I recently came across a curious Newton artifact. In 1888, the city celebrated the 200th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Newton. There was a big celebration at city hall followed by a banquet at the Woodland Park Hotel in Auburndale. The banquet featured speeches from various dignitaries including the mayor (J Wesley Kimball), the governor (Oliver Ames), Collector of US Customs (Leverett Saltonstall) and Upper Falls homeboy (Otis Pettee).
Here’s the menu from the banquet.
Mmmm, there’s nothing like a bit of “saddle of mutton”
1888 was the last time the NY Stock Exchange was closed down for two consecutive days as a result of weather. A snow storm that hit on March 12 & 13, 1888 dumped 21 inches of snow. In 1978, the NYSE opened after 1 1/2 days.
Mock turtle? I thought that was a 60s thing. Didn’t realize it was from the 1800s
I think they were eating mock turtle back in ancient Rome. Here’s my favorite recipe – mmmmm
Mrs. Fowle’s Mock Turtle Soup,:[3] “Take a large calf’s head. Scald off the hair. Boil it until the horn is tender, then cut it into slices about the size of your finger, with as little lean as possible. Have ready three pints of good mutton or veal broth, put in it half a pint of Madeira wine, half a teaspoonful of thyme, pepper, a large onion, and the peel of a lemon chop’t very small. A ¼ of a pint of oysters chop’t very small, and their liquor; a little salt, the juice of two large onions, some sweet herbs, and the brains chop’t. Stand all these together for about an hour, and send it up to the table with the forcemeat balls made small and the yolks of hard eggs.”
With thanks to Jerry for posting, but I think that recipe should be re-credited as “Mrs. Foul’s” mock turtle soup. Our forebears were certainly a hardy lot if they could withstand that menu.
If I can figure out where to get a hairy calf’s head, I’m thinking of cooking up a batch for the next Village 14 get together.
As ‘Bizarre Foods’ is one of my favorite shows, I would love to tackle this menu. Great find!
Paired it with a nice haggis and you’ll have a feast fit for a zombie!
Somebody had a lot of celery to get rid of.
I figure the 1888 Leverett Saltonstall must have been the father or uncle of the Leverett Saltonstall who was a Republican US Senator from this state from the 1940’s right through the early 70’s. “Salty” was a gem of a man and one of those great moderates that made it so easy for Democrats like me to cross party lines before the advent of the religious right, Tea Party Fox News and talk radio.
Saltonstall was also great with constituent services, much better than JFK who served with him during the 1950’s. After College, my draft number was coming up and I applied to Naval Officer Candidate School, passed the tests with flying colors, but was on the verge of being rejected because of flat feet. The Catch 22 was that I would have still been eligible for the draft and the infantry. Salty went to bat for me and managed to get a waiver on some arcane basis that I can’t really recall. Five months later, I got a letter from him in Pensacola, Florida congratulating me for getting my commission and sincerely asking me to write to tell how I was getting along. It was a pleasure to send him an enthusiastic response.
@Bob Burke –
You’ve been sharing anecdotes of life in an earlier Newton for so long, I had to do some math to make sure you weren’t actually at this dinner 😉
@Max. No, but there are some days I’m stiff enough to feel that old.