Hoosier Farm Wife and Mother
Sarah, also known as "Kate," was born in the corn belt of Indiana to a German Baptist Brethren mother and a Catholic father. Katie was the oldest of nine children. Like most girls in that time and place, her formal schooling ended when she completed 8th grade. When she was 19, she married a 23-year-old man who had grown up in the same small community. At 20, she birthed her first of four children. Until the last years of her life, she lived in Owasco, Indiana. She was a gracious and kind farmer's wife who lived out her life in a community of extended family. In the final years of her life, she lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her daughter Edith, her son-in-law Ed, and her young grandson John.
I remember Katie Hooker because, when I was a very little girl, she held out a plate of cookies and offered me a cookie, on a blue plate. Here was her favorite cookie recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, nutmeg, or lemon)
powered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1st: Cream sugar and butter together.
2nd: Stir soda into buttermilk; add to creamed sugar and butter.
3rd: Sift flour and baking powder together; add to above
4th: Add flavoring to above.
5th: Mix well!
6th: Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cookie dough.
7th: Drop by spoon onto greased baking sheet or onto baking parchment paper.
If you want to use cookie cutters, add more flour, roll, and cut out.
8th: Bake in 350-degree oven on middle rack about 14 minutes. (Ovens vary. Determine exact time with first sheet of cookies.)
9th: When you take the cookies out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet or parchment paper; otherwise, the cookies will "wrinkle."
Store in a tight container to keep soft.
Extra hints:
* Sift the flour even if it was pre-sifted. Remember: Sift BEFORE measuring
* You can use butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening, or any combination to make up the cup of fat. However, do NOT use liquid shortening or oil! Lard adds some special texture and flakiness; butter adds flavor. Katie Hooker used 100% lard; her school-teacher daughter-in-law used half lard and half butter.
* By using parchment paper rather than greased cookie sheets, you avoid adding more fat to the recipe, and it already has plenty of fat! Also by using parchment paper, you can take more of an assembly-line approach to making lots of cookies.
* For creaming the sugar and butter, clean hands work fine! That's especially good to remember when children or someone with poor hand/wrist coordination is helping with the recipe.
* You can tell that the cookies are done when they are light golden with little "air holes" on the top, and a little darker golden edge around the cookies. Some folks like the cookies a little crispier. If you bake them just a bit too long, so long as they're not burnt, powdered sugar evens out everything for appearances.
* If you want to make more than one batch at a time, don't double the recipe. Make as many batches as you want, one at a time; then combine them all and mix together. That will even out any minor mis-measurement you might have made.
* Baking two sheets at a time just doesn't work. What works is one sheet at a time, right in the middle of the oven.
* The cookie dough can be stored in the refrigerator, for freshly baked cookies whenever you want.
NOTE: Page 81 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.
NOTE: Autosomal DNA proves Sarah as the child of her known parents, proves her sons Marvin and George Irvin, and proves four grandchildren: Russell, Robert, Roberta, and Miles.
Sarah, also known as "Kate," was born in the corn belt of Indiana to a German Baptist Brethren mother and a Catholic father. Katie was the oldest of nine children. Like most girls in that time and place, her formal schooling ended when she completed 8th grade. When she was 19, she married a 23-year-old man who had grown up in the same small community. At 20, she birthed her first of four children. Until the last years of her life, she lived in Owasco, Indiana. She was a gracious and kind farmer's wife who lived out her life in a community of extended family. In the final years of her life, she lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her daughter Edith, her son-in-law Ed, and her young grandson John.
I remember Katie Hooker because, when I was a very little girl, she held out a plate of cookies and offered me a cookie, on a blue plate. Here was her favorite cookie recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, nutmeg, or lemon)
powered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1st: Cream sugar and butter together.
2nd: Stir soda into buttermilk; add to creamed sugar and butter.
3rd: Sift flour and baking powder together; add to above
4th: Add flavoring to above.
5th: Mix well!
6th: Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cookie dough.
7th: Drop by spoon onto greased baking sheet or onto baking parchment paper.
If you want to use cookie cutters, add more flour, roll, and cut out.
8th: Bake in 350-degree oven on middle rack about 14 minutes. (Ovens vary. Determine exact time with first sheet of cookies.)
9th: When you take the cookies out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet or parchment paper; otherwise, the cookies will "wrinkle."
Store in a tight container to keep soft.
Extra hints:
* Sift the flour even if it was pre-sifted. Remember: Sift BEFORE measuring
* You can use butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening, or any combination to make up the cup of fat. However, do NOT use liquid shortening or oil! Lard adds some special texture and flakiness; butter adds flavor. Katie Hooker used 100% lard; her school-teacher daughter-in-law used half lard and half butter.
* By using parchment paper rather than greased cookie sheets, you avoid adding more fat to the recipe, and it already has plenty of fat! Also by using parchment paper, you can take more of an assembly-line approach to making lots of cookies.
* For creaming the sugar and butter, clean hands work fine! That's especially good to remember when children or someone with poor hand/wrist coordination is helping with the recipe.
* You can tell that the cookies are done when they are light golden with little "air holes" on the top, and a little darker golden edge around the cookies. Some folks like the cookies a little crispier. If you bake them just a bit too long, so long as they're not burnt, powdered sugar evens out everything for appearances.
* If you want to make more than one batch at a time, don't double the recipe. Make as many batches as you want, one at a time; then combine them all and mix together. That will even out any minor mis-measurement you might have made.
* Baking two sheets at a time just doesn't work. What works is one sheet at a time, right in the middle of the oven.
* The cookie dough can be stored in the refrigerator, for freshly baked cookies whenever you want.
NOTE: Page 81 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.
NOTE: Autosomal DNA proves Sarah as the child of her known parents, proves her sons Marvin and George Irvin, and proves four grandchildren: Russell, Robert, Roberta, and Miles.
Hoosier Farm Wife and Mother
Sarah, also known as "Kate," was born in the corn belt of Indiana to a German Baptist Brethren mother and a Catholic father. Katie was the oldest of nine children. Like most girls in that time and place, her formal schooling ended when she completed 8th grade. When she was 19, she married a 23-year-old man who had grown up in the same small community. At 20, she birthed her first of four children. Until the last years of her life, she lived in Owasco, Indiana. She was a gracious and kind farmer's wife who lived out her life in a community of extended family. In the final years of her life, she lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her daughter Edith, her son-in-law Ed, and her young grandson John.
I remember Katie Hooker because, when I was a very little girl, she held out a plate of cookies and offered me a cookie, on a blue plate. Here was her favorite cookie recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, nutmeg, or lemon)
powered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1st: Cream sugar and butter together.
2nd: Stir soda into buttermilk; add to creamed sugar and butter.
3rd: Sift flour and baking powder together; add to above
4th: Add flavoring to above.
5th: Mix well!
6th: Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cookie dough.
7th: Drop by spoon onto greased baking sheet or onto baking parchment paper.
If you want to use cookie cutters, add more flour, roll, and cut out.
8th: Bake in 350-degree oven on middle rack about 14 minutes. (Ovens vary. Determine exact time with first sheet of cookies.)
9th: When you take the cookies out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet or parchment paper; otherwise, the cookies will "wrinkle."
Store in a tight container to keep soft.
Extra hints:
* Sift the flour even if it was pre-sifted. Remember: Sift BEFORE measuring
* You can use butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening, or any combination to make up the cup of fat. However, do NOT use liquid shortening or oil! Lard adds some special texture and flakiness; butter adds flavor. Katie Hooker used 100% lard; her school-teacher daughter-in-law used half lard and half butter.
* By using parchment paper rather than greased cookie sheets, you avoid adding more fat to the recipe, and it already has plenty of fat! Also by using parchment paper, you can take more of an assembly-line approach to making lots of cookies.
* For creaming the sugar and butter, clean hands work fine! That's especially good to remember when children or someone with poor hand/wrist coordination is helping with the recipe.
* You can tell that the cookies are done when they are light golden with little "air holes" on the top, and a little darker golden edge around the cookies. Some folks like the cookies a little crispier. If you bake them just a bit too long, so long as they're not burnt, powdered sugar evens out everything for appearances.
* If you want to make more than one batch at a time, don't double the recipe. Make as many batches as you want, one at a time; then combine them all and mix together. That will even out any minor mis-measurement you might have made.
* Baking two sheets at a time just doesn't work. What works is one sheet at a time, right in the middle of the oven.
* The cookie dough can be stored in the refrigerator, for freshly baked cookies whenever you want.
NOTE: Page 81 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.
NOTE: Autosomal DNA proves Sarah as the child of her known parents, proves her sons Marvin and George Irvin, and proves four grandchildren: Russell, Robert, Roberta, and Miles.
Sarah, also known as "Kate," was born in the corn belt of Indiana to a German Baptist Brethren mother and a Catholic father. Katie was the oldest of nine children. Like most girls in that time and place, her formal schooling ended when she completed 8th grade. When she was 19, she married a 23-year-old man who had grown up in the same small community. At 20, she birthed her first of four children. Until the last years of her life, she lived in Owasco, Indiana. She was a gracious and kind farmer's wife who lived out her life in a community of extended family. In the final years of her life, she lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her daughter Edith, her son-in-law Ed, and her young grandson John.
I remember Katie Hooker because, when I was a very little girl, she held out a plate of cookies and offered me a cookie, on a blue plate. Here was her favorite cookie recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, nutmeg, or lemon)
powered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1st: Cream sugar and butter together.
2nd: Stir soda into buttermilk; add to creamed sugar and butter.
3rd: Sift flour and baking powder together; add to above
4th: Add flavoring to above.
5th: Mix well!
6th: Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cookie dough.
7th: Drop by spoon onto greased baking sheet or onto baking parchment paper.
If you want to use cookie cutters, add more flour, roll, and cut out.
8th: Bake in 350-degree oven on middle rack about 14 minutes. (Ovens vary. Determine exact time with first sheet of cookies.)
9th: When you take the cookies out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet or parchment paper; otherwise, the cookies will "wrinkle."
Store in a tight container to keep soft.
Extra hints:
* Sift the flour even if it was pre-sifted. Remember: Sift BEFORE measuring
* You can use butter, lard, margarine, or solid shortening, or any combination to make up the cup of fat. However, do NOT use liquid shortening or oil! Lard adds some special texture and flakiness; butter adds flavor. Katie Hooker used 100% lard; her school-teacher daughter-in-law used half lard and half butter.
* By using parchment paper rather than greased cookie sheets, you avoid adding more fat to the recipe, and it already has plenty of fat! Also by using parchment paper, you can take more of an assembly-line approach to making lots of cookies.
* For creaming the sugar and butter, clean hands work fine! That's especially good to remember when children or someone with poor hand/wrist coordination is helping with the recipe.
* You can tell that the cookies are done when they are light golden with little "air holes" on the top, and a little darker golden edge around the cookies. Some folks like the cookies a little crispier. If you bake them just a bit too long, so long as they're not burnt, powdered sugar evens out everything for appearances.
* If you want to make more than one batch at a time, don't double the recipe. Make as many batches as you want, one at a time; then combine them all and mix together. That will even out any minor mis-measurement you might have made.
* Baking two sheets at a time just doesn't work. What works is one sheet at a time, right in the middle of the oven.
* The cookie dough can be stored in the refrigerator, for freshly baked cookies whenever you want.
NOTE: Page 81 of the 1909 HUFFORD FAMILY HISTORY.
NOTE: Autosomal DNA proves Sarah as the child of her known parents, proves her sons Marvin and George Irvin, and proves four grandchildren: Russell, Robert, Roberta, and Miles.
Gravesite Details
Excellent condition, in well-maintained cemetery; near the small road that goes thru the cemetery.
Family Members
Siblings
