Western Hearths: Keeping Cool with Vintage Lemonade

August in the Wild West could make a homesteader long for winter, especially the cook. Baking, cooking, and preserving often turned the kitchen into the hottest room in the house. With the first mass-produced electric refrigerators decades away, keeping food on the table while staying cool called for ingenuity. Any mention of hot kitchens in summer oversimplifies the situation, though. Sometimes there was no kitchen. Homestead cabins might only have a fireplace, or later a wood stove, in the main room. In rhat case, homeowners needed to prepare food while keeping the whole house from overheating. How did they do it?

Wise cooks avoided being trapped over a stove or fire during the heat of the day. They rose early and took care of food preparation and preservation tasks in the cool of the morning. Cooking outdoors or, for the prosperous, in a separate cookhouse also kept the house from warming up.

The menu mattered. Foods that required little to no cooking made life easier. That usually meant fresh lettuce, cucumbers, peas, onions, beans, new potatoes, corn, and fruit. Pickles, preserves, bread, cold potatoes, leftover meat, milk, and buttermilk likewise did not go amiss. Of course, availability depended on factors like location, rainfall, and the presence of livestock. Distance from a farm, town, or railroad station affected western diets.

Keeping food cool was another matter.

Walker Family Farm Springhouse, Gatlinburg, TN
Public Domain Image

A springhouse built over or beside a spring solved the problem for some. This structure created a place to cool milk, butter, and other perishables using cold water emerging from underground. 

Old Root Cellar

Root cellars built into a hillside, where the earth kept them cool, also helped. These simple methods made a huge difference during the heat of summer.

And then there was ice.

Ice Harvesting, Massachusetts, early 1850s;
unknown author; public domain image

Yes, homesteaders had ice, or at least some did. In areas with lakes and ponds that froze in winter, families could cut big blocks of ice. These they would pack in thick layers of straw, hay, or sawdust and store in an icehouse to last all summer long.

Icehouses occupied shady locations near homes, dairies, or other buildings where ice was needed. Or homesteaders might place them near ponds or lakes to make harvesting and storing the ice easier. Constructed partly or entirely underground, Icehouses took advantage of the earth’s ability to maintain lower temperatures.

Commercial companies got into the act beginning in 1873 and started shipping ice to western towns and settlements by rail, water, or wagon. Not everyone could afford to buy ice, however, and homesteaders who lived remotely were often out of luck. Those who did obtain ice greatly treasured and rationed it. A cold glass of lemonade, so common these days, was a rare treat in the Wild West.

And yes, homesteaders had lemonade—at least sometimes. Lemons and sugar were transported into much of the West, but were similarly precious. Lemonade wasn’t a regular item for most people and would have been reserved for special occasions. If the household had ice, the lemonade could be chilled. If not, it could still be refreshing served cool from the springhouse, cellar, or well.

Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, published in 1861, includes a lemonade recipe made with lemon rind, lemon juice, loaf sugar, and boiling water. The recipe below is an adaptation.

Vintage Lemonade

Ingredients

• Rind of 2 lemons
• Juice of 3 large or 4 small lemons
• 1 pound loaf sugar (Note: purchase loaf sugar online or substitute 2¼ cups granulated sugar)
• 1 quart boiling water

Instructions

• Rub some of the sugar over the lemons to extract the fragrant oil from their skins. Put the sugar into a jug and add the strained lemon juice. Pour over the boiling water and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Strain the lemonade through a fine sieve or clean cloth and allow it to cool.

Bringing this Homestead Treat to Your Family

Make this recipe for a special occasion, just as a western homesteader would do. Fill everyone’s glasses with ice in tribute to the effort that went into harvesting it in winter and storing it for summer use. Chat around the table while you enjoy the sweetness.

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature an early age when her father read chapters from childhood classics to her as bedtime stories. After she grew older, Janalyn put herself to sleep with tales of her own. She trained more formally in writing through Christian Writers Guild.

Janalyn writes in several genres. She is the Amazon-bestselling author of the Montana Gold western historical romance series. New York Times bestselling author, Eric Wilson endorsed and wrote the forward for Janalyn’s medieval epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven. Readers often describe Janalyn’s books as lyrical and transporting. Learn More>>>

The Treacherous Thousand Island Shipping Channel

During the Gilded Age, the Thousand Islands occupied a unique position between leisure and industry. While the region became renowned for opulent summer estates and grand hotels, it also lay along the St. Lawrence River shipping channel. The movement of cargo vessels through this island-filled corridor shaped daily life.

By the late nineteenth century, the St. Lawrence River was a critical link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic world. Steam-powered freighters carrying grain, timber, and ore passed through the Thousand Islands on their way to international markets. These working vessels shared the river with excursion steamers and private yachts, creating a contrast between industrial purpose and Gilded Age leisure.

Navigating the shipping channel through the islands was challenging and dangerous. Strong currents, fog, narrow passages, and hidden shoals made precise navigation essential at night. Lighthouses became the backbone of river safety. Strategically placed on exposed points and isolated islands, they marked channel edges, warned of hazards, and guided ships through tight turns. Range lights worked in pairs, allowing pilots to align vessels accurately within the dredged channel.

Governments on both sides of the border invested heavily in lighthouse construction and maintenance, recognizing that safe passage was vital to commerce. Lighthouse keepers and their families lived year-round in remote conditions, tending lamps, cleaning lenses, and monitoring weather to ensure the lights never failed.

For island residents and vacationers, the lighthouses became familiar landmarks. At night, their steady beams traced arcs across the water, a reassuring presence amid the river’s movement. Watching freighters follow these lights underscored the balance between beauty and industry.

In the Thousand Islands during the Gilded Age, lighthouses symbolized connection. They made possible the coexistence of grand leisure estates and global trade, ensuring the same river carrying elegance and escape could safely carry the commerce of a modernizing world.

ABOUT EMMA’S ENGAGEMENT

Book 3 of the Love in a Lighthouse series:

Emma Row yearns to build a loving family. But becoming the Rock Island Lightkeeper's wife brings treacherous waters of isolation and the bitter rejection of her new stepdaughter, Ada. Michael Diepolder, the widowed lightkeeper, had hoped marriage would simplify life but realizes that the path to happiness is far more turbulent than he ever anticipated. Emma and Michael must confront the tempestuous waves of doubt, jealousy, and isolation that threaten to extinguish the light of their love. Can they weather the storm and find the strength to keep their family together, or will the darkness consume them all?

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has sixteen in her fiction line. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys traveling the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction for more.

The Methodist Minister They Called "Fightin' Jack"

by Tom Goodman 

Before Texas communities had pastors and church buildings, many depended on circuit riders: preachers who traveled on horseback from settlement to settlement, conducting services wherever people gathered.

Few fit the frontier image better than Andrew Jackson Potter--or “Fightin’ Jack,” as friends and enemies alike called him. 

Potter had hauled freight, driven cattle, prospected for gold, and fought in the army before becoming a Methodist preacher. Beginning in 1866, he served circuits across West and South Texas, preaching in homes, churches, military forts, camp meetings, and even saloons.

His routes reportedly covered about 2,500 miles each year.

Potter made a point of going to rough communities where other ministers hesitated to serve. He frequently carried a gun, sometimes propping it beside the pulpit while he preached to crowds that included drunkards, cowboys, trail drivers, and hecklers. 

A weapon might seem an odd tool for a pastor, but it caused men to think twice before interfering with Potter's meetings or accosting him on a remote road. In the language of his day, he once wrote:

"When God calls me to travel in a region of country infested with lurking savages, my Winchester gun and a full belt of cartridges shall ever prevent distressing alarms about my safety when meeting a savage foe, feeling that in the fearful struggle for life I have some safe means to preserve my God-given manhood."

He spent twelve years riding the Kerrville circuit and later established a Methodist circuit at Fort Concho, where he preached the first Methodist sermon at the future site of San Angelo. He continued circuit riding until 1895, when he died while preaching in a Caldwell County chapel.

By the turn of the century, Texas pastors were more likely to receive an appointment centered on one town or a small group of established churches. But stories of armed circuit riders who braved lawless settlements still lingered. 

Such stories may have fortified the resolve of the real-life preacher behind my forthcoming novel when he faced dangers of his own.

My new novel is called Through Many Dangers. It's based on the remarkable true story of Jesse Lee, whom I renamed Rick Burleson for the novel. In 1905, Lee faced down a violent bootlegging syndicate in Groveton, Texas, to become known as the pistol-packing preacher. 

When I first ran across the tale, it was like someone had taken one of my favorite films, The Untouchables, and dropped it in the remote Piney Woods of East Texas.

Read the back cover copy here. To keep up with the launch, sign up for my newsletter at this page and get a free copy of Ten Texas Tales.

I need some advance reviewers who will read the book before the October 1 pub date and be ready to drop a review at online stores and review sites the first week it's out. 

Members of the Review Team will get a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review. Apply to join the Review Team by clicking on the deputy badge below:

Photo of Jack Potter: H. A. Graves, Andrew Jackson Potter, the Fighting Parson of the Texan Frontier (1881). Courtesy of the Library of Congress and Internet Archive. Public domain. The Houston Chronicle adapted the engraving.
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Sharing My Birthday Month with Some Historical Female Trailblazers

 

In celebration of my birthday, I thought I'd share a few women in history who were born in August. Let's look at four women and the legacies they left behind.

Let's start with a fun historical figure. 

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley

Born Phoebe Ann Mosey on August 13,1860 in rural Ohio. She learned to hunt as a child, becoming a crack shot out of necessity. She helped support her widowed mother and her siblings by never missing her target. Ammunition was dear, and she couldn't afford to waste it. The need to put food on the table opened the doors to international fame for her.

Wild Bill Hickok discovered her, and she joined his Wild West show in 1885. Taking the stage name Annie Oakley, she delighted audiences across the United States and Europe. Among her demonstrations, she split playing cards, extinguished candle flames with bullets, and hit tiny moving targets with amazing precision.

Oakley was an advocate for women's independence, believing women should learn self-defense and shooting to protect themselves. It is said she offered to organize an all-female regiment to serve during the Spanish-American War. Her idea never took root.

Mata Hari 

Next up is a supposed villain. Born Margaret Geertruida Zelle in Leeuwarden, Netherlands on August 7^th, 1876. She rose to fame as an exotic dancer in Paris by taking the name Mata Hari. She enhanced her stage persona by adding mystery to her backstory, claiming to be of Eastern royalty. Given Europeans' fascination with Eastern cultures, her ruse captivated audiences and boosted her career. Her glamorous lifestyle and relationships with influential military officers and politicians made her one of the most recognizable women in Europe during World War I.

During World War  I, French authorities accused her of spying for Germany. She was arrested in 1917. Convicted by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad. She was forty-one. Historians continue to debate the accusation. Was she really a spy, and if so, how active was she?

Many scholars believe she was a convenient scapegoat during a difficult period of the war when France sought someone to blame for military setbacks. Her story has inspired countless books, movies and legends, making her one of history's most famous alleged spies. Have you ever heard of someone called a Mata Hari? It refers to someone who passes along secrets. 

 

CoCo Chanel

CoCo Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was born August 19^th, 1883, in Saumur, France. Some sources say she claimed her birth year as 1893 to appear younger. This colorful character never married but poured her life into fashion designing and creating perfume for the elite classes.

 Her mother was a laundress. When she died, her father sent his three daughters to a convent. But Coco preferred her story of a lovely childhood spent with her two aunts when her mother died.

Like Mata Hari, she painted her backstory in whatever way that made her look better to those around her. She had long-time  friendships with both German sympathizers and Winston Churchill.

Coco transformed women's fashions during the twentieth century by replacing restrictive corsets and elaborate Victorian styles with clothes that focused on comfort, simplicity and elegance. She learned to sew when she lived at the convent and used that talent to create styles that drew attention. She opened her first boutique in 1910. Her designs featured clean lines, jersey fabrics, and tailored suits, which allowed women greater freedom of movement while maintaining sophistication. For a time, she created hats as well. Her perfume, Chanel No. 5, is still popular today, representing elegance and style.

When Germany invaded France in World War II, she closed her dress shops and moved to the Ritz Hotel where many elite class German officers took up residence. Suspected of being a collaborator, yet never proven, her reputation was damaged for a time. She moved to Switzerland and lived there for several years. Seeing the post-war fashion trends inspired her to design again. In 1954, she made a highly successful comeback. America and Britain embraced her styles even though France still held the question of her being a collaborator over her head.

Coco Chanel is widely regarded as one of the most influential designers in history. She is listed as one of the top 100 women who influenced the 20^th Century.

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball

Ah, my birthday twin. For those who have never heard that term it is someone who was born on the same date as you. The year makes no difference. She was born August 6^th, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. I'll not mention what year I was born, but she could have been my mother.

She is known for her star status in movies and later on television. She studied with Buster Keaton, the famous silent comedy star. Moving from romantic leads to comedy leads eventually opened the door for a TV sitcom. The I Love Lucy Show, with her iconic performance as Lucy Ricardo, premiered in 1951, played for several years on TV, and has been in continues reruns since the 1960s. Lucy was noted for her impeccable timing, expressive physical humor, and elaborate slapstick routines. She broke barriers by insisting her real-life husband Desi Arnez be cast as her on-screen husband, Ricky Ricardo. She performed pregnant and gave birth to her daughter Lucille Arnez at the same time her character gave birth to Little Ricky. And the show was performed before a live audience, something that had never been done before. Desi and Lucy formed the DesiLu production company. She became sole owner after their divorce, making her the first woman to run a TV Studio. Would you believe that under her leadership, Desilu produced Star Trek and Mission Impossible, cementing her legacy not only as a performer but also a visionary producer.

These four August-born women had so much more interesting facts about their lives that I haven't mentioned. Three of the four were entertainers, and three worked toward making things easier for women, whether it was clothes, running a business, or encouraging women to learn to defend themselves. Two women were accused of colluding with the enemy during war time.

Have you read about any of these women? Which one is your favorite?

Cindy Ervin Huff is an Award-winning author of Historical and Contemporary Romance. She loves infusing hope into her stories of broken people. She's addicted to reading and chocolate. Her idea of a vacation is visiting historical sites and an ideal date with her hubby of almost fifty years would be the theater. Visit her website www.cindyervinhuff.com Or on Facebook or Instagram