This is from Vicki Betts newspaper transcrïptions.
[HOUSTON] TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH, May 30, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
We acknowledge the receipt of a bucket of elegant honey from a lady friend in the country, sent as a token of approval of the part we have taken in reference to shinplasters.
Ripe watermelons appeared in Market yesterday evening. Roasting ears are beginning to appear; also tomatos [sic], etc., etc.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Vicki Betts
From the Maverick Family letters. _When Will the Weary War be Over_:
p.27, Samuel Maverick, in Austin, to wife Mary, January 24, 1861
I am staying at the City Hotel (the brick house where you saw Mrs. Hancock or Miss Lewis). I have corn bread, bacon, cabbage, butter, chicken, mutton, venison, potato, honey &c&c--in fact living like I had not yet seceded from the comforts of life.
p.34, Samuel Maverick, in Austin, to wife Mary, December 9, 1861
As to the place I live at they have a plenty of everything--beef, turkey, chickens, pear bread & butter--but it is the worst cookery I ever saw. I think the poultry has a pale sickly white look & is neither roasted nor boiled. The biscuit has saleratus in it & I can't touch it. I have not seen one mouthful of hominy or rice & our corn bread is raw generally. We have badly cooked potatoes. And everything is done up with black pepper. They have offered me every day & 3 times a day coffee which I have steadily
refused & I have not had anything but water except once or twice a week milk from the farm, I suppose. Clever people, but they love black pepper too much for my comfort. I feel like vomiting after a dose of black pepper. I have begged them for a little food without black pepper. But they forget & can't conceive of such a strange taste I do suppose.
p.55, Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, January 11, 1863
I had 2 jars of pickles and your 10 lbs of coffee and [sic] to send you but suppose you can get it from Matamoras and don't see any way now to send them.
p.61 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, February 17, 1863
Betsey and Rosetta [slaves] gave their patriotic supper last Saturday night but by some mistake the attendance was small. She [Betsey] cooked a splendid supper, [figs?], turkeys, chickens, pies, cakes, jellies--a great quantity; and wished so much Mas[ter] Lewis and George could set down and have the "first cut." I helped her (& co) prepare, and arrange the table.
p.67 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, April 27, 1863
Friday also our Sunday School had a picnic above the [Ahat?] place--a nice shade & a crowd of children--both large & small & plenty of edibles they say. They made a queen & the children had a pleasant time. Willie has missed that & all the superior whitehead lettuce we have so much of now--as well as snaps, & green peas.
p.70 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, June 9, 1863
I wish you could be with us now--melons plenty are in town, figs begin to ripen, roasting ears & vegetables in great abundance load our daily table & grapes will ripen in 2 or 3 weeks.
p.147 Samuel Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Willie, May 24, 1864
Today we have Ada Bradley, Ann[i]e Sweet & Emma & her 2 children at dinner, of green peas, snap beans, beets, cucumbers, lettuce--and a tart from green apples! Your mama has some time since found some lettuce and [seed?] for yr. benefit. We have a promise of peaches & grapes if we can keep the cows out. The fig trees were killed by frost, & our figs will be few and late.
p.148 Samuel Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, May 25, 1865
Yesterday we had Ada Bradley, Emma & Annie Sweet to dinner when we had cucumbers for the 3d time this (late cold) spring, beans, peas, beets &c. We have a promise of plenty of grapes & peaches.
p.150 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, June 5, 1864
I am going to send W. back to Bastrop. He writes that he has not tasted a vegetable at all, nor milk for 3 months. Our table is loaded with green corn & all other vegetables, & we have our own milk & butter. In July we will have lots of delicious grapes & figs, and you must come home, Lewis.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Vicki Betts
From _When Will the Weary War be Over? The Civil War Letters of the Maverick Family of San Antonio_
p.30, Willie Maverick from Sulphur Springs [not the one on I-30] to mother Mary, July 4, 1861
All the people in the country have fine watermelons and some musk melons.
p.32 Samuel Maverick, from Austin, to wife Mary, November 10, 1861
I forgot to mention that the day before I left Frank showed me a bunch of blue grapes, on the tallest of the 2 vines we thought better than the Elliott grape, which are in the last grape row of all, down opposite the old peach nursery. When he has nothing to do for you, I want Frank to cover all the vines I showed him & to dig up the old vines in the old peach nursery. And again it would pay to dig now before winter, about the roots of all our
trees. And then finish those holes.
p.78 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to Willie at Bastrop Military Institute, November 7, 1863
Don't you get any milk? Can't they cook big hominy? Maybe you can get into the good graces of the cook & give her some game to dress for you all...George tells me they have persimmons & haws & whortleberries too.
p.80 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Lewis, November 16, 1863
I suppose you are North Carolinian enough to let him know the consequences of possum hunting & persimmons--the more persimmons he gets the less hair on his breat [sic] &c.
p.81 George, from Camp Lubbock near Houston, to brother Willie, November 21, 1863
I wish you had been with us at Beaumont. B. is on the west bank of the Nachez. [Neches] We had a great time hunting bees & persimmons & huckleberries, and once in a while pitching into potato & pumpkin patches on the sly. We found lots of honey, and berries & [per]simmons in the greatest abundance.
p.83 Lewis Maverick, from camps near Columbia, to brother Willie, November 27, 1863
George & I & Antonio dropped behind the command when they started from Camp Lubbock & came on leisurely stopping along the way at houses, &c. It is a great sugar country & we kept the little wagon loaded with sugar cane. We found the people very hospitable--so much so that they would not charge at all. They are almost all very wealthy--"hog killing" times, sugar cane,
syrup, &c. &c.
p.92 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, December 20, 1863
Your cousin Lizzie sent each of us a nice ripe Monterrey orange grown on her trees--you remember we saw them green when we went to Goliad.
p.94 Willie Maverick, from Bastrop, to mother Mary, December 27, 1863
Pecans sell here at $1/2 a quart, if you can get a good price for mine I would like for you to sell them for me.
p.101 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Lewis, February 2, 1864
She is sending you a little box of pecan cake--the best cake I know of. I send you a little bag of the very best pecans I ever tasted, remark them (give George some) and a small jar of peach preserves
p.126 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, March 6, 1864
We have 3 cows up & begin to make butter now. Prince is going to plant the Rancho in corn and potatoes this year...It is a beautiful day of warm sunshine & Pa is grafting grapes & Frank digging holes for cuttings. Most of our grapes, except the black Spanish, have been killed by the cold & Pa intends to graft the wild vines with the black Spanish & try to get enough grapes that will bear regularly every year.
p.180 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, March 23, 1865
Antonio has been sick almost all the time, too--looks badly now--but always eats & is in the garden sticking peas. Pa is so busy grafting his grapes that he can't stop to take your trunk to the office & put upon the way-bill--so I will take Antonio & go, if it don't rain.
p.196 Samuel Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, May 16, 1865
Your peach tree has a fine lot of fruit on it and some of the peaches are on grafts I put in a year ago (on your tree). The peach crop is not large, but our grapes are perfectly astonishing in their fruitfulness this year. I hope you can so arrange to be here when the fruit shall be ripe.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Terre Schill
Does anyone know what a "Monterrey orange" is? Is it an actual orange, the citrus fruit? Hard to imagine oranges producing fruit in Goliad (where it freezes most winters...). Or did they use smudge pots I wonder? If anyone comes across this tree or knows what it is, please let me know. I would love to have an orange tree.
I have no idea; I think that I will ask in my 19th cent food group. I remember that Debs told me recently that orange and grapefruit orchards were selling on the market by 1863 (or so).
She will have to confirm that.
Kimberly
I did a Google books search for Monterrey and oranges, and it seems that Americans involved in the Mexican War were very impressed by the orange groves around Monterrey, Mexico. However, that doesn't help any with a specific variety to pursue today.
Vicki Betts
Yes, I don't doubt orange and grapefruit were available, but producing fruit in Goliad? I really can't imagine, but who knows? We use to live next to orange orchards in Calif. and when it would get anywhere near freezing the growers would use smudgepots to keep the trees warm. If they get nipped by freezing temperatures the crop was done for.
I suspect it is something other than citrus. though. Sort of like avocados are called "alligator pear" when they are nothing to do with pears at all (or alligators, either for that matter!).
Terre Schill
Quote :
Annetteb wrote : Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Terre Schill
Does anyone know what a "Monterrey orange" is? Is it an actual orange, the citrus fruit? Hard to imagine oranges producing fruit in Goliad (where it freezes most winters...). Or did they use smudge pots I wonder? If anyone comes across this tree or knows what it is, please let me know. I would love to have an orange tree.
I have no idea; I think that I will ask in my 19th cent food group. I remember that Debs told me recently that orange and grapefruit orchards were selling on the market by 1863 (or so).
She will have to confirm that.
Kimberly
I did a Google books search for Monterrey and oranges, and it seems that Americans involved in the Mexican War were very impressed by the orange groves around Monterrey, Mexico. However, that doesn't help any with a specific variety to pursue today.
Vicki Betts
Yes, I don't doubt orange and grapefruit were available, but producing fruit in Goliad? I really can't imagine, but who knows? We use to live next to orange orchards in Calif. and when it would get anywhere near freezing the growers would use smudgepots to keep the trees warm. If they get nipped by freezing temperatures the crop was done for.
I suspect it is something other than citrus. though. Sort of like avocados are called "alligator pear" when they are nothing to do with pears at all (or alligators, either for that matter!).
Terre Schill
There is currently a Seville orange tree on the grounds at Landmark Inn in Castroville that was loaded with ripe fruit by the first week in December this year, so it may depend on exactly where they were being grown and what variety they were.
Hal Simon
[HOUSTON] TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH, May 30, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
We acknowledge the receipt of a bucket of elegant honey from a lady friend in the country, sent as a token of approval of the part we have taken in reference to shinplasters.
Ripe watermelons appeared in Market yesterday evening. Roasting ears are beginning to appear; also tomatos [sic], etc., etc.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Vicki Betts
From the Maverick Family letters. _When Will the Weary War be Over_:
p.27, Samuel Maverick, in Austin, to wife Mary, January 24, 1861
I am staying at the City Hotel (the brick house where you saw Mrs. Hancock or Miss Lewis). I have corn bread, bacon, cabbage, butter, chicken, mutton, venison, potato, honey &c&c--in fact living like I had not yet seceded from the comforts of life.
p.34, Samuel Maverick, in Austin, to wife Mary, December 9, 1861
As to the place I live at they have a plenty of everything--beef, turkey, chickens, pear bread & butter--but it is the worst cookery I ever saw. I think the poultry has a pale sickly white look & is neither roasted nor boiled. The biscuit has saleratus in it & I can't touch it. I have not seen one mouthful of hominy or rice & our corn bread is raw generally. We have badly cooked potatoes. And everything is done up with black pepper. They have offered me every day & 3 times a day coffee which I have steadily
refused & I have not had anything but water except once or twice a week milk from the farm, I suppose. Clever people, but they love black pepper too much for my comfort. I feel like vomiting after a dose of black pepper. I have begged them for a little food without black pepper. But they forget & can't conceive of such a strange taste I do suppose.
p.55, Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, January 11, 1863
I had 2 jars of pickles and your 10 lbs of coffee and [sic] to send you but suppose you can get it from Matamoras and don't see any way now to send them.
p.61 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, February 17, 1863
Betsey and Rosetta [slaves] gave their patriotic supper last Saturday night but by some mistake the attendance was small. She [Betsey] cooked a splendid supper, [figs?], turkeys, chickens, pies, cakes, jellies--a great quantity; and wished so much Mas[ter] Lewis and George could set down and have the "first cut." I helped her (& co) prepare, and arrange the table.
p.67 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, April 27, 1863
Friday also our Sunday School had a picnic above the [Ahat?] place--a nice shade & a crowd of children--both large & small & plenty of edibles they say. They made a queen & the children had a pleasant time. Willie has missed that & all the superior whitehead lettuce we have so much of now--as well as snaps, & green peas.
p.70 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, June 9, 1863
I wish you could be with us now--melons plenty are in town, figs begin to ripen, roasting ears & vegetables in great abundance load our daily table & grapes will ripen in 2 or 3 weeks.
p.147 Samuel Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Willie, May 24, 1864
Today we have Ada Bradley, Ann[i]e Sweet & Emma & her 2 children at dinner, of green peas, snap beans, beets, cucumbers, lettuce--and a tart from green apples! Your mama has some time since found some lettuce and [seed?] for yr. benefit. We have a promise of peaches & grapes if we can keep the cows out. The fig trees were killed by frost, & our figs will be few and late.
p.148 Samuel Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, May 25, 1865
Yesterday we had Ada Bradley, Emma & Annie Sweet to dinner when we had cucumbers for the 3d time this (late cold) spring, beans, peas, beets &c. We have a promise of plenty of grapes & peaches.
p.150 Mary Maverick, in San Antonio, to son Lewis, June 5, 1864
I am going to send W. back to Bastrop. He writes that he has not tasted a vegetable at all, nor milk for 3 months. Our table is loaded with green corn & all other vegetables, & we have our own milk & butter. In July we will have lots of delicious grapes & figs, and you must come home, Lewis.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Vicki Betts
From _When Will the Weary War be Over? The Civil War Letters of the Maverick Family of San Antonio_
p.30, Willie Maverick from Sulphur Springs [not the one on I-30] to mother Mary, July 4, 1861
All the people in the country have fine watermelons and some musk melons.
p.32 Samuel Maverick, from Austin, to wife Mary, November 10, 1861
I forgot to mention that the day before I left Frank showed me a bunch of blue grapes, on the tallest of the 2 vines we thought better than the Elliott grape, which are in the last grape row of all, down opposite the old peach nursery. When he has nothing to do for you, I want Frank to cover all the vines I showed him & to dig up the old vines in the old peach nursery. And again it would pay to dig now before winter, about the roots of all our
trees. And then finish those holes.
p.78 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to Willie at Bastrop Military Institute, November 7, 1863
Don't you get any milk? Can't they cook big hominy? Maybe you can get into the good graces of the cook & give her some game to dress for you all...George tells me they have persimmons & haws & whortleberries too.
p.80 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Lewis, November 16, 1863
I suppose you are North Carolinian enough to let him know the consequences of possum hunting & persimmons--the more persimmons he gets the less hair on his breat [sic] &c.
p.81 George, from Camp Lubbock near Houston, to brother Willie, November 21, 1863
I wish you had been with us at Beaumont. B. is on the west bank of the Nachez. [Neches] We had a great time hunting bees & persimmons & huckleberries, and once in a while pitching into potato & pumpkin patches on the sly. We found lots of honey, and berries & [per]simmons in the greatest abundance.
p.83 Lewis Maverick, from camps near Columbia, to brother Willie, November 27, 1863
George & I & Antonio dropped behind the command when they started from Camp Lubbock & came on leisurely stopping along the way at houses, &c. It is a great sugar country & we kept the little wagon loaded with sugar cane. We found the people very hospitable--so much so that they would not charge at all. They are almost all very wealthy--"hog killing" times, sugar cane,
syrup, &c. &c.
p.92 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, December 20, 1863
Your cousin Lizzie sent each of us a nice ripe Monterrey orange grown on her trees--you remember we saw them green when we went to Goliad.
p.94 Willie Maverick, from Bastrop, to mother Mary, December 27, 1863
Pecans sell here at $1/2 a quart, if you can get a good price for mine I would like for you to sell them for me.
p.101 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Lewis, February 2, 1864
She is sending you a little box of pecan cake--the best cake I know of. I send you a little bag of the very best pecans I ever tasted, remark them (give George some) and a small jar of peach preserves
p.126 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, March 6, 1864
We have 3 cows up & begin to make butter now. Prince is going to plant the Rancho in corn and potatoes this year...It is a beautiful day of warm sunshine & Pa is grafting grapes & Frank digging holes for cuttings. Most of our grapes, except the black Spanish, have been killed by the cold & Pa intends to graft the wild vines with the black Spanish & try to get enough grapes that will bear regularly every year.
p.180 Mary Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, March 23, 1865
Antonio has been sick almost all the time, too--looks badly now--but always eats & is in the garden sticking peas. Pa is so busy grafting his grapes that he can't stop to take your trunk to the office & put upon the way-bill--so I will take Antonio & go, if it don't rain.
p.196 Samuel Maverick, from San Antonio, to son Willie, May 16, 1865
Your peach tree has a fine lot of fruit on it and some of the peaches are on grafts I put in a year ago (on your tree). The peach crop is not large, but our grapes are perfectly astonishing in their fruitfulness this year. I hope you can so arrange to be here when the fruit shall be ripe.
Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Terre Schill
Does anyone know what a "Monterrey orange" is? Is it an actual orange, the citrus fruit? Hard to imagine oranges producing fruit in Goliad (where it freezes most winters...). Or did they use smudge pots I wonder? If anyone comes across this tree or knows what it is, please let me know. I would love to have an orange tree.
I have no idea; I think that I will ask in my 19th cent food group. I remember that Debs told me recently that orange and grapefruit orchards were selling on the market by 1863 (or so).
She will have to confirm that.
Kimberly
I did a Google books search for Monterrey and oranges, and it seems that Americans involved in the Mexican War were very impressed by the orange groves around Monterrey, Mexico. However, that doesn't help any with a specific variety to pursue today.
Vicki Betts
Yes, I don't doubt orange and grapefruit were available, but producing fruit in Goliad? I really can't imagine, but who knows? We use to live next to orange orchards in Calif. and when it would get anywhere near freezing the growers would use smudgepots to keep the trees warm. If they get nipped by freezing temperatures the crop was done for.
I suspect it is something other than citrus. though. Sort of like avocados are called "alligator pear" when they are nothing to do with pears at all (or alligators, either for that matter!).
Terre Schill
Quote :
Annetteb wrote : Posted on Texas Civilian Yahoo list June 2009 by Terre Schill
Does anyone know what a "Monterrey orange" is? Is it an actual orange, the citrus fruit? Hard to imagine oranges producing fruit in Goliad (where it freezes most winters...). Or did they use smudge pots I wonder? If anyone comes across this tree or knows what it is, please let me know. I would love to have an orange tree.
I have no idea; I think that I will ask in my 19th cent food group. I remember that Debs told me recently that orange and grapefruit orchards were selling on the market by 1863 (or so).
She will have to confirm that.
Kimberly
I did a Google books search for Monterrey and oranges, and it seems that Americans involved in the Mexican War were very impressed by the orange groves around Monterrey, Mexico. However, that doesn't help any with a specific variety to pursue today.
Vicki Betts
Yes, I don't doubt orange and grapefruit were available, but producing fruit in Goliad? I really can't imagine, but who knows? We use to live next to orange orchards in Calif. and when it would get anywhere near freezing the growers would use smudgepots to keep the trees warm. If they get nipped by freezing temperatures the crop was done for.
I suspect it is something other than citrus. though. Sort of like avocados are called "alligator pear" when they are nothing to do with pears at all (or alligators, either for that matter!).
Terre Schill
There is currently a Seville orange tree on the grounds at Landmark Inn in Castroville that was loaded with ripe fruit by the first week in December this year, so it may depend on exactly where they were being grown and what variety they were.
Hal Simon
