America's First Wild Woman Cookbook Writer

By Jacqui Nelson

Cooking is a delicious adventure. Cooking without the right knowledge or recipe can be a daring and nerve-wracking adventure...or at least that's how it sometimes feels to me :) 

Meet the first American writer to publish a cookbook in America...

Amelia Simmons

( date and location of birth unknown ) 

1st Edition, 1796

In 1796, Amelia's cookbook, American Cookery, was published in Hartford, Connecticut - making it the first-known cookbook written by an American. Previously, all cookbooks printed and used in the Thirteen Colonies were written by the British. 

Amelia's cookbook's full title was: American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life.

The cover and title page lists her as "Amelia Simmons, An American Orphan." The preface says: "The candor of the American Ladies is solicitously intreated by the Authoress, as she is circumscribed in her knowledge, this being original work in this country."

American Cookery had many firsts. It was...

• the first to include New England specialties such as Indian pudding, johnnycake, and what is now called pumpkin pie. 
• the first to suggest serving cranberry with turkey
• the first to use the Hudson River Valley Dutch word cookey  
• the first to use pearlash (a precursor of baking soda) as a chemical leavener (which started a revolution in the making of American cakes).

Amelia's cookbook was very popular. It was printed, reprinted, and pirated for decades after its first publication. Today, only four copies of the first edition are known to exist. The Library of Congress considers American Cookery to be one of the “Books That Shaped America.”

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Wow! That's quite the legacy! 

What's your favorite cookbook? Or the first cookbook you used? 

One of my firsts (or the first I used on my own) was a cookbook given to me by my awesome friend Julie. It's called 4-H Favourites and I still use it :) 

More interesting cookbook firsts & resources...

The first French cookbook in the United States was published in 1840, the first Spanish in 1845, and the first German (Pennsylvania Dutch) in 1848. Apparently, the 1840s was a good time to publish a cookbook! 

Want to read more about American cookbook history? Head to the Early American Cookbooks website that is (following text taken from their site) "a carefully curated collection of 1450 cookbooks published in the United States between 1800 and 1920. All of the titles in the collection are in the public domain and are available in full-text on the HathiTrust Digital Library. Browse the titles, read them online, and search through the contents of each book."

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Wild Women who Created Everyday Items like the Dishwasher

By Jacqui Nelson

Sometimes we see or experience life-altering events that send us on wild adventures. Meet two Wild Women inventors who created life-altering items that now seem every day. Their creations altered not only their lives but ours forever.

Josephine Garis Cochrane 

( born 1839 in Ashtabula County, Ohio )

In 1870 when Josephine’s husband found success as a dry goods merchant and politician, he moved her and their two children into a mansion. Her new socialite life included hosting dinner parties using heirloom porcelain. After the overworked servants chipped the dishes, she had the idea for a mechanical dishwasher.

The only public domain picture of Josephine that I could find was this stamp from Romania that shows her photo and a drawing of her dishwasher.

In 1883, Josephine’s husband passed away and left her with substantial debt and in need of an income. With the help of a mechanic named George Butters, she worked on her dishwasher in the shed behind her house.

In 1886, she received a patent (for a design that held dishes securely in a rack and used water pressure instead of scrubbers) and began pursuing clients.

In 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, she won the highest prize for "best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to its line of work” and now had restaurants and hotels coming to her instead of her going to them.

Margaret "Mattie" Knight 

( born 1838 in York, Maine )

At the age of 12, Mattie and her siblings had to leave school and work at a cotton mill. She witnessed an accident at the mill where a worker was stabbed by a steel-tipped shuttle that shot out of a mechanical loom. Within weeks she invented a safety device that was later adopted by other mills. Her device was never patented and health problems brought on by working in the mill soon ended her employment there.

I couldn't find a picture of Mattie, but I found these pictures of children and women working in cotton mills in the 1830s.

In her teens and early 20s, Mattie went on to work in home repair, photography, and engraving. In 1867 she moved to Springfield, Massachusetts and was hired by the Columbia Paper Bag Company.

In 1868, at the age of thirty, she invented a machine that folded and glued paper to form today's familiar flat-bottomed brown paper bags. She built a wooden model of the device, but while working on an iron model (that was needed to apply for a patent), Charles Annan (who was in the machine shop where her model was being built) stole her design and patented her device. Mattie filed a patent interference lawsuit and was awarded the patent in 1871. She established the Eastern Paper Bag Company with a reliable business partner and received royalties.

Mattie was the first woman awarded a U.S. patent. By the end of her career, she held 87 U.S. patents. Some of her other inventions were: lid removing pliers, a numbering machine, a window frame and sash, and several rotary engines devices.

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What's your favorite everyday item? 

I currently don't have a dishwasher (the plumbing in my condo is older and dishwashers aren't allowed). I've actually only lived in one place that had a dishwasher, so I'm used to handwashing my dishes. I'd love the convenience of having a dishwasher, but I think if I had to choose just one everyday item, my pick might be a clothing washing machine :)

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The Wild Women whose Inventions still Save Lives

By Jacqui Nelson

An inventor's life is an adventurous mix of creativity, practicality, and paperwork. Products need a purpose and patents need to be pursued. Meet two historic women whose inventions helped save lives (on land and at sea) back in their day and today too...

Mary Elizabeth Anderson  

( born 1869 in Greene County, Alabama )

In 1889, Mary and her sister and their widowed mother moved to Birmingham, Alabama where they built and managed an apartment building. From 1893 to 1898, Mary moved to Fresno, California where she operated a cattle ranch and vineyard before returning home to Alabama.

Note: I couldn't find out why Mary went west or why she left. I feel there's a larger story there! But the life-saving invention story happened later, so on we go...

In the winter of 1902, Mary visited New York City where she observed a trolley car driver struggling with windshield visibility due to falling sleet. When she returned home, she hired a construction company to produce a working model of a windshield wiper.

In 1903, she was granted a 17-year patent for a hand-operated wiper with a lever inside a vehicle that controlled a spring-loaded rubber blade on the outside of a windshield. The patent paperwork labeled it a "window cleaning device."

Similar devices had already been made, but Mary’s was the first to be effective. In 1922, Cadillac became the first car manufacturer to make Mary’s windshield wiper standard equipment. Unfortunately, by then Mary’s patent had expired.

Maria Kenny Beasley

( born 1847 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ) 

Note: Sadly, I could not find a picture of Maria.

Two years after being inspired by the 1876 Centennial Exhibition (the first official World's Fair in the United States), Maria gained her first patent in barrel making. She went on to earn seven more patents in barrel making and in 1884 showed her barrel-making machine at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.

Maria’s machine enabled 1,500 barrels to be produced a day. Royalties from sugar and oil refineries contracts using her barrel-making machine earned her $20,000 annually.

Her other inventions included foot warmers, cooking pans, train anti-derailment devices, and in 1880 a life raft that was "fire-proof, compact, safe and readily launched." Earlier life rafts were made of flat, wooden boards. Maria’s design included guard railings surrounding rectangular metal floats.

In 1912, the Titanic carried 20 of Maria’s life rafts that helped 706 men, women, and children survive until rescuers arrived.

Can you imagine driving a vehicle without windshield wipers? Or boarding a ship that doesn’t have life rafts? 

I can't, and I'm very thankful that these women (and so many other intrepid inventors) made life a lot safer than it was in the past. The more I read about the past, the more I realize just how wild it truly was!

Have you ever invented something or wanted to? 

Hope you'll share your favorite or even your not-so-favorite inventions! I love my computer, but sometimes I hate it as well. Life seemed so much simpler and a lot more relaxed before computers became standard equipment.  

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Wild Women Dancers of the West

By Jacqui Nelson

A dancer’s life can lead a person on many adventures. Meet two Wild Women Dancers who led very different lives. One became a countess and a courtesan. The other (after being tutored by the first) became a nation's darling.

Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert 

Aka Lola Montez, the Countess of Landsfeld

( born 1821 in Grange, County Sligo, Ireland ) 

In 1837 at the age of 16, Marie eloped with Lieutenant Thomas James. When they divorced in Calcutta five years later, she moved to London and made her debut as "Lola Montez, the Spanish dancer.” When she was recognized as Thomas Jane’s wife, the notoriety hindered Lola’s career. She kept moving and found success in Paris and Warsaw.

Lola Montez - 1847
Painted by Joseph Karl Stieler for Ludwig I of Bavaria

In 1846, she arrived in Munich and became the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Her influence on him and her temperamental manner made her unpopular with the locals. Ludwig made her Countess of Landsfeld in 1847, but the start of the Revolutions of 1848 forced him to abdicate and her to flee Bavaria.

She returned to London and quickly married George Heald, a young cavalry officer with a recent inheritance. But the terms of her divorce did not permit remarriage, so they were forced to flee England to escape a bigamy charge. After Heald mysteriously drowned, Lola set off for America.

Lola Montez - 1851

From 1851 to 1853, Lola performed as a dancer and actress in the eastern United States. In 1853, she moved to the gold mining community of Grass Valley, California where she performed and also gave dance lessons to a neighbor—six-year-old Lotta Crabtree.

In 1855, she departed for a yearlong tour of Australia that was plagued by turmoil—including after reading a bad review, her allegedly attacking the newspaper editor with a whip. Upon her return to the States, she failed to mount a theatrical comeback. Lola spent her last days in rescue work among women.

Charlotte Mignon Crabtree

Aka Lotta Crabtree, the Nation's Darling

( born 1847 in New York City ) 

In 1853 in Grass Valley (in the gold mining hills outside San Francisco), Lotta’s family ran a boardinghouse. It was here that she met her notorious neighbor, dancer Lola Montez who encouraged Lotta’s talent and enthusiasm for performing.

When she was eight, Lotta made her first professional appearance at a tavern and began touring the California and Nevada mining camps as a dancer, singer, and banjo player.

Lotta's mother was her manager. She collected Lotta’s earnings in gold and carried it a large leather bag. When the earnings became too heavy, she transferred it to a steamer trunk. When that became too heavy, she invested the earnings in real estate, race horses and bonds and also donated to many charities.

In 1863 Lotta and her mother left the west to tour the East Coast and Lotta began acting in theater plays. Her petite size made her a favorite for portraying children. At age 20 she was a national star.

Lotta Crabtree - 1868

By 1875 and at age 28, she was touring with her own theatrical company. In the 1880s, she was the highest-paid actress in America, earning up to $5,000 per week. Lotta left an estate of $4 million in a charitable trust for veterans, aging actors, and animals.

I'm a terrible dancer and an even worse singer and musician. Maybe that's part of the reason why in my story-in-progress, I've made my heroine a talented singer and musician. I get to experience the adventure (via the words in my story) of doing something I'll never do in real life. 

How about you? Is there a talent you wish you had? 

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The Wild Woman Librarian who became the first California Poet Laureate

By Jacqui Nelson

Life's an adventure in a library. Meet the Wild Woman Librarian who became Jack London's "literary mother" and a Poet Laureate...

Josephine Donna Coolbrith Smith 

aka Ina Coolbrith

( born 1841 in Nauvoo, Illinois ) 

Ina in the 1850s

In 1851, at the age of 10, Josephine traveled west with her family in a wagon train. She entered California riding with the famous scout Jim Beckwourth.

Her family settled in Los Angeles, and she began writing poems and was first published in a newspaper in 1856. At the age of 17, she married an iron-worker and part-time actor. When he abused her, she divorced him in a sensational public trial.

In 1862, to ward off depression, she moved with her mother, stepfather, and twin half-brothers to San Francisco. She changed her name from Josephine to Ina and worked as an English teacher. For a decade, she supplied one poem for each new issue of San Francisco’s Overland Monthly.

Ina in 1871 (at age 29 or 30)

In 1874, to further support her family, she took the position of librarian for the Oakland Library Association. She earned $80 per month and worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. Her poetry suffered as a result and she published sporadically during the next 19 years. At the library, she discussed her patrons' interests and then selected books for them.

In 1886, she befriended and mentored a 10-year-old Jack London who later called her his "literary mother."

Ina in the 1880s

In 1892, she was given three days' notice to clear her desk and be replaced as Oakland’s librarian by her nephew Henry Frank Peterson. Two years later, her good friend John Muir wanted her to fill the recently vacated position of San Francisco's librarian, which she could not do because San Francisco required that their librarian be a man.

Seven years later, her artist and writer friends were able to obtain her a part-time librarian position at the Bohemian Club. Her salary was $50 per month and her duties were light enough that she could continue writing.

In 1906, the fire that followed the San Francisco earthquake consumed her house, 3,000 of her books, and her nearly complete manuscript – that was part autobiography and part history of California's early literary scene. Her Bohemian Club friends helped set her up in a new house where she resumed writing and holding literary salons.

On June 30, 1915, at the age of 74, Ina Coolbrith was named the first California Poet Laureate and the first poet laureate of any American state. She continued writing poetry for eight more years.

Ina in 1924 (at age 83)

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I always wanted to be a librarian, but the closest I came was working in a bookstore - a wonderful job, but no matter how wonderful I couldn't imagine working there 12 hour days for 6 days a week - like Ina Coolbrith did at her library. 

Do you have a favorite librarian from the past or the present? 

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Fall in love with a new Old West...

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Writing What I Don't Know by Paty Jager

My latest Letters of Fate book is off to my first reader or the new term "sensitivity reader". This is the new term being used in writers circles for readers who are the first reader when a writer finishes a book. These readers know more about a character's culture than the writer and they read to make sure the writer has depicted the character or characters properly.

I have used what I call an expert reader, on several of my books. I tend to find something that fascinates me and decide to dive into the story even though I may not know be of that character or characters heritage or religion. When this happens I always make sure I have someone I can call on to help me out and to be the first reader when I finish a project.

This time my hunt for a small, nearly unknown Indian school that I could make things up as I went turned out to be a much bigger project. After writing a third of the book, I discovered from my back and forth emails with a specialist on Mormon history, that there was indeed more information out there than I'd found so far. I had to go back and revise and cut and change the plot of the story. But the change not only added for the history to the story, it also upped the chemistry in my hero and heroine. Which delighted me. I like a little spice in my stories and the way the book had started it was too sweet to push them into the scenes I'd envisioned when first brewing up this story.

Henrí: Letters of Fate, started out being about an Indian school. Henrí Baudin is a half Shoshoni-half French hero. He receives a letter to bring him to the Salmon River Valley in the Oregon Territory in 1858 to help his Shoshoni band. The first version he was asked to come because the teachers were being mean to the Shoshoni students. But upon further research, I realized the school wasn't as I'd first thought. In fact, the Shoshoni children attended the school in the stockade the mission built sporadically.

But I'd learned the concessions that were made for the Mormons or LDS church members to build a mission in the valley. These concessions were not help up on their side and they befriended other tribes who were the enemy of the Shoshoni. Using these factual instances in my book, it added more conflict and drama, and heightened the overall emotional feel of the book. That allowed me to bring the steamier chemistry to the hero and heroine.

Back to my "sensitivity reader". I know very little about the LDS religion, but I know how to find people who do. My expert has been exactly what I needed. She not only knows the religion but a lot about the history too. I didn't want to portray the characters in a way that was degrading but as with all cultures and religions there are always a few bad nuts in the bunch. And my westerns always have my hero fighting some kind of wrong.  Justice is the theme of my westerns. 

Henrí: Letters of Fate will be released in April. 

Do you appreciate when the author goes the extra mile to make sure a culture or religion is portrayed correctly? Or do you just read a book to take you away from everyday life and don't particularly care if the depiction of the characters is accurate?

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 30+ novels, dozen novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. She has a RomCon Reader’s Choice Award, EPPIE, Lorie, and RONE Award. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what readers have to say about the Letters of Fate series- “...filled with romance, adventure and twists and turns.” “What a refreshing and well written love story of fate and hope!”

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