A birthday dinner of the '90s years ago
By Mrs. J.N. Rogers
"The Record has asked me to tell of some of our company dinners in the early days of Kansas.
"It was no trouble to give a nice dinner in those days. Not served in stylish courses, but good substantial food and plenty of it. There were lots of wild grapes and plums, a few peaches and apples. For the first things new settlers did was to put out as many kinds of fruit trees as they could get.
"There was plenty of wild game and while the nearest grist mill was over at Cottonwood Falls, we generally had plenty of good flour.
"Well, times move fast and it wasn't long until teamsters were going to Junction City and later to Emporia and bringing flour, corn meal and shorts, etc. Did anyone of you ever eat any biscuit made from shorts? Well, they were pretty good after all. Especially when some of your relatives had shipped you a five-gallon can of new maple syrup when you were not expecting it. Well this is not telling about our dinner a few years later.
"I have in mind just now a surprise birthday dinner I gave to Dr. Rogers and eleven friends when he was fifty years old.
"It was no trouble to have almost any kind of meat you wanted and all you wanted and you know you must have it to balance a meal.
"We had at the farm some nice young shoats. I told one of our workmen to bring a nice little one in when he came from work and leave it with the Hauser Market, to be dressed whole and prepared to roast against the day set for the dinner.
"Mr. Hauser did or had it done beautifully. It was to be taken down town to the bakery and roasted but to be sure to remember it was all to be a surprise to my husband on his birthday. Well when they brought it home sizzling hot it had lots of cloves sticking up in his back and a dear little ear of popcorn in his mouth. I cannot remember all we had for our feast. But this is what I remember. The merchants were beginning to ship in fresh oysters in tin cans. Well we had nice oyster soup followed by mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, peach pickles, and green peppers stuffed with cabbage. Did you ever eat any of these? Well, they are an appetizer and taste mighty good with nice baked pork. We had light biscuits not dainty little rolls that you can eat in three bites, but a nice fat biscuit made by Mrs. Locklin for the dinner and finished with pumpkin pie also made by her. The Record printed a ribbon of yellow grosgrain, with 'J.N. Rogers' in the middle and 1840 at one end and 1890 at the other, which I folded nicely around each napkin, as a little souvenir for each guest.
"After the soup had been served Woodson Holder walked in with the piggy on his shoulder and set the tray down in front of John Carter.
"Jim Carter's birthday was that day too. I put him at the head of the table and Dr. at the foot. I had previously asked him to carve but did not tell him what. But he consented. He was one year older than Dr. Rogers. He and all of them had a good laugh but he was game and helped each one bountifully.
"These were the guests: J.M. Rogers, John Carter, Frank Bower, Taylor Riddle, Levi Billings, Albert Thompson, Charles Mitchell (now our Bishop), Dallas Rogers, Wm. Dudley, Major Bown, and Al Carter."
