PivinFamily20240306 - Person Sheet
PivinFamily20240306 - Person Sheet
NameLillian Edith SMITH 
Birth5 Jan 1917, Bristol, Bristol, RI
Death9 May 2016, Hemet, Riverside, CA
FatherWilliam Thomas SMITH (1889-1972)
MotherRose “Rosie” Veronica PEVIN (~1899-1985)
Misc. Notes
Thanksgiving Day on the Smith farm in Bristol, Rhode Island, in the 1920’s
By; Lillian Edith Smith Chalmers, October 1974.
When I was a child my parents, William Thomas Smith, great grandson of Richard Smith, the first Town clerk of Bristol in 1700 and my mother, Rose Pevin, the daughter of French Canadians, would walk from town to the family gatherings to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at the Smith family farmhouse built in 1860 by Samuel Smith for his son, William Francis Smith, my grandfather.
Grandmother, who was a “town girl” from Bristol before her marriage named Clara Frances Gayton, presided over the large wood-burning stove, while all the children and grandchildren arrived from as far away as Philadelphia, for the holiday. Aunt Abigail, her children, Frances, Dorothy, Stafford, and Gladys, Aunt Edith and her two boys, Aunt Stella, Helen, Alice, Uncle Richard and all the cousins, and two or three hired hands.
Grandma cooked great quantities of Rhode Island johnny or ‘jonny’ cakes, (probably a corruption of “Journey” as both Indians and Colonists found them convenient to carry on long trips in pouch or saddlebag) were and still are made of Rhode Island white cornmeal and cooked slowly over a wood-burning stove. The meal is first scalded in boiling water until double in bulk and of a consistency forming flat cakes. These are then cooked on well-greased “spiders”, or griddles, until golden brown on both sides. They were served with butter and milk or salt pork milk gravy. Grandmother called them”Ambrosia”, as did the old Rhode Islanders.
Winter succotash, the main course of the pre-holiday supper, was simmering on the back of the stove, and blending many flavors. The original Indian word meant whole corn kernels “seethed” or boiled, only lately did succotash come to mean corn and beans. Great quantities of dried yellow corn and twice the amount of dried beans in separate cauldrons with salt pork or mutton added flavor, were cooked. When soft, the vegetables were combined with their liquids. For her “rule”, or recipe, Grandmother added winter vegetables, potatoes, onions, turnips, even parsnips, or “whatever you please”, but not Carrots! They are for cattle.
Indian pudding had been cooking too, all day in a slow oven. Indian meal, molasses, milk, eggs and, sometimes apple slices. The Children begged for hasty pudding. Scalded Indian meal with boiling water, as if to make jonny cakes, stirred 50 times to get the lumps out. Now the meals put in a saucer, make a hole in the center and pour in molasses, and the milk goes around.
Everybody likes flummery, a fruit dessert. The berries were “put up” the summer before. Gooseberries, currants, red raspberries, black raspberries called, “thimbleberries, black berries and blueberries. The berries were stewed, sweetened, and served with fresh cream.
Grandpa had a milk farm and he himself went out to the cooling room and skimmed a rich, thick layer of jersey cream off the pans of milk. Then there were Molasses cookies, sugar cookies, pound cake and fruitcake, the “rule” for which, was carefully guarded.
Early in the morning the men and boys went out to feed the horse, cows, and poultry, then milk the cows before the family ate. Everyone ate jonny-cakes with melted brown sugar, butter and applesauce.
The turkey was stuffed with soda biscuit. The”rule”, was part cornmeal baked in a shallow pan to a crust, crumbled, and then moistened in stock from fat fowl stewed the day before. Chopped giblets were added and cooked slowly on the back of the stove. Herbs added flavor and made it more digestible. Thyme, sage and winter savory grew outside the back door. Spices were ground and pounded with a mortar and pestle, although powered could be bought, the fresh had better flavor for the pumpkin, apple, mince, cranberry, squash, blueberry, and brambleberry pies.
Cranberry sauce was made by an Indian “rule”-quarts of berries soaked overnight, and then were cut up. Each tiny berry cut in half. “Play with your hands in the water, don’t splash, play gently. Lift the berries and the seeds will fall out”. The berries were then cooked in a little water and sugar. There were crab apples, red apples, Rhode Island greenings, tan and russet pears also. Cornmeal stuffing for the goose had chopped cranberries. The Indians had also used dried elderberries or huckleberries, when fresh cranberries weren’t available. There were also cranberry sauce, apple butter, spiced crab apples, pickled pears and peaches, wild. Grape or barbeery catchup, currant jelly and gooseberry jam.
The Indians made a stewed pumpkin, like cranberry sauce, sliced thin, then diced and cooked to the consistency of baked apples. They added butter or molasses, sugar and spices. Onions were cooked in cream, not “creamed”, as they are today. There was homemade cider, dandelion or elderberry wine. There was homemade horehound candy to end the meal.
Afterwards the men sat on the stone walls in the sun or inspected the barns and livestock. The women of the family gathered in the parlor around the piano and sang the songs popular then, “Bye-bye Black Bird” and “Paddling Madeline Home”, Etc. The children got coaster wagons and rode down the hilly pasture, or if we got an early snow, there were toboggan rides.
By; Lillian Edith Smith Chalmers, October 1974.
When I was a child my parents, William Thomas Smith, great grandson of Richard Smith, the first Town clerk of Bristol in 1700 and my mother, Rose Pevin, the daughter of French Canadians, would walk from town to the family gatherings to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at the Smith family farmhouse built in 1860 by Samuel Smith for his son, William Francis Smith, my grandfather.
Grandmother, who was a “town girl” from Bristol before her marriage named Clara Frances Gayton, presided over the large wood-burning stove, while all the children and grandchildren arrived from as far away as Philadelphia, for the holiday. Aunt Abigail, her children, Frances, Dorothy, Stafford, and Gladys, Aunt Edith and her two boys, Aunt Stella, Helen, Alice, Uncle Richard and all the cousins, and two or three hired hands.
Grandma cooked great quantities of Rhode Island johnny or ‘jonny’ cakes, (probably a corruption of “Journey” as both Indians and Colonists found them convenient to carry on long trips in pouch or saddlebag) were and still are made of Rhode Island white cornmeal and cooked slowly over a wood-burning stove. The meal is first scalded in boiling water until double in bulk and of a consistency forming flat cakes. These are then cooked on well-greased “spiders”, or griddles, until golden brown on both sides. They were served with butter and milk or salt pork milk gravy. Grandmother called them”Ambrosia”, as did the old Rhode Islanders.
Winter succotash, the main course of the pre-holiday supper, was simmering on the back of the stove, and blending many flavors. The original Indian word meant whole corn kernels “seethed” or boiled, only lately did succotash come to mean corn and beans. Great quantities of dried yellow corn and twice the amount of dried beans in separate cauldrons with salt pork or mutton added flavor, were cooked. When soft, the vegetables were combined with their liquids. For her “rule”, or recipe, Grandmother added winter vegetables, potatoes, onions, turnips, even parsnips, or “whatever you please”, but not Carrots! They are for cattle.
Indian pudding had been cooking too, all day in a slow oven. Indian meal, molasses, milk, eggs and, sometimes apple slices. The Children begged for hasty pudding. Scalded Indian meal with boiling water, as if to make jonny cakes, stirred 50 times to get the lumps out. Now the meals put in a saucer, make a hole in the center and pour in molasses, and the milk goes around.
Everybody likes flummery, a fruit dessert. The berries were “put up” the summer before. Gooseberries, currants, red raspberries, black raspberries called, “thimbleberries, black berries and blueberries. The berries were stewed, sweetened, and served with fresh cream.
Grandpa had a milk farm and he himself went out to the cooling room and skimmed a rich, thick layer of jersey cream off the pans of milk. Then there were Molasses cookies, sugar cookies, pound cake and fruitcake, the “rule” for which, was carefully guarded.
Early in the morning the men and boys went out to feed the horse, cows, and poultry, then milk the cows before the family ate. Everyone ate jonny-cakes with melted brown sugar, butter and applesauce.
The turkey was stuffed with soda biscuit. The”rule”, was part cornmeal baked in a shallow pan to a crust, crumbled, and then moistened in stock from fat fowl stewed the day before. Chopped giblets were added and cooked slowly on the back of the stove. Herbs added flavor and made it more digestible. Thyme, sage and winter savory grew outside the back door. Spices were ground and pounded with a mortar and pestle, although powered could be bought, the fresh had better flavor for the pumpkin, apple, mince, cranberry, squash, blueberry, and brambleberry pies.
Cranberry sauce was made by an Indian “rule”-quarts of berries soaked overnight, and then were cut up. Each tiny berry cut in half. “Play with your hands in the water, don’t splash, play gently. Lift the berries and the seeds will fall out”. The berries were then cooked in a little water and sugar. There were crab apples, red apples, Rhode Island greenings, tan and russet pears also. Cornmeal stuffing for the goose had chopped cranberries. The Indians had also used dried elderberries or huckleberries, when fresh cranberries weren’t available. There were also cranberry sauce, apple butter, spiced crab apples, pickled pears and peaches, wild. Grape or barbeery catchup, currant jelly and gooseberry jam.
The Indians made a stewed pumpkin, like cranberry sauce, sliced thin, then diced and cooked to the consistency of baked apples. They added butter or molasses, sugar and spices. Onions were cooked in cream, not “creamed”, as they are today. There was homemade cider, dandelion or elderberry wine. There was homemade horehound candy to end the meal.
Afterwards the men sat on the stone walls in the sun or inspected the barns and livestock. The women of the family gathered in the parlor around the piano and sang the songs popular then, “Bye-bye Black Bird” and “Paddling Madeline Home”, Etc. The children got coaster wagons and rode down the hilly pasture, or if we got an early snow, there were toboggan rides.
Spouses
Birth2 Apr 1913, West Sound, Orcas Island, WA
Death30 Mar 1995, Los Angeles, CA
FatherAlbert Ernest Murray CHALMERS (1873-1932)
MotherDorothy Newill SMITH (1885-1949)
Marriage31 Aug 1939, Lynwood, Los Angeles, CA
ChildrenEstyn Murray (1941-)
Birthabt 1907, North Carolina
Marriageabt 1935