Most of the news at the end of the year either summarized what had happened in 2015 or made predictions for 2016.

This year you will not read any of that in this column. In the past I have done both. None of my predictions ever came true so we will carry on.

That being said let us take a look at Edwardsburg 100 years ago.

In 1916 a new state law was passed requiring every automobile to display a license. A traffic count on Sunday Aug. 16, 2016, recorded 451 cars using Main Street. Because of this heavy traffic, the Village Council felt the need for traffic control and therefore authorized the hiring of a traffic cop.

The Village Marshall refused to act, so J. A. Cooper was hired to direct traffic at the intersection of Main and Cass streets on Sundays. It was the advent of the Sunday drive around the countryside.

By Oct. 1916, 143,550 automobiles were registered in Michigan. W.H. Bessar and Son opened a Ford garage in the old livery stable and hardware store on  the east side of Cass Street.

R.S. Carlisle purchased an auto hearse and at once was in demand by funeral directors from nearby cities and villages to assist them with his new vehicle.

A doctor from a neighboring village placed an advertisement in the Argus stating he had a cure for cancer with the guarantee if he failed he would pay on half of the patients funeral expenses.

A lock up was built in the Village Hall, which was on the alley in the block on US-12 between Cass and Lake streets. Acetylene gas lights were installed in the village hall.

E.S. Claire purchased the R.J. Hicks building on Main Street together with the stock of tobacco and candy planned to move his barber shop to the new location in January 1, 1916. A barbershop still stands in that area.

All of these facts are contained in Otis Montgomery’s book, “Edwardsburg, The First 150 Years” available at the Edwardsburg Museum.

Now, I hate to admit this but I am stuck on Holiday desserts. I know that I said I was through with food, but this recipe was too good to not share. It comes from the booklet of the Consumer Service Department of the Northern Indian Public Service Company. Probably distributed in the 1950s to all of its customers

This is a recipe for Amish cookies

12 eggs

2 cups molasses or karo syrup

2  1/2 pounds of lard

6 pounds of flour

5 Pounds of sugar

2 pounds of raisins

2 pounds of rolled oats

1 pound of nut meats

8 tablespoons of bake soda

1 quart of butter milk

3 tablespoons of cinnamon

 

Cream lard, sugar, eggs and molasses or syrup. Combine all ingredients and add alternately with butter milk. Drop on lightly greased cookie tin and spread out by pressing with the bottom of a glass.  Bake in a gas oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Yield: 25 dozen three inch cookies.

Tuck this recipe away in your cookbook and try it next holiday season. It should make enough cookies to last through the whole season.

Have I tried it? No, I am waiting for my family to grow larger so I don’t have to eat all those cookies myself.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.