"Lucretia Marchbanks"(March 25, 1832-1911)

Born a slave in Putman County, Tennessee.She belonged to a slave name Martin Marchbanks,whose father had settled east of Algood Tennessee.Her father was half African American and Half White and the half brother of Martin Marchbanks.Before the Civil War even began,her father was able to purchase his freedom for $700,which he had spent years very carefully savings.Lucretia the oldest of eleven was trained in cooking and housekeeping.She was "given" to Marchbank's oldest daughter who she traveled west with prior to the Civil War.Once was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.Lucretia continued to travel,spending time in California.Before returning to her home in Tennessee.However gotten a taste of the west,she soon headed that way again,working in the gold camps of Colorado before being lured by the reports of gold in the Black Hills.Arriving in Deadwood on June 1,1876,she soon found work as the Kitchen Manager in the Grand Central In no time,the hotel,which really wasn't so grand,was better known for the great food served in its restaurant and She had become better known as "Aunt Lou"in Deadwood Gulch.She more than just a friendly face with great cooking talents;she was also a tough manager and brooked no intimidation from her customers.On one day Lucretia proved that when a Mexican man came into the restaurant boasting that he had killed a Native American and acting as though he'd like to kill someone else.As the nervous customers looked, on Aunt Lou soon confronted him, while brandishing a large knife and in no time,the stranger took his leave.Two years later she was offered a better position working as a cook for the Golden Gate Mine in Nearby Lead.Work of her culinary skills continued to spread and she was soon lured again as a cook and housekeeper for a boarding house owned by Harry Gregg in Sawpit Gulch,also in Lead.Catering to the Desmet Mine workers,one story tells that she was late from a meeting she was able to fix supper for the miners in 25 minutes,plus fixing lunch buckets for those on the night shift.During her tenure at Gregg's boarding house,she made some $40 per month.But like her father,she was a frugal woman and saved nearly every dime.By 1883,Aunt Lou had earned a reputation as the best cook in the Black Hills and having saved her money,soon opened,her own establishment called the Rustic Hotel in Sawpit Gulch.The restaurant of the hotel, which was really more of a boarding house,was soon overrun with customers.Excelling at making plum pudding as well as numerous other culinary delights, one of her boarders once asked for a recipe,her reply was, "oh just a handful of this and a handful of that."Her legendary cooking skills became so widespread that the New York Stock Exchange,in discussing a Black Hills Mining News article,asked "Who is "Aunt Lou"The Black Hills Daily Times soon answered in a commentary entitled "We'll Tell You She Is,"which read:"Aunt Lou is an old respected colored lady who has had charge of the superintendent's establishment of the Desmet mine as Housekeeper,Cook and superintendent of all superintendents who have ever been employed at the mine. Her accomplishments as culinary artist are beyond praise.She rules the house where she presides with autocratic power by Divine right brooking no cavil or presumptuous interference.The superintendent may be a big man in the mines or the mill but the moment he sets foot within her realm he but a meek and ordinary mortal.A skillful nurse as well as a fine cook and housekeeper,her services to the victims of mountain fever have received an infinitesimal part of the praise to which they are richly entiled"On another occaasion during a festival to raise money for the Congregational Church in 1880,the prize of diamond ring was raffled off and given to the most popular woman in the Black Hills.Through many popular white women were her competed against her for the honor,men and women alike voted for Aunt Lou,who easily won the coveted prize.Continuing to accumulate her hard earned money,Aunt Lou decided that she had cooked long enough and sold the Rustic Hotel in 1885 to Mrs. A.M. Porter.She soon purchased a ranch in between Sundance and Beluah,Wyoming.There,she was actively engaged in raising horses and cattle with the help of a hired man name George Baggely,who worked for her the next twenty years.Lucretia "Aunt Lou" Marchbanks is buried in the little cemetery in Beulah,Wyoming.