Bangor Brownies (1908); Maine Sardines (1902)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

"Bangor, ME?  Why, I don't even know her!"
--joke as old as the hills, but the "ME" is fairly recent with postal codes

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BANGOR BROWNIES

LOWNEY'S COOK BOOK
prepared and revised by
Maria Willett Howard
Revised Edition
The Walter M. Lowney Co., Boston
1908

INDEX
Brownies, Bangor, 261
   Lowney's, 278.


    I went to the Library of Congress to look through the BANGOR DAILY NEWS,
starting 1902, but did NOT find "Bangor Brownies."  The above "revised" book
is 1908, but should be at least 1907.  I read the BDN through 1905.
   DARE doesn't provide any help at all.
   The web has various hits for Mildred "Brownie" Schrumpf, and she possibly
will have a bio in the OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD.  She was born in
1903, graduated from the University of Maine in 1925 with a B.S. in home
economics, and wrote a weekly column in the BANGOR DAILY NEWS from 1951-1993.
 She authored THE FLAVOR OF MAINE (1976) and MEMORIES FROM BROWNIE'S KITCHEN
(1989).  However, she did not coin "brownie" as a toddler.

15 February 1902, BANGOR DAILY NEWS, pg. 11, cols. 1-2:
NICE THINGS MADE FROM CHOCOLATE. (...)
CONVALESCENTS' DRINK...
PIERRE BOLT'S CHOCOLATE...
EGG CHOCOLATE...
CHOCOLATE CUSTARDS...
BAVARIAN CHOCOLATE CREAM...
CHOCOLATE CANDIES...
CHOCOLATE CAKE...

19 June 1902, BANGOR DAILY NEWS, pg. 5, cols. 6-7 ad:
FREE
Lectures on Cooking
And
PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS
of the Uses for Culinary Purposes of the
Chocolate and Cocoa
Manufactured By
Walter Baker & Co., Ltd.,
DORCHESTER, MASS.
(Established 1780)
Will be given by MISS ELIZABETH K. BURR,
(Domestic Science Dept., Boston Y.M.C.A.)
FRIDAY and SATURDAY, JUNE 20th and 21st, 1902...
   Samples of Miss Burr's preparations such as Cakes, Puddings, Meringues,
Ice Cream, Fudge, Souffles, etc., and the Walter Baker Cocoa or Vanilla
Chocolate will be served free at  each lecture...

20  June 1902, BANGOR DAILY NEWS, pg. 3, col. 3:
_COOKING LECTURES_
_IN THE Y.M.C.A._
_Interesting Addresses and _
_Practical Demonstrations_
_Largely Attended._
(...)
   The various dishes prepared before the audience--and, best of all,
distributed afterwards in liberal quantities--include ice cream, puddings,
meringues, fudge cakes and souffles, all good looking and good tasting, and
of a quality to bear eloquent testimony, not only to the skill--or is it the
genius?--of Miss Burr, but to the unquestionable worth of the chocolate and
cocoa manufactured by Walter Baker & Co. as well.

(Perhaps I'll e-mail the Bangor YMCA about later lectures...So who did Bangor
Brownies, Walter Baker or Lowney's?  And when?--ed.)

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PACKED LIKE SARDINES

   I previously posted about this phrase, adding that it was earlier packed
like a "barrel" of "herrings."  Someone asked about the history of sardine
canning.

10 May 1902, BANGOR DAILY NEWS, pg. 8:
_THE CANNING OF AMERICAN SARDINES._
_An Industry That Employs Thousands of People Along_
_the Eastern Coast of Maine--Passamaquoddy_
_Bay the Home of the Herring._
Special to the Bangor Daily News.
   EASTPORT, May 10.--The many thousand residents among the coast towns of
Eastern Maine who have been looking forward with considerable interest to the
10th of May, which is the date for the annual opening of the numerous sardine
canning factories now realize that few of the factories will start up on
time. (...)
   The home of the herring is certainly Passamaquoddy bay and its
tributaries, since these fish have been found in large schools along the
eastern coast since the time of the very early settlers of Maine and herring
were packed in barrels, smoked and otherwise cured many years previous to the
opening of the first sardine canning factory in East port in 1875 by Julius
Wolff of New York and William Marton of Eastport. (...) (Col. 2--ed.)
   Since 1875 the sardine canning industry has advanced with rapid strides
from the small plant erected in Eastport until now there are nearly one
hundred factories engaged in the industry along the eastern coast of Maine,
although not all are operated during the season.  It was four seasons
following the opening of the first plant before another was erected down east
and twenty-two years ago there were only five factories engaged in the
industry down east. (...)