Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Quaker and Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania
United States ➔ Maryland

Date of Composition

recipes ca. 1855-ca. 1885

Description

Hiram Taylor (ca. 1802-1866) was a cabinetmaker and sawyer who lived in various places in Pennsylvania and Maryland. His wife was named Ann, and they had three daughters, one  of whom, Annie S. (born 1829), married James H. Kidd (born 1828). The Kidds lived in Pleasant Grove, Fulton township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and had three children, Hiram (b.1855), Andrew (1857-1896), Cecil (b.1861). Andrew, who may have been a store keeper as an adult, wrote his name in this volume.

This volume began as Hiram Taylor's account book. Entries made before 1837 document his furniture business, while later accounts record exchanges of agricultural products and labor, along with Taylor's activities sawing for the New Valley Mill in Cecil County, Maryland. The volume was later used by members of the Kidd family as a commonplace book. There are essays on Julius Caesar, inventors, and President Hayes' cabinet; some embroidery patterns; and minutes of the 1870-1872 weekly meetings of the women's Pleasant Grove Bible study class (of which Mrs. Kidd was a member). Newspaper clippings are pasted over some of the earlier accounts. Dried flowers and leaves are pressed between some leaves. The Kidd family also recorded a handful of recipes in the book, most of which are characteristic of later nineteenth century. The recipes, as listed in a database available at the libary, are as follows: muffins, raised muffins, white pound cake, rotation cake, white mountain cake (two recipes), chocolate or jelly cake, pumpkin chips, chocolate cream, Spanish [cream?], lemon pie (three recipes), coconut pie, and frosted pudding.