"Jarvis" Breakfast?

[PetePaolillo]

I am reading Sam Wadkins Co. Aytch again and I came across something that I can't find an answer to. After he was injured at the battle of Atlanta he talks about his time in a Montgomery hospital, well anyway here is the passage regarding a Jarvis brekfast. it is quoted from him in the book. I have never heard this before and my searches have come up empty. Anybody know?.......... 'I got up and went down to breakfast. The bill of fare was much better for breakfast than it had been for supper;
in fact it was what is called a "jarvis" breakfast.'

[Cove Rebel]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Here's a tidbit: In the '1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' a "Jarvis" was defined as a "hackney coachman".

I did a search on "coachman's breakfast" but only found a few modern menus on which is scrambled eggs and ham on toast with coffee on one site and "a veritable feast of bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, haggis, baked beans, fried bread and eggs" on another. Now you've made me curious. Don't know if any of that helps.

[RN_PAC]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

That latter description sounds like a traditional full English breakfast which is an awesome, calorie-and-lipid laden feast with typically eggs, fried bread, various puddings (as in sausages, especially black/blood pudding, white pudding, and square pudding), baked beans, mushrooms, baked or roasted tomato, among other goodies. Closest thing I had to that was an Ulster Fry at an Irish joint in Bethlehem. He may be referring to a big breakfast with a lot of meat, but that is just speculation. It's making me hungry to speculate, though. I gotta say, I tried the blood pudding with a little trepidation but it's really just....really good sausage!:dinner_pl

[PetePaolillo]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Here's a tidbit: In the '1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' a "Jarvis" was defined as a "hackney coachman".

I did a search on "coachman's breakfast" but only found a few modern menus on which is scrambled eggs and ham on toast with coffee on one site and "a veritable feast of bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, haggis, baked beans, fried bread and eggs" on another. Now you've made me curious. Don't know if any of that helps.

Russel, Thanks. That is a whole lot more than what I came up with in my searches for that type of breakfast. Sam Watkins was very pleased with his Jarvis breakfast and based on your description of a "coachmans breakfast", which could be along that type and what he was referring to....whatever he had that morning for breakfast, it was by far a much better fare than what he was used to as a soldier on campaign in the Army of Tennesseee in 1864

[Cove Rebel]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Whatever it is, I'd sure like to reenact it!! :D

[PetePaolillo]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

I just sent out an email to Ruth Hill McCallister who is the Great Granddaughter of Sam Watkins and who recently edited the second edition of the book Co. Aytch that Sam was working on at the time of his death. It contains more of Sams notes, and I asked her if she had any more info on it. I hope I get a reply. I will post it here if I do.:)

[PogueMahone]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

I hope you didn't spell his name "Wadkins" in your email to his great-granddaughter. If you check the cover of the book you will see it is spelled with a "t".

In fact, it is spelled correctly in the quote below your signature line.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

I hope you didn't spell his name "Wadkins" in your email to his great-granddaughter. If you check the cover of the book you will see it is spelled with a "t".

In fact, it is spelled correctly in the quote below your signature line.

Joe, Thanks so much for the correction, and no I did not. :D

[PetePaolillo]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Joe, Thanks so much for the correction, and no I did not. :D

I heard back from Sam Watkins Great Granddaughter today. She was very interested in the question and felt really intrigued by the " Coachman's" breakfast theory that Russell presented. She did say that there was no further explanation of the the Jarvis Breakfast in the second edition either but she will look into Sams' notes further.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

It could also refer to the works of Edward Jarvis, whose Physiology and Laws of Health for the Use of Schools, Academies, and Colleges came out right after the war. Here's an excerpt:

111. During the hours of sleep, there is no action of the body, and comparatively little waste ; therefore the interval between the evening and the morning meal may be longer than the interval between the meals which are taken in the active part of the day. Yet the store of nutriment in the digestive organs and the blood-vessels becomes exhausted during the night, and the system needs more food before any considerable amount of action is undertaken in the morning; for the frame is not then prepared to bear any more drafts and it must be recruited before it can undergo any severe labor. The breakfast should therefore be taken soon, within an hour after rising. This is especially requisite for invalids, who have not much strength, and but little power of endurance.

112. When the morning meal is not to be eaten early, some light refreshment at the time of rising will meet the immediate wants of the system, and sustain it during the morning exercise. It is well, then, if some considerable time is to elapse between rising and breakfast, to take some food early. This is a common custom among the Creoles of Louisiana and the inhabitants of Cuba, and some classes of people in France. These have coffee, fruit, or other light food sent to their sleeping-rooms, sometimes before, and sometimes after rising, which, they think, enables them the better to sustain any fatigue before the regular breakfast is given them.

113. The animal system sustains all action, labor, and exposure best when it is well nourished. When the nutriment fails, it becomes sooner fatigued, and more susceptible of pain; and, besides this, it is more liable to suffer from any causes, which would impair its soundness or diminish its vitality. The contagion of disease, the infection of fever, whatever may bring on disorder, act more readily and powerfully on the hungry, and on those who are badly nourished, than on those who are well fed. We are better able to resist the influence of cold, and to maintain the natural temperature of the body, when we are full, than when we are fasting.

114. All these causes of disorder or suffering act upon the human constitution with more destructive force before breakfast than afterward. On this account, all who are about to expose themselves to any of these morbid influences, to contagion or infection of disease, or to such exhalations of marshy countries as produce fever and ague or other malady, should eat their breakfast before going abroad. Travellers and others, who go abroad in winter, or in stormy weather, will maintain their heat better and defend themselves more effectually against the elements, if they breakfast before they go out. But if they go out in the morning hungry, they suffer much more from chills and dampness, and are in greater danger of taking cold.

Just a thought.

http://books.google.com/books?id=H1A...akfast&f=false

[PetePaolillo]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

That is a strong possibility. An interesting side note. Dr Edward Jarvis was appointed to inspect US military hospitals in 1863..... Huh? I wonder wbout that hospital that Sam Watkins was recovering in Montgomery in 1864?? I will look into it. Thanks for the lead Michael. Good stuff:)

http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Fin_Aids/Jarvis_E.htm

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

That is a strong possibility. An interesting side note. Dr Edward Jarvis was appointed to inspect US military hospitals in 1863..... Huh? I wonder wbout that hospital that Sam Watkins was recovering in Montgomery in 1864?? I will look into it. Thanks for the lead Michael. Good stuff:)

http://www.concordlibrary.org/scolle...s/Jarvis_E.htm

Thanks -- but now I'm also wondering whether the term does relate to the original theory of "Jarvis" or Jervie's or Jervis, because apparently there was a famous coachman named such who got hanged (might be a story there).

Then there's Sir Walter Scott's baliff in Rob Roy, name of Jarvie:

"It was left to me, therefore, to do honour to our landlord's hospitable cheer,—to his tea, right from China, which he got in a present from some eminent ship's-husband at Wapping,— to his coffee, from a snug plantation of his own, as he informed us with a wink, called Salt-Market Grove, in the Island of Jamaica,—to his English toast and ale, his Scotch dried salmon, his Lochfine herrings, and even to the double damask tablecloth, ' wrought by no hand, as you may guess,' save that of his deceased father the worthy Deacon Jarvie."

A simple question you asked, and now you've got me hooked, too! :)

[Cove Rebel]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

This is one of the reasons I love this hobby! A simple thing like breakfast can take on a life of its own trying to figure out what was accurate! Kinda like CSI-Shiloh. :D

Good luck.

Russ

[Cove Rebel]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Did anybody ever get more info on this?

[lukegilly13]

Re: "Jarvis" Breakfast?

Pete and all;
Read into the origins of Mother's Day. Anna Jarvis followed in her mother's footsteps. Her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, orginized clubs in the (i believe) mid 1850's. Those clubs provided for families in need including but not limited to milk for babies, food, clothing, etc. Anna organized these clubs as good will clubs during the Civil War to nurse wounded soldiers back to health. They were called "Mother's Work Day Clubs".

Maybe he just meant a large free homecooked meal provided by one of these Mother's Work Day Clubs later termed "Jarvis breakfast" after the whole mother's day thing caught on. I don't have it in front of me as I am at work, but if I remember correctly Watkins wrote the book as a rememberance. This may be a post war term he is using to describe what they had.

Just food for thought...but now my interest is peaked and I am going home to learn more about "Mother's Work Day Clubs" involvement in the Civil War.