LOOKING BACK: The Pompelon Club banquet, given in December 1887 with the Honorable Rufus Barrett Stone as Toastmaster, was an affair that was hugely enjoyed.

The banquet given at the St. James was a grand success, The Era gushed. “In his greeting Mr. Stone said the Pompelon Club, unlike other clubs, was not a club of one idea. If every idea expressed by the Pompelon Club were given a personality of its own, 100,000,000 guests would be present at the feast.”

And what of the food? “… the gastronomic and social features were equally successful. THe banquet was all that could be wished for, the menu embracing everything seasonable and palatable.”

The menu — Blue points, Consomme Macedoine, celery, queen olives, Kennebec salmon, sweet potato chips, roast turkey with olive dressing, baked mashed potatoes, succotash, young pig, apple sauce, stewed tomatoes, string beans, sweet breads with puree of spinach, chicken croquettes, Aux French peas, sweet pickled peaches, Chesapeake scallops, sauce tartar, Malaga grape fritters, chartreuse sauce, pineapple sherbet, Saddle of venison, currant jelly, Mallard duck, hunter’s sauce, dressed lettuce, chicken salad, fresh shrimp with mayonnaise, charlotte russe, assorted cake, macaroons, French kisses, Brunswick ice cream, fruit, Edam cheese, Vienna coffee, chocolate, crackers.

After the menu, The Era printed, “A little time for laughter, a little time to sing.”

Other than Mr. Stone, speakers at the event included Hon. W.W. Brown, N.M. Orr Esq., Major A.C. Hawkins, Capt. W.B. Chapman, Loyal Ward Esq., Mrs. Isabel North, J.M. McClure, Rev. G. Chapman Jones, Eugene Mullin Esq., John P. Zane and a song noted as sung by “The Boys.”

The club, according to history, was a “permanent intellectual association of Bradford.”