Luscious Cherry Pie A Specialty of Mrs. Paschall

by Mabel Weise, The Dispatch, (Moline, Illinois), Wed., 27 Feb 1952, Page 17.  Reposted by Linda Stewart, 26 February 2022

“Every time our group plans a dinner the men say: ‘Have Harriet Paschall make cherry pie’.”  That was the comment of the kind person who called this department to suggest Mrs. Ronald R. Paschall (Harriet Brown) as one we should have on this page.  And here she is, to tell us all how to make the cherry pie which her friends declare is the “best ever.”  We find all of these good cooks so very modest that we are almost led to believe that these superb specialties of theirs practically jump into a pan and settle themselves into a concoction which eventually comes to the table with all the attributes of ambrosia.

For her pastry Mrs. Paschall uses:

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup (heaping) Spry  [Crisco]

6 tablespoons cold water

Sift flour, salt and baking power together; cut shortening into it; then add water, 2 tablespoons at a time.  Divide dough into 2 parts; roll 1 part out on floured board to desire size.  Line one 9-inch pie tin with pastry, and pour in the filling made as follows:

1 No. 2 can red sour pitted cherries

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cherry juice

2 heaping tablespoons flour

Drain can of cherries, saving juice.  Add sugar, flour and cherry juice to drained cherries.  Mix thoroughly and fill pie crust.  Roll out second part of dough and cover pie with top crust.  Flute edges and slit top about 10 times.  Brush crust with cream and sprinkle lightly with sugar.  Bake for 1 hour, with oven at 425 degrees until pie is brown; then turn down to 325.

NOTE: Spry was a brand of vegetable shortening produced by Lever Brothers starting in 1936. It was a competitor for Procter & Gamble’s Crisco.

Harriett was born in Chicago, IL, on September 15, 1918, to William B. and Ellen (Davies) Brown. On August 28, 1943, in Moline, she married Ronald Rex Paschall, who preceded her in death February 22, 2006.  Harriett died on 24 August 2014.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134873540/harriett-b-paschall

Happy Thanksgiving – Enjoy the recipes from the Grandmothers of old

By Linda Stewart, 21 November 2018

Genealogy is not about just the names and dates of our ancestors, it is about the treasurers they left to us. Our values and traditions.  That picture or piece of crochet.  This holiday season I would like to share some recipes from two of my grandmothers.  I hope your family enjoys them as much as my family has.

Happy Hunting!

Gingerbread Cake – Ruth McKinney Beard Paschall

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup Crisco

1 cup Steens syrup

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup HOT water

Mix the above ingredients together then add 1 cup HOT water.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased and floured baking dish.  Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.

Once the cake was cooled, grandma would serve it with a spoon full of whipping cream on top.  So good ….

Tea Cookies – Nellie Shelton Sherman

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour (or enough to handle well) could go up to 5 cups

Cream sugar and shortening.  Add other ingredients and mix well.  Turn on floured board and work until you can handle.  Roll thin as desired and cut out.  Bake 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until brown.

The tea cookies are good as is, or you can sprinkle them with sugar before baking, or you can decorate them with icing after baking.  Enjoy!

Daughters of Mary Ham Paschall – Lessons Lost to Time

By Linda Stewart, 28 September 2018

John T. and Mary Cook Paschall’s first child was Robert Anderson Paschall.  He married Mary A. Ham, who was the daughter of Young Davis Ham and Susannah Clark.  Robert and Mary were very well educated and they made sure their children were also educated.   In addition to everyday life lessons of cleaning, cooking, and sewing, it would appear that Mary also taught her daughters about midwifery and herbal medicine.

One of their daughter’s Mary Ann Frances Paschall Fletcher was a midwife who lived in Texas.  She would deliver the baby and stay with the new mother for a month helping her until she was well enough to take care of her family.

Another daughter, Amanda N. Paschall Newsom was a healer with herbs.  Her family lived in Texas and later moved to Oklahoma.  On 17 May 1937, Amanda’s son Thomas was interviewed by John F. Daugherty for the Indian Pioneer History Collection in Oklahoma Historical Society.  He said, “When we got sick, mother went to the prairies and gets menna leaves, horehound, balimony [sic] weed, dogwood, celindia, and black haw.  She boiled those and made a tea, which we had to drink.  It was a bad dose, but it certainly cured our minor ailments.  There were no doctors at that time.  I didn’t know what a doctor was until I was twenty years old.”

Today, you can still take classes to learn to be a midwife and a herbalist, but these everyday lessons that were taught by our pioneer grandmothers to their daughters have been lost to time.

If you have any medicinal recipes or grandma’ remedies that you would like to share, please let us know by leaving us a comment.

Happy Hunting!