A recipe for cake and a filling. I don’t necessarily see the carmel, and it’s up to you how to assemble it, since she gives us no hints.

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Carmel Cake

1/2 cup Butter
1   "   Sugar
1   "   Milk
1 Egg
1 1/2 teaspoon B. Powder
flour to thicken

Filling

1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1     "   Milk
scant tablespoon butter
1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
place milk sugar + butter
on fire in a saucepan
set in another containing
boiling water and cook
until thick. take from the
fire and beat it until
thick then add vanilla

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The author seems to repeat herself in this recipe for brown bread, but the main idea is there.

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Brown Bread

1/2 teaspoon soda dissolved
in 1 cup sour milk
----------------------------------------
1 Cup White Flour
1 pinch Salt
2 handsful of Sugar
thicken with Graham flour

put white flour Salt + sugar
in a bowl 1 pint of
Sour milk and thicken
with Graham flour
and Last of all Soda dissolved
in Sour Milk.

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I may not be a chef but I have made plenty of bread in the past, and I’ll be the first to admit that this recipe confuses me.

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Bread

Take the water off of the potatoes
and make a batter with flour
put in a pinch of salt.
melt yeast and put in
the batter set away to raise
all night.
in the morning
make a batter of a pt of flour
mixed with Milk and a little more
salt, a large tablespoon of melted lard.
Pour into the yeast and
then set away to raise
for an hour.
Then take it and stiffen it
and put in bread pans and
let it raise again until
the top cracks. then put
in a moderate oven for
about 15 minutes then turn
up fire and let it
back 30 minutes more.

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The “cup of black coffee” in the fruit cake ingredient list is presumably brewed coffee, not ground, else why describe it as black? The measurement for butter in the Graham Muffin recipe, a piece “the size of an egg” appears in a couple of other recipes in the book as well.

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Black Fruit Cake

5 Eggs
1 Cup of Butter
1 Cup of Molasses
2 Cups of Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Table spoon of Cinnamon
1 Cup of Black Coffee
1 1/2 Tablespoon of Cloves
1 teaspoon Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon of Allspice
5 Cups flour

Graham Muffins

1 qt. of Graham flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
a piece of butter the size of an egg
1 tablespoon of sugar 1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of Salt milk enough
to make a batter as for griddle cakes
bake in a hot oven.

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Four recipes on these two pages, which are presented together because the Apple Cake recipe spans them. That recipe is complete. The others are mainly lists of ingredients.

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Layer Snow Cake

1/2   cup of butter
1      "   " sugar powder
1 1/2  "   " flour
1/2    "  sweet milk
Whites of 4 eggs
1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
sifted with the flour.
for yellow layers use same
with the yolks of eggs.

Apple Cake

1 pt of sifted flour
2   teaspoons of Baking powder
1/2     "     of Salt sift together several times
Beat one egg and add to a
cup of sweet Milk with two
tablespoons of melted butter
stir this into the flour and
add enough warm milk to make
a soft dough Roll out the crust
1/2 inch thick and cover the bottom of
a well greased long shallow pan Now
cover this crust with juicy apples pared
quartered and the sharp side of the apple
pressed in the dough sprinkle with cinnamon
brown sugar + bits of butter bake until crust + apples
are brown serve with ---- (might be "cream")

Tea Biscuit

2 qts flour a little salt
2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
large spoon of Lard
3 cups Milk teaspoon of soda
into The milk

Short Cake

1 tablespoon of shortening
1/2 cup of sugar beat to cream
add 2 eggs
2/3 cup of Milk
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
make two layers

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An undated and unlabeled tintype photograph of Alois Betz. We don’t know where or when this image was made. Of the identity there is little question, as an examination of the facial features in this picture and the 1890 picture taken when he was 63 years old will show. In terms of the date all we can do is guess. Our best guess is that he is in his mid-thirties in this photo, and so we date it to between 1862 and 1867. The later end of that range may be more probable because that would put him in Cleveland, but it’s not out of the question that the image was made in Johnstown.

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The 1910 Federal census for Toledo, Ohio documents Edward R. Betz and wife Lena M. Betz residing at 2244 Trent Street, with children Edwin M. aged 8, Anna Marie aged 5, and Francis Gerard aged 2 years. Also living with the Betz’s at that time were Lena’s mother Francis Schneider aged 63, and her brother Robert W. Schneider aged 25 years.

Note that I have written my grandfather’s name as it is spelled in the census schedule: Edwin M. My father (his son) and the rest of our family always knew him as Edward. His military documents all say Edward, but in many cases in old family photos and documents he is called Edwin. I can only assume the two names were considered interchangeable.

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• 1910 Federal census, JPG (4036 x 2864, 1MB)

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Record of the marriage of Edward R. and Lena M. Betz’s daughter Anna Marie Betz to Joseph Boehmer in 1926. Anna Marie, known to all of us simply as Aunt Marie, was the author of the handwritten notes that set us off on this quest.

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• 1926 marriage record, JPG (5013 x 3736, 2MB)

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Alois Betz’s wife Rosina passed away September 23, 1899. In the death record her residence is given as 35 Marion, so we can conjecture that she spent the last period of her life living with her son Louis in his home next to the store that she and Alois had purchased in 1873, and where Edward R. and Lena Betz would move after their marriage in 1900. Unfortunately her parents names are left blank in the record. It’s possible her living relatives did not know them, but more likely that the official simply didn’t fill them in.

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• 1899 death record, JPG (5010 x 3636, 1MB)

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Edward R. Betz passed away on December 22, 1947. Interestingly this death certificate gets his date of birth and age wrong by five years. I believe the two numbers were simply transposed.

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• 1947 death record, JPG (1542 x 1496, <1MB)

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