FOOD HISTORY TIMELINE
1806 to 18101806 William Pitt 'The Younger' died. Pitt was the youngest British Prime Minister. He was 46. There is some disagreement over his last words. Some say they were ‘Oh, my country! how I love my country!’. Others claim he said ‘Oh, my country! how I leave my country!’; or ‘My country! oh, my country!’; or finally ‘I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s veal pies.’ 1806 Isaac Quintard of Stanfield, Connecticut received a patent for an apple cider mill.
1806 Chapin Aaron Harris was born. He was cofounder of the first dental school in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.
1806 The first definition of the term Cocktail appeared in print, in the Hudson, New York publication ‘The Balance and Columbian Repository’ in reply to a readers question. ("Cock tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.")
1806 The Lewis and Clark expedition began the journey back to St. Louis from their winter encampment near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. 1806 Michael Keens presented the first cultivated strawberry combining flavor and appearance, at the Royal Horticultural Society. "....I have for a considerable time employed myself in raising new varieties from seed, which has been not only a source of great amusement to me, but also very profitable in my profession."
1806 Michel Adanson died (born April 7, 1727). Adson was a French botanist who developed a system of plant classification based on physical characteristics. His system was opposed by Carolus Linnaeus, and was not widely used. The Baobab Tree (Adansonia digitat) is named for Adanson.
1806 Ralph Wedgwood of England received the first patent for carbon paper. 1806 Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle was born. A Swiss botanist, author of 'Origin of Cultivated Plants.'
1807 Ezra Cornell was born. Cornell was one of the founders of the Western Union Telegraph Co. He endowed Cornell University, an agricultural land grant university which opened in 1868. Today, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, offers many programs, including Agricultural and Life Sciences, Hotel Administration, and Nutritional Sciences.
1807 London's Pall Mall became the first street to be lighted by gaslight. 1807 Robert Fulton's first steamboat left on its inaugural voyage, from New York to Albany. It was the first commercially successful steamboat. Its name was 'North River Steamboat' - frequently (but incorrectly) referred to as the 'Clermont.'
1808 Hugh Falconer was born (died 1865). Scottish botanist and paleontologist. After investigations, he successfully recommended that tea production be introduced to India. 1808 Sir Henry Cole was born (died 1882). British civil servant and inventor. He is credited with creating the idea of sending greeting cards at Christmas time in 1843.
1808 Salmon Portland Chase was born. He was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and later Chief Justice. 1808 Elijah Craig died. A Baptist minister in Kentucky, he is an important figure in the invention of Bourbon Whiskey. He ran a paper mill and started a distillery in 1789. Legend credits him with being the first to use new charred oak barrels to age corn whiskey, which is a key step in making bourbon.
1808 Thomas Cook was born. In 1841 Cook hired a special excursion train between Leicester and Loughborough in England for a temperance meeting. The beginning of Thomas Cook & Son, the worldwide travel agency.
1809 Charles Darwin was born. English naturalist who developed the 'theory of evolution,' inspired in large part by his visit to the isolated Galapagos Islands. His works include 'Origin of Species' and 'The Descent of Man.' 1809 Cyrus Hall McCormick was born. McCormick is credited with the development of the first mechanical reaper.
1809 Mary Kies of South Killingly, Connecticut, received a patent for a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread. The first woman to receive U.S. patent.
1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes was born. American physician, poet and humorist. Author of 'The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,' 'The Professor of the Breakfast Table,' 'The Poet of the Breakfast Table,' and 'Over the Teacups.' 1809 Pierre Joseph van Beneden was born. A Belgian parasitologist, he discovered the life cycle of tapeworms
1809 Kit Carson, American frontiersman, was born. When he died May 23, 1868, his last words were supposedly "Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili."
1809 Asa Fitch was born (died 1879). American entomologist who studied the relationship of insects to crops and whether they were beneficial or damaging. Knicknamed the 'Bug Catcher of Salem.'
1810 The population of the U.S. is 7,239,881. 1810 Peter Durand was granted the first patent for preserving food in tin cans, English patent No. 3372.
1810 Alexis Benoit Soyer was born. French chef and author. Chef of the London Reform Club. He opened kitchens in Ireland during the famine to sell food at 1/2 price and was an advisor on food to the British army during the Crimean War. Invented several stoves and kitchen utensils. Wrote 'The Pantropheon; or, History of Food' (1853), 'A Shilling Cookery Book for the People' (1854), Soyer's Charitable Cookery (1847). 1810 Lewis Mills Norton of Goshen, Connecticut was issued the first U.S. patent for ‘pineapple cheese’. (ConnecticutHistory.org) 1810 The first State Fair (The Berkshire Cattle Fair) was held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
1810 Sir John Leslie, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, was the first to freeze water artificially (create ice artificially). He used an air pump apparatus 1810 Dolly Madison, wife of president James Madison, supposedly served the first ice cream at the White House, for a reception.
1810 The Pacific Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor. (See also John Jacob Astor IV)
1810 Napoleon annexes Holland to discourage the smuggling of goods from England. 1810 First American agricultural periodical, the Agricultural Museum, begins publication.
1810 The first steam powered flour mill began operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1810 There are 350 gristmills in the U.S. according to the 1810 census.
1810 Gabriel Gustav Valentin was born. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Something I'll bet you always wanted to know!).
1810 The first Oktoberfest is celebrated in Munich. Oktoberfest originated as a horse race to celebrate the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria (later King Louis I) to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Today it is a 2 week festival ending on the 1st Sunday in October, during which more than 1 million gallons of beer are consumed at the Munich festival. 1810 Asa Gray was born. A leading American botanist of his time a a strong supporter of Darwin, he co-authored 'Flora of North America' with John Torrey.
| 