Once Upon the Prairie

 

 

 

Callie Mae

C ourageous and confident

A dventurous and ambitious

L oveable and light-hearted

L ikeable and lively

I ndustrious and intelligent

E nthusiastic and empathetic

 

M ature and motivated

A ble and admirable

E nergetic and endearing

              The Exoduster 

PLEASE NOTE THIS BLOG CHANGES THE FIRST AND THIRD WEEKS OF EACH MONTH.

Prairie Girls

Callie Mae

It’s Callie Mae, and I must tell you what my pappy decided to do. He heard about free land up north in a new state called Kansas. It cost five dollars to enter the state, and after you homesteaded land for a few years, you owned it. My brothers and he were excited about having their own land. Pappy made plans to leave in the spring and take all of us with them. Freedmen who came to Kansas and homesteaded were called Exodusters. Granny was sure this would be my adventure.

Something awful happened later in the fall before we could leave. My pappy was killed in a logging accident. Now my brothers and I don’t know what to do. I’ll tell you about our decision next.

 

 

Butchering Day

Callie Mae’s father, other sharecroppers and plantation owners butchered their own meat. My family butchered their own hogs and calves too. After the animal was killed, it aged for a time in an enclosed shed. Grandpa sharpened all the “butcher” knives on the stone in the shed, and the meat grinder was scalded with boiling water. A table was set up on the back porch (the coldest part of the house) where my father and grandfather cut up the pork or beef. The grinder was attached to a board placed between two milk cans. I sat on one end of the grinder to keep it from slipping off the can. My dad or grandfather sat on the other end and pushed the chunks of meat into the grinder while turning the handle. The end product was either hamburger or ground pork. The porch was cold, and I did not like just sitting there. It was not a job I enjoyed.

 

My mother took the ground pork, added spices and herbs to season, and formed walnut-sized sausage balls. These she fried in a cast-iron skilled and canned in jars. Only a small amount of beef was made into hamburger; we did not own a deep freeze. Most of the beef was cut into smaller chunks to fit into a canning jar, and Mother canned it too. Roast beef is still one of my favorite foods. It’s been a long, long time though since I have tasted meat as good as my mother’s canned roast beef, warmed in the oven on a cold, winter night.

 

 

 

 

Exoduster Facts

 

Exodusters

Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction of the south proved to be unsuccessful for the Freedmen. A series of laws known as Black Codes were legislated against the Freedmen. Although technically not slavery which was against the Constitution, the laws forbade Blacks from getting education, self-improvement or owning property. The lure of free land in Kansas attracted interest in the South especially in those areas terrorized by a new organization calling itself the Ku Klux Klan.

Led by the Freedman, Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, nearly 40,000 Freedmen followed his call to come to Kansas. Like the Biblical story about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, they were known as Exodusters and settled throughout the state.

To find out more about these families who moved west, the following sites might be useful.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodusters

www.legendsofkansas.com/exodusters.html

www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/exodusters.htm

www.kshs.org/kansapedia/exodusters/17162

 

 

Prairie Recipes

 

Prairie Recipes

By Collette

 

Corn bread went by many names in the South. Cornmeal was made into corn pone, ash cakes, hoe cakes, johnnie cakes, corn dodgers, corn muffins, or hush puppies to name a few. This recipe combined cornmeal and another staple of the South: ham.
Crackling Bread
2 cups cornmeal                                        1 cup ground cracklings
½ teaspoon soda                                         1 egg
½ teaspoon salt                                          1 ½ cups buttermilk
Combine all ingredients; mix well. Pour into a hot greased pan or iron skillet. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until brown. Yield: 8 servings.

 

Hush Puppies were truly Southern fare with much history behind the recipe. They were supposedly thrown to the dogs around the campfire while the animals impatiently waited for something to eat. Hush Puppies went well with fried catfish.
Southern Hush Puppies
2 cups cornmeal                                         ½ cup water
2 teaspoon baking powder                         1 ½ cups milk
1 teaspoon salt                                           1 large onion, chopped finely
Sift dry ingredients together; add milk and water. Stir in onion. Add more milk or water as needed to form a soft, but workable dough. Mold pieces of dough with hands into pones, about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide and about ¾ inches thick. Fry in deep hot fat or oil until well browned. Yield: 12 hush puppies.

Of course you didn’t make the hush puppies without baking powder, and this is how to make it.

Baking Powder
6 ounces cream of tarter
2 and 2/3 ounces of bicarbonate of soda
4 ½ ounces of flour
Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Store in tightly covered container. This is similar to what is used today.   

Exodusters

Introduction to the Exodusters

The only Kansas history class I ever took was over 50 years ago in the seventh grade for only nine weeks. Nothing was offered in high school, and I chose not to take anything in college. My first knowledge about the Exodusters came when Kansas history was placed on the state social studies assessments. Teachers scrambled to find information to use in the classroom. I was amazed I had heard nothing about this large population’s arrival and residence in Kansas. My students were interested as well.

Although I grew up in the turbulent ‘60’s, I was isolated from the Civil Rights movement and the protests. I grew up thinking race riots were in cities and other states, but not in Kansas. Yet with research I discovered Kansas was on the cusp of Civil Rights. Beginning with the arrival of nearly 40,000 Exodusters, to Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, to the Kansan President Dwight Eisenhower demanding the Little Rock High School integrate, Kansas has been involved with Civil Rights for over 150 years.

Fourth of July

 

 

 

       Fun on the Fourth

 I do not enjoy all of the 4^th of July activities. When my children were young, it was the same battle every year. My sons started their lobbying efforts the minute the first fireworks stand appeared in town, never mind that it wouldn’t open for a week or two.

“Please Mom, everybody else’s mom lets them have Black Cats and Roman Candles and those ones that shoot really, really high in the sky. How come all I get are snakes and sparklers?” my younger son whined as he followed me around in the grocery store. “I saw the sign on the fireworks stand in the parking lot says they are opening tomorrow. I’ll even use my own money.”

“Your grocery total comes to $105.43. Would you like help out with those?” the check-out clerk said and handed me the two-foot long cash register slip.

“Please Mom, can I have $20.00 for fireworks. I’ll pay you back when I get a job. I promise, and you won’t have to pay me to mow the yard,” my older son said. I wondered when we had started paying him to mow the yard. I wondered why he would ask me to spend money on something to literally set on fire and possibly harm himself with while I was spending big dollars at the grocery store.

I have pleasant memories of sitting on the back porch steps, hands over my ears while my father lighted one small package of firecrackers and tossed them in the air one by one, away from the house. When I grew older I enjoyed writing my name in the air and making stars with my allotted two sparklers. The evenings were topped off with homemade ice cream. Oh yes, I enjoyed celebrating our nation’s freedom. Motherhood, though, woke me up to the more dangerous things in life and shooting fireworks was certainly one of them.

It took several years before I finally discovered the perfect way to celebrate July 4^th. A fine meal of hamburgers from the grill, roasted ears of corn, Grandma’s potato salad and fresh tomatoes started the evening.  The meal was topped off with homemade ice cream. Sometimes there was an apple pie or chocolate cake, all shared with good friends. After the meal our families watched the community display of fireworks at the local park. Each year we declared the finale the best one ever. The holiday ended with the children’s dads helping the kids set off a modest amount of fireworks in the street. Even that plan “backfired” one year when one of my son’s firecrackers burned too closely to his finger, and in his eagerness to not burn his finger, he blindly tossed the firecracker. It landed on another boy’s back. Fortunately, neither boy was harmed.

However you celebrate July 4^th, I hope you have a safe and happy one and fully appreciate the freedoms we have in this great country of ours.