Journey to His Past

Francis Denny was born 13 April 1866, the 13th of 15 children born to Joseph W. Denny and Adelia DeGan, in Lowell, Kent, Michigan, United States.

Francis Denny married Willis G. Dollaway on the 3rd of October, 1885 in Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan.  They lived in the Lowell area most of their lives.  Willis and Francis had nine children, four died at a young age and five lived to adulthood.

There has been a recent resurgence of canning and preserving food in America.  Francis Dollaway knew canning and preserving as a way of life.  It was a necessary skill to have if you wanted food to be available and to prevent spoilage.

Francis lived from 1866-1955 in rural Michigan.  She was married in 1885.  I am sure she did an enormous amount of canning for her family of seven because refrigeration as we know it wasn't available until the 1920's, and then not everyone had it.

Refrigeration using ice was around by the 1900's.  Other methods of keeping food cold was the use of cellars.  Some were dug in the ground and other's would be in the basement of the home.  I imagine in Michigan a few were packed with snow during the winter months.  Many women of this generation used canning and preserving instead.

Francis Dollaway was one of them and I have copies of her recipes.  I wrote about the origins of Grandma Dollaway's cookbooks here.  The first cookbook was a general book of recipes.  The second one is all on canning and preserving.  This book of recipes includes recipes for pickles, relishes, hash, pickled fruit, jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves and canned potatoes.

Here is one for Elderberry Jelly.  I wonder if Grandma Dollaway had elderberries on her property along the river in Lowell, Michigan.  Check out the directions on how to boil it!



Elderberry Jelly
3 c. fresh elderberry Juice
       (about 4 lbs. ripe berries)
7 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c lemon juice
1 bottle pectin

Remove large stems from berries, place in a kettle & crush.  Heat gently until juice starts to flow, cover & simmer 15 minutes.  Strain out the juice.  Mix sugar, juice & lemon juice & bring to a boil over hottish fire.  As soon as it boils add the pectin, stirring constantly.  Bring to a rolling boil and boil hard 1/2 minute.  Remove from fire, skim and pour into hot sterilized glasses.  Cover with parafin at once.

My husband and I were visiting his parents on Mother's Day weekend and I decided to take my flip-pal scanner with me.  My mother-in-law had mentioned that she had her Grandma Dollaway's cookie recipe and I thought it would be a good idea to scan the recipe and use it for a blog post. 
I asked my mother-in-law, Betty, if I could make a scan of her Grandma's recipes and she said she didn't have them, her daughter did.  They were going to be seeing her daughter the next day and she would ask her to bring them and then I could scan them the next time I visited.  I didn't think much of it, I could wait.