Below is the first part of this story. The entire section is online on the Iowa History Site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PALIMPSEST EDITED BY JOHN ELY BRIGGS VOL. XII ISSUED IN SEPTEMBER 1931 NO. 9 COPYRIGHT 1931 BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA Written by Ruth A. Gallaher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WITTENMYER DIET KITCHENS One morning in January, 1862, a woman walked into a military hospital at Sedalia, Missouri, and glanced keenly about the large room filled with cots, each one holding a sick or wounded soldier. It was breakfast time and the attendants were moving about with trays. As the men looked up in surprise at seeing a woman visitor at that hour of the morning, some of them may have recognized her, for many of the patients were Iowa men and the woman was Mrs. Annie Turner Wittenmyer of Keokuk, already experienced as a relief worker among the soldiers. As she stood there surveying the crowded room, Mrs. Wittenmyer was surprised to see on one of the cots her youngest brother, David Turner, a lad of sixteen. he had just waved away the attendant carrying his breakfast tray. "If you can't eat this you'll have to do without, there is nothing else", was the response of the waiter. The sister stepped to the side of the cot and glanced at the rejected tray. "On a dingy looking wooden tray", she wrote later, "was a tin cup full of black strong coffee; beside it was a leaden looking tin platter, on which was a piece of fried fat bacon, swimming in its own grease, and a slice of bread." No wonder the young soldier, sick with typhoid fever and acute dysentery, looked upon such food with distaste. The meeting was indeed fortunate for the sick boy, who was nursed back to health by his efficient elder sister. The incident, however, had a more far reaching effect, for it made Mrs. Wittenmyer realize in a concrete way the need of special diets for hospital patients. At this time Mrs. Wittenmyer was a women in her middle thirties - born on August 26, 1827. Her hair was already snow white, but her keen blue eyes and fair complexion denied the suggestion of age. For almost a year she had been going about the camps and hospitals along the Mississippi River where Iowa regiments were to be found, bringing good cheer, food delicacies, and supplies for the men in the hospitals. She had helped to organize the Keokuk Soldiers' Aid Society and partly through her efforts the women of Iowa were mobilized to furnish money, jellies, potatoes, fruit, sheets, hospital garments, and whatever else was needed to make the men a little more comfortable. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/