The Stonington Cook Book. Published by the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor of the Second Congregational Church of Stonington, Conn.
[Stonington, Conn.]; New London, Conn. [The Church]; [Printed by] Bingham Paper Box Co., Printers, 1911.
Small octavo (20 x 13.5 cm.), 90, [ii] pages. Advertisements. Photographic illustration of the Church on frontispiece. “Contents” is actually an index. Evident FIRST EDITION. An instance of a church cookbook undertaken on behalf of a local Christian Endeavor Society; with more than three hundred attributed recipes. Includes: Cream of Lima Bean Soup, Bon-Ton Oysters, Stewed Mushrooms, Fried Squash, Tomato Salad (with peanuts), Sour Milk Rusk, Berry Tea Cake, Lemon Raisin Pie, Quince Pie, Cranberry Pudding, Rhubarb Tapioca, Marshmallow Tortoni, Pear Marmalade, Orange Nut Squares. There is also a brief chapter dedicated to fireless cookery. ~ The Road Meetinghouse (First Congregational Church) of Stonington, in the southeastern corner of Connecticut, was established under British rule in 1674, at a time when such congregations identified simply as the Church of Christ. A permanent structure was erected in the 1720s and the pastoral chain persisted for a century, despite divisions characteristic of Congregationalist governance, until a contingent of members seceded, in 1833, to establish Second Congregational in a part of town called The Borough that projects into Little Narragansett Bay. In 1950, the modest church with its historic Hook & Hastings pipe organ and squared-off clock tower on Main Street, built in 1834, united with First Baptist Church to form the dually-aligned United Church of Stonington. (The Baptist Church was later sold and converted into a private residence and art gallery.) ~ The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor was founded in 1881 in Portland, Maine by the pastor of Williston Congregational Church, Francis Edward Clark (1851-1927). A Congregationalist effort to encourage youth of Christian families “to increase their mutual acquaintanceship,” Christian Endeavor disseminated publications, devised fellowship programs, and organized events. The rapidity of its rise can fairly be described as phenomenal: by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, when The Stonington Cook Book appeared, there were more than seventy thousand local societies in North America with more than three-and-one-half million members. ~ Stapled in green wrappers, titled in black, with original black cloth tape along the back. Fine. [OCLC locates five copies; Cook, page 46; in neither Brown nor Cagle].
Price: $120.00