Rivets and Rails: Recipes and Stories from Railroad Boarding Houses

LUNCH & LEARN Thursday, May 19 noon

Railroad companies and mining camps provided boarding houses for their workers from the 1900s-1950s. Boarding houses were a necessary part of life in the early days of frontier life. Western towns would not have survived without them. It also provided an opportunity for women to earn money by providing a bed, breakfast, the evening meal and a full lunch pail to their boarders. Taking in three boarders in a home could earn as much as a hard rock miner made in a day.

From the journal and recipes of Elizabeth Shade Kennedy we learn about the preparation and presentation of food for a variety of railroad boarders. This was a time when modern conveniences were just beginning to appear - such as the radio and refrigerator. Families were dependent on stocking their shelves themselves, raising and canning their own food. In addition to recipes, homemade cures such as this

were listed in her journal:

For Gall Stones

Take 4 drops of turpentine 3 times a day for 3 days until you have taken it 9 times. Then stop and start in again. Take it only twice.

Enjoy this Lunch & Learn filled with tastes and stories of the past. Reservations to kate@stpaulstoledo.org.

Lunch is by donation. Parking is located adjacent to the church, which is handicap accessible.