Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list July 2009.
so now the big question is how common were they in 1860s Texas?
Annette Bethke
I suspect that in upper middle class and upper class kitchens they were fairly common. They are one of the easiest ways to roast meats, and the next logical development from the turnspit actually in a fireplace. there were certainly local tinsmiths in Texas, and an amazing amount of commercial goods were being imported too
Hal
Just wondering though if the family was upper class or even upper middle class wouldn't some of them have stoves instead of these ovens? I think I have only been in one restored to the period 1860's house (George Ranch) and I don't remember if it had a stove or not. If I am remembering it correctly Henkle Sq has only one house with a stove and it is a coal or charcoal stove from what Deborah has told me. But that may not have been in that house originally.
Curious minds want to know.
Debbie Hill Russell
Stoves are certainly available by 1860 even in areas off the train routes- but very, very rare. Even as wealthy as William Brown Miller, who built the large greek revival home that is at Dallas Heritage Village, was he did not have a stove in the early 1860s in the property's kitchens. Most Texans are still working off of open hearth cooking at that time, and really many of them up until at least the mid-1870s. Until the train come through an area coal would also have been largely unavailable except to blacksmiths who spent a lot of money for wagon transport, so what stoves there might have been off-train would have been wood.
Hal
One of my "finds" in the Footnote.com files was the voucher for the purchase of a heating (presumably) stove, December 1, 1861, by E. C. Wharton, quartermaster, which cost the Confederacy $20.00. What was interesting, though, was the comment at the bottom: "The stove was purchased from the fact that but few houses or stores in Houston or Galveston have fireplaces or grates--stoves being in almost universal use." He's talking heating stoves, and maybe he's differentiating between houses and kitchens, since they were likely unattached, but I still thought that was intriguing. By the fall of 1861, coastal cities with easy access to ships' cargoes, apparently were already dependent on stoves, perhaps even coal stoves. Later, after the blockade was in place, fuel became a critical need in Galveston, with soldiers and others taking down unoccupied frame homes for heating and cooking, and a cry was raised to bring firewood over from the mainland, or there wouldn't be a Galveston left to live in.
Just a sidenote from the oven conversation...
Vicki Betts
so now the big question is how common were they in 1860s Texas?
Annette Bethke
I suspect that in upper middle class and upper class kitchens they were fairly common. They are one of the easiest ways to roast meats, and the next logical development from the turnspit actually in a fireplace. there were certainly local tinsmiths in Texas, and an amazing amount of commercial goods were being imported too
Hal
Just wondering though if the family was upper class or even upper middle class wouldn't some of them have stoves instead of these ovens? I think I have only been in one restored to the period 1860's house (George Ranch) and I don't remember if it had a stove or not. If I am remembering it correctly Henkle Sq has only one house with a stove and it is a coal or charcoal stove from what Deborah has told me. But that may not have been in that house originally.
Curious minds want to know.
Debbie Hill Russell
Stoves are certainly available by 1860 even in areas off the train routes- but very, very rare. Even as wealthy as William Brown Miller, who built the large greek revival home that is at Dallas Heritage Village, was he did not have a stove in the early 1860s in the property's kitchens. Most Texans are still working off of open hearth cooking at that time, and really many of them up until at least the mid-1870s. Until the train come through an area coal would also have been largely unavailable except to blacksmiths who spent a lot of money for wagon transport, so what stoves there might have been off-train would have been wood.
Hal
One of my "finds" in the Footnote.com files was the voucher for the purchase of a heating (presumably) stove, December 1, 1861, by E. C. Wharton, quartermaster, which cost the Confederacy $20.00. What was interesting, though, was the comment at the bottom: "The stove was purchased from the fact that but few houses or stores in Houston or Galveston have fireplaces or grates--stoves being in almost universal use." He's talking heating stoves, and maybe he's differentiating between houses and kitchens, since they were likely unattached, but I still thought that was intriguing. By the fall of 1861, coastal cities with easy access to ships' cargoes, apparently were already dependent on stoves, perhaps even coal stoves. Later, after the blockade was in place, fuel became a critical need in Galveston, with soldiers and others taking down unoccupied frame homes for heating and cooking, and a cry was raised to bring firewood over from the mainland, or there wouldn't be a Galveston left to live in.
Just a sidenote from the oven conversation...
Vicki Betts
