Dodge City, Longton, a Steak Order, and Legal Jurisdiction

[W. Gray]

Several times on the Gunsmoke TV program, Matt Dillon and Doc would be talking in the Long Branch Saloon and invite the other to Delmonico's for a steak dinner for further discussion on whoever was threatening Dodge City.

In 1871, on the Longton Main Street was located P.S. Miller's restaurant. If Ma and Pa decided to come into town for a meal, there was a good chance they ordered a meat cut, such as steak. Hamburger seems to have not yet been invented.

I have often wondered, where the cook at Delmonico's or Miller's kept the steak? Today, when we order steak, the cook goes to the refrigerator or freezer. Back then, they might have cut it directly off a hanging carcass, but how did those old time folks keep it fresh pending an order?

In the 1950s, my great grandmother did not own a fridge and kept bacon on a rock under her house. If that really worked, I do not know.

In Longton, ice was available in the 1870s but only until the last winter's ice harvest from Hitchen Creek and Elk River ran out, which was usually sometime during the first prolonged hot summer spell.

For Gunsmoke devotees, the Long Branch Saloon and Delmonico's were two of fourteen buildings that burned in a huge 1885 Dodge City fire. Besides wondering about a restaurant order on Gunsmoke, I have always wondered where the county sheriff and town marshal were. Matt Dillon was a U.S. Marshal responsible for looking into the breaking of federal law over a huge area that probably included parts of Colorado to the west and Indian Territory to the south. However, he always got involved in local tiffs where county and state law ruled and he usurped the sheriff or town marshal duties when he would have had no jurisdiction.

[Diane Amberg]

  About the ice. Didn't some places have thick walled ice houses with ice blocks packed in straw and saw dust. Supposedly that would have kept for a very long time.

[W. Gray]

Both Longton and Elk Falls had ice companies at the time. I would assume Howard City did also. It was the saw mill owners that usually ran an ice business.

In 1874, ice sold for 1.5 cents a pound delivered in Elk Falls.

The ice companies stored their ice harvest in underground storage houses with sawdust thrown between blocks or slabs and then heaping a few feet over the lot. The combination of ground insulation combined with saw dust did a good job.

However, they ran out from demand usually during the first long hot spell.

[Bonnie M.]

Didn't some places have thick walled ice houses

As far as I know, the "ice house" still stand in Longton, on the corner on the east side of the main street.  (Here we go,) across from what "used to be" Mahan's Garage, then Kirkpatrick's Garage, now, an empty building.  You can always tell an "old timer" when they use landmakrs that are long gone!

[Diane Amberg]

 I do that too! Turn right where the old red barn used to be.

[W. Gray]

Wright & Kirby produced ice in Longton in the 1870s.

The old ice house is still standing in Howard by the tracks on the west side.

But these buildings came along when ice could be produced on demand with mechanical refrigeration rather than being harvested from the rivers and streams and then stored.

[Janet Harrington]

The ice house at Longton that is still standing has been used by Steve Edwards at one time to sell his barbaque.  I'm not sure what they do with it now or who owns it.

[flo]

best way to give directions is go to the "so and so" place (such as the chicken farm, that hasn't had chickens in 50 years) turn left and go 2 miles just past so and so's and turn in at the red gate.  - and addresses in small towns?? used to have UPS drivers come into the co-op and ask if I could tell them where such and such an address is and my reply was Nope, but if you'll tell me who you're looking for, I'll tell you where they live.

[Diane Amberg]

 I'm still pondering the " cold steak" question. I know here, 'way back in colonial days, they could store such things as butter in crocks in the spring house water which stayed pretty cold even in summer. Some adaptation of that?  Or maybe they only served beef when it was cold enough to keep it "fresh." Daddy always said the average person would never touch hung, aged beef if they ever saw it before it became a cooked steak...??

[W. Gray]

Here is something else to wonder about.

On June 22, 1871, the editor of the Howard County Ledger (Longton) noted in an editorial item that Robinson's General Store of Longton had received a large shipment of oranges and lemons.

I wonder what condition the citrus was in when received at the general store and wonder what condition it was in when purchased by the consumer.