Volume 3: Sweethearts or Sisters and…Candy!
Omaha, Nebr., Jan 4 1908
2132 N. 29th St
Dear Harry: –
I guess I can’t beat Alma writing but I’m writing as soon as I can. I believe she wrote last night. She certainly did feel bad last night. Robert was very good to her so you better not say anything about him. Harry Hough didn’t come home with us but he came over to us about 20 minutes to nine and we talked till eleven. He came over at quarter to eight this morning and we walked to school. We met Robert at 24th and Hamilton and Harry went with him. We’re going to make “Divinity” to-night for Harry & then that ends the fun.
I met Harry & Robert this noon & Harry thought the High School was great. I walked home with them this afternoon and had a great time. Robt. said Alma cried second hour & I saw her after sixth hr. & her eyes were red so I bet she cried sixth hr. too. Anyway she rode home & Marion stayed to a lecture so that left me with the boys. I’ll tell you I was it. Harry & Robt went down town for dinner. It cost them 12¢ apiece. I guess Robt stood it because Harry only had 50¢ last night besides his fare.
We have all written or done something so you’ll be getting lots of mail. I guess mine won’t be as long & lovey dovey as Ma’s & Alma’s but I wrote to you as soon as I could so you know I’m thinking of you. When we all met this morning we were pretty gay but last night you never saw such a looking bunch. I couldn’t get near Alma or else I’d cry (Of course I didn’t like to do that but I bet I felt as bad) and Charley sat next to me making fun of me. At last he began to teach me some ryhmes [sic] & that set me laughing. Then Ruth Dillon & her sister got on the car & then I tell you I did brighten up. I was the best this time that I ever was. Alma didn’t keep her promise very well did she? But I guess she couldn’t help it. Robt & her declared it was worse to see a lover go away than a brother. I told them I hadn’t had any experience but they hadn’t had a brother go away so we couldn’t prove it. Well Robt said that you were a brother & lover both to Alma so she could say which was worse. She said it was worse to loose [sic] a lover. But Marion was there to say that Alma could have Harry for a lover but that he had all the sisters he needed or would ever have. Now what do you think of that. We might ask you which is the worst to leave sweetheart or sister but that would be too hard to answer. I know you’d say sister but in your own heart it’s about equal.
I’ve got to do my Algebra so I won’t have any lessons to-night. We’re going to make some “divine divinity.”
By-by
Many kisses
Lillian.
If there was ever any doubt that Alma had her eye on Harry Parsons, this letter removes it. January 4th, 1908 was the last day of Armour Institute’s Midwinter recess. Lillian’s letter makes it clear that his return to school was a miserable experience for his “lover” and “sweetheart” Alma, and just as bad – in Lillian’s opinion, anyway – for his sister; though despite Lillian’s teasing it’s clear she understood it was better not to press Harry for his opinion. Of course, Marion’s opinion on the matter is equally clear.
Two persons are introduced in this letter who appear with regularity in future letters: Robert (Lucke) and Harry Hough. Harry Cecil Hough was born 2 January 1891, the oldest child of Paul Hough and Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Kilday) Hough. He is one of the few friends in Lillian’s regular circle who was not a child of immigrants. Harry’s father, Paul, seemed to be something of a rambler, moving progressively west from Pennsylvania every few years until finally moving south to Arkansas by 1920. Harry, however, lived in Omaha most of his life. In 1900, the Houghs lived a little over a mile due east of the Parsons. [1]
Robert Charles Lucke was born 25 August 1889 in Manhattan, New York, to Robert Sidney Lucke of Wisconsin and Elizabeth Grace (Stroetzel) Hough of New York. Robert was a second-generation American; all four of his grandparents were German immigrants. In 1900, the Luckes were living in Omaha with Charles’ paternal grandparents and aunt, Theodora Lucke, about a mile and a half from the Parsons.[2] Robert was about a month older than Lillian’s brother Harry. and later letters suggest they knew each other, though perhaps not well, when he began spending time with Lillian and Marion. They came to be good friends, however, and frequent correspondents.
Neither Harry Hough nor Robert Lucke appear in any of the senior class yearbooks from Omaha High School (the only high school in town) for two years before or after Harry’s graduation in 1907, suggesting they either did not attend or did not graduate from high school.[3] This was common in the first decade of the twentieth century. Compulsory school attendance generally ended at the age of 14 and many smaller cities (certainly rural areas) did not even have high schools. At the time Lillian was attending, Omaha only had one, known colloquially as “The High School”, formally as Omaha High School and, much later, Central High School – and it was relatively new.
Omaha’s first all-grades public school opened in 1859, but it was 1871 before the city constructed a separate high school.[4] The original Omaha High School was built on top of a hill and was a four story (plus basement) brick structure with north and south wings and a 150-foot spiree. It was such as source of pride to the city that important visitors were often given tours when they came to town, including President William Howard Taft in 1911 – the year before Lillian graduated.[5] This suggests there may be more to Robert and Harry’s visit to the school to see Lillian than simply visiting a friend during school hours, and may explain why Harry “thought the High School was great.”
Omaha High School, now Central High School. The building at 124 North 20th Street was listed on the National Historic Register in 1979, and is managed by the Omaha Public School District. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, “Omaha Central High School.”
By 1897 the High School was overcrowded and a new, larger building (the present day Central High School) was begun in 1900 in a remarkable way. The builders slowly constructed a new school around the existing building over the course of the next 12 years.[6] Classes continued in the old building while it was gradually surrounded by the new one until the old building was finally demolished in 1911. The final wing of the new building was completed in 1912.[7] This means that the school was under construction the entire time Harry and Lillian were students, from 1903-1912!
In passing, Lillian mentions Ruth Dillon (and her older sister, Mona.) Ruth M. Dillon was born on 27 August 1892 and was a classmate of Lillian’s for a time. The Dillons lived about a mile north of the Parsons at the time of this letter. Reflecting the beautiful irony of history (and the true fun of genealogy), Ruth Dillon went on to marry a man by the name of Warren M. Vickery in 1919. Their son, Warren V. Vickery, married Lillian’s youngest daughter, Midge, in 1961.
But the more important history lesson for the day is…candy! The first time I read this letter, I was left scratching my head by Lillian’s repeated references to “Divinity.” One quick Google search later** and I had my answer: divinity candy, believed to have originated in the U.S. in the early 1900s. The New York Times is credited by food historians with printing one of the first recipes for Divinity Fudge on 15 December 1907[8]– just two weeks before Lillian wrote the letter above. There are other recipes found as early as 1905, suggesting this favorite holiday candy was all the rage in early 1908 when Lillian wrote to Harry about it. Modern recipes for Divinity use five primary ingredients: sugar, water, light corn syrup, egg whites, and chopped nuts, and produce a merengue-like drop candy. Early recipes, which Lillian was more likely to be using, were even simpler: sugar, cold milk, more sugar, butter, and chopped nuts, and were poured into buttered pans and cut like fudge.
The original New York Times recipe can be found in image copies of the Sunday, December 15, 1907 New York Times article (column 6 of page 55). For a more modern version of Divinity that people (not me, obviously) may know, there are many recipes available online, but I like this one from House of Nash Eats for two reasons: 1) Amy Nash is originally from Nebraska, and so is Lillian and 2) according to Amy, Divinity is sold on Main Street USA in Disneyland, and almost nothing is more quintessentially early-twentieth-century American than Main Street USA in Disneyland, except perhaps Lillian and her letters.
**Or, as it turns out, I could have just asked my parents. They both knew of it, and my mother even remembers her mother making this in the holiday season. Always ask your parents!
Want to read more?
Volume 1: Lillian and her Letters
Volume 2: November 4th, 1907
[1] 1900 U.S. census, Omaha, Ward 6, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 53, page 281 (stamped), sheet 4-A, dwelling 61, family 74, Paul H. Hough; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 924.
[2] 1900 U.S. census, Omaha, Ward 6, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 92, page 118 (stamped), sheet 1-A, dwelling 2, family 2, Robert S. Lucke; NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 925.
[3] Central High School Foundation, O-Book Archives, online yearbooks for Omaha High School, searchable by year from 1890-2023 (https://chsfomaha.org/newsroom/category/o-book-archives/ : accessed 7 October 2023). Graduating class lists for 1905-1916 were searched for this article.
[4] Omaha Public Schools, “History of Central” (https://www.ops.org/domain/479 : accessed 9 October 2023).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] National Park Service, “Omaha Central High School,” (https://www.nps.gov/places/omaha-central-high-school.htm : accessed 9 October 2023).
[8] The New York Times, “Christmas Cheer as Ever Calls on the Housewife for Sweets, Pies and All the Rest of the Good Things of the Holidays,” Sunday, December 15, 1907, page 55, column 6-7.
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