Our Roots
December 21 - 28, 2012
Campbell County Observer
Featured Crime Theft from Auto
Crime Stoppers needs your help in solving thefts from autos involving Ford and Chevrolet trucks. Unknown suspect(s) have removed the side view mirrors from three Ford pickups and one Chevrolet pickup. No other personal items or parts were taken during the thefts. If you have information that can solve this or any other crime please call Crime Stoppers at 686-0400 or the High School Crime Stoppers at 682-4185. You can remain anonymous and may earn up to $1,000 in reward.
Fort Sumter By Mike Borda
The Civil War is an event that every American knows. We know about the North and the South, Lincoln, Gettysburg, and all the other major events. However, ironically it seems one of the events in the war that has been forgotten is the starting point. The Battle of Fort Sumter, which kicked off four years of death and destruction, had a tremendous impact on both sides and would serve as an introduction to both sides on what was to come. By 1860 the sides of the war were fairly established. The southern states had begun forming the Confederate States of America, and negotiations were already underway trying to save the Union. Tensions were high, but no one was sure where exactly the fighting would start. Union forces still occupied forts in the South, one such fort being Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, he was welcomed with the information that Fort Sumter was on the verge of running out of supplies and was being threatened by Confederate forces. The problem, however, was that neither side wanted to be seen as starting the war. Even though the
newly formed Confederate government believed they owned Fort Sumter (as it was in a Confederate state), they believed that firing first would mean a lesser reputation among the international community. Eventually, Lincoln made the decision that reinforcements and supplies were needed. He ordered a mission to help out the fort, which was soon discovered by the Confederacy. Confederate President Jefferson Davis decided that he would try to stop the mission, but if he could not diplomatically that they must take the fort preemptively. On April 12, 1861, when the commanding officer at Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, refused to surrender, Confederate forces opened fire. They fired from multiple positions around the fort in the early hours of the morning. After he gathered his forces together at 7am, Anderson ordered that they fire in defense. Union reinforcements arrived by sea that night, but were not able to land due to the shelling. Instead Fort Sumter endured the assault with minimal damage to the fort itself (although the outer buildings were mostly de-
Fine Dining of Yesteryear By Jeff Morrison When we think about the “Old Days,” as opposed to “Modern Days,” a list of technological breakthrough are what we use to determine the dividing line between the two eras. The automobile, indoor plumbing, the telephone, and electric light bulbs are the most commonly cited achievements that define the dawn of the modern era. Yet, there are dozens more technologies and inventions we utilize and take for granted on a daily basis that either didn’t exist or weren’t widely used 100 years ago. Take food for instance. In today’s world of refrigeration, microwaves, fast food restaurants and pizza for delivery it’s easy to forget how very different acquiring, storing, preparing, and eating food was before those modern conveniences hit the scene. The year 1912 may have been a decade into the 20th Century, but someone forgot to inform the residents of Powder River Country. Although the automobile had become a familiar sight on the High Plains, the horse was still the most common mode of transportation. Electric street-lights had been installed in Cheyenne three decades earlier and one by one the other communities of the West were acquiring them as well. And yet, most homes still relied on kerosene lamps or gaslight fixtures for everyday illumination. The tiny community of Gillette wouldn’t get a city-wide electric utility service for another three years. Telephone service – still something of a work in progress – coexisted with the telegraph. Visiting Easterners, thinking the wild days of the Western Frontier were a thing of the past, were shocked to see quite a few of the local residents still openly wearing sidearms. But East and West were on equal terms when it came to
food. Although regional differences in available produce and meat sources often dictated the menu, the challenges of shopping for food, long-term storage, and food preparation were mostly identical throughout America. Refrigeration as we know it didn’t actually become a common household feature until after World War II. Prior to that, food was kept cool by utilizing an ice-box, an ice or spring house, or a root cellar. Thanks to Wyoming winters, most pioneers of Powder River Country built ice-houses that kept their food cold for most of the year. Those fortunate enough to live near a mountain-fed stream or artesian spring could also submerge food items in the cold water during the months when the ice-house thawed. Most town homes had an ice-box, which was either a free-standing manufactured unit or custom built as part of the kitchen. The ice used to cool these appliances came in large squares and were home delivered from the ice plant that typically manufactured the ice in a commercial freezing unit. Ice boxes were typically small and could only hold a small quantity of food. This necessitated frequent shopping at the local butcher and grocery. Ranches were remote and travelling to town for groceries was done monthly, or even semiannually. Fresh food was hard to come by. Most rural family households had at least one milk cow, chickens, pigs, and a vegetable garden. But for town folk and a lot of the bachelor cowboy outfits, tending a large garden and caring for a menagerie of farm animals was out of the question. Fortunately there were several other methods of preserving food, such as salt and brine packing, dehydration, smoking,
stroyed). Amazingly, the Union forces were able to survive with no casualties. The next day, April 13, was the deciding day of the battle. At some point, the flagpole of the fort was struck by a shell, bringing it down. The Confederates were unsure if this was a hit, or if Anderson had decided to surrender. They sent an envoy to the fort to negotiate and try to end the fighting. Anderson agreed to surrender the Fort Sumter as they were almost out of supplies and would not have lasted much longer. The official surrender of Fort Sumter was on April 14, 1861. Anderson’s only requirement was that they leave after a 100-gun salute to the flag. However, during this salute a pile of ammunition was accidentally ignited, killing two men and making them the first official casualties of the Civil War. The Battle of Fort Sumter did not simply start a conflict. It marked a turning point in the history of our country. Those 3 days showed both sides that this was not going to be a war fought in the courtrooms and negotiating tables, but on the battlefield.
canning, and pickling. Many foods we still use today were derivatives of these processes, such as: beef jerky, deviled ham, pickles, jam, condensed milk, and mincemeat, just to name a few. Thanks to the invention of the Mason jar, even fresh foods could be canned at home and used many months later. In 1912, shopping for food wasn’t much different than it is in 2012. Commercial refrigeration had been around for some time and fresh foods could be shipped long distances via refrigerated railroad cars. For those people who couldn’t get to town, a few enterprising grocers brought the store to them via a specially designed wagon, not unlike the Schwan’s trucks of today. The Daly Brothers, early Gillette grocers, operated one of these travelling stores in the 1890s for crews building the Burlington, Chicago and Quincy railroad through northeast Wyoming. Cooking meals one hundred years ago was a time consuming process. Fuel oil stoves were replacing wood burning stoves all across America; however the heating and cooking fuel of choice in Powder River Country was, naturally, coal. All most every dwelling, both rural and urban, had a coal bunker and most of the early coal mines in the area sold their coal primarily for domestic usage. Coal had many advantages over wood and fuel-oil. It provided a consistent, even heat source that was more abundant than wood, and much safer
“The right of self defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether the attack be made by those who abuse her power, its obligation is not the less strong.” - President James Monroe
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Joke of the week Submitted by Candice Berley
“How To Ask A Man To Do Something”
Always remember these six important rules when asking a man to do something: 1. Make sure the man is conscious. 2. Crash the hard drive on his computer and line the bird cage with the sports section. 3. Be brief! Limit your nagging speech to two, three hours, max. 4. Reward him for cooperative behavior. Offer to cook him something that doesn’t have a peel-back cover. 5. Punish him when he refuses to cooperate. Microwave his remote on high power for 55 minutes. Rotate 1/4 turn, and microwave again for another 35 minutes.
than liquid fuel. Regardless of the fuel, cooking on a cast iron stove was more labor intensive than their modern counterparts. Because the firebox was located in the front, the front burners were always hotter than the back burners. Cooks learned to rotate the food to the various parts of the stove top as a means to control the heat. When baking in the oven it was always necessary to turn the pan occasionally so that the food was heated evenly. The cast iron stove also provided much of the primary heat to the rest of the home, and as result the kitchen became the hub of activity in rural America. Even today, it is customary to enter a ranch or farm house through the kitchen door – not the front door. For those Townies who wanted a break from home cooked meals there was usually a café or sandwich counter in most communities large enough to possess both a school and a post office. Sheridan, in addition to its famous Sheridan Inn, had a number of restaurants and cafés to choose from. Gillette in 1912 was a much smaller community and had fewer establishments dedicated to eating. There were many, many saloons and bars however. Wyoming law at the time stated that all businesses were to be closed on Sunday with no exceptions other than restaurants and hotels. As a result, virtually every saloon added beds and some form of kitchen. Some, like the Montgomery House and the Goings, were fancy enough
to be considered almost respectable. Surprisingly, Gillette also had a Japanese restaurant in 1912. If storing and cooking food for the average household was difficult a century ago, it could be an utter nightmare for a café or restaurant at the time. People who stopped in for lunch were usually served cold sandwiches or some form of stew. At dinner time patrons could sometimes choose from a small selection of entrées, but had to wait for the food to be cooked fresh. Although it would be several decades before the advent of fast-food, there was a form of take-out. In towns where there was a large number of single men working long hours at the railroad, mines or other industry, bakeries and butcher shops often sold ready-to-cook pot pies. A laborer could cook one of these pies in less than an hour and save all the preparation time involved. The “pot” was returned to the baker the next morning on his way back to work. Despite all of the logistical challenges, a restaurant of the early 20th century could turn out an elaborate feast for the Holidays. One of Sheridan’s many cafés advertised their Christmas Day special of 1910, which included turkey, dressing, candied yams, and vegetables, followed by a choice of desert pies. If this doesn’t sound all that special, consider how long it takes to cook a turkey in a modern oven.
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