28 Nov 1923, Wed Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

Want something other than pie for Thanksgiving dessert? We searched the historical papers on Newspapers.com™ to find 8 vintage recipes for easy Thanksgiving desserts that aren’t pie!

(But if you want pie too, be sure to check out these fun pumpkin pie recipes!)

Note: We’ve included transcriptions of the recipes so they’re easier to follow. Click on any of the images to see the original newspaper recipe on our site.

1. Pumpkin Spice Cake (1936)

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Cake (1936) 30 Oct 1936, Fri The World (Coos Bay, Oregon) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 3/4 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon  
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon mace
• 1/2 cup seedless raisins

Directions:

1. Cream shortening, add sugar slowly, and beat well. Add beaten egg.
2. Combine pumpkin and milk and add alternately with the dry ingredients sifted together. Add raisins and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in greased loaf pan and place in cold electric oven. Set temperature control to 350°. Turn switch to bake. Bake approximately 1 hour.

2. Baked Cranberry and Walnut Dessert (1949)

Recipe: Baked Cranberry and Walnut Dessert (1949) 06 Oct 1949, Thu The Edmonton Bulletin (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnut meats
• 1/3 cup melted butter or fortified margarine
• 1 tablespoon grated orange rind
• 3 cups cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup cream, whipped

Directions:

1. Mix together sugar, graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, walnut meats, and melted butter or margarine.
2. Pat 2/3 of this mixture into well-greased large yellow dish of heat-resistant glass refrigerator-oven set.
3. Add grated orange rind to cranberry sauce; pour on top of crumb mixture in dish. Place remaining crumb mixture on top of cranberry sauce.
4. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 30 minutes.
5. Cool and decorate top with whipped cream.

3. Apple Crisp (1948)

Recipe: Apple Crisp (1948) 04 Nov 1948, Thu Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped or sliced apples
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sifted flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter

Directions:

1. Place in shallow 6×10 inch baking dish sliced or chopped apples and sprinkle with water, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Work together the flour, sugar, and butter until crumbly. Spread crumb mixture over apples.
3. Bake uncovered about 40 minutes in moderate oven (350 degrees).
4. Serve warm with plain or whipped cream. Serves 6 to 8.

4. Top-of-Stove Carmel Dumpling Dessert (1937)

Recipe: Top-of-Stove Carmel Dumpling Dessert (1937) 13 Nov 1937, Sat The North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

Dumpling ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Dumpling directions:

1. Sift dry ingredients, cut in butter, and add milk and vanilla.
2. Drop by rounding teaspoon into the boiling carmel sauce. Cover, cook.
3. Cook slowly for 20 minutes without removing cover. (Serves 5).

Carmel sauce for above dumplings:

1. Combine 2 tablespoons butter, 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar, 1 ½ cups boiling water, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Simmer 5 minutes.
2. Drop in dumpling batter.

5. Ginger Snaps (1908)

Recipe: Ginger Snaps (1908) 15 Nov 1908, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup lard
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 3 teaspoons ginger
• 3 cups flour

Directions:

1. Roll thin.

(*Estimated bake temperature & time: 350–375°F for 8–10 minutes. Shortening can be substituted for lard, if desired.)

6. Apple Tapioca Pudding (1923)

Recipe: Apple Tapioca Pudding (1923) 24 Nov 1923, Sat Pawhuska Daily Journal (Pawhuska, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 1 quart peeled apples
• 1 cup tapioca
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract

Directions:

• Quarter apples and fill bake dish. Sprinkle half sugar over apples.
• Soak tapioca in quart hot water, 1 hour. Add salt, lemon extract, and rest of sugar. Pour over apples.
• Bake until apples are tender. Serve with hard sauce.

7. Cheese and Fruit Tray (1936)

Recipe: Cheese and fruit tray (1936) 20 Nov 1936, Fri Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) Newspapers.com

Cheeses:

• Swiss
• Mild American
• Sharp American
• Pimiento cheese
• Genuine imported Roquefort
• Cream cheese

Fruits:

• Kumquat clusters
• Pears
• White grapes

Directions:

1. On the cheese board in the center of the large tray, arrange the cheeses.
2. Border this array with fruits.

8. Pumpkin Honey Milk (1942)

Recipe: Pumpkin Honey Milk (1942) 21 Apr 1942, Tue The Dayton Herald (Dayton, Ohio) Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1 ½ cups evaporated milk
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• Few grains cloves
• Few grains salt

Directions:

1. Stir to thoroughly blend pumpkin into evaporated milk and water.
2. Stir in remaining ingredients; chill and serve. 4 servings.

***

Find more Thanksgiving dessert recipes on Newspapers.com™. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more historical content like this!

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07 Mar 1908, Sat The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com

“Are you sure that your relative is actually dead, when the coffin is fastened, never to be opened”? –Louisville Daily Courier, 1868

What options did a person have over a century ago if they wanted to avoid being buried alive? A look through historical newspapers from both sides of the Atlantic gives us some answers!

Safety Coffins

One option for preventing “premature burial” (also called “premature interment”) was the safety coffin. Though designs differed, safety coffins typically included a signaling device that let people above ground know the person in the casket was still alive.

Numerous illustrations and articles about safety coffins appeared in newspapers of the time. One featured in the papers was designed by Russian count Michel de Karnice-Karnicki. According to the Stockton, California, Daily Record in 1901,

[The] apparatus consists of a tube four inches in diameter, a box, and a few appliances for signaling. The tube is placed over an aperture in the coffin, and the other end of it appears above the surface of the ground, where it is surmounted by the box. Through the tube passes a rod, on the end of which, inside the coffin, is a ball. The slightest movement of the body in the coffin is communicated to the rod, which in turn releases springs. The door of the hermetically sealed box flies open, the bell rings, and the signal ball rises above the grave to a height of six feet.

Karnice-Karnicki’s safety coffin design 26 Apr 1901, Fri Stockton Daily Evening Record (Stockton, California) Newspapers.com

Other types of safety coffins were featured in newspapers as well, such as:

• A version that used a flag and bell as signals
• A coffin connected with electricity to a gong and to an “indicator in a watch house”
• A “grave signal” that utilized a glass globe and red cloth

One safety coffin got quite a bit of newspaper attention in 1868 when its inventor, Franz Vester, gave a public demonstration in New Jersey about how it worked. In addition to the typical alarm system, newspapers noted that Vester’s coffin also included a “receptacle for refreshments.”

Beyond Coffins

But not everyone who feared premature burial wanted (or could afford) a safety coffin, so other methods focused on ensuring that a person was truly dead before burial.

One option frequently discussed in newspapers was to build “waiting mortuaries,” which were reportedly used in Germany. The ideal waiting mortuary was a closely monitored, comfortable institution where bodies could be kept until they showed signs of decomposition—or signs of life.

Description of waiting mortuaries 23 Oct 1896, Fri Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) Newspapers.com

Newspapers also documented other suggestions for verifying death, including:

• Dropping belladonna into the eyes to see if the pupils reacted
• Injecting a compound that would discolor the skin and eyes if the person were alive
• X-raying the internal organs 

Some people’s fear of being buried alive even led them to request specific procedures prior to burial, such as asking that their head be amputated, their heart pierced with a needle, or their jugular vein cut.

Turning Anxiety into Action

Just how often people were actually buried alive during the Victorian era is unknown. Even at the time, its prevalence was hotly debated in the European and American medical communities—and in the press.

20 Dec 1899, Wed Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) Newspapers.com
13 Dec 1897, Mon Freeland Tribune (Freeland, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

Whether premature burials were common or not, the popularity of the topic reflects a real anxiety among some segments of the population at the time—an anxiety that certainly wasn’t diminished by the numerous “true” newspaper accounts of people being buried alive.

But in some cases, this concern led to action. Perhaps most noticeable were the associations that lobbied for regulation of death certificates and other aspects of the death verification process—hoping to prevent the “unspeakable cruelty” of premature burial.

Find more newspaper stories about premature burial on Newspapers.com™. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more historical content like this!

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In the late 1800s, a sense of panic invaded New England. An alarming number of people were dying of consumption, and residents became convinced that vampire-like creatures were the cause. They believed the vampires were gradually sucking the blood out of innocent victims. To combat the threat, locals sometimes exhumed the bodies of loved ones and ritually burned their organs. They believed this would stop the vampires and prevent the spread of the disease. One of the most famous vampire stories involved Rhode Island resident Mercy Brown.

Consumption (now known as tuberculosis) is spread through bacteria and was one of the leading causes of death at the time. Those infected gradually became sicker and often spread the illness to other family members. Consumption hit the Brown family of Exeter, Rhode Island, especially hard. George Brown was a respected farmer, who along with his wife Mary Eliza, raised seven children. Mary Eliza contracted consumption and died in 1883. The following year, daughter Mary Olive, a 20-year-old dressmaker, also died. In January 1892, daughter Mercy, 19, died, and son Edwin, 24, was sick.

Superstitious neighbors approached George and convinced him that he should exhume the bodies of his wife and daughters. It was, they suggested, the only way to save Edwin. The superstition held that vampires slowly drained the blood from the living and put it into the hearts of the dead. Thus, a buried body with blood in the heart evidenced that vampires were at work. The only way to stop the vampires was to find corpses with blood still in their organs, remove the organs, and ritually burn them.

Hesitant but desperate to save his son, George agreed to the plan. On March 17, 1892, several men from the community went to work digging up the remains of the Browns. Mary Eliza had been dead nine years, and her remains were in an advanced state of decomposition. Mary Olive’s body had also decomposed. But when they disinterred Mercy, they found blood in her heart. She had died two months earlier, and the freezing temperatures had preserved her body.

They removed Mercy’s heart and liver and ritualistically burned them on a stone. The ashes were mixed with a tonic and given to Edwin to drink. The ritual proved ineffective, and Edwin died two months later. By 1899, George lost six of his seven children. Over the next few years, the belief in vampires waned. It took another 40 years until scientists carried out the first clinical trials for the treatment of tuberculosis.

If you would like to learn more about the New England Vampire Panic, search Newspapers.com™ today!

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In 1881, a group of high society women gathered in London to form a new organization. They named their group the Rational Dress Society, intending to reform Victorian women’s dress. The group came up with criteria for the perfect dress. It included:  

1. Freedom of Movement
2. Absence of pressure over any part of the body
3. No more weight than is necessary for warmth, and both weight and warmth evenly distributed.
4. Grace and beauty combined with comfort and convenience
5. Not departing too conspicuously from the ordinary dress of the time

Their ideas were revolutionary and controversial. Typical Victorian dress styles incorporated heavy fabrics, tight corsets, bustles, hoop skirts, and extravagant ornamentation. The women argued that dress reform would allow them to participate in activities like cycling. Bicycles had become a symbol of freedom for many women who found the sport liberating and emancipating.  

A founding member of the society was Viscountess Florence Wallace Pomeroy, also known as Lady Harberton. Lady Harberton, the daughter of wealthy landowners, married James S. Pomeroy. He later became the 6^th Viscount Harberton. In 1880, Lady Harberton took up the cause of dress reform. She loved to cycle, but heavy, long skirts prevented her from enjoying the activity. She championed the reformed dress, which consisted of baggy pantaloons worn underneath a knee-length skirt. She also invented the divided skirt, which initially evoked jeers on both sides of the pond. Some feared that trifling with a traditional women’s dress was a step down a path to loosening moral values.

In 1883, the Rational Dress Society sponsored an exhibition held in London. The exhibit included shorter dresses, divided skirts, “costumes for climbing for lady mountaineers, and a costume for walking.” One man reported to The Times that the women in his family discarded their corsets and found new freedom in dancing, walking, tricycling, lawn tennis, and other open-air exercises. They vowed never to return to corsets and heavy skirts. Attitudes for many women (and men) were undergoing a seismic shift. The “woman of the future” wanted freedom in her clothing – and freedom within other aspects of her life.  

The struggle for rational dress came to a head after an incident in 1898. Lady Harberton went cycling in Surrey. She stopped for lunch at the Hautboy Hotel but was turned away for improper dress. Lady Harberton sued the hotel but lost the case because the hotel had offered alternative seating in the bar. Nevertheless, the case brought attention to rational dress and a victory for women who advocated for it. Lady Harberton spent decades promoting clothing that would make life easier for women. Later in her life, she also became an advocate for the women’s suffrage movement. Lady Harberton died in 1911. The Guardian eulogized her as an “enthusiastic and undaunted advocate” for dress reform.

If you would like to learn more about Lady Harberton, or the Rational Dress Society, search Newspapers.com™ today!