The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-02-12

Craig had to cook and plan for the
entire establishment, with one
woman assistant. The food was ali
canned, even the eggs were canned
egg powder and the milk was con-
densed.
This young girl whose life at home !
had always fallen in very pleasant
places, carried this burden of work !
for three months, and then reached
the limit OF her strength and endur-
ance, and came home, arriving In !
Chicago week ago.
Mrs. Elmer Stowe, 416 Con
cert street, has made wedding cakes
for more than a hundred Keokuk
brides, covering a period of nifty
years and longer. Her measuring
cup she calls coffee cup. but it
looks more like sugar bowl for 1t
holds a pound. Her cakes are de-
ncious. smooth and fine grained. the
body of the cake favored with al
mont and the icing with rose. This
is the recipe: Two pounds OF sugar,
one pound of butter. pint OF milk.
the whites Of twelve eggs. ten for
the cake and two for the icing, one
and a half pounds of -four and six
level teaspoons Of baking powder. II
she wishes a small cake she uses
one-fourth the recipe.
The last person to have one OF |
Mrs. Stoves cakes was Mrs. Augusta
Kilbourne, who was able to give her
friends who called on her birthday
a slice of that delicious cake with
their afternoon tea.
A visit to Mrs. Stowe brings other
joys beside slice of cake on a
dainty china plate.
She came to Keokuk in 1852, with
her aunt, Mrs. Louis Revees, who
afterward married Chief Justice
Samuel F. Miller She was married
lin 1855 to Horace H. Ayres and in
June of that year went to live at 416
Concert street which has been her
home ever since. She still uses the
furniture and dishes with which she
began housekeeping. She has lived
in one home for sixty-four years, and
no doubt holds the record in Keokua
for length of residence in one home.
Her first husband, H. H. Ayres, was
one of the first druggists in this city,
having store at the corner OF
Fourth and Main streets where there
is now cafe. This store was the
foundation of the Wilkinson and
Company store, Mr.. Wilkinson hav-
ing bought the stock from Mr..
Ayres.
When we asked Mrs. Stowe who
were her neighbors and what sort
of houses they lived in she said the
houses were all little frame houses
much like her own, the only brick
L. y, rtu nk
between Blondeau and Concert.
owned by George c. Anderson, who
was the first banker In Keokuk. On
Ers. Alex Collier and in little
house on the corner of Fourth and
Concert lived Captain and Mrs. Bart
lett who were Mrs. Charles Ponds
parents. The Smith Hamills lived In
little house where John Moore's
house now stands, and Mr.. and Mrs.
Caleb F. Davis lived next door. The
Scroggs lumber yard filled part of
! the block where st. Johns rectory
now stands and a small church edi-
fee stood where ST. Johns church
now stands. Beyond the lumber
yard was the home of Mr.. and Mrs.
T. r. j. Ayres.
| Mrs. Stowe attended the first
! funeral ever held in Oakland ceme-
terry in 1852. 1t was the funeral of
a young man whose name she no
longer remembers. He lived in a
boarding house kept at the corner of
Third and Blondeau streets by Mrs.
Jones, the mother of Ed. II. Jones
of Warsaw. The young man clerred
at the first dry goods store kept in
Keokuk, CAREERS store, and he died
from cholera which was very COM
mon in those days.
( The cemetery was as they called
! it Sin the woods and to reach it
they drove out round the old Carey
farm. The undertaken in those days
was one Jimmie Johnson, and he
went about and asked a number of
people to come to the funeral be-
cause it was to be in the new bury
ing ground.
( Judge and Mrs. Samuel F. Miller,
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fulton, Mr.. and
Mrs. Stowe and others went to this
: first Oakland cemetery funeral.
/ Mrs. Stowe talks very interesting
ly, too, about the big Fourth of July
fire in 1876 when most folks were