The Enterprising Housekeeper

The 1897 edition of The Enterprising Housekeeper, by Helen Louise Johnson, was published by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 80 page booklet featured recipes for breakfast, lunch and supper. Also included in the booklet were advertisements for household goods that were manufactured by the Enterprise Manufacturing Company. Coffee mills, irons, raisin seeders, and ice mills are just some of the products which were made by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co.

Helen Louise Johnson was educated at the Philadelphia Cooking School. She wrote a chapter on “Cooking as an Art” for the Congress of Women which was held at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Enterprising Housekeeper was printed in several editions between 1896 and 1906. Copies were carried by hardware stores and general merchandise stores all across the United States. The 1897 edition sold for fifty cents, and was carried locally by the J. J. Butts & Son Hardware Store.

The J. J. Butts store was on Columbus Avenue in Sandusky, Ohio from 1892 until May of 1920. Mr. Butts was considered a pioneer hardware merchant of Sandusky, having first worked for Barney and Ferris. His first business operated under the name of Butts and Whitworth from 1881 through 1892. Mr. J. J. Butts died on September 15, 1927, and he is buried in Oakland Cemetery.

A local resident donated a copy of The Enterprising Housekeeper to the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library. If you have vintage booklets or photographs, consider donating them to the Archives Research Center for future generations to enjoy.