THE MAINE SHIP CAPTAIN WHO INVENTED THE MODERN DONUT

Entertainment, Food, History, Military 3 Minutes

In 1847, a Maine ship captain invented the donut as we know it today – with a hole. On the day Lewis Hine took the photo of a waitress next to a plate of donuts (with holes), Capt. Hansen Gregory lived in the next town. He was telling his cronies how he’d gotten the great inspiration to cut a hole in a donut.

(Lewis Wickes Hine, by the way, took many photos of very young workers, which then influenced the passage of child labor laws. His caption read, “Exchange Luncheon. Delia Kane, 14 years old. 99 C Street, South Boston. A young waitress.” )

Captain Gregory, 85, lived at the Sailor’s Snug Harbor in Quincy, Mass. His fame as the inventor of the modern donut had spread, and theWashington Post interviewed him in a story published March 26, 1916

Sailor’s Snug Harbor

He told the reporter he discovered the donut hole when he worked as a 16-year-old crewman on a lime-trading schooner. “Now in them days we used to cut the doughnuts into diamond shapes, and also into long strips, bent in half, and then twisted,” he said.

“I don’t think we called them donuts then–they was just ‘fried cakes’ and ‘twisters.’ Well, sir, they used to fry all right around the edges, but when you had the edges done the insides was all raw dough. And the twisters used to sop up all the grease just where they bent, and they were tough on the digestion.”

Captain Hansen Gregory

First Donut

He asked himself if a space inside the dough would solve the difficulty – and then came the great inspiration. “I took the cover off the ship’s tin pepper box, and—I cut into the middle of that donut the first hole ever seen by mortal eyes!”

Gregory, born in 1832, would have had his insight around 1858. According to the New York Times, he rose to second mate at 19, mate at 21 and master mariner at 25. He sailed in all kinds of vessels from the lime coaster to a full-rigged ship. He modestly assessed the result. “Well, sir, them doughnuts was the finest I ever tasted. No more indigestion — no more greasy sinkers — but just well-done, fried-through doughnuts.”

But the donut made him famous. He had asked a tinsmith to fabricate a donut cutter for him, and soon, reported the Times, ‘cooks everywhere had adopted it.’ He returned to Camden, Maine, where he taught his mother the trick. She sent several plates to Rockland, Maine, where people gobbled them up. After that, the donut never looked back.

Primitive Soldered Doughnut Cutter
Antique Doughnut Cutter

A plaque in the town of Rockport, Maine, marks Captain Gregory’s birthplace, now the parsonage of the Nativity Lutheran Church. The National Baking Association nominated him for the Baking Hall of Fame, but it doesn’t appear he made the cut.

(A plaque at Nativity Lutheran Church pays homage to an iconic food. Google Maps)

More Donut History

The truth is that there were mentions of doughnuts in recipe books and even in Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker’s History of New York in 1809. But Gregory’s mother’s doughnuts became famed in her neighbour hood in Maine, particularly using the cinnamon and lemons that would have been brought in on her son’s trading ships.

There were numerous legends that sprang up about how the captain invented the doughnut, including one that he skewered his mother’s cakes on his ship’s wheel. Which is why he came forward in 1916 to give his account. By then the Maine version of the doughnut was popular across America. During World War I, the Salvation Army cooked them to raise money for the war effort and also set up canteens in town away from the front lines serving coffee and doughnuts to soldiers. The women who operated these cafes were known as “Doughnut Dollies.”

A cover of the Salvation Army publication “War Cry” from 1918 showing a “Doughnut Dolly”

Captain Gregory died in 1921 but by then Adolph Levitt, a Russian refugee in the US, had invented the automatic doughnut-making machine. This led to the creation of doughnut chain stores, which spread across the US and by the 1930s had begun to appear in Australia. Australians now eat more than 100 million doughnuts a year.

Springfield, IL

The Food History Timeline posts donut recipes before 1858, and they all advise cutting the doughouts into diamonds, squares or twists. Then in 1877 a doughnut recipe calls for cutting them into rings. The Food History Timeline also notes that after the Civil War, ‘inexpensive tin doughnut cutters with holes were manufactured commercially and sold widely.’

1950’s Aluminum Doughnut Maker

You can visit Capt. Hanson Gregory’s grave at the National Sailors’ Home Cemetery in Quincy MA.

Unknown's avatar

Published by NebraskaFilly

Army veteran (1976-1979), retired with entirely too much time on my hands

Published

189 thoughts on “THE MAINE SHIP CAPTAIN WHO INVENTED THE MODERN DONUT”

  1. “FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried launches newsletter to defend himself: ‘I didn’t steal funds’
    By Joseph Wilkinson
    New York Daily News • Jan 12, 2023 at 8:45 pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Disgraced cryptocurrency CEO Sam Bankman-Fried launched a newsletter Thursday in his latest attempt to defend himself. Bankman-Fried, founder of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, wrote on his new Substack, “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away.”

    The 30-year-old executive was charged in December with leading “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” He posted $250 million bail and was placed under house arrest at his parents’ home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried used customer funds from FTX to finance the crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. Alameda made a series of high-risk bets that failed, all while Bankman-Fried and his pals spent the money on luxurious properties and political donations, investigators said.

    Bankman-Fried claimed in earlier interviews and again in Thursday’s post that he was not in charge of Alameda, as prosecutors allege, and the company went bankrupt only because of crypto market crashes. He said Alameda’s bankruptcy then roped in FTX, similar to earlier crypto collapses in the interconnected industry.

    “Alameda lost money due to a market crash it was not adequately hedged for — as Three Arrows and others have this year,” he wrote in the post. “And FTX was impacted, as Voyager and others were earlier.”

    It’s unclear if the post was the first in a series or a one-off breakdown. Legal experts have said Bankman-Fried would be wise to clam up, but he wrote Thursday that “I have a lot more to say.”

    Liked by 1 person

  2. “Please, put poor Pete out to pasture”
    by Washington Examiner
    January 13, 2023 12:01 AM

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “During the 2020 presidential primary, candidate Joe Biden released a video savaging former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his lack of competence and relevant experience for the White House. Over and over again, Biden’s video highlighted how the onetime Democratic mayor of South Bend accomplished little, mostly making cosmetic changes to the small, slightly run-down Midwestern city where he had grown up.

    The video was removed after Biden won the 2020 election and named Buttigieg secretary of transportation, a position he still holds. But that old video is highly relevant given recent events.

    For the past two years, the United States has been lurching from one transportation crisis to the next, and Biden’s man in charge of transportation is as feeble as ever. The supply chain crises and threats of a railroad strike were bad enough. But they have given way to mass flight delays and cancelations. One airline, Southwest, completely melted down over the holidays due to the malfunctions of its sclerotic computers. Buttigieg waxed indignant and demanded that the airline get its house in order. But nemesis follows hubris, and Buttigieg’s accusations of incompetence against the airline rebounded on him a few days later when his own computer system at the Federal Aviation Administration caused even worse flight delays and cancellations across all airlines.

    Where is the secretary of transportation amid all this? Buttigieg has spent his tenure not solving problems but sucking up to various Democratic constituencies in the hope that he can become president someday despite his shaky record on racial issues as mayor, for which Biden also attacked him in 2020.

    Buttigieg has been spotted from time to time. He has broken cover, for example, to take parental leave, to obsess over “racist roads,” to hanker after inclusive language in aviation, and to muse over such issues as “LGBTQI+ visibility” that are irrelevant to transportation.

    Meanwhile, the nation’s transportation infrastructure under his charge has plunged into chaos. He is usually nowhere to be found. During his controversial leave from the position he sought, he avoided meetings with members of Congress despite claiming he would be “available 24/7.” It seems as though there is a pattern — if there is a cheap cosmetic move he can make to garner attention, he’s there, but if he’s needed to do something substantive, he is AWOL.

    Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, recently said the president has not lost confidence in Buttigieg, but perhaps it’s time he did. The removal of the video is a clear sign that somebody in Bidenworld has noticed what’s going on and understands the significance.

    Please, put poor Pete out to pasture and find someone who is up to the role he is supposed to be filling.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Middle-of-the-road…..he’s good on family issues and did a pretty good job not coming down too hard during the COVID insanity. A lot of that is put in the hands of the State Health Dept. but he did issue some good proclamations about not forcing masks and such.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. OK, this cannot be good!!!!

    “Iran To Station Warships in Panama Canal — Iran entering Pacific Ocean for first time”

    By Adam Kredo, January 11, 2023

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ FreeBeacon: Iran’s navy is set to station warships for the first time in the Panama Canal, a critical trade route in America’s backyard that has never before seen an Iranian military presence. Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of Iran’s navy, said on Wednesday that his forces will establish a presence in the Panama Canal later this year, marking the first time Iran’s military has entered the Pacific Ocean.

    Iran in recent years has placed a greater focus on moving its military into Latin American territories as it strengthens relations with anti-American dictators in the region, most notably in Venezuela. Iranian vessels have docked more frequently in Venezuela as Tehran’s hardline regime seeks to prop up dictator Nicolás Maduro. These moves are meant to provoke the United States and signal that Tehran has the ability to station its military apparatus a stone’s throw from U.S. territory.

    Joseph Humire, a national security analyst who focuses on Latin American issues as executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society think tank, said Iran has been laying the groundwork for this type of voyage by holding joint exercises with allies such as Russia and China, two nations that have also been strengthening their ties with Latin American countries.

    “This is what Iran has been building in Latin America for the past 30 or 40 years” by establishing embassies and bilateral agreements with a host of nations, Humire said. Iran’s goal “has always been to have a military presence in Latin America, so it’s not surprising at all for its navy to announce it’s going to make moves on the Panama Canal,” Humire said, noting that in addition to Venezuela and Nicaragua, Iran has opened relations with Colombia. “This is a tremendous escalation if it is to happen,” Humire said. “Many people may discount Iran in terms of its capabilities … but I would not discount it because they have been building to this for a very long time.”

    Iranian rear admiral Irani said the navy presence in the Panama Canal is meant to “strengthen our maritime presence in international waters,” according to comments published by Iran’s state-controlled media. “Today we can say that there is no scientific barrier to grow in that field,” Irani said, adding that the Iranian naval forces are sailing in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

    It is likely Iran sees its presence in Latin America as a means to bolster and protect its interests in countries like Venezuela, where Iran has been helping Maduro repair his country’s dilapidated oil refineries. The two rogue regimes signed a 20-year cooperation plan in June 2022, when hardline Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was in the country for meetings with Maduro.

    Latin American dictatorships have also served as a hub for Iran to evade U.S. sanctions and make arms deals. Hezbollah, the Iranian-controlled terror group, also has a presence in Latin America that has been gaining ground for years. Hezbollah militants are known to travel freely in Venezuela and across the relatively lawless Tri-Border Area that includes Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. no one fears us any more…it’s a terrorist free for all out there.
      not saying we should police the world–not at all–but no one is held responsible for their actions here

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Real buddy Smot
    January 13, 2023 10:25 am

    Why did Biden’s lawyers start looking for classified documents if Joe didn’t know they existed?

    Were Chinese and Biden’s (Joe and Hunter) fingerprints on the documents. pic.twitter.com/8T9rcra8ie

    — Buddy Smot 🇺🇸🍊 (@Vanillaslider) January 13, 2023

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Citizen 817
    January 13, 2023 10:20 am

    @JackPosobiec

    16h
    UPenn is a strategic cog in the regime’s apparatus

    UPENN gave us:

    China’s Biden Center
    Trans Leah Thomas,
    Twitter’s Yoel Roth,
    Toxic mRNA Vaccines,
    First Covid Mandates,
    Vaccine Injury Denial
    Woke Law School

    UPENN received Billions in Fauci+ $NIH Funding, BILLIONS in Vaccine Royalties, MILLIONS in Chinese grants

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Video for the morning, Pat….

    “In October 2020 Dr Andrew Hill was tasked to report to the World Health Organisation on the dozens of new studies from around the world suggesting that Ivermectin could be a remarkably safe and effective treatment for COVID-19.

    But on January 18th 2021, Dr Hill published his findings on a pre-print server. His methods lacked rigour, the review was low quality and the extremely positive findings on ivermectin were contradicted by the conclusion. In the end, Dr Hill advised that “Ivermectin should be validated in larger appropriately controlled randomized trials before the results are sufficient for review by regulatory authorities.”

    The researcher seeking a global recommendation on Ivermectin had instead recommended against it. A media onslaught against the medicine ensued. What were Dr Hill’s reasons for doing so? Were his conclusions justified? Or were external forces influencing his about-face?

    One year on, this film recalls exactly what happened from the perspective of somebody that experienced it first hand; Dr Tess Lawrie; also featuring contributions from Dr Pierre Kory and Dr Paul Marik who worked closely with Dr Hill during the same time frame.”

    https://rumble.com/vwfia3-a-letter-to-andrew-hill-dr-tess-lawrie-oracle-films.html

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Pat, read this and you will understand why I say “HELL NO” to any Presidential run for this slimeball…unfortunately, we still have far too many who simply vote party-lines. I originally wanted Herbster but, tbh, his campaign sucked at answering questions – worse than Pillen’s campaign altho they weren’t all that much better.

    “THE CORNHUSKER KICKBACK: How the Ricketts dynasty purchased a US Senate seat in Nebraska”

    “Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen announced on Thursday the appointment of his predecessor, Pete Ricketts, to the US Senate, filling a vacant seat left by former Senator Ben Sasse. Pillen was Ricketts’ hand-picked successor as governor and spent lavishly to support his campaign in the primary against Trump-endorsed candidate Charles Herbser.

    Pillen would go on to win the Nebraska primary, but then months later in October, Sasse abruptly announced his resignation from his Senate seat to accept the role across the country as the University of Florida’s next president. Sasse was first elected to the seat in 2014, and won his reelection in 2020. Ricketts will serve until a special election in 2024, and the seat will then be on Nebraska’s ballot in 2026 for a full term.

    The shadow campaign for Ricketts for Senate began almost as immediately as Sasse announced he would leave the seat. Prominent Senator Lindsey Graham publicly boosted Ricketts for Senate in October when he made a stop at a steak fry, first reported by The Post Millennial, in Nebraska just days after Sasse announced his resignation. Graham endorsed Ricketts to take the seat in the Senate before Ricketts had even announced he had an interest in the seat.

    Graham said Ricketts “may be moving to Washington for a few years” at the event

    The Ricketts family’s net worth is $5.3 billion according to a recent Forbes report. Joe Ricketts, 81, Pete’s father, is the founder of TD Ameritrade and the owner of the Chicago Cubs. Ricketts gave $100,000 to Pillen’s campaign in the lead-up to the May 2022 primary, and gave $1.28 million to Conservative Nebraska, a PAC in the state. His largest single donation to the PAC was $775,000 just before the primary.

    Shortly after Sasse’s resignation announcement in October, Ricketts said “The first I learned about Senator Sasse’s plan to resign from the United States Senate was yesterday, when he called to notify me. If I choose to pursue the appointment, I will leave the appointment decision to the next governor and will follow the process established for all interested candidates.”

    Ricketts had run for senate in Nebraska in 2006, spending $12 million. He lost, but boosted his name recognition. He became a national GOP committeeman, founded a think tank, and ran for governor in 2014. Kansas Press reports that as governor, Ricketts was able to use “his position, wealth, and relationships with other powerful people… to influence the legislature by boosting his preferred candidates into office.”

    “It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as the governor of Nebraska. It is the greatest job in the world, and it will remain my number one focus for the remainder of my term,” Ricketts added. Ricketts formally announced his intent to seek the Senate seat in December.

    Ricketts was term-limited, meaning he could not seek another term as governor during the 2022 midterms. Pillen won the election after receiving hefty financial and political support from Ricketts in the state’s GOP primary. According to the Nebraska Examiner, Ricketts donated more than $1.3 million during the 2022 election to assist in getting Pillen elected. This includes contributions to outside groups that bashed the opponents of Pillen during the primary.

    One such opponent was Trump-backed Charlie Herbster, who received 80,771 votes to Pillen’s 91,555, according to NBC News data.

    Herbster was accused by State Sen. Julie Slama of touching her inappropriately, an accusation that led to dueling lawsuits. These lawsuits were dropped in October, according to the Nebraska Examiner. Herbster’s team alleged that the accusations were part of a plot by Ricketts to help his pick for governor, Pillen.

    Following the state’s primaries in May, six Republicans in the state had their credentials canceled, with reasons ranging from a changing of party to supporting another candidate for governor against the party’s nominee. This resulted in one of these six Republicans, elected GOP delegate Matt Innis, being arrested for trespassing and assault after trying to enter the July convention.

    Critics of Rickett said Pillen was set to choose the former governor because of his donations during the primary. Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb said Nebraskans “deserve a senator who will work for them, not someone who buys elections as a hobby.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. you’re absolutely right.
      i would accept small donations per HOUSEHOLD. no corporate, or dark money. and any and all donations have to be identified BEFORE an election

      Liked by 1 person

  14. FPCHmom
    FPCHmom
    January 13, 2023 11:00 am

    Of course –

    how many readers realized that Christopher Wray was the DOJ official supervising Andrew Weissmann’s notorious Enron Task Force? And that it was Wray himself who promoted Weissmann from Task Force Deputy Director to Director when Leslie Caldwell resigned. pic.twitter.com/GkB7iFUq6A

    — Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) January 13, 2023

    Liked by 1 person

  15. so criminals–ACTUAL LAWBREAKERS–are gonna police Americans?

    entire article
    Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has started implementing a new law in the sanctuary state of California that allows recently-arrived border crossers to police American citizens as law enforcement officers with local, county, and state agencies.

    Last year, Newsom signed S.B. 960, which only requires that law enforcement officers in the state have a work permit to be employed in the United States — removing residency requirements that mandated law enforcement officers be either American citizens or green card-holders that had at least filed to become naturalized American citizens.

    The new law, which went into effect this month in California, states:

    Existing law establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training within the Department of Justice to perform various functions involving the training of peace officers. Existing law requires peace officers in this state to meet specified minimum standards, including, among other requirements, being at least 18 years of age, being of good moral character, as determined by a thorough background investigation, and being either a citizen of the United States or a permanent resident who is eligible for and has applied for citizenship, except as prescribed. [Emphasis added]

    This bill would provide that those standards shall be interpreted and applied consistent with federal law and regulations, as specified. The bill would remove the provision that requires peace officers to either be a citizen of the United States or be a permanent resident who is eligible for and has applied for citizenship, and would instead require peace officers be legally authorized to work in the United States, and make conforming changes. [Emphasis added]

    In effect, the law allows recently-arrived border crossers — released into the U.S. interior and given work permits by President Joe Biden’s administration — to secure jobs in California as law enforcement officers.

    From February 2021 to October 2022, Biden’s DHS has released at least 1.4 million border crossers and illegal aliens into American communities — most of which have been given work permits allowing them to stay in the U.S. while awaiting their immigration hearings.

    Most recently, Biden announced a plan that blows open the doors to an even more expansive Catch and Release network at the U.S.-Mexico border, where 360,000 more border crossers will be able to get into the U.S. interior by applying for parole.

    https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2023%2F01%2F12%2Fsanctuary-state-california-gov-gavin-newsom-authorizes-border-crossers-to-police-americans-as-cops%2F

    Liked by 1 person

  22. EXCLUSIVE: US Coast Guard Apparently Had Pre-Written Denials For Vaccine Exemption Requests, Docs Show

    — Coast Guard documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation appear to show canned justifications commanders can cut and paste into vaccine exemption requests, experts told the DCNF.

    — Existence of the statements suggests the Coast Guard may have violated requirements to consider the unique circumstances surrounding each request, experts said.

    — “It is very easy for a commander to have a closed mind when there is a pre-written language presented to them in draft form,” Dwight Stirling, former military attorney and founder of the Center for Law and Military Policy, explained to the DCNF.

    https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/12/coast-guard-document-vaccine-exemption-denial/

    Liked by 1 person

    2. OMG KEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      this might be my absolute FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      copied it for days I need a laugh!

      Like

  37. EXCERPT: “Secretive negotiations took place this week in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss proposed amendments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR), considered a binding instrument of international law.

    Similar negotiations took place last month for drafting a new WHO pandemic treaty.

    While the two are often conflated, the proposed IHR amendments and the proposed pandemic treaty represent two separate but related sets of proposals that would fundamentally alter the WHO’s ability to respond to “public health emergencies” throughout the world — and, critics warn, significantly strip nations of their sovereignty.

    According to author and researcher James Roguski, these two proposals would transform the WHO from an advisory organization to a global governing body whose policies would be legally binding.

    They also would greatly expand the scope and reach of the IHR, institute a system of global health certificates and “passports” and allow the WHO to mandate medical examinations, quarantine and treatment.

    Roguski said the proposed documents would give the WHO power over the means of production during a declared pandemic, call for the development of IHR infrastructure at “points of entry” (such as national borders), redirect billions of dollars to the “Pharmaceutical Hospital Emergency Industrial Complex” and remove mention of “respect for dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people.”

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/who-proposals-sovereignty-totalitarian-state/

    Like

  39. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

Comments are closed.