goertzen’s Fudge

Peppernuts

The Kansan Kook Book, n.d.

In the early 1900s, the Evening Kansan Republican collected recipes and printed The Kansan Kook Book. The recipes below are from volume 4.

Pride of the Kitchen, 1898

Some of the more interesting recipes have been written in the margins and cover of the book.

The Bride’s Cookbook, n.d.

If you try any of these recipes, let us know how they turned out!

Christmas Greetings From Sylvia Muse.

by Kristine Schmucker, HCHM Curator

A number of years ago, the family of Sylvia Muse donated her postcard collection and research material. Sylvia started her collection one year after she was born when her grandmother, Fianna B. Grabill, sent her a first birthday card with “bluebirds embossed on it and was beautiful” was sent to her by her grandmother, Fianna B. Grabill.

Sylvia was born in rural Harvey County, Kansas, to Henry M. & Harriet A. Dibble Grabill on Valentine’s Day in 1911.

Sylvia, age 4, at the family home near Hesston, Ks

Some of Sylvia’s father’s family remained in Pennsylvania creating the perfect opportunity for correspondence. To keep in contact, cards and letters were mailed back and forth between the family in Pennsylvania and Kansas. Each card Sylvia received, she placed in a special box. As she got older, she would take out the cards and make up stories or her mother would sit with her and tell about her family in Pennsylvania who had sent the card.

In her later years, as she began writing her family history, the cards recieved from far away family provided a touchstone. She described, “it was like meeting old friends and I thought of all those people who had sent me the cards.”

Christmas Greetings – Sylvia Grabill Dewey Muse

Muse had a large collection of Christmas cards and she noted, “I found that the cards reflect the issue and interest of that particular year.”

Sylvia Grabill Dewy Muse

She drew on the cards she had collected throughout her life to create a program as part of the “I-Witness” program at Larksfield Place, Wichita, Ks.

Sylvia Muse’s Christmas Greetings

The images below are pages from programs she gave in the 1990s based on her collection. Notebooks with her complete Christmas collection will be available to view at HCHM on Dec. 2 through Dec. 30.