Western Hearths: Cozy Meals for Autumn Evenings

October brought crisp air, blushing leaves, and the first sighs of winter to the Wild West. After months spent planting, tending, and harvesting crops, settlers looked forward to enjoying the simple pleasures of home. Friends and family gathered around the hearth for warming meals created by the work of their hands. The roasts, soups, and stews of autumn combined foods preserved during summer, fall crops, and meat from the larder or pasture.

A Time of Preparation and Reflection

In a Wild West autumn settlers kept busy. There were root vegetables to dig and store, the last of the harvest to preserve, firewood to chop for winter, and meat to cure—not to mention the usual cooking and cleaning. 

The creativity and artistry that seasonal tasks required must have eased their drudgery, however. Shortening days trended life trended toward a gentler rhythm. This allowed for moments of reflection in the changing landscapes of Fall.   

The slowing workload and longer evenings caused friends and family to turn to one another, and the autumn bounty called for hearty meals.

Skillet Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables

A classic October supper, skillet roasted chicken with root vegetables was easy to prepare, filling, and deeply satisfying.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons butter, lard, or bacon fat *
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, sliced
• Chicken broth to cover (3 cups or so)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: fresh herbs such as thyme, rosemary, or sage; additional root vegetables like turnips, parsnips, and the like.

Instructions

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat and add butter or another fat.
2. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and herbs. Brown the chicken on all sides in the skillet.
3. Add the carrots, potatoes, and onions around the chicken.
4. Cover with chicken broth and simmer over low heat, turning the chicken occasionally, until it is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F (73.9 degrees C) and vegetables are tender, about 40–50 minutes.
5. Serve hot, straight from the skillet, with pan juices spooned over the top.

* For extra flavor, fry a small piece of salted pork in the skillet before browning the chicken and vegetables.

Bringing Autumn to Your Table

The Wild West holds a certain romance for us today. Perhaps its greatest love story came from the simple tasks of everyday cooking. Even the smallest act—like passing a potato, offering a fresh biscuit, or ladling gravy—could be a quiet expression of love. Preparing a skillet roasted chicken with root vegetables lets us connect with the everyday romance of pioneer life.

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. This multi-faceted storyteller writes in the historical fiction, romantic mystery, and epic fantasy genres. Janalyn is a history enthusiast and romantic. Learn more about Janalyn and the books she writes.

Fall in Love with the Wild West

Discover the Montana Gold series.

From Orphanage to Service: A Gilded Age Girl’s Uncertain Future

Imagine being fifteen or sixteen years old, packing everything you own into a small bag, saying goodbye to the girls who have become your sisters, and stepping through the doors of an orphanage for the last time. For many orphan girls during America’s Gilded Age, that moment marked the beginning of a new and uncertain life.

In the late nineteenth century, orphanages provided more than food and shelter. Girls were often trained for the practical work that awaited them when they were old enough to leave. They learned to cook, clean, sew, launder, iron, and manage household tasks—skills intended to make them employable as domestic servants.

Going into service could mean becoming a maid-of-all-work, laundress, kitchen maid, nursemaid, or household servant. For girls with few family connections and little money, respectable domestic employment offered wages, room and board, and a measure of security. But it also meant entering a stranger’s home.

A young woman might suddenly find herself living in the servants’ quarters of an elegant Gilded Age mansion, surrounded by wealth she could never imagine possessing. Long days and demanding work were common. Her behavior could be closely monitored, her free time limited, and her future dependent upon the character of the family employing her.

Yet service could also open doors. A good position offered experience, references, friendships, and the opportunity to save money for an independent future. That poignant transition inspired the world of my Irish Rose Orphans of the Thousand Islands series. My seven “forever sisters” leave Brooklyn’s Irish Rose Orphan Asylum for Girls and eventually find themselves serving among the wealthy families of New York’s magnificent Thousand Islands in their own stories. They may enter those grand homes as servants, but each carries something far more valuable than anything inside them—faith, courage, hope, and the enduring love of her forever sisters.

ABOUT IRISH ROSE ORPHANS’ CHRISTMAS:

Seven young women experience a Christmas that will change everything—their last one together before stepping into lives of service. United by trials and an unbreakable bond, they’ve pledged to remain “forever sisters.” But as the season of parting approaches, buried wounds rise to the surface. When the girls are invited to prepare their hearts during Advent for a deeper calling, each young woman must face the truth of her past and the hope of her future. At Christmas, seven orphans will discover that no matter where life leads them, love and faith will go with them.

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of novels celebrating faith, family, and hope through richly detailed historical settings and memorable characters set in the Thousand Islands, NY. Susan has nineteen in her fiction line and has been published thirty-seven times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. Find out more at www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction

The Contagious Courage of Jesse Lee, the "Pistol-Packing Preacher"

 by Tom Goodman

This historical marker stands in front of the First Methodist Church of Groveton, Texas

In 1903, a twenty-eight-year-old Methodist preacher named Jesse Lee arrived in Groveton, Texas, for his first pastoral assignment.

More than a century later, I built my new novel, Through Many Dangers, around what happened to him there. 

The historical record is thin, so I changed his name to Rick Burleson and created much of the world around him. But the few facts history left us gave me the spine of my novel. Let me share those facts.

During Lee’s brief ministry there, thirteen murders were committed, ten of them assassinations. Illegal saloons operated openly despite the county’s ban on alcohol. Law enforcement was weak. Lee began naming the corruption from his pulpit.

That made enemies.

His church and parsonage burned to the ground in what was widely regarded as arson. Lee happened to be out of town at the time, meeting with his presiding elder about moving his family somewhere safer.

When word reached him that the fire had taken nearly everything they owned, Lee made his decision.

He went back.

The sheriff deputized him so he could legally carry a pistol. Lee carried it everywhere, sometimes laying it on the pulpit while he preached.

But the most important thing he carried back to Groveton may have been courage.

His resolve spread. Citizens hired a private detective to gather evidence against the illegal saloons. When the detective was murdered, ordinary townsmen—clerks, accountants, lawyers, grocers—decided they would no longer be intimidated. They came together and smashed the saloons one after the other.

Historian Flora Bowles later wrote, “A reign of lawlessness was outlawed by a band of law-abiding citizens in an unlawful manner ... and from that day to the present, Groveton has never been the lawless community that it was before.”

Jesse Lee’s story reminds me of Gideon.

When we first meet Gideon in Judges 6, he isn’t leading anybody. He’s hiding from the Midianites. Even after God calls him a “mighty warrior,” Gideon has questions and fears.

But after just one small act of brave obedience, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and Gideon blows a trumpet to rally others to his side.

The frightened man found his courage. Then other people found theirs.

That is what intrigued me most about Jesse Lee and what made me want to tell a story about him.

I'm a pastor, but I didn’t write Through Many Dangers to deliver a sermon. A novel has to entertain. Still, this idea stayed with me as I wrote: when one person finds the courage to act, that courage can spread.

Jesse Lee discovered something Gideon had learned centuries earlier: God often begins with one person willing to act before anyone else is ready.

That person does not have to be fearless. Gideon wasn’t, and Jesse Lee had plenty of reasons to leave Groveton behind. But when one person decides that fear will not have the last word, such courage has a way of finding company.

The Invention Thomas Edison Couldn't Sell

 

When we think of Thomas Edison, we usually think of the light bulb, the phonograph, or perhaps the motion picture camera. But Edison's first patented invention had nothing to do with any of those things. In fact, it was an invention although it was brilliant, no one wanted it. It was never even mass produced. 

Young Edison

On October 13, 1868, a 21-year-old Thomas Edison signed a patent application for an Electrographic Vote-Recorder.  It was designed to make vote counting in the legislature go quickly. Each desk would have a switch. The congressman toggled to yes or no as a bill was brought up for roll-call vote. Their vote would go across an electric wire, like a telegraph works, to a main console where it would be recorded beside their name. Quick and efficient.

His first invention came from his work life.

Edison was working as a telegraph operator when he came up with the idea.  Telegraphs would send messages over electrically charged wires. Not only was he an operator but he spent hours tweaking the system so the messages moved faster across the nation. Some areas of  the country had delays. The operators worked to ensure messages arrive swiftly.  He envisioned other ways to use electricity to save time. The Electrographic Vote-Recorder seemed like a great solution to getting more done during legislative sessions around the country.

Roll call votes were often a long, time-consuming process. When a roll-call vote was required, each legislator's name was called individually. The member would announce his vote, and someone would record it. With dozens—or even hundreds—of legislators involved, the process could take considerable time.

Edison's Electrographic Vote-Recorder was designed to eliminate that delay. His fellow telegraph operator, Dewitt Roberts, invested $100. Once they had a working prototype, Roberts took it to Washington D.C. And demonstrated it. The idea of instantly recording and counting votes was a technological advance beyond its time in 1868.

Edison believed legislators would welcome it.

However, he was about to learn an important lesson about inventing—and about politics.

The legislators understood something the young inventor had overlooked: a slow vote wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

A roll-call vote gave legislators time.

It gave members an opportunity to argue with one another, persuade colleagues, negotiate, delay a measure, or perhaps change someone's mind before the final tally.

What Edison saw as efficiency, politicians could see as a loss of valuable persuasion time. No one was interested. It was a working invention that was beyond its time.

Edison learned a valuable lesson from his unsaleable invention

It became a cornerstone for every invention he patented in the future. His invention had to solve a problem people actually wanted solved. The voting machine did not make Edison rich. It wasn't adopted by Congress, and it never became a commercial success.

As history shows us, Edison didn't give up. Lightbulbs, phonographs, even motion pictures brought him fame and fortune because they were things people were willing to buy. Eventually he became America's most prolific inventor.

A hundred years later

Edison was trying to automate legislative voting in 1868. Congress didn't adopt an electronic voting system for the House of Representatives until 1973—more than a century after Edison's first attempt.

Learning from this failure as a 21-year-old made all the difference in his future success. His brilliant mind turned to inventing things people were wanting to use, enjoy or felt they needed.

Can you list any other inventions Edison patented?

Sources:

Thomas Edison Papers — Rutgers University

The actual 1869 U.S. patent

Edison's 1869 Electrographic Vote-Recorder Patent No. 90,646

.Edison Papers — Patent history ,October 13, 1868 — Edison signed the application, October 28, 1868 — application filed. June 1, 1869 — patent issued as U.S. Patent No. 90,646.

 Library of Congress — Edison and Failure

Library of Congress — Thomas Edison and Learning Through Failure

 The Henry Ford — actual patent model

The Henry Ford — Edison's Electrographic Vote Recorder Model

 

Cindy Ervin Huff, is a multi-published award-winning author in Historical and Contemporary Romance. She’s a 2018 Selah Finalist. Cindy has a passion to encourage other writers on their journey. When she isn’t writing, she feeds her reading addiction and enjoys her retirement with her husband of 50-plus years, Charles. Their favorite retirement pastime is visiting historical sites and enjoying live theater. Visit her at www.cindyervinhuff.com.

 

Angelina's Resolve's e-book version is on sale for 99 cents until tomorrow October 18^th. Click here.

 

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH (Part 5)

By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

In my September 16th blog post, “Courage More Exhilarating than Fear” Eleanor and Franklin chose not to divorce, to mend their differences, and live with each other’s faults. Now with this new disease, polio, raising its ugly head, Eleanor urged Franklin not to give in to self-pity, and continue his political career.

Eleanor worked diligently to help her husband win the governorship of New York. With the help from her grassroots connections, Franklin was elected governor of New York in 1928.

Now that he was elected, Eleanor’s duties and workload doubled. She had promised to be his eyes and feet. This did not come easy. She loved helping her husband however, she missed being as close to her children as she once was. Meeting people and being involved in projects daily took its toll.

She pressed on and earned many strong supporters, one of whom was newspaper reporter Lorena Alice Hickok, he had earned the nickname “Hick.” His endorsement and encouragement helped Eleanor start writing the column, My Day.

Through her column, she encouraged her readers to write to her. She received hundreds of thousands of letters and did her best to reply to them.

Eleanor felt Americans’ needs deeply and heard their voices. Nor was she shy, nor did she hesitate to whisper her information into the ear of the governor.

Franklin listened to her. After all, she had known him longer than any of his constituents. Franklin knew he could trust her more than anyone else.

Her work as a grassroots activist and settlement worker was an asset. Her enthusiasm, zeal, and dedication allowed Franklin to see, through his mind’s eye, New York’s problems clearly and what needed to be done for the suffering citizens.

October 29, 1929, came in with a punch in the gut to every American. The stock market crash on October 29th, was known as Black Friday. This depression continued through the late 1930s and as I say in my novel Waltz with Destiny, wages remained low throughout the early 1940s.

Americans never experienced such want. History books would record this period as the Great Depression. No statesman had ever experienced a desolation of this magnitude. President Herbert Hoover did his best. But it was time to give someone else a chance to help those floundering in the sea of depression America found itself swimming in.

As I explained in Destiny of Heart, those who owned their homes often rented out rooms to pay for their taxes. Those who did not own their homes were sometimes forced to pack up what belongings they could on their automobiles, live out of them or find a place to live and work.

Whenever people are caught in the throngs of confusion, the ugly head of socialism and communism will rear its deceptive head. Widespread unemployment and poverty prompted the attraction of Marxism. Many viewed socialism and communism as a remedy for their woes and economic struggles. Little did anyone know how treacherous these ideologies were. Nor that in the 1940s World War II would awaken the world to the need to fight for the very freedom they once took for granted!

When the presidential election season rolled in, Franklin’s bold words “there is nothing to fear but fear itself” gave hopeless Americans new hope in Franklin’s “New Deal,” which Eleanor’s influence helped her husband draft. This “New Deal”, propelled Franklin into the presidency in 1936.

Eleanor would write in My Day, “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face…we must do that which we think we cannot.”

Waltz with Destiny: Esther (McConnell) Meir finds herself in a story-book romance that swirls into a rendezvous with destiny when Eric Erhardt is swept up into Hitler's diabolical war. Eric wages his battle for survival as a rifleman in the 34th Infantry Division traveling up the boot of Italy—.

"…of Waltz with Destiny… I was reading Capt. Kimble’s words about D-Day… the music I had going started playing “God Bless the USA.” Goose bumps popped up all down my arms and legs, and I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes. The message of the Destiny series is even more applicable to today than when it first released…" Debra B.

Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted

Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-three years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, two dogs, two cats, one bunny, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more information.

See previous Roosevelt posts for previous references of these blogs.

Civil War Nurse Clara Jones: An Angel in the Storm

by Sherry Shindelar

Women Volunteering at a Philadelphia Hospital during the Civil War 
(photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Twenty-eight year-old grammar school teacher, Clara Jones, couldn’t stand the thought of sitting idly by while men were serving and dying on the battlefield for their country. A strong supporter of the Union, she longed to “be in the midst of the distress … lending a helping hand to the poor fellows” instead of being “tied to school.”1

But as a single woman, she couldn’t afford to resign her position as a school teacher, so in her spare time, she threw herself into knitting socks for the soldiers since she couldn’t follow them to the battlefield. However, sewing and knitting weren’t sufficient. During the school summer break of 1861, Clara volunteered as a nurse in a Philadelphia area hospital, near her home in Germantown, PA, after wounded soldiers were sent there to recover. She couldn’t bear to think of men “dying without a friendly hand to minister to their necessities, tossing about in pain, and none to hold the cup of water to the parched lips.” Clara determined to do what she could to help care for them.

Civil War Nurses (Harpers 1862)

Clara didn’t give up on her dream, and she didn’t make excuses for why she couldn’t do what she felt called to do. She threw herself into serving with a passion. Every school break, she headed to a hospital to care for wounded and suffering soldiers. Serving in Philadelphia wasn’t enough. She volunteered on a hospital ship, in hospitals in Alexandria, VA, and on battlefields. And she wouldn’t take no for an answer, whether the no came from a hospital administrator, a doctor, army officers, or the Superintendent of Army Nurses Dorothea Dix.

Eager to be where most needed, she arrived in Gettysburg, July 19th, two weeks after the battle to work in a hospital of five hundred wounded, of which one hundred were Confederates. She devoted herself to caring for the neglected Rebs, who too often received very little care after an initial exam/treatment from a surgeon. Her heart went out to the dying who “were far from home and friends and no prospect of sending a message to a heartbroken wife or mother.”

Nurses and Wounded Solgiers at the Hospital Tents at Gettysburgh

A determined lady, Clara passionately pursued her calling. She persevered through moments/hours/days of disappointment, hardship, and frustrations, refusing to allow people or obstacles to get in the way of her caring for the wounded and dying soldiers.

Clara’s Civil War service continued until her sister became seriously ill in 1864, and then she devoted herself to caring for her until her death. This led to a new calling: being a mother to her sister’s three children. 

1All quotes are taken from a collection of Clara Jones’s letters held at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine located in Frederick, MD.

Sherry Shindelar

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. Sherry is a multi-award-winning writer. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years.

Connect with Sherry: website, newsletter, Amazon, FB, Goodreads

Texas Reclaimed

Can love blossom between a woman haunted by her family’s past and a man with a war-scarred heart?

Cora Scott is determined to hold onto her family's Texas ranch and provide a stable home for her young half brother, Charlie, despite the mounting challenges of post-Civil War frontier life. But when a scheming creditor threatens to seize their land, she must accept help from Ben McKenzie, a former Yankee soldier sent by her late brother. Though Ben's generosity and strength draw her, the man's private struggle she stumbles upon—too reminiscent of her father's alcoholism—makes her question whether she can trust her heart to him.

Ben McKenzie arrives in Texas intent on fulfilling his promise to his dying friend to protect Cora and Charlie. While using his inheritance to save their ranch, he battles not only the loss of their cattle but also his dependency on laudanum—a medicine that turned into a curse after his imprisonment at Andersonville. As his feelings for Cora deepen, he must choose between his promise to his father to take over their Philadelphia newspaper and his growing dream of a life with Cora in Texas.

Ice Cream and the Ice Cream Parlor by Denise M. Colby

How Did Ice Cream Come to Be?

Ice Cream has been noted to have been around since the middle ages with Italy taking the lead in the 17th century with a style we are more familiar with. When it spread north to France, they created a version made with egg yolks. As it came to America, I found in my research that Philadelphia was one of the places a new ice cream was created. A style with no eggs or egg whites only, and a pure vanilla sugar created by a James W. Parkinson.

(Side note: I found a recipe on a website by writer and historian Becky Diamond, where she shares more history about Parkinson’s ice cream, his vanilla, and the history of ice cream, if you are interested.)

 

Early Ice Cream Flavors
These nineteenth century ice cream flavors were quite different than what we eat today. Fruit flavors were the most common. In the 1840s and 1850s the most popular included vanilla, lemon, strawberry and pineapple. Which meant the flavor was vanilla and real fruit was layered on top, not necessarily mixed in.

 

Who Ate Ice Cream?

Ice Cream was the favorite dessert for many statesmen including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Ice cream also appeared in private parks in New York, Washington, and Columbia and also served as an upper-class dessert at dinner parties.

It wasn’t easy to keep. One needed ice and ice melted. As refrigeration grew, so did the popularity of ice cream.

The first hand-cranked ice cream freezer was invented in 1843 by Nancy Johnson. This made production faster and smoother.

The first ice cream plant went into operation in 1851. Jacob Fussell built the first commercial manufacturing plant, which dropped production costs and made ice cream even more accessible.

Bassets Ice Cream in Pennsylvania opened in 1861, and is one of the oldest continuously running ice cream companies.

All of these milestones created the opportunity for ice cream socials and the ice cream parlor.

Ice Cream Parlor History

It’s been noted that the first parlor came about in the 1600s in France. In the United States, the first was noted to have been opened in New York City in the late 1700s by a confectioner named Phillip Lenzi. He started serving the frozen treat at a counter at his sweets shop.

Ice cream saloons (later called parlors - because the term was a safer alternative for women than saloon) also became known as ladies cafes. Women weren't allowed in saloons and taverns. But this space they could frequent. That appeal is what drove owners to appeal to a more female audience. So they were designed as large spacious rooms with mirrors and bright gaslights.

 

Inside of Gunters (from an article by https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2012/08/19/ice-cream-parlors/)

Ice Cream Parlors were deemed safe, respectable, and alcohol free, so women could visit them without an escort. It was one of the first places women met in public. I love this picture below! Where I worked had a vibe like this.

 

We recently visited a deli, and they had tables with this design on them.

Exactly what the tables at the ice cream parlor I worked at had.

 

Besides a place for women, ice cream parlors soon became a destination for a courting couple (without family or a chaperone in attendance) because it was deemed safe.

That said, there was still one group of ladies that were not allowed the same freedoms in an ice cream parlor—schoolmarms. Female schoolmarms were not allowed to be courted (it was written in their contract) where their male counterparts could. Being seen alone with a man risked her moral reputation, which would cost her teaching job. This was well known and many busy-bodies watched closely just in case a young lady made the mistake of appearing with someone unrelated to her. She would be judged harshly if she did.

Why did I want to talk about ice cream?

I love ice cream. My first job was in an ice cream parlor that had a victorian design incorporated. I loved working there. It had a great ambiance.

As I've been writing my series with schoolmarm's, I couldn't wait to write a scene in a book with characters in an ice cream parlor. My latest novelette now has that scene in it. You can find out more about this free book on my website.

AN UNEXPECTED MARRIAGE PROPOSAL By Denise M. Colby

Tilly Johnson has only ever wanted one thing—to teach. Wishing to make a difference in her own one-room schoolhouse, she crosses the country to California to follow her dream. Railroad detective Grant Stone has purposely built his life on staying detached for reasons he can’t talk about. But he won’t sit by and watch when the stranded young woman whose name is on everyone’s lips needs assistance. Except the desire to protect her reputation leads to a marriage proposal he never intended to make…and a wife he never planned on wanting.

 

Denise M. Colby writes historical romance sweetened with faith, hope, and love. She finds history fascinating and contemplates often how it was to live in the 1800's. Her debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, is a 2025 Carol Award finalist. Sign up for her newsletter at www.denisemcolby.com or follow Denise on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, Pinterest, or GoodReads.